This intensive, one-day managing people course is designed for senior journalists transitioning into or currently holding leadership roles.
It condenses the six-week module on ‘Newsroom Evolution‘ into one comprehensive schedule, focusing on the critical skills required to lead, develop, and motivate newsroom teams effectively.
Participants will cover everything from strategic recruitment and performance management to fostering an inclusive culture and managing mental health in the newsroom.
The programme is structured around core leadership principles and practical management tools, with reference to the linked resources throughout.
We recommend that participants read the resources listed below before attending this refresher.
One-day intensive: Managing people in the newsroom
- 09:00 – 09:15: Introduction and objectives
- 09:15 – 10:30: Hiring, performance, and staff development
- Focus: Mastering the full lifecycle of staff management: strategic hiring and integration, setting clear performance goals, and using frameworks like SMART objectives and gap analysis to guide development.
- Activities (2):
- Case study: The strategic hire: Critique a job description and candidate profile for a new senior role.
- Role-play: Performance review: Practice a difficult performance conversation using the SMART framework.
- Core reading (5):
- 10:30 – 10:45: Break
- 10:45 – 12:30: Motivation, leadership, and effective meetings
- Focus: Strategies for motivating journalists and maintaining high morale. Best practices for running effective news meetings, managing editorial workflows, and fostering a vibrant newsroom culture.
- Activities (2):
- Newsroom culture audit: Identify three “morale drainers” and propose three low-cost, high-impact interventions.
- Meeting re-design workshop: Re-engineer a typical editorial meeting for clear objectives and time efficiency.
- Core reading (6):
- 12:30 – 13:30: Lunch
- 13:30 – 15:00: Inclusion, diversity, and mental health
- Focus: Leading an inclusive newsroom by addressing diversity and gender equality. Understanding and mitigating the impact of trauma and stress on journalists to create a supportive workspace.
- Activities (2):
- Micro-aggressions & mitigation: Analyse workplace scenarios and role-play constructive, immediate responses to subtle bias.
- Trauma-informed check-in: Practice protocols for checking in with a journalist returning from a challenging assignment.
- Core reading (6):
- 15:00 – 15:15: Break
- 15:15 – 16:45: Vision, values, and sustainable leadership
- Focus: Defining the newsroom’s vision and brand values. Strategies for aligning team behaviour with organisational goals and building public trust. Introduction to sustainable corporate planning.
- Activities (2):
- Vision statement challenge: Draft a concise, compelling newsroom vision statement and three non-negotiable brand values.
- Trust & crisis simulation: Work through an ethical/operational crisis scenario using defined brand values as the guiding framework.
- Core reading (4):
- 16:45 – 17:00: Programme conclusion and final plenary
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