Media Helping Media

In the last module, 'Forward planning', we looked at the importance of looking ahead and organising resources in order to ensure a steady flow of high-quality, focussed output. This module, 'Issue-led journalism' goes a step further and looks at what the forward planning editor needs to do in order in order to deliver this.

Because the forward planning editor will be in control of and the guardian of your news brand’s main editorial thrust (don’t forget, we are aiming to look to this person for around 75% of the daily output), they need to be in tune with the news organisation’s core editorial proposition.

This will have been discussed and agreed at a much higher level. (See module on creating a content strategy). The forward planning editor will be one of the most important people charged with enforcing this. However they will need to enlist the senior news brains in the organisations in defining how that core editorial proposition plays out through issue-led journalism.

The process is simple.

Gather the senior editorial team together and decide among you what are the key issues concerning your audience. You will probably find it boils down to jobs, housing, health, education, law and order and environment. Once agreed, these form the key issues for your issue-led journalism strategy. (The issues might be vary, but not much. I have carried out this exercise on five continents and the results are broadly the same).

So we have six issues…

• Jobs (finance and the economy)
• Housing
• Health
• Education
• Crime (law and order)
• Environment.

Note that politics and corruption are not listed as key issues, despite being suggested as such almost every time I have carried out this exercise. This is because politics and corruption can impact all the areas mentioned above and are common to all, rather than issues or topics in their own right.

Now we need to break down each issue into topics, preferably six topics on each.  Take health, for example. Depending on the area and the priorities, typical topics might be HIV, TB, cancer, malaria, malnutrition, heart disease. Regional differences weigh heavy here and the topics are less easy to predict.

Do the same exercise with your senior editorial team until you have six topics for each of the six key issues.

Now we need to break it down one step further.

We need to dig deep for the stories about these topics that help people understand the issues and encourage the authorities to address the audience’s concerns. We need real stories about real people on each topic. Ideally four stories for each.

This is not as hard as it sounds. You’ll be surprised, or perhaps not, at how many stories your team are aware of and can tap into. Take HIV, for example. There might be a story about stigma, one about exclusion, another about the lack of available drugs, another about fake drugs.

By the end of this exercise you should have at least four stories on each topic.

That means you will have 144 original stories --- three for every week of the year. And these are not one-off stories.

These are part of your editorial strategy to provide issue-led journalism that informs the public debate so that your audience can make educated choices.

This is responsible journalism. And it is clever journalism, too, because, if you audience feels you are covering the issues that matter most to them, they are more likely to stick with you.

So, you now have 144 original stories which are not one-offs. They are stories you will return to once every three months to check the status and see what has happened.

You might want to ask politicians about what they are going to do about the issues and topics and then, three months later, find out what they did.

Now the fun starts. You will soon start to set the news agenda (rather than having it set for you, as before).

Your competition will be forced to follow up on the stories you have discovered. By the time they do, you will be breaking a new story. And on it goes.

Once you have decided to deliver issue-led journalism there will be no stopping you. You will be the agenda-setters.

Next module: Creating a content strategy

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