Understanding the role of product in news organizations
An overview of newsroom roles and responsibilities and how product fits in
Presented by Sasha Koren
News outlets of all sizes that produce credibly reported news and features, from the largest international organization to the smallest local publisher, hold solid reporting and sourcing and careful editing as key parts of their mission. The scope of reporting and the number of staff will vary, but editorial roles with responsibility for reporting and editing are core newsroom functions. In addition, attracting audiences through social media and search engines has become essential newsroom work.
To support the ever-growing technology needs of both news production and news revenue, the industry has adapted to include new digital roles and functions. On the rise in recent years is the role of the product manager and the product management function. Product management has been a key operational piece of most software companies, serving as a central force that connects all the disciplines that go into building digital products and services.
As news organizations have developed digital publishing capacity, publishers’ organizational charts have reflected a move toward product management with the emergence of roles and titles like product manager, software engineer, user experience researcher, product designer, and product marketer. Many product roles are positioned within technology or business departments, but the product function might also be part of an editorial or design role.
Some larger organizations introduced product management in the years after their websites launched (late 1990s-early 2000s) and may now have comparatively large product and technology departments. Small organizations may have one or two people carrying out a product management function in addition to another primary role. Nevertheless, product expertise and news expertise remain fairly independent disciplines with different sets of knowledge and skills, criteria for successful work, and career paths for staff.
This guide offers practical tips for journalists who are new to product management and people in product roles who are new to journalism. The references section below provides additional background on the growth of new roles and responsibilities in news organizations.
(Source: Canva)
IN PRACTICE
Use the tips and concepts in this section to cultivate a product culture in your newsroom
Make space at the table
Product teams in news function as a kind of organizational center of gravity that pull in and collaborate with teams from other departments as needed. These teams must manage overlapping, and sometimes differing, interests when building new features and tools. But who has a say in what gets built, and who it serves? How is success being measured? The process of figuring out how and what to build is not always straightforward, and there’s value in bringing together people with different expertise and skills to guide decision-making. If you’re a news editor, begin to learn about the methods and language of your product colleagues by sitting in on a product team meeting. If you manage a product team, look for opportunities to bring newsroom voices into your development process.
Normalize not knowing everything
Working with people from many disciplines (i.e. ‘cross-functional’) can feel a bit like traveling in a place where you understand the basic language but the dialect is strong. You may encounter terms specific to a discipline, an organization or a project. These allow for streamlined communication within a team, but only if everyone involved understands the lingo. Whether a technologist joins a newsroom, or an editor joins a product team, someone will inevitably be unfamiliar with shorthand. Don’t hesitate to ask for definitions if you need them. If you’re leading meetings, take steps to make not knowing a normal part of the process by inviting people to request explanations without shame.
Combine editorial judgment with audience awareness
Although decision-making in many newsrooms includes more awareness of the audience than it did even five years ago, an editor’s judgment about what counts as news and how it should be presented is still the primary factor in the publishing process. Product teams are concerned with solving problems for people, and whether those people are internal colleagues or external news audiences, they look at data about audience habits and needs (i.e. ‘user-experience research’) to inform their decisions. Together, a consistent editorial voice and audience insight can help newsroom leaders make better product decisions.
Mind the rhythms of work
Product teams schedule work in relatively neat divisions of time, e.g. quarters of the year, two-week sprints (i.e. ‘sprint’). Most newsrooms, however, are beholden to a constant stream of planned and unplanned events known as “the news cycle.” To generalize: breaking stories will always be the key concern of a news editor, while delivering software on a promised date will be the main interest of a product leader. Be mindful of these differences and offer mutual respect for the demands of teammates working at different cadences.
TERMS
Definitions for product terms referenced in this guide are sourced from NPA’s crowd-sourced product glossary
Product
A tangible solution to a real world problem that gives people value. It can be technical, like an app, system, or tool, or it can sit at the intersection of needs and goals that advance a business strategy, like membership.
User experience, UX
What it’s like for a person to interact with a product or feature based on its design, function, and usability.
Stakeholder
The people with interest in or who may be affected by a product’s outcome. Stakeholders may be internal and cross-departmental (e.g. editorial, marketing, development, etc.), and external (e.g. product audience/user base).
RELATED READINGS
Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2022 - Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Solution Set Newsletter - The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sasha Koren
Sasha Koren is an editor focused on digital innovation, with strong interests in story formats, community engagement and collaborative teamwork. Most recently she has consulted with the newsroom product team at The New York Times and was project lead for the News Provenance Project, a research project into how labels on news photos might help prevent misinformation. Earlier, she was the editor and co-lead of the Guardian US Mobile Innovation Lab, dedicated to experiments in mobile-specific storytelling. Prior to the Guardian, spent 16 years as a senior editor at The New York Times, where she built and led the newsroom’s first social media team and expanded its comment desk. She started her career as a copyeditor and arts writer, and as an early staff member of NYTimes.com.
Puedes leer la guía traducida y adaptada al español por nuestros aliados de SembraMedia aquí: Comprender el papel de Producto en las organizaciones de noticias
Você pode ler o guia traduzido e adaptado para português por nossos aliados da AJOR aqui: Entendendo o papel do produto em organizações de notícias: Uma visão geral das funções e responsabilidades da redação e como o produto se encaixa neste ambiente
Puoi leggere questa guida tradotta e adattata in italiano dalla nostra associata Clara Attene: Comprendere il ruolo del product management nelle organizzazioni giornalistiche