“Leadership” Items

Scenarios at The Arizona Republic

In 1999 the management of Phoenix Newspapers, publishers of The Arizona Republic and AZ Central, embarked on an ambitious project to take the company into the next decade.  Part of that process involved writing scenarios about “possible futures”.  We had five objectives as we looked toward the next five to seven years:

  1. As technology and the Internet continue to evolve, how will reader and advertiser needs and behaviors change? How fast will it all happen?
  2. Use scenario planning to enhance our strategic conversation
  3. Involve the organization at all levels.
  4. Craft a point of view about our future.
  5. Develop a more agile Year 2000 operating plan, and budget and craft a three-year  strategic plan.

I wrote much of the “Zero Time” scenario:

Zero Time asks us to throw out the notion of a continuous, predictable future. It represents our most challenging scenario. How rapid and radical is change in this Future? In just the five years between 2000 and 2005, the U.S. economy has morphed from a mass industrial economy to the new economy, an Internet and information economy. Computing is ubiquitous and touches every aspect or almost every person’s life–much like a telephone or television did in 2000. Communication is seamless and superfast broadband connections to the Internet have become standard. Customers get the information they need, exactly when they need it, and can do most transactions without the aid of intermediaries such as auto dealers, real estate agents and travel agents or newspapers. Audiences are increasingly fragmented, and mass is no longer the dominant model in any advertising medium.

Maybe not quite right for 2005.  Certainly on target for 2013. Read about Zero Time in the PDF.

Chicago Tribune — 5 Years Hence [1980 as the Future]

I don’t remember who asked for this memo about the future or why we were looking at “five years hence” (1980).  This is probably one of my earliest “future look” memos.

At the time this was written, the Tribune was publishing both morning and afternoon editions.  Lots of them, as we had just merged the staffs of the afternoon newspaper {Chicago Today} and the morning Tribune. It was a grueling publishing schedule that was truly a 24-hour publishing cycle.

I still like this thought about giving readers more about what a story means.

We need to stop thinking “freshest is best”; a need to end the traditional cycle of publishing edition after edition, sometimes barely enough time to consider what the news means. The Tribune could reduce it cycle to two editions (major remakes) with replate options.  Continue to provide a morning and afternoon edition; new equipment will allow a savings in time – use the savings to give editors and reporters time to include the “what it means” in their story.

Here’s the full memo, a carbon copy from the “copy book” it was written on.

Named to New Job: Senior Editor/Information Technology

As I moved out of the newsroom, I had a number of different roles/titles.  In late 1993 I moved into the newly created position of senior editor/information technology.  Among my duties were:

*Working on the planning and establishment of new ventures by PNI. These could include on-line news and advertising services; new printed, fax and audiotex news and advertising products, and CD/ROM marketing of databases and photos.

*Directing the introduction of new text-editing and pagination systems for the newsrooms.

*Leading PNI in assessing the possibilities of new technology, especially those efforts relating to the integration of newspapers, telephony, fax technology, television and computers. He will work to keep PNI abreast of all developments that could affect its interests in news-gathering and advertising and will make recommendations for PNI’s involvement in new technology in these areas.

It was an exciting opportunity to help influence a company and the digital revolution was about to take hold of the media industry. I’m indebted to John Oppedahl‘s vision and his trust.

“The consumer’s need for information is changing and so is the delivery of that information,” said John Oppedahl, PNI executive editor. “PNI is in a unique position to be Arizona’s source for news and other information regardless of how it is delivered. While we’ll still publish on newsprint, PNI needs to look at other forms of delivery, such as via computers.

 

The New Newsroom

One of the challenges for newsrooms in the 1990s was the introduction of pagination technology.  While it was clear that pagination equipment would change how the newspaper would be produced, many managers failed to recognized that installing the new software (and the computers to run it) was an opportunity to rethink the workflow of how a newspaper is produced.

At 1993 Seybold* conference in San Francisco, I gave a talk titled “The New Newsroom.” The subtitles on the PowerPoint reflected my focus:

  1. How technologies are changing organizations.
  2. How organizations are changing technologies.

I argued there was a need for a new type of worker and that managers should worry more than print — audio, fax and video.  Remember, online services were just starting.

My last slide called for “techno-evangelism” and finding the leadership within the newsroom to make the changes needed.  And is a foreshadowing of my future, the slide had these bullet points:

  • Teaching yourself.
  • Teaching your staff.
  • Teaching your boss.
*Seybold Seminars was a leading seminar and “the premier trade show for the desktop publishing and pre-press industry.

Young Readers and the Future of the Chicago Tribune

In late 1973 and early 1974 I was part of a committee at the Chicago Tribune.  The committee members were all under 30 and most of us recent hires by the newspaper.  Our task was to explore what the paper should do to attract more younger readers.  This task was less about getting young adults to read newspapers but to read the Tribune instead of the Chicago Sun-Times.  Members of the committee: Ovie Carter, Gary Deeb, Howard Finberg, Clarence Page, Don Pierson, Bill Plunkett, Karen Schickedanz, Rick Soll and Linda Winer.  Here’s what we wrote in our summary:

Simply stated, the Chicago Tribune takes itself too seriously. This is not to diminish its role as one of the nation’s best newspapers. Rather, it is a suggestion that the time has come for the Chicago Tribune to slaughter, once and for all, many of its sacred cows.

Further on, we concluded:

What we are recommending, in a general way, is a relaxation of the restraint that prohibits surprise and thought-provoking material from appearing in the Tribune.   It is not a recommendation to relax or reduce in any  way the standards of journalism: Strict reverence for the facts, a sense of fairness, and an attention to thoro reporting.

Please note the unique spelling of thorough, as the Tribune was still gripped by a style book that used simplified spelling, a cause of the previous owner/publisher:  Col. Robert McCormick.

The  is available as a PDF file: chi trib_young readers group_02_1974