I’m two potlucks into the holiday season and thoroughly enjoying the fellowship and good cheer.
But the most meaningful group gathering, at least for what I talk about with you regularly, may have come earlier this week in a conference room in MLive’s Lansing office. There, the editors who lead news coverage in our eight core markets gathered for a quarterly strategic planning session.
Senior news leadership led them through discussions and exercises to improve our journalism and grow our reach. It was a great opportunity to pull away from the daily newsroom routine to brainstorm and problem-solve.
These editors have far more responsibilities and complexity in their jobs than I experienced in the first 15 years I spent as an editor – in essence, before the internet.
"We've become increasingly strategic as we've adapted to the ever-changing landscape in the news business," said Sara Scott, director of Local News & Investigations. "We have access to analytics and data that shows us what content our readers value most. It helps us make coverage decisions to best serve our readers."
Editors today must also understand the role video and audio and social media play, and a working knowledge of our subscription strategy, of reserving some stories for paying customers. They have their own team objectives, but also own a share of MLive’s overall goals.
“As we see changes in how readers digest the news, it’s important to use data to see what stories are resonating,” said Roberto Acosta, editor of the Flint Journal.
That process involves some experimentation to ensure we’re offering a good mix of free content, as well as important local news stories that may be behind a paywall, said Audra Gamble, who reports and edits for The Grand Rapids Press.
One example of how that data informs community coverage is the spring rite of high school proms, Gamble said.
“Do people want long articles about high school prom? No, but we do know that parents and grandparents love seeing the photos of their children all dressed up and having a great time, so last year MLive devoted our photo team’s resources to creating photo galleries at more than 40 proms across the state.”
It’s not just data science that has evolved how news leaders work. Where I used to direct a news team in one community, these editors routinely collaborate with one another across geographies for breaking news, like the tornadoes that struck Michigan in August or the MSU campus shootings in February.
They also plan and execute journalism projects with our statewide investigative, political and environmental teams. Collaboration isn’t just for efficiency’s sake – it makes our journalism timelier and more informed, and it adds an energy to our mission that was palpable in our meetings in Lansing this week.
And full disclosure: We shared a taco bar buffet in between sessions. It was not technically a potluck, but I’m going to call it one in the spirit of the season.
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