NewsBeat

12 NewsBeat August 2016 By JEFF SONDERMAN Best practices for product management in news organizations onceptually, that is a leap for people from traditional reporting and editing roles. We are used to buying "products" in stores or online. We hear tech people describe a new app or service as a "product." And all that makes sense. But we traditionally did not think of news that way. The news you publish, in aggregate and over time, is also a product — in its various forms as a physical thing (a newspaper) or a digital service (a website or app) that you sell or distribute to a target market of consumers. And in the era of the "personal news cycle" — where abundant information and constant connectivity gives each individual control of her news consumption — our news products must be good and targeted to succeed. They must know who their users are, what they need, how they need it, and deliver a satisfying experience. That is what a product manager does. And increasingly this role, which has long been a staple of the tech world, is emerging in news organizations. Product managers are responsible for thinking about what users (your readers or viewers) need from the whole of that product; what their experience of it is like; how it could be more convenient or valuable to them. This means they are responsible for simultaneously considering the business and marketing strategy, the technological execution, and yes, the editorial direction of the news. Good product managers weave all three into a single strategy — overseeing a news product that is both an editorial success, a commercial success, and is built efficiently and functions well. The American Press Institute recently invited more than 40 product-manager types from leading news organizations for one of our Thought Leader Summits, to explore this increasingly vital role. From that day of intimate discussions we have distilled in this C white paper the best practices and insights that all news organizations can learn from. We have organized the insights into several chapters: 1. How to integrate product management in your organization 2. How to product managers should work with their bosses and colleagues 3. How to do good user testing and get feedback on products 4. How to hire effective product managers for a news organization 5. Making the leap from editorial to product thinking This white paper is intended to help several types of people: People in product management roles who want new practices and ideas; Managers trying to ensure their organization puts the right process in place to have someone managing the experience and value that users get from your news; and journalists, designers, developers, marketers, or anyone else in the organization who contributes to making content or building products and wants to play a better role in making the products successful. The ideas, and in some cases the words themselves, are drawn from the few dozen participants of our summit. We don't imply that every summit participant endorses every idea or view expressed in this white paper, but collectively they deserve credit for inspiring the wisdom it contains. Sarah Milstein took the lead on organizing the summit and recruiting the participants, as a consultant to API. She is VP of programs at O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, with a diverse background in journalism, lean startup methods, and product development. News is a product. We asked PR pros what most drives them nuts about working with reporters. Here's what they had to say: Not owning up to mistakes"Refusing to correct a clear error." — agency PR Fishing for clickbait"What really bothers me about today's journalists is the knee-jerk decisions rooted in the number of clicks a story may/may not receive. While there are understandably pressures to reach the largest audiences, this mindset forces a lot of PR people to rethink what they share with journalists. Ultimately, it's why many brands are turning to their own platforms to tell their own stories. Why risk a damaging narrative caused by a salacious headline created for the express purpose of reaching the masses?" — sports news PR Spelling errors"Spelling and grammatical flubs seem to be more and more prominent in online stories. Names and titles are most common, but we also see very simple company names messed up. And this happens no matter the reputation of the publication. What may seem like a tremendous media placement in the eyes of the PR person despite a small spelling error, can be a blight in the eyes of our clients and senior leadership. We dread sending a reporter a follow-up note pointing out a sloppy error. But we need our CEO's name spelled correctly ASAP! Our lives depend on it." — ad agency PR The agenda"When a reporter comes to you with a point of view and a story mostly written, they just want a quote to back up their agenda/ angle. The more experience you have, the easier it is to sniff these out. However, junior people get burned by this all of the time." — tech PR The last-minute call"Nothing is more frustrating than seeing 'XX did not respond to my inquiry in time for this article.' Lobbing an e- mail at 5:53 p.m. and publishing at 6 p.m. is just shady. Email, text, call, DM — I'm incredibly reachable. If you really want to reach me, you can." — media company PR The blow off"Everyone's schedules are jam packed these days so I like to try to book face-to-face meetings or at least introduce myself to target journalists over quick coffee. It's frustrating when a journalist says, 'Sure, text me and we'll set something up' and then doesn't reply to messages when you try to follow through. — digital media PR Wasting our time"What's great is when I get a senior executive to free up 30 minutes in a busy day to talk to you, on the record, a conversation which then goes 40 minutes and the result is a throwaway line or worse, no quote at all." — media company PR The mystery of the killed story"I can't stand when stories get killed and there's no reason given (or you never hear back from the reporter after the interview was conducted). As publicists we understand that these things happen, but it would be helpful to get a response so we can report back internally." — magazine PR — Reprinted from Digiday The 10 things PR people hate most about working with reporters By LUCIA MOSES

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