Since New Media Is, Well, New, And Old Employees Are, Well, Old, What To Do When The Need Is New And The Employee Is Old?

Philip Stone August 29, 2007

Is it really possible to teach old dogs new tricks? Can you take an older traditional media employee and make that person fluent in digital media needs? Or should the old just take the payoff and pack it in? It all depends on the perceived value of that “Human Capital”.

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Human Capital is basically just like trading bonds and shares except in this case it’s people’s livelihoods up for sale. More economical and better skill-set sense to trade one older employee to a buyout and then hire two younger ones with up-to-date digital skill sets? Factor in the cost of retraining the older employee, let alone salary and benefits and decide the financial, but certainly not the human effects of making your trade in human capital.

Newspaper and other traditional media companies recognize full-well their business is no longer single-dimension. It is no longer just print newspapers, or television stations or even a television network, it’s now also the Internet, mobile phones and the like and employees are expected to be expert in fulfilling the needs of all.

For the youngsters coming out of J-school that’s no problem. They were brought up in the digital world, they understand it well, they don’t have old bad habits (at least not too many), and best of all, they don’t cost near as much as longtime employees.

But what to do with the old-timer, the guy/gal in his/her 50s and 60s. Costs a lot – probably could be replaced by at least two new employees for the same or even less -- set in his/her ways, and, let’s be frank, not as energetic any more.  Do the “human capital” financials dictate retraining the old-timer or is it time for “out with the old and in with the new”? Those are not new “financials” for media companies to contemplate – they found their way around age discrimination legislation long ago -- but it is something that for obvious reasons they don’t really like to talk about it but as the industry itself undergoes great technical change it has become more of an issue.

But what is a company to do if the need is “new” and the employee is old. The ABC Television network seems to want to go one way – it wants to change seniority rules when it comes time to dumping staff by taking into account the digital skills of the employee  and not just how long the employee has been at the network. And then there are companies like Gannett that have undertaken huge expensive training courses for their employees to welcome them into the new digital world.

Gannett has already implemented its 24/7 newsroom operation at each of its newspapers. It means that breaking news now will concentrate on web sites and digital services and less on newspapers. It meant that reporters needed new skills such as taking video but Gannett went to the expense of putting every newspaper newsroom through the retraining exercise.  

And then seems to be the two-prong attack as implemented by Lee Enterprises, a company that owns 51 daily newspapers with accompanying web sites, and more than 300 other publications.

Lee, a public company, certainly has problems with declining newspaper print revenue and its share price shows that with a 27% drop in the past 12 months, even dropping to a 52-week low in August.  But as its print revenues sink, its digital revenues, in percentage terms, are soaring – 61.2% in Q3 compared to the year before on top of a 54% increase in Q2, showing the trend is going in the right direction.

But, it, too wants to get rid of some older employees, and, for instance, those over the age of 50 with at least 10 years service at the St. Louis Post Dispatch have been offered buyouts, a similar program to what the newspaper conducted three years ago when 130 employees took advantage.

But the company has also embarked on a major retraining program for employees that it calls Lee Online University designed to retrain and develop news and sales staff. In a recent interview with the Motley Fool, CEO Mary Junck described its purpose, “Lee Online University is a comprehensive, ongoing training program with separate curriculums for news staff and sales forces. In the rollout this past spring we trained 500 news and salespeople in five two-and-a-half-day sessions. Participants took home cutting-edge tools and playbooks with best practices, to help them continue moving our online sites and sales to higher levels.

“More sessions with updated content are planned for the coming year, including an advanced video storytelling course scheduled for September. The training is being archived for all employees in an internal, interactive format available through our intranet.”

So there’s a very sizable investment by a company determined to make the best of its digital future.  And why does the company make such an investment?  Because even though it is dedicated to keeping its print newspaper stream strong, it also wants to promote more growth on the online side. “While our strength in print remains solid and unrivaled, we’re now able to reach even larger and more targeted audiences. Currently online sales account for roughly 8% of our advertising revenue, and we expect that number to continue growing at a fairly brisk pace. Even so, fully 50% of the adults in our markets prefer to read only a newspaper they can hold in their hands, and another 11% like to read the printed page as well as visit our online sites. So we see a long and strong future in print as well,” Janck said.

She disagrees with those who believe the printed newspaper business is in a tailspin.”The naysayers need to understand that the printed newspaper remains very, very strong among people of all ages, and that we’ve developed online sites into local market leaders as well.”

In other words, there is still a place for the “old” dogs” with their original skills, and, yes, they can be taught new tricks for the new online world, too.

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On September 13, 2007 Roy Belcher General Manager Sun Chronicle Attleboro MA USA wrote:

We find that re-tasking groups of employees with specific missions is invigorating and rejuvenating. It’s common knowledge that change is the key to survival in our business, and our employees for the most part are glad to make a sincere effort to learn the digital skills they need to survive.

It also provides the basis for a new performance appraisal. Those who don’t embrace change have little basis for complaint after they have been offered an opportunity to learn new the skills that are required.

On September 12, 2007 Steve Buckley Vice President Freedom Newspapers Burlington NC USA wrote:

Frankly, I’m weary of all the talk about “old dogs.”  It is not a matter of age but of attitude.  People who are committed to life-long learning are valuable associates in any company.  Those people who are not—whether they are 25 or 65—need to go.  I’m 65.  I post to a blog three times a week.  I pay my bills online.  I post content on web sites.  I also read three newspapers every day and read an average of one book every two weeks.  Yet I work with people in their late thirties who think, or hope, that the internet will go away.  You have no idea how frustrating that is.

In the States, there is no guarantee that students fresh out of journalism school are internet savvy.   Many of the schools are just beginning to offer online publishing as a discipline.  Some of our J-schools have the remarkable ability to be able to transform a 20 year-old into a 40 year-old in only three semesters…

Gannett and Lee deserve praise for their vision.

On September 3, 2007 Michael Coghlan Business Development Manager SageCo Sydney Australia wrote:

I read with interest the article produced and written by Philip Stone Aug 2007 regarding teaching old dogs new tricks. Firstly I wonder how old Philip is and does he fall into this so called "Old Dogs" category.

I personally am one after spending some 30-40 years in the Print/Publishing/newspaper marketplace. Just to justify my knowledge background,Trained and am a qualified printer.

20+ years with Linotype originally selling Lino mats all the way through to conversion to Phototypesetters, Postscript introduction, Editorial on-line systems.

10+ years with Atex some as MD for Asia Pacific throughout all the changes (even a Kodak moment). So I made the changes with training all the way through up to 2 years ago. After hitting the "Grey Ceiling" (my terminology for what Philip suggested getting rid of the old) I turned to other technology. Content Management solutions (www.ibox.com.au).So it is possible to train the old dogs into the newer technology. So at least give them the opportunity. I direct you to an article recently published in the PANPA Bulletin which is the newspaper publishers Asia/Pac magazine. It was written by one of the Directors of the company I currently do some work for in focussing on the Mature Age workforce regarding transition, re-train, retire, and most importantly Knowledge Continuity. The piece that highlight capturing the Old Dogs knowledge before you part company.

My point is do not just discard or dismiss the Mature Age workforce as you may come to find out they value they really have within your organisation. More than happy to contribute additional on this subjuct in the future.