‘Editors expected not only to manage existing operations, but to be entrepreneurs’

Time was when the typical editor’s job was pretty straightforward, even predictable. He [and, in the main, it was ‘he’] needed to make sure that, when the presses rolled at a pre-determined time every day, the newsroom had produced enough pre-planned stories of reasonable quality and variety on pre-determined themes to fill the preset space between the advertising.

On rare occasions the news-making machine would be temporarily disrupted by an unexpected event of some magnitude. Then, the spine-tingling cry would go out from the editor: ‘Hold the front page!’ All too soon, though, the normal ebb and flow would resume like clockwork.
That’s changing. Mainstream media managers are expected not only to be custodians of existing operations and to satisfy existing (often shrinking) audiences, but many are also expected to investigate new opportunities to reach new users using new formats on new platforms. Increasingly, editors are expected to be entrepreneurs.

It’s that new challenge which will be the focus of the 6th Journalism Leaders Forum panel discussion on May 15th. Entitled, ‘Editor as Entrepreneur: Lessons from the Digital Front’, the panel discussion will be chaired by journalist-turned-tech-whizz Bob Eggington, who’s many new media projects have including helping establish BBC News Online.

The Forum, which forms part of the schedule for the Spring block of the Journalism Leaders Programme, is free and open to the public. Preceeded by a networking reception at 5:15pm in the Greenbank Building Foyer, the panel discussion will start at 6pm in Greenbank Lecture Theatre and will be webcast live.

RSVP to leaders[at]ukjournalism.org .