Summary

In mid-February 2019, program manager for digital/product Olivia Obineme worked in collaboration with interim digital news managing editor Monica Lam and digital producer David Marks to reimagine the visual team workflow for KQED.org/NEWS. Obineme conducted the research and interviews to compile discoveries about the current workflows for KQED News when it came to visual content. This collaboration ended March 29, 2019.

What we know

KQED.org and KQED.org/NEWS received modifications in article templates (first rolled out in late February 2019 for coverage on OUSD), which included new designs and functionalities for asides (adding related content) and pull quotes. Bylines were also adjusted as part of the makeover. The UX design/product team worked with editorial teams to test "mini-sites"—landing-pages specific to a beat—as part of building the KQED News digital presence. Tag-specific landing pages were also created to test digital presence, such as Starting Blocks.

The site's layout for news stories consisted of stacked images, or spreading out images (between 4-5 maximum) throughout a story. Both mobile photography and DSLR-captured photography were in use, low to high quality. Third-party produced images were used for stories, i.e. Getty, archives, courtesy images from subjects. Cartoons (Mark Fiore) and contemporary illustrations, graphic designs, and infographics (Elena Lacey, Kelly Heigert) were used.

Further Resaerch

Obineme reached out beyond the KQED network to photo editors, interactive journalists, and visual producers in various mediums in the news media field. From small and large teams to freelancers, getting inspiration, structure insights, and recommendations from outside outlets and individuals allowed for a better understanding of the possibilities for KQED Digital News' visual team.

She also reached out to project/product managers in the media industry. These individuals were key to understanding the fundamentals of workflow structures. Whether for YouTube or LA Times, these individuals and their teams bring the never-ending supply of enthusiasm and proactiveness to get results, big or small, balancing out ambition and feasibility.

Breakdown

Obineme started assessing the workflow process in sections: challenges, ideas, tools—a way she could visually understand and map out what she could pull from to draft up an ideal workflow skeleton for the team.

Identifying challenges

As part of her hiring, Obineme was tasked to embrace both her product and editorial savvy. She rode both ships in providing insights and leading projects for the UX Design/product team, while helping to produce and contribute to the digital news team. It resulted in observation and curiosity as to the operations of the digital news team.

In combination with the interviews of key staff, Obineme was able to get first-hand experience of certain challenges when contributing visual content to the team's daily reporting:

• Daily tasks for visual production: Digital producers are generally known to wear many hats, from assigning and receiving content (visual, audio, and written) to preparing content for online use. Obineme noticed there were just too few producers for the growing tasks on a daily basis—assigning stories, editing stories, editing photos, working on some original content, assisting news colleagues with CMS troubleshooting, and supervising interns. She noted the producers were more than capable of handling all of these tasks, but was there an opportunity to provide some assistance? Could shifting visual production responsibilities to another individual allow for a better quality assurance when it came to online publishing?
• Communication & accountability on visual responsibility: KQED went through many transitions during the early months of 2019. There were shifts in positions and responsibilities in the newsroom with only some guidance and specificity as to how those roles would play out. As a result, questions about 'who did what' and 'who reported to whom' were justifiably unanswerable. Could designating certain people with the specific role of visual production and management assist with bettering the lines of communication in the newsroom? Would having a go-to person allow for a more streamlined process in responsibilities?
• Use of the visual interns: KQED News had two wonderful and enthusiastic interns at the disposal of the news team, but when asking news staff if they had known about the interns, many told Obineme they were not aware they could collaborate with them for original, higher quality images or videos to accompany their work online. They also didn't know who would be the best person to talk to if they had visual ideas that would include working with the interns. In turn, the Obineme sometimes found the interns not being utilized. Could there be opportunity to effectively bring awareness to the visual capital that was available from these to interns to the rest of the newsroom that would ensure consistent assignments and/or newsroom tasks for the interns?
• Expanding visual coverage + deciphering visual type: Despite any chaos or uncertainties during transitions in the KQED newsroom, there was a constant hunger for figuring out how to expand what we deemed as visual and what original visual projects could emerge from indulging into that hunger. Could we find a way to make space to discuss and plan for bigger visually led storytelling? Could we utilize different visual talents that exist in the newsroom to provide interpretations of written news beyond the traditional methods of visual journalism?

Identifying resources

One of the themes of the advice Obineme received from those she talked with was 'money won't always be there.' Every media space is different and even if they say there isn't a budget, saying that there isn't one is a budget in itself. So what tools already existed that the digital news team had at its disposal?

Programs: Airtable | Slack | Google Drive | News Image | Getty

Technology: DSLR (Canon 5D), tripod, camera bag, batteries, 70-200 lens, kit lens | Edit bay | Audio equipment

Human power: Stephanie Lister, Sruthi Mamidanna, Adam Grossberg, Monica Lam, David Marks, Don Clyde, Elana Lacey, Kelly Heigert, Mark Fiore, Olivia Obineme

Implementation

For nearly six weeks, process components were implemented with the goal of providing structure of the visuals team.

Weekly Tuesday meetings: This included going over any incoming stories in need of visuals, what type of visuals were needed or being worked on (i.e. photography, video, graphic design needs), in-person relay of the stories assigned for the day of or future, feedback and general questions about the team's workings or newsroom functions. Notes were kept of attended meetings.

"Pitching" stories for visual content & assigning: Obineme worked with the visual interns, their managers, David Marks, and Monica Lam in looking through Airtable and finding (and discussing, if needed) the stories for possible visual content. As stories were flagged and confirmed for visual needs, they would be listed in the Visuals Request Google Sheet created by Monica Lam. This allowed for visual interns to access assignments and notes (i.e. person(s) of contact, location, etc.) as they did not have access to the Airtable due to questions of cost benefits (there was a cost per added user to the KQED Airtable account).

Airtable Use: At the time, visual interns did not have full access to Airtable which stores the story assignments for the newsroom. They eventually received 'view' access of the weekly storyboard, which allows them to see the assignments coming in for the week. Due to the majority use of this particular platform by the news staff, Obineme created a Visuals Requests form that, if filled out by a reporter or editor, would populate the submitted information not just in the Visual Content Board for the visual team to see, but also the corresponding news department's board. This would provide for a more streamlined production.

Slack Communication: There were two heavily used channels during this process—#photos and #visualinterns, of which both existed prior to Obineme's hiring and had been used in similar manners as it was for this project. "Photos" is a public channel that allowed for reporters and contributors in the field to send their photos to producers and editors in the newsroom in real time. Captions would be sent along with the photos. Additional requests would also be made sometimes in that channel corresponding to the assignments. Photos could be pulled not only for stories, but also for social media use. "Visual Interns" is a private channel that allow for producers, editors, and visual intern managers to discuss assignments for the visual interns or any additional interns that were available to provide help to the digital news team when they were shorthand in the newsroom. Requests from reporters or different departments that didn't get listed in the Visual Requests sheet or flagged in Airtable would be brought up in this channel to be discussed among channel members as to which visual intern would get the assignment, if it was confirmed as something for the digital news team to work on.

News Image: This is the existing repository for images and some video for KQED News. This contains original and third-party visuals. As visual interns and other contributors for KQED would take images, they would be encouraged to file their images (including ones sent via Slack) into this online storage base. The graphic design team Elana Lacey and Kelly Heigert weren't aware of the repository and felt they could use it for future company-wide design needs. Obineme made an effort to create a public folder in NewsImage of KQED-only produced and published images that the team could access.

Morning Standups: Obineme took advantage of the standups led by managing editor Vinnee Tong to address the majority of the newsroom staff and make them aware of the visual interns and encourage staff to reach out for possible collaborations with the visual team for stories. She also conducted one-one-ones with reporters and editors to maintain the awareness. She sat down with TCRM editor Victoria Mauleón to break down the purpose of visual interns Stephanie Lister and Sruti Mamidanna: higher quality images and one thing you as the reporter won't have to think about when needing to produce a well-rounded story ( a few of the reasons to utilize the visual team). Stephanie went on to create wonderful images with Mauleón on her story about her outspoken sister. And Sruti was able to work with TCRM to share the visual story of 16-year-old Olive Howden on her experience as a student that happens to be deaf.

INSIGHT: This was called an experimental workflow, but in actuality, it was the learning of better and mostly consistent habits that helped improve the existing workflow of the newsroom.

Key advice from the experts outside of KQED's network is that there is always a bigger picture to the small issue at hand. Working with the visuals team was just a small part in the bigger system of production: the overall newsroom flow. From communication to delegation and publishing, the digital team can sometimes work scatteredly.

Obineme had to adapt certain process components to the overall newsroom flow, which led to instances of doing visual assignments herself or making visual calls for pieces with producers.

INSIGHT: There was not enough time to fully see how effective and how iterative the workflow could be.

Obineme reached out through proper channels to get approval on starting this process and its implementation; however, she only had about six weeks to complete research, interviews, workflow ideation. and implementation. This is due to Obineme's other duties as program manager on the product team, but primarily in having a short-term contracted position at KQED. This resulted in participants not fully understanding the potential of the workflow components.

The good thing about workflows is that they can and should adapt to the environments in which they are being implemented. They should forever evolve. Nevertheless, six weeks is not enough time truly figure out flaws and fall into a much smoother groove.

Recommendation: provide at least six months for the implementation of any workflow components. This will allow for better communication, understanding, and retrospective, especially in a fast-paced and multi-faceted environment like a newsroom.

Recommendation: don't think of this as a workflow, but adding new, better habits into improving the existing workflow of the newsroom in producing for online. List out what you components of the General Process chart that catered to better practices in the daily running of the newsroom. Could adding few new habits weed out the current ones that are holding production and transition back?

Insight: A key person or persons of contact made for a better visual production process and better visual product. What needs to be very clear is what roles each person of contact plays and the expectations that come with the positions.

The toughest question that couldn't be fully answered is who would do what during the implementation of the workflow components. This was tested during an interesting time at KQED where, as mentioned before, there was transition happening with roles in the newsroom. The organization was also implementing their strategy in moving to their new location on Beale Street as the original location gets a building facelift.

There was much conversation. Adam Grossberg brought up points that the person of contact should be one who is heavily immersed in the everyday flow of the digital news flow like Monica Lam or David Marks. Lam, on the other hand, brought up points that it could make more sense to have someone that is more visually inclined and works in the everyday operations of providing visual content. There was some concern from Grossberg of having Obineme making some editorial decisions due to her position on the product team. Those concerns may be justified knowing the news media industry, as a whole, is still figuring out what to make of the—to some, almost forceful—convergence of journalism and tech. Obineme, however, has been an active freelance photojournalist and writer for five years. She has posed herself to become a hybrid of world fully aware of the concerns of conflict from both sides. It came down to those naturally wanting to put in the efforts to help make decisions on the implementation.

Insight: Change is hard. Disruption of existing structures will never be easy, but can be adapted and manageable.

On many occasions, Obineme acted as a visual manager/editor providing direction for the photographers and editorial direction for the post-production and filing processes (i.e. dumping files in NewsImage and editing and captioning images). On other occasions, Obineme acted as a liaison and advisor in the visuals team, communicating with editors and reporters of other parts of the news department on the team's behalf. She also assisted with connecting reporters to members of the visual team.

Generally, it helped alleviate some responsibility and provided an additional editorial eye for the digital news team. It allowed digital producers to elevate and prioritize their other responsibilities in management and creating well-rounded, high-quality KQED content.

Recommendation: Have the new DME hire a senior visual editor that is keen on the evolution of the industry in its journey in the digital world. This person can be a key right-hand to the DME in addition to other positions they may hire that will help make a well-rounded managed digital news team (this is obviously in addition to the qualified team of producers and editors under the DME that's existed prior to their hire). With a senior visual editor there would be a clear person of contact for visual-related matters. This person should understand the importance of visual content and how it could successfully work with the great high-quality KQED reporting. They must be open and perhaps have some experience in non-traditional visual content. They would work in collaboration with the digital producers providing visual expertise and alleviating some of the responsibilities the producers have due to possible short-handed staff.

Insight: A better space for storing visuals and accessing them is needed. There should be research and recommendations made for a solution.

NewsImage has been a problem for the KQED News team. It's hard to access the content in there from anywhere. It's even harder for contributors to dump files in real time in the repository while they are on assignment. It's easier for the team access and send images through Slack, but it's more effective to archive visuals in NewsImage.

Recommendation: Is this an opportunity for KQED to create a better process for this? More research is needed to answer that.

Insight: Invest in a well-rounded in-house camera kit.

Obineme noted there was one kit being shared between two interns for the digital news team. They were on different schedules, but due to commutes, the gear would not always make it back in time or additional commutes would need to be made to get the gear back in the newsroom for another person to use.

When on assignment, Obineme carries two camera bodies, a small or medium tripod, a kit lens, wider and telephoto lenses, 1-2 portable chargers, a portable hotspot for quicker filing on site, and a small reflector and light in case of a needed portrait. With that she has her laptop and small external drive, 1-2 extra cords, batteries (camera, AA, AAA), SD cards and a card reader. She always carries a notepad, a few pens, and a snack. If she must shoot quick video while capturing stills, the second body comes in handy, where she can attach an external mic to it. Obineme has also been assigned audio work, so she would need to carry a recorder, too.

This may not be all needed every time someone goes to shoot, however, if you truly value having quality images/visuals especially on the go, your newsroom should invest for that.

Obineme noted the interns and some reporters that would go out to shoot found it hard to send images in real time without the slowness of not having better WiFi. In turn, there were instances of low-quality mobile images being filed in the Slack channel and being used on the site.

Recommendation: conduct a thorough inventory of gear. Perhaps learn from other departments. What are they carrying? What gear makes for good visuals. Canons bodies are great, but could you get the same quality with Sony Alpha's, something smaller and portable. Could you use bodies that have built-in wifi? Additional research is needed.

Insight: Reporters are asked to shoot images without any visual training and it causes some inconsistency in quality of visuals online.

Images and video do not have to be perfect and budgets exist for a reason, but could there be a middleground to providing a balance of better visuals for our audience when they are newsroom created?

Obineme briefly went through some previous images and video taken by KQED staff that were not up to quality standard but were important to publish with stories because of the lack of other options. Due to many other responsibilities, Obineme was not able to make time for one-on-ones or small group sessions with reporters.

Due to the small staff of visual interns and video producer (Adam Grossberg), there will be many times someone will not be able to shoot a story, leaving a reporter to 'MMJ' the assignment. How can KQED better prepare its staff for those situations?

Recommendation: Provide proper lessons of best practices in both mobile and DSLR photography and videography. This is just going over fundamentals—i.e. knowing what to look for, understanding your capturing device, tools for better filing, etc. This could happen through a BrainFood session or three.

Final Notes From Olivia

Hello, digital team! I hope there is information here that you can take away and help build a stronger visual presence, starting with the internal process and workflow. If anything, as part of the digital space, higher-quality visuals boost digital presence and should be considered a priority in newsroom production. It should not be an afterthought.

It was an amazing opportunity to dive in as both a product manager and a news contributor. As I no longer work at KQED, you may direct additional questions to me, but I strongly encourage first speaking with those involved in this short, but insightful experience. All the best to the new DME and the digital news team. I'm rooting for you!

I just want to take this time to personally thank Monica Lam, Vinnee Tong, and David Marks for providing such a push in this work. Thank you to Don Clyde, Adam Grossberg, Chloe Morizono, and Olivia Allen-Price for collaboration. Thanks to Stephanie Lister and Sruti Mamidanna for their willingness, trust, and participation in the process. Thanks to other important stakeholders, including other hardworking reporters and editors, for their patience and willingness to learn new things. It's much appreciated. A special thanks to my two bosses—more recently Jason Herring and formerly Carlos Gonzalez—for their guidance and trust in working with the editorial team during my time as a fellow (2018) and as a full-time hire (2019) of KQED's product management team. Much gratitude to Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Holly Kernan, and Tim Olson's green light in allowing me to divide my time between both departments.

—Olivia Obineme

Find me here: oliviaiobineme.com | olivia.i.obineme@gmail.com | @oliviaobineme on Twitter & @viewsbyo on Instagram (DMs are rarely checked) 🙋🏾‍♀️