Three Things Datebook for 1/31/2022
There are two excellent training opportunities available in this week’s Datebook. Plus the Senate looks at big tech’s impact on a free press, and "is optimization everything?"
THING ONE: Two Great Training Opportunities
As I speak with colleagues across public media, everyone is seeking ideas and opportunities to create a more inclusive workplace and further strategies focused on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at their organization.
There are two items in this week’s datebook for you to consider that might help in those efforts.
The first is an opportunity to become a trainer for the Power Shift Project’s Workplace Integrity curriculum. The Freedom Forum Institute offers four free Train the Trainers sessions in 2022 for newsroom leaders to teach within their organization or to voluntarily teach for other media groups.
The Power Shift Project is a national industry-wide initiative to enhance the quality and future of journalism by improving the diversity, equity, and culture of news organizations.
The Project’s goal is Workplace Integrity, defined as environments free of harassment, discrimination, and incivility – and filled with opportunity, especially for those who have traditionally been denied it.
The project1 was launched in 2018 and is championed by the amazing Jill Geisler, Freedom Forum Fellow in Women’s Leadership and the Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University in Chicago.
The Workplace Integrity curriculum is custom-tailored for media organizations. It applies not only to the newsroom but across all departments. It’s built around four modules: critical thinking, courageous conversations, how to qualify as an ally, and building cultures of respect and trust. Here are the learning objectives for each module:
Critical Thinking: How to analyze common workplace exchanges related to harassment, discrimination, and incivility — checking facts, providing context, identifying bias, surfacing assumptions, and challenging logic.
Courageous Conversations: How to better understand conflict and responses to it. How to speak proactively (introducing subjects) and reactively (responding to the words and actions of others) to ensure workplace integrity.
Do You Qualify as an Ally: Practical insights for men who want to be allies to women, people of privilege who want to do more to fight inequity, and powerful individuals who want to be better advocates for change.
Cultures of Respect and Trust: How to assess and improve your workplace culture.
The Freedom Forum is now accepting applications from professionals and educators in journalism and journalism-related organizations in North America who are empowered to teach within their organization or voluntarily teach for other media groups.
Aspiring trainers spend 2.5 hours online together on each of two consecutive days. They experience the training, learn to teach it and then receive a complete turnkey kit with all the materials needed to present all four modules of the curriculum: slides, videos, handouts, and a facilitator’s guide.
This training is free, and the year’s first workshop is next week: February 9-10, 2022. However, you need to apply by this Thursday, February 3, 2022, to participate in the February session. Here’s the link to submit your application if you’re interested.
The second DEI-related training is the DEI Executive Forum, from Greater Public and Brevity & Wit.
The DEI Executive Forum is open to general managers and CEOs at public media stations. The program is a 6-month cohort learning experience that helps each participant create an actionable strategic plan focused on the specific and meaningful advancement of DEI at their organization.
At the same time, each participant will develop and enhance their unique leadership skills to effectively implement their plan.
Author, speaker, and strategic consultant Minal Bopaiah from Brevity & Wit will facilitate the session.
The DEI Executive Forum includes six day-long sessions, two leadership assessments, one-on-one coaching between sessions, course materials, a strategic plan template, and the benefit of cohort learning among senior leaders in public media. The cost to participate is $9,950 per participant.
The Forum is now enrolling in Cohort 2, which begins on February 18, 2022. Enrollment is limited to 15, and you can find more information here and register at this link.
THING TWO: U.S. Senate to Look at Big Tech’s Impact on a Free Press
Journalism will take the stage in the United States Senate on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, at 2:30 pm (Eastern) with the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing titled “Breaking the News — Journalism, Competition and the Effects of Market Power on a Free Press.”
The February 2 hearing is likely to include some focus on a proposed Senate bill, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), which would grant publishers immunity from federal and state antitrust laws for 48 months while they bargain collectively with digital platforms.
A November 2021 analysis of the proposed legislation in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology defines news content creators and online content distributors and outlines what those parties’ collective negotiations might look like. News content creators include print, broadcast, and digital news organizations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
To qualify, an organization must have a dedicated, professional editorial staff that creates and distributes original content on at least a weekly basis. That original content must make up at least 25% of their overall content. The JCPA limits online content distributors to online service operators with no fewer than one billion monthly active worldwide users on aggregate website, which, as of April 2021, includes only Facebook, Google, and WeChat.
An interesting aspect, and unusual for this moment in history, is that the proposed legislation has bi-partisan support with U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ken Buck (R-NY) introducing the JCPA in each house in Congress.
Sens. Kennedy and Klobuchar have said the JCPA would simply give “news content creators“— print, broadcast or digital — an antitrust exemption for a safe harbor to negotiate collectively with digital platforms like Facebook and Google for carriage of their original content.
The News Media Alliance has a lot of information on its website about the legislation if you’re interested in learning more about the efforts to turn this proposal into law.
A list of those scheduled to testify at the hearing has not yet been published, but if you’re interested, here’s a link to watch the hearing on Wednesday.
THING THREE: “Is Optimization Everything?” Find out on Wednesday.
The word “disruption” has almost become a cliche given what we’ve all been through over the past two years. Yet, daily, more data and decisions require us to choose how to spend our time and resources within our roles at an organization.
A concept that I’ve seen a lot recently is around the idea of workforce optimization (WFO), defined as “a set of strategies and practices that aim to improve employee and organizational efficiency and decrease operational costs through using data. The overall goal is to achieve organizational success.”
The concept touches every aspect within an organization, from creative to marketing to finance. The objective is to streamline the processes between every department and employee to maximize results - something that we surely need more of in public media.
A major component of WFO is to adopt a customer-centric perspective (think about “Audience-First”), and that data analysis has to be a top priority to generate the best outcomes for every situation.
With that in mind, an Adweek webinar on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, at 1:00 pm (Eastern) caught my eye, where two thought-leaders will discuss the idea of optimization as it pertains directly to media and marketing.
Lauren Hanrahan, the CEO of the digital agency Zenith USA, will be in conversation with Pam Zucker, SVP and head of marketing at Amobee. The two will share insights as to:
Why you should optimize your marketing campaigns for ROI, not KPIs
How combining advanced data analytics and technology drives optimization
What it takes to change in the face of disruption and embrace the chaos
The two will be discussing the idea that “optimization is everything” that includes using the concept for being a well-rounded, happy person, including work/life balance.
The one-hour webinar is free, and you can register at this link.
One more webinar that might be checking out is the inaugural edition of the RAIN Podcast Business Lunch on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, at 12:00 noon (Eastern). The 30-minute free session, presented by NPR and Triton Digital, will feature Tom Webster, SVP at Edison Research and one of the most respected voices in podcasting and online audio. Among the future guests in the series will be Kerri Hoffman, CEO at PRX.
Here’s the link to register if you want to attend.
That’s the Three Things Datebook for this week. Of course, your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for reading.
The Public Media Journalists Association piloted a few training sessions in 2019 for public media organizations led by PMJA’s Terry Gildea and Christine Paige Diers.