Transforming the Newsroom at The Bakersfield Californian

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Transforming the Newsroom at The Bakersfield
Californian

• Jan. 08, 2007

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Where we were

• At the end of 2004, we were still shoveling
• While we were sleeping
• Site traffic had skyrocketed
• Registered users dwarfed paid print circulation
• We were still the dominant local site, but local
  competitors were gaining momentum
• We had no plan

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Time to change

• A given Wed get no new positions
• Separate web team vs. an integrated approach?
• Too small for a separate team approach
• Sacrifice would be necessary
• What could we stop doing?
• We had to get the right people in the right
  places
• We all had to drink the Kool-Aid

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We sought input and got none

• Drew a new chart creating a tiny web team
• Sacrifices were painful We cut positions in
  Business and elsewhere that we felt were not
  vital to driving readership
• We unveiled the plan
• Shock and awe

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Existing structure
City editor
Business editor
Eye St. editor
3 ACES
No ACE
1 ACE

• Neighborhoods (2)
• Real people
• Sacramento / politics
• Metro columnist
• GA
• Investigative
• City
• County
• Health
• Environment/Trans.
• Day cops
• Night cops/GA
• Courts
• Higher ed
• Lower ed

• Energy/oil
• Retail/Economy
• Real Estate/Jobs
• Ag

• Entertainment
• Explore/Go and Do
• Home Garden
• Columnist

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New structure
AME
News editor
Web editor
Lifestyles editor
Columnists (3) Investigative
2 ACEs 2 ACEs
2 ACEs daily / nights
MM / citizen journalism Biz Eye

• Neighborhoods (3)
• City
• County
• Environment/Ag
• Cops/courts
• Learning
• Night GA
• GA/enterprise
• Sacramento / politics

• AM update/ webtalk moderator
• Go and Do beat
• Ent./pop culture
• Newcomers/GA
• Calendar staffer

• Faith values
• Family / HG
• Real people
• Health
• RE / Growth
• GA / Energy
• Retail / consuming

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The web is everyones responsibility
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Outcomes

• Continuous news
• Web bulletins
• Email news alerts
• Early takes
• Averaging 10 new or updated items per weekday

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Breaking news page views, 2006
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Video

• We produced 114 videos in 2005
• We produced 700 in 2006.

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Outcomes

• Multimedia
• Web bulletins
• Email news alerts
• Early takes

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Growth in video downloads, 2006
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Outcomes (cont.)

• Blogs
• We run about 18 Californian blogs
• A half-dozen reporters have their own blogs
• More than 350 readers have community blogs on our
  site
• Since launching blogs on Bakomatic program in
  June, weve seen 2,763 blog posts and 28,683
  comments on 383 blogs

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Podcasts audio

• We produce six regular podcasts a week.
• Lots more audio clips
• Columnists
  produce audio
  versions
  of columns

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Culture change

• We were one of 10 participants in
  the Learning Newsroom
• Almost didnt apply because we had so much on our
  plate
• Changes on the horizon at the time
• Our radical redesign
• Audience targets and targeted content
• Some sort of reorganization lay ahead

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Culture change

• We benchmarked our culture at the beginning with
  the OCI survey
• Our culture Strongly passive-defensive,
  perfectionistic and oppositional
• A classic newsroom
• Us not change

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Culture change

• We went through the LN training modules
• We launched a staff-driven committee to help
  foster change
• We followed through with our other planned
  changes our redesign, reorganization, audience
  targets, etc.

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Culture change

• After 18 months, we administered the cultural
  inventory once again
• Phenomenal results
• We came within a hair of achieving a constructive
  culture in just 18 months
• Of 85 people, 56 made the move
• Some of the most resistant staffers middle and
  senior managers

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How did this happen?

• High level of business literacy
• Staff understood the urgency
• We invited staff to the table
• We were bold with our changes
• Our staff saw we meant business

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Where things stand now

• Weve internalized the new design
• Focusing on increasing the quality and
  sophistication of the web effort
• Were now developing new products that would
  be produced by the newsroom

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New products on the horizon

• An afternoon PDF edition is now in production

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An afternoon edition for light readers may launch
this fall
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Whats ahead?

• A new iteration of the committee, focused on
  product improvements, new products, streamlining
  operations SOCC the Save our Careers
  Committee
• Yet another reorganization is now on the table to
  allow for the production of multiple products

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Whats at risk?

• Enterprise reporting, projects, depth
• If were not careful, web reader interests can
  drive print coverage in a bad way

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Other negatives

• Stress levels, especially for mid-level editors,
  are higher
• A clear articulation of priorities is even more
  important than ever

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The good news?

• You can teach old dogs new tricks
• We can do this even excel at it

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Things weve learned

• Everyone must understand the stakes and share a
  common sense of urgency
• Offer the staff a seat at the table
• The hardest part is picking what to give up, then
  letting go of it
• Be bold
• Celebrate your failures
• Training is more important than ever

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