This is a shortened version of an article written for the Rhodes Journalism Review
in South Africa.The editor stands in front of the class and outlines the day's course. They will learn about five elements of
The Star and
Saturday Star's editorial strategy. First we will start with the Johannesburg focus: we have not been reflecting the amazing changes happening in one of Africa's biggest cities, he tells them.
Then he gives them a wicked, 15-minute general knowledge test.
There are photographers, news editors, reporters, graphic artists, editorial assistants, subeditors and executives in the class. Before teatime, he has collected 10 new Jo'burg story ideas from them to add to what is by now a long list stuck up in the newspaper's conference room. Next, he explains the basic elements of narrative journalism.
This is the 10th day in three weeks that
Moegsien Williams, editor of one of the biggest newspapers on the continent, has marked off his diary to teach his staff of about 140, including regular freelancers. His co-trainer is the creative director, David Hazelhurst, who is off production to take all staff through an intensive WED (writing, editing, design) exercise.
|
Photo courtesy Elizabeth Barratt
Moegsien Williams (seen above at the top, right, and in the photograph below, standing to the left), takes a hands on approach with the training program |
These strategy sessions are difficult to organize: besides taking 12 to 15 staffers out of a four-edition, 21-hours-a day, six-day newsroom for the day, they also clash with the Teeline (shorthand) and Zulu classes that are running over a few months. There is the narrative group that meets weekly, after a course by
Mark Kramer (writer-in-residence and director of the Neiman Program on Narrative Journalism), writer
Adam Hochschild, and the senior writers and columnists have an opinion and analysis group every fortnight or so -- both groups focus on study and critique. And for two weeks, 35 journalists, junior and senior, have had a grammar master course for two hours every day -- three classes running daily.
|
Photo courtesy Elizabeth Barratt
|
It's just the start of a year-long program of training for
Star journalists that has been devised to motivate, challenge, improve skills -- and raise the quality of the newspaper.
Behind this usual move lies two factors: research by the
South African National Editors' Forum, showing the generally low standards of journalism in South Africa, backed by our own experience, and the financial support of a foreign-owned company that must contribute deeply to skills development. It also comes immediately after moving to a new PC-based, thin-client editorial production and content management system, Prestige, after 10 years on what had become a rather out-dated QPS on Macs. And it comes at the start of a new push to interact more with our newspaper Web site, and move beyond print towards multimedia news production.
However, the editor chose not to just throw the available money at the problem: he has insisted on a complex plan of customized, in-house training for all staff. And he has joined in on some courses, teaching and learning. The plan has three levels:
- General – training for all staff in the newspaper's strategy, Internet searches, Zulu, use of Outlook and time management, for example.
- Basic – all of these courses are available to those who require them for their jobs, but are designed to cross different editorial departments: grammar, shorthand, Photoshop, interviewing, story structures, using numbers in stories and writing for the web, for example.
- Quality – targeted training for four selected groups: narrative writing, opinion/analysis, investigative journalism and newsdesk management.
Managing this complex system of courses has been slightly simplified by doing all of the communication on two new, large, grey notice boards opposite the lifts on the editorial floor. Sign-up sheets, letters of explanation from the editor, class lists, examples of where strategy has not been achieved, photos of classes in progress and forms on which to give opinions about what training should be done next are all put up there.
Behind the scenes, of course, is a rather painful tracking, listing and managing process to ensure staff from different shifts are available (not always possible due to the ever-changing nature of news), plan course content, examine what has worked for other newspapers around the world, rearrange training rooms, find trainers from within and without, and – most importantly – instigate ways to champion the changes being brought in so staff can implement what they are learning.
All of this is being carried along on a tidal wave of editorial enthusiasm. Photographers demanding to be allowed to do grammar, reporters criticizing Pulitzer-prize winning articles in the corridors, columnists discussing the meaning of "voice," arguments over who is top teacher's pet in Teeline, loud greetings in Zulu, swapping of books on narrative, photostating of articles from the Poynter website, agonies about missing a class, anger about the "Style" book not being updated and bundled up piles of extra work or reading taken home at the end of the day. As one executive remarked: "All the moaning and bitching has gone: they are all too busy doing their homework." Or as another noted: "These days reporters run out of the newsroom when they go on stories!"
All of our training must head in one direction: it must work towards achieving
The Star's strategy. This is an editorial but also a business imperative: Johannesburg is a highly competitive media environment. In the past couple of years, two daily newspapers have been started up and have been closed down – and both had elements of direct competition with
The Star. At the same time, there are more magazines and radio stations than ever before, and the use of the Internet to get news is suddenly growing rapidly. The
Star needs to ensure that it builds its reputation as the prime provider of news and views of its city.
There's a long way to go -- this is just the start. But when you hear the loud buzz in the training room after the editor has given his in-depth and anecdotal explanation of what we are missing out in coverage of our changing city, there is no doubt that the message is getting through.
