Don’t Just Mourn the McClatchy Layoffs. Recruit the Talent

I spend a lot of time talking with independent publishers about hiring. Usually, the conversation starts with what they can’t offer.

They can’t match the salaries of larger news organizations. They can’t always offer fancy offices or big benefits packages. And they certainly can’t promise the stability that once came with a job at a major newspaper.

But these days, I’m not sure anybody can promise that last one.

Journalists are being laid off across the industry. Recently, McClatchy laid off more than 90 unionized media workers across 17 publications, with some newsrooms losing a significant share of their staff. Talented reporters, editors, audience specialists, fundraisers and product people are suddenly looking for their next opportunity. Independent publishers should be paying attention.

Because this is a recruiting opportunity.

We’re already seeing talent move in interesting directions.

The Georgia Trust for Local News recently recruited Donnell Suggs, who had spent four years as editor-in-chief of The Atlanta Voice, to become editor and publisher of The Courier Herald in Dublin, Georgia.

But talent isn’t only flowing toward larger organizations.

With support from The Pivot Fund, The Kansas City Defender brought two experienced leaders from The Beacon onto its team: Mili Mansaray, formerly a housing and labor reporter, to help lead its editorial work, and Khadijah Bland, formerly The Beacon’s director of major gifts, to lead development and revenue. Bland was recently named Emerging Leader of the Year by the Institute for Nonprofit News, recognizing her leadership in strengthening the Defender’s revenue and development work.

That should tell independent publishers something.

You have something to sell, too.

You can offer journalists the chance to do work that matters to a specific community and actually see its impact. You can offer them access to the founder and a real voice in shaping the organization. You can give talented people room to experiment instead of asking permission from six layers of management.

And perhaps most importantly, you can offer ownership of the work.

A reporter at a large newsroom may be one person on a sprawling staff. At a growing hyperlocal newsroom, that same person might build a beat, launch a newsletter, develop an investigative project, experiment with video or help rethink how the newsroom engages its community.

That can be incredibly attractive—especially to people who have spent years inside institutions where their ideas couldn’t get past the conference room.

But here’s the catch: mission is not compensation.

Don’t expect talented people to work for substantially less simply because your organization serves a worthy community. Pay as competitively as you can. Be transparent about salary. Offer flexibility. Invest in professional development. Create opportunities for people to lead. And don’t build jobs that require one person to do the work of three.

Then recruit aggressively.

Don’t just post a job and wait. Look at who’s been laid off. Look at journalists whose work you admire. Look beyond reporters: development professionals, audience strategists, designers, product people and business-side talent are also moving around the industry.

Call them.

You may discover that the thing they want most isn’t another big newsroom.

It might be the opportunity to help build something.

Tracie Powell is the CEO of The Pivot Fund.