Comments on: Culture shock

By: 10 ridiculously cheap, relatively easy, small steps you can take to change an old school newsroom culture to be more forward thinking and web friendly | Will Sullivan's website. Journerdism

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:24:48 +0000

[...] Ryan Sholin nailed this one. Culture change is hard to pull off in one swooping move. Find your curious, early adapters and make them into golden gods in your newsroom. They’ll influence others and help push the change with you. [...]

By: Chris Foster

Chris Foster — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:35:44 +0000

Ryan,

I am here, in Delaware, you’ve got my attention. I am behind the innovation that you and GateHouse bring to the table. I am excited and ready to go. They said we’ll have video on the website – I bought a digital scanner and video camera – they said we’ll be selling online advertising – I began to teach some of the staff flash, etc… The future is bright… I love the future…
Again, you have my attention. Anything I can do to help the cause in Dover, just say the word.

Chris

By: links for 2008-05-10 « Tom Altman’s Wedia Conversation

links for 2008-05-10 « Tom Altman’s Wedia Conversation — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:35:38 +0000

[...] Culture shock » Invisible Inkling (tags: culture newspapers change) [...]

By: Technolo-J : Few in the newsroom can find strength in numbers through social networking

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:47:25 +0000

[...] Sholin talked about trying to find the early adopters in each newsroom, and what a struggle that has been for [...]

By: 6 minimal-effort ways to jumpstart your newspaper staff’s excitement about the web | New Media Bytes | Online journalism, web production and promotion

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:46:46 +0000

[...] tip comes from Ryan Sholin, who brilliantly says in these transitional times “you can’t mandate mindset. But you can [...]

By: matt king

matt king — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:15:54 +0000

Wendy,

I try to do all my flogging from a “here’s how this can you help you” perspective.

For example, to the people who are all about narrative, narrative, narrative, I talk about how helping build the newsroom wiki we’re starting will ultimately give them more time to write and craft.

Also, I learned pretty quickly begging isn’t worth it. Flog with a smile and move on.

By: Wendy Parker

Wendy Parker — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:57:17 +0000

I’ve been reluctant to use the “e” word when describing to my colleagues what I’d like to instill in my newsroom. But I have to fess up: I’m an evangelist for digital media, if only a budding one right now.

That’s an inspiring and thrilling challenge for me. On the other hand, the greater obstacle — getting others in the newroom to embrace the notion that these changes are not just necessary, but positive — is quite formidable.

Without going into details, some recent experiences I’ve had the last few days sum up where I think we stand right now — one step forward, two steps back. There are a few willing souls eager to try new things, but they are rareties.

This is going to be a very long haul, I’m afraid, and we’re running out of time to get the message across. I need some good ideas — and there are fine suggestions here — how to do this without pissing people off.

By: shawn smith

shawn smith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:07:13 +0000

Nice post Ryan. I think you’re right on. There’s been times when I wish I could just toss down a mandate and say “hey everyone, it’s time you have to start doing this or that.” But that type of stuff is never successful. What I have seen is getting one or two people excited by small successes can grow into a larger group of people getting hooked on metrics and improving their web presence. The biggest lesson I’ve learned in transitioning print minds to web journalism is – it’s all about small steps. One step at a time.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:07:16 +0000

@Julia – It’s definitely crucial to have some buy-in from top management at individual papers, but I’m making the case that change from the bottom is always going to be more likely, and more productive.

Hypothetical example: Newspaper executive makes speech about change; newspaper publisher has meeting about change; newspaper editor writes memo about change; city editor says he doesn’t have time for change, maintains the status quo.

But, if you start at the bottom, and win over one reporter, or maybe even someone on the copy desk who will start finding the time in their day to do something interesting on the Web, then you now have a change agent walking around in the newsroom, doing cool stuff on a daily basis.

I’ve been that guy, and I think I did a decent job of turning staffers from naysayers to receptive, at the very least.

@Zac has the right idea working out of a newsroom instead of corporate HQ. I might have to try that sometime.

@Jason: The best advice I can give you is to make sure you’re physically working somewhere in the newsroom where reporters can see what you’re up to. Hang out with the staff, talk about what you’re working on, show them cool stuff.

One of the ways I used to do this was to send out a daily “Top 5 stories” e-mail to the newsroom as bait, then I added a “bonus link” every day to a cool multimedia story somewhere, or a great blog post, or a useful piece of software, etc…

You need to show people what’s possible. Otherwise, all they see is ink on paper, every day.

By: Jason Kristufek

Jason Kristufek — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:45:21 +0000

What advice do you give people who are those early adopters but have trouble communicating the right way or in a place were others simply won’t listen for one reason or another.

The work those early adopters do and the evangelism is there, but sometimes that’s not enough.