Brendan R. Watson

The most valuable journalistic experience I had is leading Student Life, the student newspaper at Washington University. Having complete responsibility for the entire production process taught me more skills and strategies that have come in handy in my career as a multimedia journalist than studying online journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, or even working in a multimedia newsroom. I also learned a lot about communication, leadership and management.

That said, the structure of many student newspapers hurts the quality of journalism education on those campuses. The fact that most student newspapers are independent from the university means they are not integrated into the curriculum. Its very difficult to have a innovative curriculum. It simply takes too long to propose new courses and have them approved. Thus, innovation must occur through extracurricular activities, including student newspapers, which can be a significant lab for experimenting with new forms of reporting and news delivery.

But there is very little or no coordination between the journalism curriculum and student newspapers — usually the most significant media outlet on a campus — because of their independence from the university. Journalism schools (and their students) are missing out on significant teaching opportunities. These teaching opportunities need to include the type of skills and management experience I mentioned above, preserving the bulk of student leadership. But innovation should also not be completely dependent on the uneven leadership students to provide during their brief tenures. Student media boards provide some leadership, but when busy professionals parachute in for only one, maybe two, meetings a year they provide often less consistent leadership than student editors.

Many student newspapers are starting to grapple with similar problems as those that inflict the profession as a whole. More involvement of journalism programs in college newspapers would help provide longer-term strategies to remain viable as the advertising landscape and reader habits change, as well as to create an innovative lab for experimentation that is absent in most curriculums (and in the students, who surprisingly cling to very conservative approaches). Students need to be prodded to experiment. Journalism programs need an outlet to teach experimentation. Separated, both the quality of the journalism curriculum and the student newspaper suffer.

As newspapers (and other journalism organizations) shed staff there is untold expertise that is being put out on the street. Some of these experts will transition into communications and other fields that take advantage of their skills and knowledge, while others will make complete career shifts or retire. There are untold opportunities to organize these individuals in such a way as to preserve their journalistic experiences to benefit other sectors and society as a whole, say through non-profits, education, etc. Some smart minds are getting on the task. Romenesko reports that NBC correspondent Dan Abram’s is starting a consulting firm:

Dan Abrams’ firm, Abrams Research, will connect media experts with businesses that need strategic advice, reports Brian Stelter. Journalists and bloggers retained and paid by the firm will consult with corporations, conduct media training sessions, or conduct investigative reporting for corporate clients.

Good post from Innovation in College Media: Can newspapers learn anything from the Obama campaign? Number one suggestion: Excel at leadership:

Excel at leadership: Whatever you think of his politics, Obama led his campaign with poise and calm. While John McCain “suspended” his campaign to deal with the financial crisis, Obama maintained a calm head and famously said “a president should be able to do two things at one time.” Obama’s top advisers, too, kept cool heads – Axelrod, Plouffe, Gibbs – were cool heads in the midst of a tempestuous campaign.

Newspaper leadership doesn’t seem too calm right now. They chase quarterly profit margins by laying off hundreds of workers, producing short-term gains with long-term harmful consequences for their products. In this way, their actions are more in line with the McCain campaign’s “news cycle” approach to the election.

Bryan is commenting on leadership at the institutional level. But leadership at the personal level is just as important. The idea that good reporters must make good editors (and by extension good managers) has created a generation of too often toxic leaders, who are ill-equipped to exercise steady leadership, particularly on a personal level. The notion was that good journalism could substitute for good management. Well these days, that doesn’t cut it: Newsrooms need both.

Obama won not because he reinvigorated our trust in the political system, but he spoke to individuals’ concerns and built trust that he’d personally address those concerns to the best of his ability. How many of us have experienced that type of leadership in the newsroom? Yet many newsrooms are simply changing around seats under the name of “reorganization” instead of identifying who the truly managers are and putting them at the center of innovation in the newsroom. That approach is only going to deepen the whole.