Managing a newsroom is no easy feat. Most newsroom leaders wear multiple hats – they have to be journalists, editors, designers, webmasters – and managers. And, if you’ve worked your way up through the ranks of your newsroom, chances are you’ve spent more time outside the newsroom than in it, chasing stories and chatting up sources, meaning you might be completely new to management, as well as being in a nine-to-five role.
To help all the newsroom managers out there, whether new to the role or just in need of some new tips and tricks, we’ve compiled a list of blogs, podcasts and management thought leaders that can help you with everything from the day-to-day to the most obscure issues.
HBR IdeaCast
From the team at the Harvard Business Review, IdeaCast is a weekly podcast that delves into issues pertinent to all business owners and managers. Topics covered include abstract subjects, such as creating joy and improving psychological safety and civility in the office, to more concrete subjects such as negotiation, mentorship and avoiding “initiative overload.” Guests on the show include anyone from professors and academics to CEOs and managers, to John Kerry, the former Secretary of State.
Ask A Manager
A blog (and book) written by former nonprofit chief of staff and manager Alison Green, Ask a Manager lets anyone write in with questions about dealing with life in an office, whether that’s managing an intern or low-level staffer, coping with a difficult boss, dealing with getting fired or laid off, or even what to do if someone keeps stealing your lunch out of the shared fridge. If you have a work-related concern, chances are, Green has answered it – often, multiple times.
Jill Geisler
Jill Geisler is a management coach as well as the Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago – which is to say, she knows a thing or two about how to manage the disparate personalities that make up your average newsroom. Through her columns for Columbia Journalism Review spanning more than four years, she’s covered a range of newsroom management topics, including how you can help prepare your team for covering natural disasters and newsroom scandals, as well as how to improve diversity and even what to do when your newsroom unexpectedly shuts down. She also produced a podcast series for Loyola’s School of Communication, which comprises 70 episodes and wrote 25 tips for managing changing newsrooms for Poynter in 2009 that remains relevant today.
Penelope Trunk
Penelope Trunk honed her management skills over the course of running four startups, so she knows how to manage from the top down – and from the bottom up. She offers advice not only through her blog entries (which go back more than five years), but also through her newest startup, Quistic, which offers online courses aimed at helping people advance their careers.
The Chief Happiness Officer Blog
People don’t always think about being happy at work, at least not when it comes to management issues, but Alexander Kjerulf is all about making people’s work lives a little happier. His posts cover everything from how to disagree with your boss, to why you shouldn’t try to motivate people only through money, to why you need to make time to engage with your team if you want to succeed.
Jennifer Peters is former content manager of the News Media Alliance.
