The newsroom, the unknown entity

In this blogpost you’ll learn the whole truth about Newsrooms, you definitely don’t want to miss this.

This is what a normal day looks like for many communication workers: Meetings alternate with creative phases, beloved tasks with unloved ones and often the day is shorter than the task. I also often see marketers and communicators arguing about who has sovereignty over social media channels. Each team has “its” topics, its target groups, goals and kpi´s, which “of course” cannot be compared with each other.

What they have in common is that they use the same channels, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, WhatsApp or YouTube, have lots of followers and want to be at the top of searches or trends. This is more than honourable and it is the award-winning work of tens of thousands of people in companies in Germany.

I’m the biggest fan of good communication, of a clear corporate identity, I love well-crafted brands and I’ve been having fun and appreciation with writing and speaking since I was 16 when I reported on (and I’m not kidding) rabbit breeders club evenings at the Badische Zeitung in the Black Forrest in the deep south of Germany.

Transformation begins with communication

In the meantime, however, I am deeply convinced that we do companies a great service when communication is no longer organized vertically, but horizontally. This leads to topic-centered work, or in short: The topic is the boss. And the task of the Newsroom is to establish the connection between the topic and the target groups.

The newsroom decides which channel to use, i.e. whether a video, podcast, email or whitepaper, a graphic or image, a speech or press release is appropriate. Which channel leads to which target group is decided by the experts of the channels. Companies benefit from having experts for LinkedIn, Instagram, youtube, TikTok, podcast or blogging in their ranks. Whoever masters the channel can implement any topic in it.

Today, it is often the other way around: There are experts for topics, for employer brand, products or financial figures. And the experts consider – separately of course – how “their” topic can best be sold to their target group in the mentioned channels.

The newsroom, which I also like to call the brand hub, has the topics as a starting point. Marketers, corporate communications, employer branding or HR marketing, in any case all those who appear for the company internally and externally, throw their topics on the table. They discuss which topic fits which target group, where the topic is best found by the target group. Then the topics are given to the experts of the channels.

Easy is hard

What sounds easy in terms of results takes two things: time and the strength to let go. The brand hub or newsroom doesn’t happen overnight. The technology is probably the least of the problems, because digital interfaces and tools are available on the market. In many cases, the qualifications of the people who work in them also fit the bill. It is the settling into the new role, the acceptance of each other, the unconditional will to want to be successful for the company.

Think about this: The semi-finals of the Champions League are usually made up of the four best teams, led by the best coaches. Football teams today have a number of specialist coaches and no player is left to decide their own tactics, style of play or defensive approach, no matter how good they are. Anyone who wants to be part of a successful team has to pay more attention to what others are doing than implementing their own thinking.
Ultimately, that’s the secret to a successful newsroom: listen more to others, share content, and profit from the better idea.

You want more? We look forward to your call!

Hartmut Mueller-Gerbes, 25.11.2021