Some of my grandchildren—and Jagger the dog—enjoy a splash in the swimming pool during Easter Sunday’s very hot Florida afternoon. Refreshing, indeed. More newspaper editors need to jump in as well and splash into change.
Maybe you can call these thoughts simply Monday ramblings. After a full weekend of kids, grandkids, excellent food (yes that traditional ham was grand, but so was the Cuban fare of congri, roasted pork), my thoughts turn to work and, specifically, to the editors with whom I will exchange ideas in the next few days—-in France, Germany, the UAE and Kenya. Yes, quite a variety, but, I must say, with one thing in common: how editors think.
This is nothing new. In my almost 40-year career, I have learned that if there is one adjective that fits most newspaper editors, it is “conservative”. The most progressive err on the “side of caution” when it comes to making changes they think the readers will not accept.
But, as I have learned, readers are always more willing to accept change than the editors themselves. This, too, is a global characteristic. Oh, how many times have I heard editors in six continents utter this famous phrase: “But, Mario, don’t you think this goes too far, may alienate our readers who are quite conservative.”?
My question is always the same: is it possible that readers AROUND THE GLOBE are exactly an identical ultra-conservative bunch not willing to accept change? Or is it that the readers can approach change in all areas of their lives, except for their newsapper?
Could not be.
However, the truth is that before an idea is presented to the reader, it MUST pass the filter of the editor. It is here that a great number of ideas succumb to fear and extreme conservatism.
As I go thru the hundreds of files in my office, I lament the number of prototype ideas that never took off, simply because they were eliminated early in the process, without testing with readers, the result of editors’ rejection—-which is the biggest obstacle to progress one can encounter.
Is a bad economy conducive to more openness to experimentation?
One would think that these horrific economic times would make newspaper editors snap out, splash into the pool of experimentation, and be open to change.
Not so quick. Not a week goes by that I don’t hear an editor or a publisher—-sometimes in still successful operations worldwide—-who ask you to apply the brakes on a progressive idea.
“Too much,” they say. “Our older readers will not tolerate it.”
That is why my team and I are always delighted when we are told: can you show us more?
That is the spirit. The industry did not need it more urgently than today.
TheMarioBlog posting #237