Thanks for writing this essay, which is so wise! Getting the business of news right these days is such a long shot, there's no time for the kind of cultural misalignment that can happen when appointments like this go wrong.
I was talking to one business person about the economics of a publication I worked at (just a friend, not someone on the team) and he suggested we just spin off the parts of the business that were working and kill the rest of it. (The rest of it being, of course, almost all of the journalism.) A good reminder that so many business minds jump to "blue sky--what successful business could we make out of this place," rather than starting with "how can we help this institution execute its important mission in an economically sustainable way."
There is plenty to evolve in how most of these places execute their missions, and how they fund their work, but pure business logic isn't always the most useful framework to apply.
Excellent points, Dick. Experience with and appreciation of newsroom culture is crucial, and those who have that need one or more colleagues with solid business experience.
Ray Shaw believed editors made the best publishers and promoted many from the news side to business roles at American City Business Journals. This meant editorial vision, values and ethics drove the train. I had the pleasure of introducing Ray's former colleague, Paul Steiger (who commented below) to Spanish journalism professors and students at the University of Navarra in 2016. https://newsentrepreneurs.blogspot.com/2016/01/propublica-pioneers-investigative.html#more
As a CEO of a nonprofit news organization with no news experience (other than four years as a radio reporter in college and two college summers on network news desks), I enjoyed your piece today.
This particularly resonated for me and was the case I made to our board during my hiring process: “they ought to love news itself, and to be a sophisticated and frequently delighted consumer of it.” That and my lifelong regret that I didn’t pursue journalism as a career after my positive, even joyful college journalism experience.
Very well said Dick! I've worked on both the journalism and business sides of news organizations, and I've met many business side executives who don't understand the newsroom culture and the importance of reporting the news, without fear or favor. On the other hand, I've been lucky to have worked with some business executives who do. In the 1970s, Frank Daniels Jr., then publisher and owner of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, walked through the newsroom of its sister paper, the Raleigh Times, and told me that a story I had written about the local community college had caused him a lot of trouble at his country club. "Good work, boy!" he said. "Keep it up!"
I can't recall who said it, but in my experience the observation that journalists are the least well informed of any workers in any industry is fair. The Church v State notion is part of it, but I reckon the main reason is that money in newspapers has largely been about selling ads. If you look into much of what has happened to degrade the news business, it's often simply due to the fact that people have no confidence in the value of the journalism, nor any will be price it commercially.
Excellent points! I'm not a journalist but I'm a fan of journalism and a bigger fan of the separation of church and state. Having been in media for 35 years, that line seems to be blurring more and more, which concerns me most about CEOs without News experience.
Gosh this is an interesting question. I'm a local news "solopreneur" with mostly reporting, editorial and digital background, surrounded by freelancers and part-timers.
I've thought about shopping for a partner with a more standard business background, but the snag has always been the culture issue you mentioned. Can I even explain to someone from a traditional sales, marketing and accounting background exactly what it is we're trying to do here?
Scale that up to the national and regional publications, and the likelihood of getting some of the kinds of missteps seen lately with "pivots" to popular taste, which would seem natural to someone used to selling hamburgers or autos, are very high.
Larry, Thanks for this, and for reading. Just to be clear, I think folks like you really do need business-side partners as soon as you can afford them, and they don't have to come with news experience (although that would be great). The problem would come if you made such a person your boss, particularly before they had sufficiently grasped news culture.
Thanks for writing this essay, which is so wise! Getting the business of news right these days is such a long shot, there's no time for the kind of cultural misalignment that can happen when appointments like this go wrong.
I was talking to one business person about the economics of a publication I worked at (just a friend, not someone on the team) and he suggested we just spin off the parts of the business that were working and kill the rest of it. (The rest of it being, of course, almost all of the journalism.) A good reminder that so many business minds jump to "blue sky--what successful business could we make out of this place," rather than starting with "how can we help this institution execute its important mission in an economically sustainable way."
There is plenty to evolve in how most of these places execute their missions, and how they fund their work, but pure business logic isn't always the most useful framework to apply.
Well said. The flip side is that more journalists need to spend time to actually understand the business they’re in.
Excellent points, Dick. Experience with and appreciation of newsroom culture is crucial, and those who have that need one or more colleagues with solid business experience.
Ray Shaw believed editors made the best publishers and promoted many from the news side to business roles at American City Business Journals. This meant editorial vision, values and ethics drove the train. I had the pleasure of introducing Ray's former colleague, Paul Steiger (who commented below) to Spanish journalism professors and students at the University of Navarra in 2016. https://newsentrepreneurs.blogspot.com/2016/01/propublica-pioneers-investigative.html#more
As a CEO of a nonprofit news organization with no news experience (other than four years as a radio reporter in college and two college summers on network news desks), I enjoyed your piece today.
This particularly resonated for me and was the case I made to our board during my hiring process: “they ought to love news itself, and to be a sophisticated and frequently delighted consumer of it.” That and my lifelong regret that I didn’t pursue journalism as a career after my positive, even joyful college journalism experience.
Very well said Dick! I've worked on both the journalism and business sides of news organizations, and I've met many business side executives who don't understand the newsroom culture and the importance of reporting the news, without fear or favor. On the other hand, I've been lucky to have worked with some business executives who do. In the 1970s, Frank Daniels Jr., then publisher and owner of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, walked through the newsroom of its sister paper, the Raleigh Times, and told me that a story I had written about the local community college had caused him a lot of trouble at his country club. "Good work, boy!" he said. "Keep it up!"
Having done my time on many search committees I couldn’t agree more about culture..
I like the perspective here. You address questions that hadn't occurred to me.
I can't recall who said it, but in my experience the observation that journalists are the least well informed of any workers in any industry is fair. The Church v State notion is part of it, but I reckon the main reason is that money in newspapers has largely been about selling ads. If you look into much of what has happened to degrade the news business, it's often simply due to the fact that people have no confidence in the value of the journalism, nor any will be price it commercially.
I'm an editor with experience as combo editor-publisher of a couple of small weeklies several yeas ago.
Somebody promote me!
Excellent points! I'm not a journalist but I'm a fan of journalism and a bigger fan of the separation of church and state. Having been in media for 35 years, that line seems to be blurring more and more, which concerns me most about CEOs without News experience.
Gosh this is an interesting question. I'm a local news "solopreneur" with mostly reporting, editorial and digital background, surrounded by freelancers and part-timers.
I've thought about shopping for a partner with a more standard business background, but the snag has always been the culture issue you mentioned. Can I even explain to someone from a traditional sales, marketing and accounting background exactly what it is we're trying to do here?
Scale that up to the national and regional publications, and the likelihood of getting some of the kinds of missteps seen lately with "pivots" to popular taste, which would seem natural to someone used to selling hamburgers or autos, are very high.
Larry, Thanks for this, and for reading. Just to be clear, I think folks like you really do need business-side partners as soon as you can afford them, and they don't have to come with news experience (although that would be great). The problem would come if you made such a person your boss, particularly before they had sufficiently grasped news culture.