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Twin Cities journalists' assessment of topic teams

Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 1999 by Neuzil, Mark, Hansen, Kathleen, Ward, Jean

Most workers feel they have less authority and less success getting story ideas into the paper than they did before topic teams were instituted.

Newsrooms have not been immune to management trends. Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, newsroom managers have been willing to experiment with new, more efficient methods to run their operations, meet economic goals and handle technological changes. The topic team system is one of these methods. But although the team system has been the subject of numerous descriptive articles in the trade press, not much analytical work has been done.1

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This study examines the effects of the newsroom topic team system on journalists' perceptions of their participation in problem-solving and decisionmaking processes - in brief, are the empowerment objectives of the team system being met?

The study is based on a census survey of two newsrooms (n=244) that implemented topics teams in the mid-1990s. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press are published in different cities, but see themselves as competitors in the Twin Cities marketplace.

Background

Newsroom topic teams, also called pods, clusters, and other names, are one recent method used by media managers to restructure the newsroom. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define a topic team (also called pods, clusters and other names)2 as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."' Teams are supposed to "bring together complementary skills and experiences that, by definition, exceed those of any individual on the team."4

In newsrooms, teams usually are organized by content areas - public safety, urban problems and leisure time, for example - that often cut across traditional job descriptions and newsroom departments. In a more traditional newsroom, executive-level editors supervise section editors (like sports or features), who in turn are in charge of copy editors and reporters assigned to beats, like the local baseball team or medical news. The traditional newsroom operates with a hierarchical system.

Teams are considered less hierarchic than the old ways, and often the structure is changed so that layers of newsroom management are reduced. For example, at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, seven levels of newsroom management were made into three.5 In Tacoma, Washington, four management levels were shrunk to two.6 An element of leadership remains, said publisher Scott Campbell of The Columbian, of Vancouver, Washington. "Democracy is not what we're after. There is still a role for top management to make decisions when it is appropriate."7

In a team system, a typical team consists of one or two team leaders, several reporters, copy editors, copy aides, and, often, a photographer and a graphic artist. The team leader is considered less of an editor and more of a coach or facilitator. A unit with the title of urban problems team may have elements of jobs held by the former police, juvenile justice and city hall beats. In many cases, terminology like city desk and state desk has been tossed out, and, indeed, reporters often do not work for the specific sections of the newspaper any longer. In some newsrooms, the general copy desk has been broken into many pieces, and each piece fit into a team.

More cooperation among team members is usually one goal of the reorganization, particularly between the visual and written team members. Teams are supposed to add up to more than the sum of their parts. In some cases, as in Vancouver and other places, walls were torn down and the newsroom was remodeled to aid communication and serve as a physical reminder of the new management structure.

One of the intentions of the new system is to empower employees.8 The team design is "what it means to empower people," said John P. McDonagh, vice president of marketing and advertising at The Columbian. "One of the main principles is involving people who do the work. Get employee representatives in a room, describe our situation, what we want it to be and ways we might get there."9

Newsroom management texts have picked up on the empowerment approach. In their book Managing Media Organizations, John M. Lavine and Daniel B. Wackman write of the need for leadership and empowerment in the culture of the media company, particularly when it comes to innovation. "The heads of media firms have special responsibility for creating a vision and culture that spawns innovation. A major mechanism for producing constant innovation and high-quality performance is empowerment, which means the expansion and dispersion of power within the firm."10

In New Directions in Media Management, Jim Willis and Diane B. Willis review articles in the leading business publications Inc., Fortune and Business Week on the question of the "new worker."11 Inc. magazine said "Workers are seeking new answers to the question of how they can get the most out of their jobs, and many of their thoughts indicate they want more participation in problem-solving and decision-making, and they want more freedom to do their jobs creatively and independently."12 Fortune magazine found that management saw the necessity of change to fit worker needs: "They are considering options - some inspired by the Japanese - that are more flexible and participative than the rigid hierarchies they grew up in."13 Likewise, Business Week said: "With the adversarial approach outmoded, the trend in employee relations is toward more worker involvement in decisions, and more job satisfaction tied to productivity."14 To achieve those ends, Willis and Willis advise newsroom managers to "provide for more worker participation in which employees gain a voice in decision making in their work areas. Among the vehicles for this are self-managed work teams... ."15

Twin Cities journalists' assessment of topic teams

Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 1999 by Neuzil, Mark, Hansen, Kathleen, Ward, Jean

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