Category: Media & technology

Working in digital news in 2023 feels a lot like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Constant changes and shifts raise a lot of strategic and operational questions regarding change management, workflows, tech…

The key is to understand change management is never fully done. Everything keeps changing all the time, it can’t be stopped. And humans are actually not naturally inclined to constant transformation and disruption. New challenges, like the popularization of generative artificial intelligence or an increasingly changing social media landscape, generate stress, discomfort and tons of uncertainty. 

Those who are excited about riding the wave of change are actually the weirdos, not the norm, most people, and particularly the stakeholders in news organizations making the key decisions, usually belong to the norm, the old guard, who feels threatened and exhausted by change. 

How do you get them on board? The modernization of a traditional work culture, in news and any other business, often only happens in a context of urgency, like after an acquisition or drastic layoffs.

Continue reading “Transforming the future of news”

My landing in a product management role in 2022 was quite fortuitous. Did you search for “product manager” on YouTube? The videos from the channel Exponent prepare you well for a job interview, but mostly for ‘big tech’ organizations, like Meta, Microsoft or Amazon.

My only previous encounters with product managers were in the context of working in music labels and, with an editorial background, I was initially hesitant to consider news a ‘product’. 

But, first of all, what is a ‘product’? 

The founder of the News Product Alliance, Becca Aaronson, defines a product as “a good or service that creates an exchange of value”

Anita Zielina, the lead instructor in the Transformation Boost course I attended, defined product as “a function at the intersection of editorial, tech and business, that addresses user needs, provides excellent user experience and advances the overarching business strategy.”

When I’m asked about my most recent work experience in the multiple job interviews I have been doing recently, I usually use the definition that product management is “a bridge role that connects the audience, business and technology, with users in the centre.” 

Specific to news products and product management applied to journalism, product managers look at all aspects involved in the experience of producing and consuming news content.

Continue reading “News as a product”

The main ideas in this article were processed by ChatGPT based on my notes from the course at Craig Newmark J-School in New York. The first draft of the article has been later revised by a human (It’s me, hi!), adding a personal tone and voice, and ideas that the original version left out.

And links. I’ve added so many links for additional context.

More than out of laziness, this exercise is done to show that artificial intelligence (AI) is getting extremely good at delivering decent and presentable work, but there’s still a need for edits from a human that adds some sugar and spice, to differentiate the final product from the vast amount of bland content out there, making it somewhat unique.

When AI took off as a buzzword, like the metaverse or blockchain before, I was on the fence, initially. When the AI-generated ‘magic avatars’ flooded your feed I voiced my concerns very loudly over what that meant for artists’ work and who was profiting from unreferenced work.

Seven months later, out of cynicism or simply survival instinct, I’m trying to embrace this change. AI is here to completely challenge all jobs that involve creative work or data processing, and we better cautiously adapt. 

There is a clear need to legislate it, make sure there’s transparency on the datasets used and that original creative work is fairly recognized and compensated, but also an urge to welcome this inevitable shift.

Continue reading “AI for news, as written by ChatGPT”

As a journalist and digital media professional with expertise in social media management that wants to apply my skills in news organizations, these are difficult times to find a job.

Canada, where I lived and worked for more than four years now, is a cautionary tale for news organizations around the world on what can happen when most of your traffic relies on third-party social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, and is suddenly gone.

There was a time when Twitter was a reliable source for journalists to find and share information.

Facebook (and Instagram) were also a good place to find breaking news between pictures of your exes and invitations to that school reunion you didn’t want to attend. Facebook (now Meta) was investing in journalism, particularly local news, with their Journalism Project.

That ‘golden era’ for news content on social media was long gone before Elon Musk bought Twitter and Zuckerberg turned to vertical short video to compete with TikTok, but recent events have accelerated this shift.

Continue reading “Social media for news is dead”