How to overcome roadblocks to a more equitable workplace:

from hiring staff to leadership transitions

Welcome!

Please grab some Post Its and add your ideas to the poster board in response to this question:

What creates an �equitable workplace?

Your presenters:

Amy Kovac-Ashley — 👋For the last dozen years, I have worked in the journalism support space, which has included stints in academia and nonprofits. I’m now at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism as the head of national programs. Before that, I worked as a journalist in print and digital, for both legacy and entrepreneurial outlets.��I care deeply about inclusion in news (from the newsroom to the community and back again). I do my best work when I am coaching, nurturing, connecting or mentoring news leaders, and I am a supporter of and believer in the power of local news.��Outside of my work, I live in Washington, D.C., with my ever-supportive husband and two amazing, funny and creative children. We have a 🐕 named Copper.

Catherine Komp — Hi! I’m an independent journalist with more than 20 years experience in nonprofit news, including NPR/PBS affiliates BPR & VPM, the international daily radio show and podcast FSRN, the NewStandard and KBOO community radio. I’ve served as content director, editor, community engagement lead, reporter, podcast producer and sound designer, audio documentary producer and announcer/host.

I’m a champion of DEIB, an enthusiastic coach and mentor & an advocate of audience and community engagement.

Outside of journalism, I garden, cook, foster dogs, forage for mushrooms and hike in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.

Why we care about diverse and equitable news orgs

• As white leaders in journalism and local news, it’s our responsibility to push for change.
• There is a lot of work to do! Study after study, including the 2022 NC Diversity Audit, show staff at news organizations are still more than 70% white.
• Your audiences are better served when your staff represents diverse backgrounds, from those in the newsroom to senior leadership.
• Diverse news organizations are better equipped to build relationships, partnerships and trust with marginalized and dis-invested populations.
• Diversity in staff and leadership is key to your news organization’s sustainability and success.

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What creates an equitable workplace?

• Sharing power and decision-making
• Salary transparency and pay equity
• Open communication
• Responsive leadership
• Opportunities for advancement
• Equipping staff with tools for success
• Reasonable workloads
• Respect and trust

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Brainstorm from 2023 NC Local News & Info Summit. Thank you participants!

Equitable and inclusive hiring

Where to start?

• Read these excellent resources compiled by LION Publishers: Hiring 101: A guide to effective and equitable hiring for independent news publishers.
• Form a team of allies and collaborators to assess and draft the changes you want to implement.
• Get buy in from executive leadership, HR and managers of other departments.
• Block out time for you and the team to work on developing the new process and implementing it.
• Start with small or a limited number of changes if your capacity is limited.
• Clearly communicate the changes to staff.

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Equitable and inclusive hiring

External practices to consider:

• In your job posting, use conversational language, focus on core competencies, avoid jargon and clearly state salary and benefits.
• Leave out requirements for a four-year degree and any technical training you could provide selected candidate.
• Ditch the cover letter! Opt for a survey/form to help candidates pinpoint specific experiences that were relevant and/or transferable to the positions.
• Use an anonymous and voluntary demographic survey to monitor diversity of the candidate pool.
• Clear and regular communication with candidates!

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Equitable and inclusive hiring

Internal practices to consider:

• Include staff from all levels of your organization in the process -- both in reimagining your hiring and in implementing it for new hires.
• Develop a recruitment and outreach plan before your job posting goes live. Track what is working by asking “How did you hear about this position?” in your survey.
• Use a committee and rubrics to evaluate candidates at each stage of the process.
• Use the same interview questions for all candidates and provide them in advance.
• For all skills-based tests, provide a stipend for the candidates’ time.

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Leadership transitions: What’s happening

• The pandemic has disrupted our lives, work and workplace culture�
• Departures of top leaders is on the rise�
• Growth of independent news organizations is expanding the field�
• Demographic shifts are shaking up all parts of the industry�
• Retention and opportunities to move up are a major concern

Leadership transitions: Key findings

• Most organizations have no wider emergency transition plans in place (even after the scramble of March-April 2020)�
• Performance management and professional development for executives and leadership teams is necessary�
• Leaders are reluctant to talk about transition openly — for very good reasons�
• Boards and other governing bodies are concerned about transitions but need to be equipped to help plan for them�
• Hiring processes for top leadership teams and executives need the same inclusive qualities that hiring in the rest of the organization does

Leadership transitions: What’s needed

• Planning, procedures and processes�
• Documentation and transparency�
• Self-awareness and support�
• Time and attention�
• Focus on the human aspects

Hiring resources

Research & thought leadership

• Carla Murphy’s Leavers Survey
• Michelle Faust Raghavan’s 2023 Knight Journalism fellowship answering: How do we build newsrooms where journalists of color want to stay?
• Emma Carew Grovum & P. Kim Bui’s series: Sincerely, Leaders of Color exploring how to create more supportive environments for journalists of color.
• Ernesto Aguilar’s OIGO newsletter
• INN’s DEI resources, including the webinar: The Pipeline is not the Problem: Recruiting, Retaining, and Promoting the Next BIPOC Leaders

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Hiring tips, guidance and processes

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• LION’s Hiring 101: A guide to effective and equitable hiring for independent news publishers

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• Hearken’s “How to copy our great hiring process, step by step”

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• City Bureau’s Bettina Chang’s “Never Ask for Cover Letters, and Other Hiring Lessons”

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• Open News “Hacking our hiring”

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• Melody Kramer’s “5 ways to make your journalism job descriptions better”

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• University of Washington’s Inclusive Hiring guide

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Leadership transition resources

• News Executive Leadership Transition Guide
• Succession planning is key to journalism’s sustainability�
• Local news leadership transitions require budgets, bandwidth and a breadth of skills�
• Leaders, let’s first plan for an emergency

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• Transition leadership through braving uncertainty�
• How leaders know when they are ready to go�
• Let’s look outside journalism for wisdom on succession planning�
• How to tell if your news organization suffers from founder’s syndrome

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Thank you for coming! Stay connected with us:

Catherine Komp

Reach out with additional questions, a more detailed workflow for hiring and/or if you’d like to set up a time to chat!

�Twitter: @cjkmedia�cjkomp@gmail.com

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Amy Kovac-Ashley��Please get in touch with any questions or if you’re looking for additional help or thought partnership around leadership transitions.

Twitter: @terabithia4�Email: alkajournalism@gmail.com

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