Veteran editor’s advice:
Immediacy essential in
managing inevitable change

By Rachel Weiss
Bulletin Correspondent

Robert Unger has seen his fair share of change in his years in newspapers. He has been editor of a newspaper that folded, helped save another from going under, and is helping his current paper make the transition from a free Web site to a paid one.

His lesson through it all?

“You adapt or die.”

Unger, editor of The Standard-Times of New Bedford, spoke about managing change to 15 editors and publishers at the New England Newspaper and Press Association Convention Friday, Feb. 5, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

“Change is constant — it’s inevitable,” Unger said. “It is our jobs as managers to give people the tools they need to change.”

Unger witnessed the ramifications of change during his time as editor at the Holyoke (Mass.) Transcript-Telegram.

“The market of the paper was changing, and we were afraid to take the necessary steps in order to save the franchise,” Unger said.

The Transcript-Telegram did not provide enough local coverage in a market that changed from 20 percent Spanish-speaking to 40 percent, Unger said.

Soon after the Transcript-Telegram went under, Unger joined the Jacksonville (Ill.) Journal- Courier, which was on the verge of collapse.

“It was one of the worst papers. It was all wire news and there was no local coverage,” Unger said. “People would hunt, and haul their dead deer down to the paper in order to have its picture taken and put on the front page.”

To rescue the paper, Unger fired some people who had been there for more than 30 years and retrained the remaining staff.

“We realized we needed to do something,” Unger said. “The police reporter doubled as the coroner. It was a very strange place.”

“When you do not have a lot of time, consensus is not the way to go,” Unger said. “It was important to instill confidence and move quickly.”

As the newspaper turned around, Unger realized that it was time to delegate more authority. The staff wasn’t resistant to change, he said — he just needed to show them how.

In his current position as editor at the Standard-Times, Unger helped the paper navigate an ownership change when Rupert Murdoch’s multinational News Corp., based in New York City, bought Dow Jones, the newspaper’s parent company. Unger said he helped the staff maintain “emotional security” during the transition.

Unger also said he worked with reporters to deal with new multimedia responsibilities. Reporters who have been in the business for decades are now shooting video, tweeting, using Facebook, and blogging.

“They are a little overwhelmed. It is our job as managers to take the boogeyman out of these things,” Unger said.

Unger’s latest challenge has been guiding the Standard-Times through a transition to a paid Web site, a hot topic in the industry today. Under the Standard-Times’ new paid model, adopted Jan. 12, readers get three stories a month free and another seven with free registration. After 10 stories, reader must pay. A subscription for both online access and delivery of a printed newspaper costs 39 cents more a week than a print-only subscription. It costs 20 cents more a week for just an online subscription than it does for a print subscription.

Readers offered some resistance to the change, with a few telephoning and e-mailing the paper to voice complaints about having to pay for online news that had been free, Unger said.

“We had to keep telling people the free ride is over. It was a profound change for staff and customers,” Unger said.

Staff members are now required to post more content online, at a faster pace. The new system has renewed a sense of immediacy that newspapers had lost, he said.

Being open with both staff and customers has been essential in making the transition, he said. Unger said he shares all of the newspaper’s financial information with employees, and gave readers notice that a pay wall was coming.

“Some papers are not informing their customers about charging more for online publication and are just doing it. We are informing our customers and giving them the option to opt out of paying for online by just keeping their regular print subscription,” Unger said. “Our customers are not pissed.”

In the current environment, the pressure on newspaper managers is intense, he said.

“We are at an enormously difficult time,” Unger said. “I function with a level of anxiety that is unfamiliar to me. For three years now there has been a new challenge every month that never ceases.

“How I manage myself is important. How we as leaders manage our own stress is very important,” he said.

Unger said newspaper staffs can adapt to a rapidly changing industry under the proper guidance.

“They are not unwilling,” he said. “They are just scared.”

Rachel Weiss is an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.

POSTED 2/16/10

'When you do not have a lot of time, consensus is not the way to go.'

-- Robert Unger