Jason Kristufek’s We Media blog

Scott Sines of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis could not disagree more with Mike Maness on the philosophy of change and innovation within a media company’s newsroom.

Both have spoken at a Mid-American Press Institute workshop in St. Louis. I wrote about Maness and what he had to say here. On the opposite side, Sines says you cannot manage change from the top.

You can’t manage newsroom change from the top. The VP of corporate can’t come in and make this happen. And until you are out there and have the ability and see how to do this, it won’t happen.

Rather, Sines argues that media companies need to have a strategy for managing change. But problems will arise during the process, and he recognizes that. He said organization need a way to respond to those problems instead of coming up with a cookie-cutter solution with no leeway.

Whenever I see that happen, I always assume the best in people. I tend to think I failed to manage the pace of change. If you change things quicker than what your staff is willing to do, they will shut down. People will tune out. It really is important to know who the informal leaders are in your newsroom. Know who the early adopters are and get them on board. This is a change that has to bubble up from bottom.

When it comes to the Sines vs. Maness debate here at MPI, I think I would take the best of both worlds and come up with an approach somewhere in the middle. In his presentation Sines offered more specifics as he is a managing editor and is closer to the newsroom.

For example, here are some of the highlights:

• Create a web-first task force within the newsroom. Memphis sought out volunteers and ended up with 28 people. They split them into two group: one, focusing on how events are covered and the second on new skills, training and needs.
• When doing more with less listen to your audience needs on determining priorities for coverage and beat. In Memphis they went out to community meetings and gave presentations and sought feedback through a survey.
• Have a way to gauge success. In Memphis, for example, they provided details to staff on the coverage of a breaking new stories.

Note: Scott Sines, managing editor of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, supervises the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, where he is leading an effort to transform the newsroom into a web-first operation. He’s also led an ambitious zoning effort for paper, taking it from a single edition to a nine edition publication. And he’s managed the redesign of the newspaper and the installation of a new publishing system. - Mid-American Press Institute