Who are the leaders currently needed by the media?
The essential characteristics of editorial leaders do not change. What is required is to strengthen their capacities to adapt
Traditional media, particularly newspapers, live the convergence of two worlds. On the one hand is the printing system, and on the other the context of innovation. Once the discussion and experimentation regarding convergence is advanced, an important aspect emerges: Do editorials have the leaders needed to guide new equipment, new business models, and new processes?
"Leadership for printed and digital media is the same", explains Ernst Sotomayor, from the School of Journalism at Columbia University. That is, a leader must have common characteristics regardless of the platform: strategic thinking, planning capacity beyond the capacity to react, who knows the needs of journalism companies, who is a good communicator, and who knows how to establish objectives, measure them, and start the processes to achieve them.
What is the difference with the new leaders? According to Liza Gross, from Solutions Journalism Network, the main difference is that the new editorial leader needs to evolve. "Today, they not only need to know about journalism, but also about business models and new digital tools". In other words, they need a capacity to adapt that was not necessary in the traditional journalism model.
These are the considerations of the XIV GDA-CAF Seminar "Editors 2020. Leadership in editing", organized in Brazil by the Grupo de Diarios de América (GDA), O Globo, and CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, which also addressed the main challenges that the media of 12 countries in the region have identified as priorities for the new editing leaders.
Among these challenges is the diversity in editorials, which has a generational component associated to the periods that the trade has gone through. "Sometimes the passion of old reporters does not meet the innovation eagerness of the younger ones", summarizes Ernesto Cortés from El Tiempo. The media expects the older ones to transmit their passion to the younger ones, and the younger ones to transmit their desire for innovation.
The challenges that demand the most in terms of the adaptation of leaders are related to the creation of new teams, the definition of processes to coordinate them, and address new needs such as audience management, measurement of content performance, and experimentation with new platforms. All of this aimed at keeping journalistic quality, autonomy of the media, and favoring the diversification of business models for journalism companies.
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