ONA Weekly #393: Your Best Tips For A Job Handover; New Board Members Start Their Term

Your best tips for a job handover

With so much job-related “personal news” on the feeds, we have been curious to know what’s happening behind the scenes as people prepare for their last day. Former ONA board member Celeste LeCompte will soon transition from the role of Vice President of Strategy & Operations at ProPublica to Chief Audience Officer at Chicago Public Media. Celeste recently asked: “What’s one thing [you wish] your predecessor had done for you when you started a new job — or something that someone did that you really appreciated?”

Advice and ideas shared so far include: 

• Make personal introductions to allies and other close collaborators (Jennifer Kho)
• Share notes on who has the informal power in the organization (Anita Zielina)
• Consider offering a 1:1 meeting with the new hire to answer questions after they have been on the job for a few months (Maria Dautruche)
• Connect like-minded people in a Slack channel, or similar, to encourage more collaboration, more quickly (Dana Lacey)
• Outline specific tasks for the first two weeks on the job, including recommended background reading and intro meetings to schedule (Bridget Thoreson)
• Provide a list of frequently used acronyms and the best two contacts who can help with simple questions in the beginning (Tamer Morsy)
• If you have direct reports, write a brief summary of who they are, what they do and their goals (Mandy Jenkins)

We’d love to hear more. Reply to this email if you have a tip, story, template or other favorite resource for navigating team transitions. If you are looking to make a move yourself, use the ONA Career Center to land your next opportunity.

Three journalism leaders start their term on the ONA Board

Angela Pacienza, Executive Editor at The Globe and Mail; Elana Zak, Head of Newsletters at Politico; and Graham Watson-Ringo, Senior Director of Member Strategy at News Revenue Hub, officially started their service on ONA’s Board of Directors on Jan. 1. They will join other board members and ONA staff next week as we convene virtually for the first board meeting of 2022. We look forward to their strategic guidance as we continue to grow and adapt our programs to serve the ONA community’s needs this year. Learn more about the ONA board.

Think like a product manager

There’s a strong case for product management thinking in newsrooms. Join the ONA San Diego group for an online event this Friday, Jan. 14, 3 p.m. EST (20:00 UTC) to hear why. Becca Aaronson, Co-Founder and Executive Consultant of News Product Alliance, and Cindy Royal, Professor and Director of Media Innovation Lab at Texas State University, will share insights to help you better understand what product management is and how to apply this type of thinking to your journalism work. Amy Schmitz Weiss, Professor of Journalism at San Diego State University, will moderate the conversation. Register now.

Connect with ONA’s industry partners

Dozens of technology companies, foundations, consultants and journalism organizations contribute to ONA’s mission to inspire innovation in digital journalism throughout the year. Explore our Industry Directory to discover new tools and potential partners, or learn how to get listed. 

Tip: You can search for ideas to improve analytics and audience engagement, nonprofit collaborators, learning institutions and more.

ICYMI: The Pivot Fund launches with support from ONA

ONA is developing a new model to support entrepreneurial ONA members as part of our commitment to expand the ecosystem of journalism support organizations. The pilot program starts with capacity support for The Pivot Fund, founded by longtime ONA member and Women’s Leadership Accelerator alum Tracie Powell. Learn about the fund’s mission and how we are partnering to kickstart the work.

Important dates

• Jan. 14: ONA San Diego: Product Management Thinking for the Newsroom in 2022 (virtual)
• Jan. 19: Webinar: Using Multi-Year Data to Analyze Reader Trends and Plan for 2022, presented by Chartbeat
• Feb. 3: ONA San Francisco: Telling the Impactful Story of Jessica: A Conversation with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Heather Knight and Gabrielle Lurie (virtual) New!

Career opportunities

ONA’s Career Center is an excellent resource for jobs, fellowships and internships in digital journalism. Recent postings include:

• Marketing Manager, American Press Institute
• Social Media Producer and Membership Editor, Center for Public Integrity
• Program Director, National Programs, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
• Supervising Producer, KOMU-TV (NBC), and Assistant Professional Practice Professor, University of Missouri School of Journalism
• News Enterprise Reporter, The Forward
• Senior Engagement Editor, Texas Monthly
• Senior Editor, VTDigger
• Local News Jobs In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Patch Media

On our radar

• Whetstone, the largest Black-owned food magazine in the U.S., aims to change things in food reporting, Gabe Schneider (2018 alum of ONA Student Newsroom) for Nieman Lab
• The new rules of quitting, S. Mitra Kalita for Time
• Empathy and accountability aren’t incompatible: 5 management tips, Jill Geisler for the National Press Club Journalism Institute
• Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2022, Nic Newman for Reuters Institute
• ONA Board member Anita Zielina’s Twitter thread on U.S. centrism and underserved media markets