TAKEAWAY: Two Pinstripe Project launches this past week: now the Albany Business Review. and the St. Louis Business Journal join the 9 other titles of the American City Business Journals undergoing a total rethink.
Front pages of this week’s Albany Business Review and St. Louis Business Journal: it’s a new look, a new way of approaching the news
The three-page center spread for Albany Business Review
The Reporter’s Page
The List is one of the ACBJ titles’ most popular and quoted feature
The center spread for St. Louis Business Journal
Other St. Louis Business Journal pages
Readers of the blog are getting used to seeing how the tempo of ACBJ launches is quickly picking up, with 9 titles now converted, on the way to 40 weekly business journals that will join the Pinstripe Project.
We at Garcia Media have worked closely with the ACBJ team, including Emory Thomas, chief content officer for American City Business Journals and creative director Jon Wile. Over the course of a year, and a half-dozen workshops, we have created a formula that is flexible enough to allow for the specific and unique features of each of the titles, while establishing a foundation that ensures a similar style for telling stories and for adapting to a digital first philosophy in the presentation of content.
However, as one would expect, each of the weeklies approaches Project Pinstripe differently. Each newsroom and its inhabitants must be open to big change.
To that effect, it is the job of Jon Wile, as creative director, to oversee the preparations for each launch,and to interact closely with the editors and the art director for each title.
Jon recently had a conversation with Mike Hendricks, editor of the Albany Business Review. Mike was with the Associated Press for 28 years, and was news editor for the Albany bureau. Mike is an editor who fits into the category of a seasoned veteran of the newsroom, but who has been able to lead major change. He also confesses that he “seldom reads print now”.
A chat with Editor Mike Hendricks
What was the most surprising part of leading this cultural change? What was the hardest part?
The velocity and depth. When the first smart phone came out, It was obvious it was going to have huge implications for our industry. I went out and bought the very first Android smartphone after I first heard a reader complain about how our “paper” read on his phone. Yikes! Who would have thought? I felt an urgency to keep up. I got the iPad the first day it was available. I am not a geek, but it was clear what was happening. I was urging everyone in our newsroom to get a smartphone, then a tablet. It was clear then that those who were slow or resisted would be in jeopardy. We did not want to fall behind, but the velocity of the change has been surprising. I like to think it is exhilarating. It is as if we can feel the ground shifting beneath our feet. I seldom read print now.
When we swapped typewriters out for computers it empowered our writing and reporting, but did not change the culture the way this has. The business model has changed. We aren’t even sure what the business model is yet. The circulation and marketing responsibilities have moved into the newsroom. We are delivering our news as well as reporting and writing. We need to understand that and what that means. The hardest part is always the people part. It is also the best part.
How have you and Carolyn Jones (publisher) managed the change as a team? How often do you meet to discuss these large cultural shifts? Who else in your newsroom have you pulled into those discussions???
We talk about it every day. How to manage change is practically all Carolyn and I have talked about since our first interview more than 13 year ago. Carolyn wanted to make a break with the past and initiate a large cultural shift when she became publisher. That was the mandate she gave me when she hired me. I was a nontraditional hire since I had not worked at a newspaper for three decades before she made me editor. We were both taking a risk. The whole purpose was to bring change. I got an intense amount of pushback then. I heard a lot of “we can’t do that” and “that’s not the way we do things.” I do not hear that any more.
I have always loved newspapers, but I am not a newspaper guy, not the way most editors are. When I came here I thought Quark was a villain on Star Trek. I still do. We did a redesign and changed the name of the paper after my first year. That first redesign made its debut the week of 9/11. It is always about news.
We talk about the large cultural shifts with everyone. All the time. Every day. I would talk with the janitor about it. Some people are not comfortable with the issue and do not participate in the conversation as much as others. That is one of the telling factors. Some have to be forced into the discussion; others are drawn to it. When people stop participating in the conversation, they are making a bigger decision. There are consequences to not being a part of the conversation. You get left behind.
Some journalists have struggled to reinvent themselves in the digital transition. What tips would you give them to be more receptive to change and growth?
Find a new parking place. It is amazing how we get into ruts. People park in the same spot day after day for years. I encourage people to break the challenge of change down into manageable pieces. Meet new people. Disrupt your routine. Change your reading habits. Take a different route to work. Aim to change in 10 percent increments. When the tablets came out, I decided to stop reading print. You do not have to totally reinvent yourself overnight. You do have to move in that direction every day. The earlier you start the better off you are. I have been saying this for years and years. I was saying that when we were typing on Olympias. If you make ten percent changes over time you reinvent. If you do not, you get into a big hole you cannot dig out of.
We are being asked to break news and write enterprising journalism. That is not new at all. That is what we should have gone into the business for. Now we have more tools and more ways to do it and we are expected to do it every day. Some have trouble with the pace of it.
Ultimately, we cannot protect people from change. They have to decide if this is what they want to do.
You’ve hired in some non-traditional people into your newsroom, like a marketing guy with minimal newsroom experience to be your social media manager. What made you go those routes? What have been the challenges to managing/growing those people? What tips can you give us about hiring non-traditional folks in a new media world?
We will be hiring more.
Newsrooms have historically been a haven for non-traditional people. There is a tremendous upside to hiring people who see things differently, especially now. Now it is essential to hire non-traditional people. No matter where they come from, of course, they must have character, enthusiasm, commitment and a high metabolism rate. They have to be high energy and have high standards. That is what I look for. I have always paid more attention to eye contact than resumes.
Then we have to direct that energy toward our audience. We know our audience and our mission. We have to remind ourselves and the new people that the whole idea is to serve our audience, and that is where the learning curve is.
You don’t seem to mind change. In fact, you embrace it very well. How do you do that? What’s your mindset?
I have no patience for rules and I have always found the status quo to be a bore. I value judgment over rules. I have always stressed that. Every time I have been given a job: AP correspondent in Syracuse; AP news editor in Albany, this job; it has been with the mandate of driving change. I am sure it is that way for all editors. I cannot imagine any editor in my lifetime being given the mandate to maintain the status quo. People in newsrooms should not find comfort being in a box with rules defining what they can do.
You frequently move people’s desks around in the newsroom. Why? What’s the advantage there?
In the past year everyone in the newsroom has moved at least twice. I personally have moved four times. I gave up a new standup desk to be out in the newsroom.
It is about stimulating communication and attacking resistance to change. It is important to disrupt patterns of behavior and raise energy levels. It is amazing how resistant people can be to moving their desks.
We have also changed beats for the reporters in the last few months. In some cases we invented a new beat.
Define what great leadership means to you?
It is not the same thing as management. Some people confuse that. It is about honesty and sincerity, believing in the importance of goal, being able to see that goal, and guide people to that goal; it is about bringing the best out of people. It is about lifting your eyes up off the ground and seeing the bigger picture. I have always believed I am having more impact if I make ten people 10 percent better than if I neglect those people and try to do something myself.
Next for ACBJ Pinstripe Project
The Denver Business Journal and the Phoenix Business Journal will go through the transformation process this week.
TheMarioBlog post #1346