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How to WIN: Bloomberg News, USA

Convinced that securing more women’s perspectives in business reporting makes its journalism more competitive and strives for gender balance in the newsroom, Bloomberg News doubled down on its commitment to both, holding managers’ accountable for making progress,. This was a key case study in WAN-IFRA’s WINning Strategies report in 2018. ��The business media group turned a conversation about the dearth of women in its coverage into an initiative aimed at giving it a competitive edge on breaking news, the report says.

These efforts started at the top and became integral to its operations. By establishing a global database of women who were business experts, tracking stories that cited their views, counting the women who appear on TV and radio, and ensuring gender diversity on panels, Bloomberg recognised the importance of raising the voices of women to ensure fairness and balance, the report says.

This also underscored a broader commitment to gender diversity in the newsroom: it mattered who assigned a story, who reported and wrote it, who edited and shaped it — and also whose voices were drawn upon to tell it.

Drawing on more diverse sources was viewed as a business imperative and every top manager was tracked for the success of their team’s efforts to cite more women. By establishing metrics and creating a process to track its progress, Bloomberg changed the behaviour of its staff.

INTRODUCTION: C3 Basic Project Management

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What is covered�in this lesson?

SECTION 1: Becoming agile

Agile projects vs Waterfall

5 steps of a project

Working to a plan

Project management tools and planners: Gantt charts etc

Timelines and budgets

SECTION 2: Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Managing stakeholders

Holding effective meetings

Setting and meeting deadlines

Project calendar: the pitfalls and risk management

STOP & THINK: Do you have an idea for a new product you would like to work on? Who would you collaborate with?

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT: Write a plan for your idea for a new product or a process or operation that needs to change in your newsroom

INTRODUCTION: C3 Basic Project Management

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Section 1: Becoming agile

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Reminder:�Agile v Waterfall

Waterfall methodology is a more old-fashioned way of running projects, but Agile is more modern and effective

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

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What does Agile mean for the newsroom?

You can learn to take an entrepreneurial approach in the newsroom by becoming more agile in your approach to news stories and the products or platforms they are told on.

You do not need to get hung up on whether you use scrum or kanban and so on. Agile is just a way of working and helps to create a shift in cultural mindset.

The main ways of operating by using this approach are:

Identify your problem - perhaps you have an idea for a new newsletter;

Be iterative - take a step-by-step approach to gain small wins and be ready to scale up;

Connect the dots quickly - who needs to be involved in the project to make it work;

Collaborate - break down silos by working with IT and commercial to develop viable products that users will want to buy;

Assess and adapt - develop the idea, assess whether there is user appetite for it, adapt it accordingly and build it out;

Stop a project quickly if it is failing.

It can be a fine balancing act between agility and formal command and control hierarchies. But find the mix of projects that work for your team.

Some companies set up innovation hubs - or online only desks - to create an intrapreneurial spirit. This may work well initially in signalling that shift in cultural mindset.

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

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Pitfalls of Agile: What to watch out for

Be aware though that the rest of the staff can be at risk of seeing innovation as something separate to their roles and carried out only by a specific team.

Also, it’s all very well to run experiments - perhaps it’s a new product launch, a newsletter or podcast or streaming an election night. And this approach should be encouraged to create a culture of innovation.

But make sure that your experiments do not hit the company’s bottom line. Major failures that cost a company dearly could end a career.

Minor failures should be acceptable and should not tank a person’s career or team.

But do bear in mind that if you keep running low level experiments that do not work and are not core to your content strategy, you must call a halt to them - and this can be easier said than done.

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

Image from: Unsplash

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Stop & Think

Let’s stop and think for a moment:

Do you have an idea for a new product that you would like to work on?
Who would you collaborate with to make it happen?

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

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5 steps of a project

Project closure:

Many companies move from one project to the next without taking the time to reflect what went well and what could be improved. With a cycle of evolution, a project may also drift on without an end in sight. It is wise to hold a meeting to consider the pain points and issues as well as how long it took and whether it came in on budget and reached its goals. This can then form a blueprint for future projects.

Initiation:

Identify your problem and create a project outline. Understand why your project and its goals will help the business. If you can answer “Why”, this will help you to sell the idea to stakeholders across the organisation.

Create a plan:

Frame the question to resolve the problem. Define what you would like to answer. Use data or evidence to back up your concept. This could be a vision statement - and get feedback from your trusted colleagues. Include team roles and headcount, deadlines, communication strategy, mitigation of risks or barriers to change and milestones. Establish your goals and work out how you are going to reach them.

Control the execution of a plan:

This is the phase where the plan is up and running. Break your plan down into small steps, and find areas where you can make quick wins which can be scaled up. This phase will typically include communication at all levels, facilitation, enforcement, quality control, budget and timeline management.

Review, monitor and adapt:

This is all about making sure the plan runs efficiently and effectively. But also remember that you must be flexible to change tactics quickly if your project looks like it’s failing - or giving you unexpected outcomes.

Basic project management traditionally has five stages which add up to create a project life cycle. To deliver a successful change manage programme, you usually have to do the following:

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

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Working to a plan

In order to reach a goal, you have to know what you are aiming for. Make sure you establish your objectives at the start.

It is key to consider the detail of your goals so that you will be able to achieve them.

You can use many techniques. One of the most well established is SMART:

Specific - what is your goal?

Measureable - when do you know you’ve�reached it?

Attainable - can it be reached?

Realistic - did you consider all the challenges?

Timely - how long is it going to take to implement?

Today, that technique can be seen as inflexible and many companies take a more iterative approach.

You are likely to be more successful if you break a plan down into small steps. This will also give you the flexibility to change tactics quickly if necessary as people adopt new ways of working.

Emotional intelligence is also key. This can be defined as being able to understand and manage emotions as well as be empathic to colleagues.

When preparing for the challenges ahead, EI can help you achieve your goals. You will also need to think about your own resilience and whether you have enough energy and support to take on a change project.

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Working to a plan: what else to consider

Remember to determine where you are relative to the goals.

You will need to be practical and consider the following questions:

Are the goals achievable?

What are the organisation’s actual and potential abilities?

What needs to change?

Do operations need to be streamlined?

If operations can be streamlined, who needs to be negotiated with? �
Is the workforce unionised or are there work representatives?�
And are team leaders on board or do they need to be persuaded?

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Image from: Unsplash

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As director for content of the integrated newsroom of the SunStar Publishing Inc. in Cebu, Philippines, Nini Cabaero had to combine three newsrooms into one, along the lines of a central hub, with different sections as spokes or topic desks.

These included merging an English daily newspaper of which she was the editor-in-chief, a tabloid in the vernacular, and a website operation that covered 12 community papers and news bureaus in the Philippines.

She started by talking to her digital editors before integration, devising a plan that could be presented to other senior team members. She also joined strategic planning and innovation sessions with print editors and reporters, then other departments, such as finance, advertising and marketing.

She encouraged people to “dream together”. She told them the “sky’s the limit”. She was aiming for a “bottom-up” plan where the team put forward ideas.

Her plan included:

Review company vision
Set clear goals
Detail programmes or projects needed to achieve the mission.

Image source Nini Cabaero

Nini Cabaero, former Editor-in-Chief, SunStar Cebu.

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

Case study: SunStar Network Exchange, Philippines

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These projects were then broken down into:

What would be done
Who would be responsible
What resources were needed.

A company-wide innovation conference was held where all the departments presented their own programmes and ideas were shared.

But despite all the preparation, she still encountered resistance when the plan was rolled out as staff started to see transformation as an increased workload for no extra pay. It was particularly tough because headcount had been reduced by 50 per cent between 2019 and 2021.

It was also difficult to maintain momentum and buy-in for change, particularly during the pandemic where remote working meant coordination was harder due to connectivity problems.

Image source SUNSTAR - Latest Philippine Community News, Cebuano Stories, Bisaya News and Information - SUNSTAR

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Case study: SunStar Network Exchange

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More talks were held with the entire newsroom, and smaller groups of reporters or editors, to win people over. “Covid-19 forced us to jump into this transformation. And we needed the cooperation of everybody. And I was fortunate enough to see that. In such an emergency situation, people did their part to help out,” she says.

Other steps included launching a paywall during the 2020 pandemic, changing structures in the newsroom to drive digital transformation and carrying out a content audit.

The focus is on developing content that will bring in the readers who will pay. “The mantra now is not digital first, but audience first,” she says. “We want to know more about who's reading SunStar and why they continue to read.”

Image: The SunStar newsroom

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Case study: SunStar Network Exchange

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Gantt charts, which were created by US management consultant Henry Gantt in the 1910s, are still widely used today to manage projects.

They can help you to map out your project. The horizontal axis represents the time the project is going to take while the vertical axis gives you a breakdown of tasks. And each task is dependent on the previous one to complete the goal.

These tools can help you to think through a plan, communicate it and monitor it through delivery.

They can help you to answer questions such as:

How many people do I need in the project team?

What are the deadlines that need to be met?

And how long will it take to reach them?

Image source: gantt chart images - Bing images

Gantt Chart template

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Project management tools

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Timelines and budgets

To control your project, the three key points to keep in mind are:

Time - running your project to a deadline. What is the estimated timeline to complete it?

Quality - hitting the project’s specifications

Cost - sticking to the budget

Your timeline will hold your plan together. It will help you to:

Keep track of your goals
What you are going to do to reach them
By when
And to budget.

You can also note which team is doing what, and who the task is assigned to.

You will need to regularly review the progress of your project to make sure it remains on track and on budget.

Revise actual completion of steps against the projection. This will help you to spot potential bottlenecks or obstacles and give you time to address them.

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

Image from: Unsplash

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Setting budgets

Companies usually work on annual budgets - but sometimes on longer budget periods for big projects
These can be set in two ways: bottom up budgets or top down budgets
Bottom up: Bottom up budgeting is a form of financial budgeting where a company allows each department to set their own budget.
If you were managing a bottom-up budget, you would “build it” by creating a list of expenses and cost projections, which is then submitted for review from senior management. The budget would then be interrogated and challenged - and cut or altered as management see fit to get to their targets.
A top-down budget is usually a budget set by management - you would be given a number to work to, and your activities would have to fit within that budget

Reminder: Controlling costs to meet budget, and stay in profit

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Stop & Think

Let’s stop and think for a moment:

Think about your idea for a new product or changing an aspect of how the newsroom works. Consider the time, quality and cost implications. What needs to be done? How long would your idea take to get off the ground? How much would it cost?

SECTION 1: C3 Becoming agile

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Section 2: Stakeholders, meetings, deadlines and pitfalls

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Managing stakeholders

With any plan you will need to know who all your stakeholders are. So start by considering who all your possible stakeholders are.

It may help to draw up a list of names - and you could even ask your team or trusted colleagues to help you.

Once you have a list, you can think about how much interest they have in making the project work and how much each individual will be affected by it, positively or negatively.

Their interest in helping to make it work can be mapped from high to low, as well as their power or influence across the company or department. You can use Mendlow’s Matrix (right) to help you do this.

Image: Mendelow's Power-Interest Matrix - Bing images

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Managing stakeholders

You can break down their interest and power further as follows:

Who are directly involved
Who can influence decisions
Who need to stay informed about process and decisions

You can then develop a tailor-made approach that aims to keep stakeholders on side.

For example, someone who falls into high power and high interest will need to be kept fully engaged. While someone with high power and less interest will need to be kept in the loop just enough to keep them satisfied.

But with all of the stakeholders, you are likely to have to do some level of persuasion and influence to maintain their buy-in to change. Here, trust is key.
How credible are you as a leader? People perform better and work well with colleagues they trust and respect.
Research published by Harvard Business Review showed that people at high trust companies report 76 per cent more engagement and 50 per cent more productivity than those at low-trust companies.

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Holding effective meetings

Nobody likes to take part in meetings that over run, that drift around failing to agree what to do next and are dominated by strong personalities who talk too much.

But a well-organised meeting that runs on time, has a clear agenda and considers diverse views, can benefit the business.

In an agile business, in-person stand-up meetings are held to keep the meeting focused and ensure that people do not get comfortable - so the meeting is short and to the point.

Remote working has made it even more necessary to run tight meetings and has helped to democratise companies by opening up to more views across the company.

If your business is returning to hybrid office-based working, it will still be essential to include any remote workers at an office-based meeting.

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Image source Lyndsey Jones

It is essential to include remote workers in�office-based meetings

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Holding effective meetings

To run meetings effectively you can do the following:

Appoint a chairperson to run the meeting;

Draw up an agenda and stick to it;

Listen to a wide perspective of views and ensure everyone has a chance to speak;

Encourage collaboration so people can feed into the discussion, to agree disagree, approve or reject;

Be clear - people need clarity to execute at their best, to know what to build and test;

Note what was agreed, write up and circulate via email because memories of what was said can fade. This communication eliminates ambiguity and makes decisions clear.

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Image from: Unsplash

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Setting and meeting deadlines

Many projects are likely to overrun so you need to take the initiative and plan for the unexpected.

Start with: when do you need the final result? If you are streamlining a production process, for example, that involves altering many people’s working patterns and roles, you may want to see the full result in six months.
Make realistic estimates of how long the project will take. It is easy to underestimate the time it will take - so add in a buffer zone of say 10 or 20 per cent to build in slippage.
Set your priorities and aim not to do too much at once. A step by step approach is easier and less risky to scale up than a big bang.
Break the project down by rolling it out desk by desk. Target the smaller desks first - the ones that have the lowest headcount, lowest number of dedicated print pages and/or lower output online. They will act as a test bed, limiting the impact of things going wrong and giving you time to put them right.
Set your time frame, and build in time to review and adapt your plan. That will allow for flexibility if you need to change tactics.

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Image from: Unsplash

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Project calendar: pitfalls and risk management

All projects carry a certain amount of risk. You will need to assess the risk in your business and mitigate against it - ie have a plan B so that you are able to deal with potential setbacks or obstacles to transformation.

Some of the most common pitfalls or risks include:

Unclear goals: if staff are not clear about what the change is for or why it needs to happen, the project will run the risk of failure.

Poor communication: how many times have you run a meeting and think you have been really clear only for colleagues to say they heard the opposite of what you meant? Always follow up meetings with an email laying out the message. You cannot overcommunicate during change management. We will go into this in more detail in Module C4.

Mission creep: when the scope of a project keeps growing or changing direction. Monitor whether a change in tactics is necessary - and even be aware of when the project may start to show signs of failure and shut it down.

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Image from: Unsplash

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Project calendar: pitfalls and risk management

Lack of authority to carry out the change programme. Before embarking on the project, ensure you have the support of senior leadership and the authority across the newsroom to drive change. If you don’t have this, you run the risk of people lobbying behind your back and the project becoming political - and this can lead to the next point.

Conflict with colleagues: You may think you have senior members on board but what do you do when it transpires they don’t support the project as you had believed?

Increased competition and price cutting: For example, in Botswana, one news group faced a rival bringing out a pdf version of a newspaper and giving it away for free. What do you do then?

External factors, such as supply chain issues: A mix of Covid-19 and Brexit hit distribution in the UK in 2021, for example.

Health and safety, sudden illness particularly in the light of the pandemic: In central and eastern Africa, some news organisations stopped printing papers suddenly. And many companies believe the pandemic is a precursor to a much bigger threat: climate change.

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Image from: Unsplash

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Stop & Think

Let’s stop and think for a moment:

Think about your team and the wider newsroom. Who do you need to influence to buy into your idea and who would be interested in helping you?
Are there any pitfalls or obstacles you can foresee?

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

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Quiz Assignment

SECTION 2: C3 Stakeholders, deadlines and pitfalls

Please complete the short online quiz to test what you have learnt.

You must score at least 80% in order to progress to the next module.

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End of Lesson Three

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MODULE C: CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Assignment part 3

Now that you have identified your problem, where you want to get to and how you will get there, map out on one slide how you will measure your success.
What will be the impact on the goal? What will you achieve? Write a short statement on one slide that spells out your SMART goal

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MODULE C: CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Assignment part 3

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The SMART way to succeed

SMART goals are a structured way to set goals and increase the likelihood of success. The acronym stands for:

Specific - better at what?

Measurable - what metrics will you use?

Achievable - ambitious but realistic

Relevant - relates to the business goals

Timeline - when will you achieve your goals?

MODULE C: CHANGE MANAGEMENT

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A SMART goal example

We will have 2,500 digital-only subscribers under the age of 50 by 2027.

We will use GenAI tools to help generate headlines to drive traffic to XX by XXXX

We will devise and test an AI tool to search our archive material that we can charge a premium for to enhance our service to our users/subscribers

MODULE C: CHANGE MANAGEMENT