Putting It All Together

You’ve joined us on this journey toward operational readiness because you understand that shoring up internal systems and structures keeps a news business running smoothly, strategically and successfully. 

You’ve worked through the handbook, you’ve put some important pieces in place and have made strong progress in key areas. And even if you haven’t checked every single box, ideally you’ve made plans to get these things done with your existing team, or in stages as you add capacity. 

Now, it’s time to bring it all together. 

This module is intended to give a succinct overview of what we’ve covered, put all the pieces back in context and share ideas for potential next steps. 

Setting and tracking goals

What we covered

The first step on the road to success is defining what it means for your news business. The second is measuring progress and holding yourself accountable.

What to do

• Set and track operational capacity KPIS to understand whether your team can do what it wants to do, and what it would take to do it
• Set and track financial KPIs to ensure you’re living within your business’ means and know what you need to grow, and in what areas
• Set and track audience KPIs to learn who and how many people are engaging with your journalism, and how that intersects with your revenue-generating efforts

Why it’s important

• You need something to work toward, for both directional and motivational purposes
• It helps you create baselines, understand your business and make plans
• It touches all parts of your business and helps you see the relationships between the pieces

Managing risk and money

What we covered

With growth comes uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes risk, especially when cash-flow and revenue are unstable. The key is learning how to manage both risk and money so you can more confidently plan for the future. 

What to do

• Create, file and make accessible foundational business documents and policies to ensure you’re both compliant and transparent
• Build a budget that includes projections and assumptions so you have a nuanced understanding of your revenue and expenses 
• Assemble key financial documents that are both legally required and in keeping with best financial practices

Why it’s important

• It helps you manage the inevitable — yet predictable — risks that come with running a news business
• It helps you plan with confidence and avoid haphazard decision-making or analysis paralysis

Building and retaining a team

What we covered

Whether you’re a solopreneur or are managing a big team, the relationships you build with the people helping you get the work done are absolutely crucial to the success of your organization. 

What to do

• Create thoughtful job scorecards, job descriptions and promotion plans to ensure you’re clear about what a new role entails and can strong candidates
• Develop a clear and equitable hiring process to ensure you’re zeroing in on a mutual fit 

Why it’s important 

Being intentional about hiring means you’re more likely to create the right role and hire the right person into it.

Onboarding and retaining a new hire

What we covered

A thoughtful onboarding process goes a long way toward making a new hire feel welcome and confident in their new role and their place within the organization.

What to do

• Create key employee processes and policies to clarify how your business operates and what is expected of employees
• Have a structured onboarding process to set new hires up for success 
• Create RACI charts to articulate who is doing what work
• Set up strong feedback and evaluation processes to support and retain employees

Why it’s important  

Structural support — not just personal support — is key to hiring, onboarding and retaining employees.

Launching/growing a revenue stream

What we covered

Before you grow a revenue stream, it’s important to have the systems, processes and resources in place to set the venture up for success — and to support the person/people doing the work. 

What to do (regardless of the revenue stream)

• Create a targeted list of businesses/donors/audiences you want to reach so you know where to focus your efforts and why
• Make a plan for exactly what you need to do and what it takes to do it
• Gain a data-informed sense of your pipeline/funnel so you can map the journey that businesses/donors/audiences must take to invest in your news business
• Build a system for tracking and documenting business/donor/audience engagement, cultivation and communication to be informed and prepared for those interactions
• Create outward-facing assets that tell a strong, focused story about why investing in your news business is a great idea

Why it’s important  

Creating structure around building and maintaining relationships with those that support your work leads to more — and more durable — revenue generation.

Organizing your operational readiness work

Laying a strong operational foundation starts by taking the time to think things through, but it’s critical that the work doesn’t stop there. Operational readiness can only truly occur when that information is easily accessible and consistently applied. After all, a foundation that you can’t actually build upon is just a parking lot.

As you start compiling your operational resilience plan, consider these important points:

• It needs to live outside the founder/leader’s head. It’s natural to not feel compelled to document information or create policies when you’re a solopreneur or leading a very small team. But as your business grows and becomes more complex, your systems and processes must grow with it. Otherwise, you’ll lose time, money and bandwidth conveying everything in pieces, and by hand. Also (important!) you’ll never be able to take a vacation or pass the reins to someone else.

• It needs to be easily accessible and intuitively organized. We’ve all had the experience of creating an important document and promptly losing it in a sea of files and folders, or spending way too long looking for information that you knew you had encountered somewhere at some point. Operational resilience work is intended to make running a news business more efficient and effective, so make sure that all your thoughtfully developed plans are easy to find and follow.  

• It needs to be a living document/system that is continually revised and updated. Like the news and the news industry, news businesses are constantly changing, and your operational work needs to reflect that. Take the time to regularly update your documents, systems and policies and ensure that you’re creating new ones and jettisoning outdated ones as the need arises. Two examples of what this could look like: 
  • A Google Drive, Dropbox or other file sharing system with excellent, intuitive file management 
  • An easy-to-update internal website with simple navigation and downloadable documents. Here’s a great example.

A Parting Thought

A final word on operational resilience: There are levels to this game, and you can take it to the next one by creating a strategic plan and/or an operating plan. A strategic plan outlines your news business’ high-level goals for the next 3-5 years and how you plan to measure and achieve them. An operational plan is a shorter-term document that lays out in detail exactly how things are going to get done, by when and by whom. But plans are only as good as their execution, so make sure that taking this approach is something you’re willing to invest in, and is an investment you feel will pay off. 

At the end of the day, operational resilience means being ready for the opportunities, hurdles and changes that will inevitably arise for your news business. You may not be able to predict them, but you can prepare for them.