By Lok Bing Hong
During our recent Asian Media Leaders Summit in Singapore, media consultant Leonie Von Elverfeldt emphasised a fundamental but frequently overlooked principle for boosting innovation in the newsroom: Setting a clear vision and openly communicating it – even with external collaborators.
Far from being a mythical unicorn, she said, innovation is achievable through intentional steps and proactive engagement.
“You have to be a role model; it’s really important to see that you are the one who actually takes some risks or tries something new, and encourage others to do the same,” she said.
It’s a divergence from what might be the usual for newsrooms, she admitted, but should certainly be regular practice.
Listen to your audience
Along the same lines, engaging with the audience is essential for newsroom success, with leaders expected to have a clear understanding of their readership. Without a solid grasp of the audience’s needs and the organisation’s goals, creating meaningful content becomes a challenge, Von Elverfeldt noted.
Vietnamese newspaper Nhan Dan is perhaps one that showcases this exceptionally well. Known for its innovative projects, the paper created a user-submitted photo mosaic of the Hanoi Flag Tower to celebrate the anniversary of Hanoi’s takeover and introduced a VR-powered interactive exhibit.
Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-Chief, credited Nhan Dan’s innovative streak to its focus on bridging the gap between the paper and its audience. Recognising the need to attract younger readers, the newspaper launched initiatives like Good Morning Vietnam, which brought international artists such as Kenny G to perform in Vietnam.
Lee Hee Ai, editor of HeyKaki (Chinese Media Group, SPH Media) echoed the importance of understanding audience needs.
“If we find something interesting and creative, but the audience doesn’t resonate with it, we have to accept that. Sometimes, it’s best to trust them to guide us on what works,” she said.
Lee Hee Ai, editor of HeyKaki.
Vision-driven innovation
The success of Nhan Dan and HeyKaki’s innovation underscores a point emphasised by Von Elverfeldt: Direction and vision are essential.
She stressed that newsroom leaders must have a clear understanding of their identity and goals. This clarity allows leaders to set milestones, track progress, and conduct ongoing testing.
Lee, too, highlighted the importance of direction and vision with this example – HeyKaki created a social media video about Joe Biden dropping out of the race, but it underperformed. In contrast, a video on dating attitudes gained significantly more traction.
“We must balance what’s interesting with what’s important for people to know,” she explained.
Start small, iterate quickly: Lessons in product development
Von Elverfeldt warned that sticking to the mantra of “doing what we’ve always done” will stifle innovation, as few in the organisation will dare to experiment. She emphasised that active support from newsroom leaders is crucial for fostering change.
Time and budget, she noted, are two sides of the same coin.
Regarding those leading innovation, she stressed the importance of flexibility and cross-functionality, ensuring no two people in the process are entirely distinct.
This approach promotes decentralised decision-making, fostering innovation and enabling faster decision-making, which leads to a more agile and responsive development process.
Von Elverfeldt also emphasised the importance of starting with a minimal viable product to gather initial feedback and make quick iterations. “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “We often fall into the trap of building something too large, only to end up with a product that nobody uses.”
(L-R) Leonie Von Elverfeldt, Lee Hee Ai and Le Quoc Minh at the Asian Media Leaders Summit in Singapore.
Embracing experimentation: The test-and-learn mindset
Fostering open innovation, both inside and outside the newsroom, is crucial for effective decision-making, as per Von Elverfeldt. She spoke about the importance of embracing new ideas from all sources, regardless of individual or group.
HeyKaki implements a similar approach within their newsroom to encourage idea generation. Post-its with ideas are placed anonymously on a wall, where the best concept is voted on by the team.
Additionally, the newsroom should embrace a test-and-learn mentality, reflecting Von Elverfeldt’s emphasis on experimentation.
Lee echoed this approach, saying, “Instead of overthinking, we just try things out. This helps us better understand the resources, manpower, and time required, and whether it will perform well.”
Von Elverfeldt summed it up in perhaps the most evocative way: Question everything.
“If you question your organisation and colleagues – not critically, but with curiosity – asking how and why things happen or considering if they could be done differently, you begin driving real change within your organisation,” she said.
Lee added – experimentation and questioning allows for one to streamline and pick one’s battles.
“If something works, we do more of it. If not, we stop it,” she explained. “Instead of heavily investing in one idea, we spread resources across multiple ideas and learn from the outcomes.”
She also stressed on the importance of fostering a blame-free environment to encourage innovation. “Failing is part of the innovation process. Blaming those in charge can kill the spirit of experimentation,” she said.
WAN-IFRA’s Neha Gupta edited this report.
About the author: Lok Bing Hong is a penultimate communications student from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Still figuring out his way, he hopes to foray into business journalism in the near future. He’s had stints in The Straits Times and The New Paper, and is a writer for NTU-based student news site Soapbox. Currently, he’s an editorial writer for lifestyle paper 88Bamboo, as well as the co-founder/editorial head for Fullout!Sg, a new multimedia site covering the street dance scene in Singapore.
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