Interview with Monica Guzman about newsroom culture

This is the second part of my interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Monica Guzman. Part 1 was about cultivating conversations.

This  time Guzman and I are talking about newsroom culture. She thinks many young journalists are looking for the door, especially in the Seattle area.

Seattle is filled with tech companies and startups. Those companies embrace change and failure

“Two things newspapers don’t do,” she said. “It can be really, really frustrating to have a good idea, or hear of another paper with a good idea, to propose to whomever and just be told, ‘it’s not important, we can’t do it right now,’ or, the No. 1 thing, ‘we just don’t have the staff.’”

That being said, she doesn’t think being averse to change is all about age. Many veterans journalists take to online quickly, while other young journalists just want to write in print.

“I think the main characteristic is just being open to change,” she said.

Guzman said her editors and her started with the “stupid assumption” that they could dictate what The Big Blog would be like and that it would be successful. She said that newspapers think they know everything about what readers want, and much of what they thought readers wanted was dead wrong.

“It’s 100 percent about the readers,” Guzman said.

Comments allow newsrooms to make better products. Guzman found out that the original idea for The Big Blog wasn’t what readers wanted, and with reader feedback she has changed the focus of the blog.

“Readers have opened the door to the clearest path [of success] every time,” she said.

Guzman said the No. 1 obstacle in newsrooms in today is attitude.

“Newsrooms are very sad places,” she said. “It’s hard to get people excited.”

Click here to stream the interview. Or click here to download mp3.