Activity Details (ID# 7553)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the workshop was to give newsroom managers an insight in the actual way of managing a newsroom: building an editorial policy, competing with private TV-channels, dealing with protocol events or with breaking news, strengthening teamwork and news coverage. The content was therefore especially aimed at TV chief editors, editors and producers.

The workshop was organized on two levels: each morning involved the newscast comparison and discussion (with a strong emphasis on the competitive element, with daily comparisons of the previous night’s TRM newscasts and those of the main competitor) followed by a selected topic presented in EBU International Training’s standard method (examples/practical exercises/10 rules). The afternoon was dedicated to daily observation, coaching, and interaction with the newsroom managers as they went about their jobs putting the news together. Trainers observed the process of the news being assembled in the newsroom and editing suites, to its final production in the studio. Shorter daily visits were also made to the TRM radio studios with the same general approach.
 

- The context for the workshop “Newsroom management” in Chisinau was very specific: TRM is just in the middle of quite a dramatic change from being a state-run company to becoming a public broadcaster. This means that public television will no longer be the government’s voice and property, but has to become an independent company funded by public money and aimed at a general audience. This also means that the company’s staff has to be drastically reduced. Our trainees were very well aware of this process.

- The workshop was executed as planned, including the final presentation to TRM management. The objectives of the training have been met, as they had been well defined, and the various workshops carefully prepared. They proved to be well-adapted to the main needs of our audience; the right people attended the session, and they obviously appreciated not only the content but also the way it was delivered.

- TRM’s management structure made achieving the workshop’s goals somewhat problematic. People attending the workshop were not “managers” in the generally accepted sense of the word. Even the senior editors who attended each day did not have true decision-making power over the final form of the newscast. The senior managers from both radio and TV do not have any real freedom in the execution of their daily duties : they are part of an old post-Soviet structure obviously driven by the ruling party. Even if the structure is changing, mentalities (except those of the very young) are still very “old-fashioned”. In other words, it would be naive to think that such a training session could bring these people to change their habits dramatically. The workshop will, however, certainly help to build a new generation of journalists in Moldova.

- Finally, the programme was heavily weighted towards television (especially the very popular and interesting TV newscast comparisons) which did not fully address the needs of the radio people present (a third of the group). However, it should be mentioned that radio people told the trainers that the techniques and methods introduced were useful to them in a general way, but that they would have preferred more radio-specific material
 

Trainers noticed a real interest and willingness for learning from both the reporters and editors. They were more interested in practically-orientated lectures (such as visual story-telling, for example) than in an intellectual approach to more abstract issues (i.e. what is the identity of a TV-channel). However trainees reacted well and participated in all debates.

Senior managers were less active and this is directly linked to their lack of real decision-making freedom. They were all very well aware of this and of the limits, defects and flaws of the structure they are working for. These senior managers expressed no hope for, or were at least very sceptical of, the possibility of change.

The main interest for the entire group was heightened by the daily comparison of their own newscast and the one of their main competitor “Pro-TV Chisinau”. This created a lot of opportunities for both trainers for wider debates on the concrete implementation in a newsroom of general values like the freedom of press or the “general interest” of an audience.
 

Editors, editors-in-chief and journalists from Television Radio Moldova