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• Contents
• Chp 1
• Chp 2
• Chp 3
• Chp 4
• Chp 5
• Chp 6
• Chp 7
• Chp 8
• Notes
• Contributors
• About the APC

8. Education, Training and Management of Journalists

Corporate change and Australian regional newspapers

News media corporations are no strangers to change. In the past decade many have been faced with the challenge of changing or perishing as they feel the impact of technological innovations and audience declines. In this environment, ongoing corporate change has become a necessity. However, few Australian media organisations have spoken publicly about how they are managing change in the workplace. One exception to this rule is APN News & Media, which has experienced a somewhat surprising level of success with the introduction of a corporate change program to its Australian newsrooms. Even more surprising is APN's willingness to expose its program to scrutiny by independent researchers.

APN embarked on its corporate change effort in 2004. The program, called Readers First, was introduced to its 14 regional daily newspapers in Queensland and New South Wales, and later expanded to its New Zealand titles. APN is one of Australia's largest regional media corporations. Its publishing interests include 23 daily and more than 100 non–daily titles in Australia and New Zealand. Its Australian newspapers are published in regional areas of Queensland and New South Wales. APN has interests in 12 radio stations in Australia and 120 in New Zealand. As well, it has significant interests in outdoor advertising. APN's Readers First initiative was a response to significant circulation declines among the company's 14 Australian daily titles in the decade or so prior to the program's implementation. An analysis of Australian Bureau of Circulation figures by Kirkpatrick (2005) shows that between 1990 and 2005, the circulation of APN Australian regional dailies collectively fell by 11.2 per cent, from 185,938 in 1990 to 165,112 in 2005.

Although addressing circulation declines was the driving force behind Readers First, the program was designed to rebuild the relationship between the corporation's regional daily newspapers and their readers, while changing the way APN journalists thought about and performed their jobs. Readers First, APN Editor–in–chief Terry Quinn said, is aimed at providing ‘useful, relevant and compelling journalism attuned to readers' interests’. This was to be achieved by establishing a two–way, interactive relationship, in particular through the creation of an emotional bond, between newspapers and readers. This meant journalism that focussed on ‘real people’ or every day citizens in every story. Many of the APN titles also enacted the Readers First philosophy by taking a leadership position in their communities, championing the interests of their readers and reflecting the character, personality and idiosyncrasies of those communities.

Identifying and targeting readers

APN faced some hurdles in developing Readers First. There was a lack of data about who was reading its newspapers and this meant journalists also knew little about their audiences. With little idea of the types of news stories or issues their readers wanted to see covered, journalists were having difficulty in reflecting or involving their readers in the news stories they wrote. To address the lack of reader data, APN commissioned a major market research company to gather statistical information about readers through surveys. These data not only incorporated the usual demographic information, but also focused on the values that characterised different types of readers—often called VALS (value and lifestyle market segments). As well, each newspaper ran its own in–paper survey to gather information about readers and identify their content preferences. Both sets of data were combined and each newspaper developed a series of reader profiles for four or five key groups of readers. These profiles guided journalists in relation to their readers' newspaper reading habits and content preferences. The reader profiles also provided journalists with information about each reader group's lifestyle, the leisure activities they participated in, and their social and cultural values. Journalists now had a guide they could refer to when writing their stories and when targeting specific sections of their communities, particularly those among which the newspapers felt they needed to build readership.

This process was part of getting journalists to focus on ‘real’ people in every story they wrote, and this formed a significant element in the program's approach to involving readers in the news. In moving away from ‘traditional’ newswork routines that tend to privilege hard–news topics, Readers First sought to change journalists' reliance on ‘elite’ sources, or the community's political, business and civic leaders, by promoting a more reader–focused set of routines that put ‘average citizens’, or the community's ‘non–elites’, in the news. That way, the newspapers presumably would create, or perhaps recreate, an interactive relationship—an emotional bond—with their readers. Another name for that is ‘brand loyalty’.

In addition, the newspapers took up leadership roles in their communities. In practical terms, that means championing the interests of citizen–readers, and delivering the kind of news that reflected the community's character, personality and idiosyncrasies. In a departure from journalism that emphasised detachment, APN encouraged journalists to join community groups, paying membership fees, so that staff could connect with community members and grassroots issues. Face–to–face interviews were encouraged and journalists were told to get out and meet their readers. Editors work with readers, bringing members of the public into their newsrooms to advise them on the types of issues and stories they want to see covered by the newspaper. Interaction between newspapers and readers was facilitated through reader panels, and the provision of reader feedback and ideas via e–mail. Website forums and reader e–mail panels were used as a direct feedback mechanism between readers and newspapers. Other sites held regular morning teas for readers and editors to discuss issues. Several newspapers actively solicited and published stories and photos by readers.

Training and implementation

APN News & Media implemented Readers First in two ways. It delivered a corporate–wide training program in the change initiative. And it developed projects and reporting tools designed to help newspapers put the philosophy of Readers First into practice. The training program started at the same time that APN rolled out the change initiative. First, newsroom staffs got an overview of Readers First from a workshop. Afterward, APN provided an online training system with modules that covered such topics as ‘writing for readers’, photojournalism and news–page design. There also were regular face–to–face training sessions and they remain part of the program.

At the corporate level, marketing and editorial executives developed Readers First projects for the newspapers to aim at target–reader groups. APN identified those groups through market research and then focused on creating practical mechanisms for delivering Readers First content and projects to them. At the newspaper level, editors developed and now update a ‘reader action plan’ that details how the program has worked and how it continues to be implemented.

Tracking journalists' responses to the program

Our research tracked the responses of journalists working for APN's 14 regional Australian newspapers to the corporate change program over a three–year period, from 2005 to 2007. Our first survey was delivered to the newsrooms just over 17 months after the program began. During the 17 months prior to our first survey, APN was in the process of rolling out and fine–tuning the program. The final survey was implemented at the end of 2007. Data from the first survey in 2005 provided us with a baseline measure of the job satisfaction and performance of the APN journalists as a result of the Readers First program. Three hundred copies of the survey were distributed annually to the 14 newsrooms. Response rates were 29.3 per cent in 2005, 28.7 per cent in 2006, and 25.3 per cent in 2007. The 2005 survey questionnaire contained 53 questions. In 2006 and 2007 we included a question that asked respondents to identify whether they had participated in the previous year's survey.

The survey contained three separate themed sections. The first of these sought demographic information about respondents. The second was designed to probe attitudes towards Readers First, and the third sought information about participation in APN's Readers First training programs. At the end of the survey there were several open–ended questions and an opportunity for journalists to provide additional comment on the Readers First program. The format of questions was the same across the three surveys to ensure consistency in the methodology. The majority of questions were close–ended and the journalists indicated their response via a 7–point Likert scale. The scale ranged from ‘1’, or ‘strongly disagree’, to ‘7’ for ‘strongly agree’. A response of ‘4’ was considered ‘neutral’. We decided to use a Likert scale because many other scholars investigating the issue of journalists' job satisfaction use this approach (Pollard, 1995; Weaver et al., 2007).

Demographics—Who responded?

Anecdotal information from APN employees and observations of one of the researchers involved with this project suggests APN's newsrooms are increasingly staffed by a young and female workforce. While the survey results are not statistically representative of the entire national journalism workforce, they are indicative of the type of employees working for the corporation. In each of the three years of the survey, the largest percentage of responses came from people aged 29 and younger. While just over half of respondents to the 2005 survey were male, this dropped in 2006 and 2007 to 38.9 per cent and 38.2 per cent respectively. That meant that more than 60 per cent of those filling out the survey in the second two years of its implementation were female. Despite the increasing casualisation of the Australian work force, more than 85 per cent of employees who responded to the survey in each of the three years were employed by APN on a full–time, permanent basis. Those who responded to our survey were highly educated, with more than half completing a university degree or some form of postgraduate study. This is not surprising, with the majority of news media organisations having abandoned the traditional three–year to four–year cadet training system. Many news corporations now employ university graduates who undertake a one–year cadetship. It follows that the majority of people entering the journalism industry will have some form of university degree.

The data suggest APN has an increasingly inexperienced workforce in relation to the number of years its employees have worked as journalists. In 2006 and 2007, more than half of the survey respondents had fewer than five years experience as a journalist. In 2005, 40 of the 88 journalists responding reported having worked for fewer than five years as a journalist. In 2006, those with fewer than five years experience accounted for 50 of the 90 respondents, and in the final year of the survey, 40 of the 76 respondents were in this category. The data also appear to indicate that APN has a majority of new employees; that is, employees with five or fewer years working for one or more of APN's newspapers. The percentage of responding employees who belonged to that category was 49.4 per cent in 2005, 62.2 per cent in 2006, and 65.8 per cent in 2007. Across the three years, most of those who responded to the survey were either reporters or sub–editors, although more reporters than sub–editors responded each year. Photographers, section editors and editorial management also responded to the survey, although in small numbers. Most respondents indicated they were paid between $40,000 and $59,999 a year.

Journalists' responses to the program

In each of the three surveys, we asked a series of questions designed to track the responses of journalists to the corporate change program. We wanted to find out whether journalists liked the program when they were first exposed to it and what level of support there was for the program among journalists over the three years of the survey. In 2007, the survey showed the percentage of journalists who still liked Readers First had declined in the three years after its inception. The decrease in support for it was statistically significant between 2006 and 2007. However, over the course of the three years of our survey, the percentage of journalists who liked the program still remained relatively high when compared with research into similar programs. In those other cases, the findings indicated that support for change initiatives declines rapidly after the first year of operation of those programs.

Over the life of our APN Readers First survey, journalists consistently reported that they found it easy to understand and apply the concepts behind the program. We asked a series of questions designed to test how journalists conceptualised and responded to the program's aims. A key question in this area was whether the journalists thought the program aimed to increase the interaction between their newspaper and their communities. Responses to this question were statistically stable over the three years of the survey, and journalists indicated a high level of support for this statement. In other words, they agreed that the program aimed to increase interaction between the newspaper and the community it served. The level of support for a number of other statements in this area remained stable over the life of the survey, as detailed in the table below.

Of significance was that between 2005 and 2006, the number of respondents who thought that the program aimed to increase advertising revenue declined markedly. Although the primary aim of the program was to increase circulation, the link between circulation and advertising revenue meant that an increase in circulation should lead to improvements in advertising revenue. Also, between 2005 and 2006 there was a significant decline in the percentage of respondents who thought the program aimed to change the content of the newspaper.

Table 8.1 Percentage of Journalists Agreeing with Statements about Readers First (n = number of journalists responding)

* Statistically important changes in agreement in 2006 as compared to 2005, and in 2007 as compared to 2006. (Statistical significance determined through the chi–square statistic for a truncated Likert scale of ‘disagree’, ‘neutral’ and ‘agree’.)

Implications for other news media considering change efforts

Research into change initiatives in Australian newsrooms is almost non–existent. This may because news media do not disclose they are undertaking these types of programs or they may be reticent to allow them to be the focus of academic research. APN's cooperation with us marks a significant and important shift in the relationship between news media corporations and academics.

News media organisations in Australia considering embarking on corporate change programs or indeed already engaged in such efforts could learn much from APN's efforts. In particular, in at least its first two years, the success of the APN program appeared to be partly due to a group–wide communication and training program, which introduced newsroom staff to the philosophy and concepts of Readers First. International studies suggest poor communication of the goals, aims and daily operation of change programs is a significant factor in the rejection of such efforts by staff. While at a corporate level APN appears to have successfully communicated the aims of Readers First to its staff, some survey respondents commented that poor communication between departments in their workplace had impacted negatively on the implementation of the change program. Another aspect of the program that staff commented on was that they found it difficult to get the balance right between reader–focused news and hard news. While many saw the benefit in placing readers at the centre of the story, they felt that hard news sometimes received less attention than it should under the program. In recent months APN has emphasised to newsroom staff that Readers First does not mean a reduced focus on hard news, rather the program provides a different way of reporting this type of news.

The corporate change program had both benefits and drawbacks in that it ensured that individual newspapers were able to apply the concepts of Readers First in ways that suited their own readership and communities. While editors and other newsroom staff met regularly to share ideas and develop resources and smaller projects within the corporate change model, there was not a one–size–fits–all approach to the program. In several instances this appeared to have significant benefits, with some newsrooms taking up the program and adapting it to successfully suit their readerships and their communities. However, staff at some sites suggested that the apparent inconsistency in application of the program's philosophy was problematic for them. Some had heard about successes of the program from their colleagues working in other newsrooms and were concerned that their newspaper was not implementing the program in a similar fashion.

Australia's news media will be increasingly faced with change in the coming decades and if that change is to be effectively managed, change programs will have to be designed to ensure the aims of these programs are communicated to staff and the minutiae of the programs implemented effectively at newsroom level. Declining circulation among significant portions of Australia's print news media provides a strong indication that change will be needed if they are to survive and prosper. APN's Reader First program provides one example of the type of change that newspapers might use to address some of the issues they face.

The State of the News Print Media of Australia Report 2008
© copyright Australian Press Council | published 22 December 2008
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