Hire The Right Team
For Your New Media Positions

VOLUME XXVII, NUMBER 28

As station executives continue to develop their online and digital presence, more staffers will be added to manage and produce content for the new space.
The new media requires new skills and attitudes. For advice on how to approach these staffing decisions, we turn to veteran television executive Tom Dolan, President of Dolan Media Management.

To win online, hire smart

As online use continues to grow, broadcasters are taking a more serious look at the Internet and what it means to their future.
It's clear that to win online is going to require an investment.
"If you really want ownership of the Web in your market, you really need to staff it up," says management consultant Tom Dolan.
"You must start to recruit for these positions. You can't afford to wait for the revenue to catch up," he urges.

The Web positions range from corporate jobs, such as the director of new media or digital content, to Web producers or editors.
"Because of the increased sophistication and complexity of this, and viewer interest in it, it needs to be a recruited for position that is a priority. Criteria should be set up by each station and company," he says.

They must have a passion for the Web,
its mechanics and techniques

To pre-qualify, a Web producer must be a consumer as well.
"The old days of just reporting 'news' that is observed or discovered may be past. Today's Web producer or manager must understand how it all works to grow the business," says Dolan.
"They must live the Web. The management books talk about how the CEO must be willing to go downstairs and try out the product. In this case, the person must be very accessible to other Web consumers, be interactive with their subject communities, as well as geographic communities, and know how to use your TV air to trumpet and sell Web content, and then drive it back to the TV air," he says.

It's not just a question of skills, but also of attitude.
Dolan quotes Jeff Parsons, Internet Broadcasting's Director of National News & Content, who says, "Don't hire just for their resume, but for their passion and motivation."
"They need to be entrepreneurial in spirit. They must be willing to be a student of the game and to know what's working and what is not working, and why," says Dolan.

The job candidates must be committed to building a unique Web site, and not just adept at merely repurposing material.
They must produce unique Web content that is directed at certain times of day, news on demand needs, and a person's appetite for the story. "The best case scenario is where you are aggregating in subject areas unique to your TV news product. The worst case scenario is taking materials produced for a TV newscast, carting them down the hall and posting them on a Web site," says Dolan.

The person in charge of the Web must be skilled at layering stories, angling stories and at seeing opportunities for user contributions.
They must be flexible. Web hits can show what story is capturing the audience's attention. A good Web editor should be able to re-group and arrange their slide shows and angles around that.

As an example of a fresh Web approach, Dolan points to the online coverage of the Scott Peterson trial by KCRA-TV, Sacramento. It combined audio of the trial, courtroom sketches and play-by-play instant messages sent by the reporter from the courtroom. This was displayed in the left column online.
"They won that story. More people watched it online than watched it on television, because of the unique nature of how the station covered the story," he says.
"It was a commitment to cover it in a certain way for the Web, because more people were available to watch it on the Web than to watch it on television," Dolan adds.

You need at least three types of Web editors and producers.

Early Morning: Agenda setter
"At 4 or 5 a.m., you need Web editors who can support the morning newscast. They should be good at identifying the hot topics of the day that will set the agenda," he says.

Midday: Angle and enterprise
Ideally, by 10 a.m. you have a top story developing. You need someone who can angle and enterprise stories off the key topical stories, or launch investigative stories off the key topicals to sustain the interest when the appetite is high.

Afternoon-Evening: Win Breaking News
Dolan believes that for the later afternoon and evening, when you are interested in driving people to the Web and back to your newscasts, you need someone who is really good at covering breaking news.
Dolan warns that newspaper Web sites are already staffing this way.

Study their work at length

You may need to spend more time to get an accurate reading of an applicant's Web site than you have needed to invest in the past to understand on air newscasts.
"You can look at a newscast, and within a couple of calls decide who is driving that good product. With a Web site, it's not as easy," Dolan warns.
"As you look at a Web site, you may need to look at it over a period of a week and see how they manage the full user experience. The user must feel some satisfaction --- they must have a multi-media experience that goes beyond video and text. There may be slide shows, audio, perspective and blogging from different users," he says.
"There are different criteria, and if your Web site is going to be successful, you need someone more in that mindset," Dolan adds.

A candidate should walk you through their current Web site, explaining content and strategy.

Role play potential stories.
Create a possible story and ask them how they would produce it online. What are the additional angles to build it out?
An example is when Steve Irwin died from a Stingray. An additional click on msnbc.com offered video demonstrating what a barb is in an aquarium.
If there is a chemical spill, you'll need to quickly produce a map that shows the evacuation area, a wind direction graphic that clearly shows where not to go, and maybe a story on what's actually burning.

Your hires must see additional elements of the news of the day.
"You want someone who buys into the idea of whatever you choose as your key content drivers, and each day they must know how to go deep on that subject, as opposed to spreading themselves thin on a lot of subjects," he says.
In a crime story, you might include a trend of robberies in a certain area, including an archiving of past stories about things that have happened in that area of the city.

The candidate must excel at niche content aggregation.
"The mindset should be to collect the best of your subject matter from the Internet on your site," Dolan explains.
To win return, long-term visits from individuals interested in a specific subject, you need to reinforce the niche status daily and change the content constantly ( a significant challenge), and you need to hire a staff that can execute this, he says.

Your next staffer must be creative with producing interactive elements.
These features stimulate users to react, comment, click, vote on opinions, provide suggestions, and stay on the site longer.

Marketing and promoting the site are a major parts of the content.
The successful Web worker creates unique selling points with the angles and elements. These must enhance your brand. These must clearly be yours and available only at your site.

Where do these people come from?

Do you hire people from within the industry, who have traditional news backgrounds, or do you hire non-traditional people who work in the "space"?
This continues to be the big debate.
"We get a lot of questions about this, and our feeling is that you need to look at both --- non-traditional and hybrids," says Dolan.

Dolan says fellow consultant Graeme Newell believes news managers should also consider hiring community-based Web contributors who can work from home.
For example, if crime is a big issue in your market, a former police officer or detective might be a good Web crime reporter and be able to get information that a general assignment reporter might not be able to find. Or it may be a law enforcement officer who likes to blog and who has a useful perspective.

These non-traditional "hires" may or may not be paid positions.
Newell points out that there are a lot of people who are willing to work part-time on something they are passionate about.

For more information on this and other management issues contact:

Dolan Media Management at 301-668-1511
smartrecruit.com

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