These are the last few days of quiet. A student media office is a creepy place when no students are around. The fun of this job is the energy level found in a newsroom full of motivated students. This week, though, I need the quiet as I plan for our newsroom training week.

We’ll pack a whole lot of information into next week – how-to sessions in all departments and, in particular, legal and ethical issues our students will need to understand. We’ve found that before classes start is the only time we have their undivided attention.

Here’s the hard lesson about training, though: Its ultimate success does not depend on my teaching skills, or those of Maria, our business adviser. We’ve taught the same material to different staffs over the years with widely varying results.

My teaching, enthusiasm and overall credibility as adviser all play some role with the whole staff. But what matters more is helping to shape the attitudes of the top editors. The staff takes its cues from them – not me – on just about every issue: the level of professionalism in their journalism and general office atmosphere … the spirit of fun that either pervades this place or doesn’t … the focus or lack of focus on tangible goals … and the amount of grumbling about low pay. 

Which is why we spend the first couple of training days with just the managers and editors. Sure, we go over newsroom basics. But it’s more about setting a tone. What we’re really doing is formally putting the Northern Star into their hands. The year’s success level rests with them. We can give them tools and support, but the ship is theirs.

Early in my career as an adviser, that was one of the toughest adjustments. I spent 10 years as a daily newspaper reporter and editor. Everything about those jobs was hands-on. The quality of each day’s paper depended a lot on me. Whereas, an adviser’s role is – to quote an old article by Ron Johnson – “train ’em and trust ’em.”

In that order. That’s why next week is so important.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Advising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.