Be the change you want to see in the world

Mark Bouris interviews Sean Aylmer, former Editorial Director at Fairfax Media. Sean oversaw the transformation of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review newsrooms from print to digital operations. In the process he reduced staff by 50 per cent but maintained audience size. At the end of last year, after the transformation, Fairfax Media won more Walkley Awards for quality journalism than any other media outlet in Australia. 

Mark: You worked at Fairfax Media for more than a decade through enormous digital transformation. How did you manage it?

Sean: At Fairfax we had to decide where we stood in the market. What was our competitive advantage? It was quality journalism. We took the decision to invest in journalism that made a difference. Because Fairfax’s newspapers and digital sites are a broad church, we still had to provide content in other areas where we didn’t have a competitive advantage. Increasingly we did that through third party content deals or outsourcing arrangements.

We had to totally rethink the newsroom. It meant significantly reducing the size of the workforce. It meant retraining staff on what to do when they got to work each morning. It meant setting new goals for each individual and teaching journalists, who previously relied on their own “news sense”, to watch audience metrics.

It involved negotiations with the journalists’ union and groups on the newsroom floor. It involved literally thousands of individual conversations. At times you had to coax and cajole management to be part of the change. And you had to continually provide the reasoning for the changes. In the end not everyone could adapt, but the majority did once they understood why they needed to change.

Some of the best ideas about how to change the newsrooms came from the journalists. They needed a forum to provide the ideas and they needed managers willing to listen. At one point we decided to outsource a whole subgroup of journalists. We challenged that subgroup to come up with a cheaper version than what we were proposing. They did because they were at the coal face and knew where the inefficiencies were. They all kept their jobs and the place was better for it.

In the end we achieved what we set out to do. The Fairfax newsrooms are half the size of a few years ago, far more efficient and putting out much more content in a plethora of forms like text, audio, video and graphics, on a range of mediums. And Fairfax undoubtedly leads the way in terms of quality journalism. At last year’s Walkley Awards, the de facto measure of quality journalism in Australia, Fairfax Media won almost as many awards as the next two best media outlets combined. It was the best result in decades.

Mark: Did you have to change the culture of the organisation to succeed?

Sean: What we had to do was not lose the best parts of the culture we already had, and shed the bad stuff. We had to keep the culture of journalists believing they were making a difference, and working tirelessly towards getting a story. We also had to get rid of practices and attitudes that were dragging us back. That wasn’t easy and it is still a work in progress. But the culture in those newsrooms are almost unidentifiable compared to two years ago.

Culture is everything, even if it’s a bit of a nebulous concept to many staff. People need to want to come to work. Or at least they need to not want to stay at home. They need to like the people they work with and believe that their views and opinions are respected. They need to understand what the business is trying to achieve and buy into that vision. Whether it’s a not-for-profit trying to change the world or a sales team trying to make as much money as possible, employees must support the goal of the business.

Working towards a common goal creates a strong culture. It must be led from the top. A good leader doesn’t necessarily impose his or her own culture, but is a cheerleader for the best parts of the culture in the business and builds on it. A good culture means people are proud of where they work.

Mark: So clearly leadership matters?

Sean: When you are transforming an organisation, leadership is the most critical factor. People need to believe not just in the CEO of the company, but also the senior management team and their line managers. Change brings enormous uncertainty and staff will have to get comfortable working in such an environment. That’s when strong leadership matters most.

Leadership is about listening and respecting people’s views and opinions, working with peers and managers and continually communicating. A leader needs a strategy, must be able to articulate it and bring staff along for the ride. The best leaders are firm on their commitment to the strategy, but not closed to the idea that the world changes. At times they make difficult decisions in the name of the strategy, but can keep staff on the ride by communicating why decisions are made.

Being a leader and bringing employees along during transformation is very, very different to being a manager. In the Fairfax media example, we identified newsroom leaders who didn’t have a title but could carry staff, and worked hard to make sure they understood and appreciated (even if they didn’t always agree) with the changes we were making. 

Mark: Did you have any difficulties with older workers not understanding where they needed to go?

Sean: As a rule, I don’t think technology is an age issue. I think all ages can adapt to technology though there’s no doubt it’s easier for my kids to understand new technology and apps than it is for me. The trick is to get the best out of both older and younger workers. Experience matters and so does youthful exuberance and knowledge. It’s important all generations feel empowered and part of the same team.

Having said that one of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from the head of a very large US media outlet who said: “Make sure you employ people who work the way they live.” In a digital world, you need staff who operate the same way at home as they do in the workplace. When we jumped into digital media at Fairfax, we realised we needed journalists who had never read a newspaper. Instead that always got their news from a screen. That way we had expertise in home pages, the mobile experience and social media.