Core competencies of a successful CvD in the newsroom
Editor-in-chief in the newsroom: strategist, presenter, and topics
Decision maker
Ideally, an editor-in-chief is involved in strategic management rather than the operational development of content. As Prof. Dr. Christoph Moss's corporate newsroom model understands a newsroom, people come together there, albeit not in a physical space, to topics . Many people have many opinions—that's why a decision-maker is needed.
"This mandate and the fact that someone ultimately decides what happens is, for me, one of the most important elements in a newsroom," says Michael Schmitz, Head Partner & Solutions at Scompler, summarizing what constitutes the core of the editor-in-chief role. "The term contains the word 'chief'. Someone has to make the decisions, and this term describes both the attitude and the mandate," says Schmitz. However, this role as a decision-maker should not be confused with the tasks of an "editor for everyone," emphasizes Christian Wobig, Senior Consultant at Mediamoss Newsroom. Instead, an editor-in-chief should set strategic guidelines, have a topics understanding of channels and topics , help out in an emergency, but ideally assign expertise to the roles in the newsroom and entrust them with operational activities.
"It's about the role. What we call it in the end is secondary. Certain tasks arise in every newsroom - strategy, management, coordination of resources. [...] This requires someone with an overarching view of all areas of communication. At an operational level, our topic leads at AOK Plus have part of the CvD role."
— Anja Stein, Head of Contentroom at AOK Plus
Strategist
At AOK Plus, the CvD also has a steering and overarching role that helps shape the strategy. "We have a big focus on our communication strategy because we are not driven by a news approach, but rather by achieving a long-term impact, playing on narratives and checking whether we are coherent in all perspectives and contributing to the same goal," explains Anja Stein. Ensuring that the company speaks with one voice is very much part of the CvD's role, she reports.
This includes prioritizing topics, allocating resources, but also identifying suitable target groups and assessing the impact of communication measures. The role of the editor-in-chief is therefore very dialogue-oriented, says Christian Wobig, senior consultant at Mediamoss Newsroom. An editor-in-chief must be able to understand how strategic planning and broad objectives translate into individual articles. As an integral part of the strategy team or editorial management, an editor-in-chief therefore acts as an interface between strategy and operationalization, enabling management and external and internal stakeholders to understand the communication strategy and view communication as value creation.
To do this, an editor-in-chief must also be able to analyze data and monitor communications in order to evaluate and adapt the content strategy, Stein emphasizes. An editor-in-chief can then apply these insights to strategic topic planning, one of their core tasks: topics in advance and maintaining the strategic focus from the outside.
"The CvD should definitely be part of a strategy team, because they have to represent the strategy in operations. [...] That's why the role is also integrative. It sorts the experience with and feedback on our communication measures and reflects this back to the top in a dialog."
— Christian Wobig, Senior Consultant at Mediamoss Newsroom
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Roundtable: Newsroom without CvD? Forget it!
Watch the session as a recording
Moderator
An editor-in-chief must know and understand the communication disciplines, topics channels and, ideally, be able to apply them themselves when necessary. An editor-in-chief brings topics the daily editorial routine and assigns them to the right employees. Johann Schlickinski, editor-in-chief at SWR Sport, therefore often sees himself as a kind of moderator or integrator. "I have to think about who can topic a topic and have to talk to those people, even if it costs me time and energy personally."
These soft skills are all the more important when corporate communications and marketing work together in a shared newsroom. This is because traditional marketing often still works according to different goals and KPIs than the press or communications department. An editor-in-chief must therefore also polish the dialectic in the newsroom, topics a common understanding of topics and moderating the needs of the various communications disciplines.
"Marketing may understand a particular campaign in a completely different way than a communicator," says Schmitz. This requires a change in mindset, as well as the ability of the editor-in-chief to integrate and differentiate, to set boundaries and topics if they are not part of the overall strategy.
topics and channel experts
In order to give appropriate briefings and ultimately make decisions, knowledge of the key topics channels is a prerequisite for a successful editor-in-chief role. However, how detailed this knowledge needs to be depends on the expertise of topics and channel managers in the rest of the newsroom, says Christian Wobig, senior consultant at Mediamoss Newsroom. "As an editor-in-chief, I have to be able to trust that people can perform their roles well," Anja Stein also emphasizes. According to Wobig, if an editor-in-chief entrusts the operational development to experienced topics and channel managers in the newsroom, they can focus on the strategic positioning of topics channels.
According to the fundamental understanding of the role, an editor-in-chief no longer produces content themselves, but instead briefs and supervises the development process. In Schmitz's experience, the better the topics are planned in advance topics newsroom, the less likely it is that editors-in-chief will find themselves in a situation where they have to produce content themselves.
If too many topics have to be dealt with topics and also by the editor-in-chief, this is evidence of a lack of strategic planning in advance. In crisis mode, however, the situation is different and the editor-in-chief is closely involved as a direct contact person, adds Stein from the AOK Plus content room. This is because corporate crises often arise unexpectedly, for various reasons and with varying degrees of serious consequences.
"If an editor-in-chief is to moderate, they must have a fundamental understanding of both the topic the channel."
Michael Schmitz Head of Partner & Solutions at Scompler
The role of the CvD can vary: depending on the organization, it can be filled by one or more people and can be titled "boss," "manager," or "topic lead." What distinguishes the role, however, is the constant reference to the strategic guidelines of one's own communication work – maintaining an outside perspective, contributing to a common dialectic, trusting the topics and channel managers, and ensuring that everyone in the team shares a common vision in their communication work.
