MAN 4150 Module 3 Implementation Written Assignment Example

Planned Program or Learning as We Go? Implementing Digital-First at a Regional Newspaper Without Losing Its Mission

Student Name

Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership, Thomas Edison State University

MAN-4150: Change Management

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Planned Program or Learning as We Go? Implementing Digital-First at a Regional Newspaper Without Losing Its Mission

The Delaware Valley Courier, the composite South Jersey daily used in my earlier assignments, has completed its diagnosis and must now implement the move to digital-first publishing. The publisher favors a detailed program with fixed dates for every desk; several editors favor starting with pilot desks and adjusting as the newsroom learns. This assignment compares the two approaches, considers how the change can be tied to the newspaper's grounding principles and reflects on my own experience leading the features desk through the first steps.

Question 1: Which Implementation Approach Fits?

The textbook contrasts implementation approaches that treat change as a planned sequence of steps managed from the top with approaches that treat it as emergent, shaped by experimentation and local learning (Palmer et al., 2017). Each has strengths. Planned programs give clarity, deadlines and accountability; emergent approaches adapt to what is discovered and build ownership among the people who must change.

Research suggests the choice matters. Higgs and Rowland (2005) studied dozens of change initiatives across several organizations and found that approaches recognizing change as complex and emergent were generally more successful than directive, top-down ones, and that leader behaviors centered on the leader, such as personally driving every decision, were associated with less success, while behaviors that framed the change and built others' capacity were associated with more. For the Courier, a blended approach fits best. The printing schedule and delivery contracts require a fixed plan with dates. The newsroom's new working practices should be developed through pilots: the sports and features desks, which have the strongest online audiences, will move to digital-first deadlines for three months, report what works and what does not, and then help design the approach for the news desk.

Starting with desks where digital work is already familiar also follows what newsroom research suggests about sequence. Ekdale et al. (2015) found that journalists adopted new technologies more readily than new relationships with audiences or new professional norms, so pilots that begin with tools and visible audience gains can build momentum before the harder cultural questions are tackled.

The pilots also need clear rules so that experimentation does not become confusion. Each pilot desk will keep the paper's standards for accuracy and corrections, report weekly on what it tried, and share its schedules and templates with other desks. The managing editor will hold a short review at the end of each month to decide what to adopt more widely, so that learning moves from the pilot desks to the rest of the newsroom.

Question 2: Linking the Change to Grounding Principles

Changes succeed more often when people can see how they connect to what the organization stands for. The Courier's grounding principle, stated in its masthead for decades, is that it exists to inform the communities of South Jersey so they can govern themselves. Many journalists fear that digital-first means chasing clicks at the expense of that mission.

The change should be framed, and designed, to serve the principle rather than replace it. Three commitments would make the link concrete. First, coverage of local government, courts and schools will be protected in the newsroom budget, with a reporter assigned to each county's government even as other beats are combined. Second, success will be measured not only by page views but by subscriptions and by reader time on accountability stories, which aligns the business model with the mission. Third, the paper will publish breaking local news faster online, which serves readers better than holding stories for print. Framed this way, digital-first becomes a better way to fulfill the mission, not a departure from it.

Grounding principles can also guide hard choices. When budget pressure requires combining beats, the mission offers a test: keep the coverage that helps readers govern themselves, such as courts and school boards, before coverage that mainly drives traffic. Applying that test openly would show staff that the mission is a real constraint on decisions, not a slogan.

Question 3: Personal Reflection

As features editor I led one of the pilot desks. In the first month, I made the mistake the research warns against: I tried to manage every change personally, rewriting my writers' digital headlines and deciding every posting time. Productivity fell and two writers told me they felt second-guessed. In the second month I stepped back, agreed on three simple standards for online features with the writers and let them run their own schedules. Our online readership for features rose, and the writers proposed a weekly newsletter that has become our most loyal source of subscriptions. The experience showed me, on a small scale, why building others' capacity matters more than controlling the details.

Conclusion

The Courier should implement digital-first through a blend: a fixed plan for operational decisions and a pilot-led, emergent approach for changing how journalists work. Tying the change to the paper's mission of informing local communities, through protected coverage, mission-aligned measures and faster local news, gives journalists a reason to embrace it. My own desk's experience suggests that leaders who frame the change and build capacity get further than those who try to control it.

References

Ekdale, B., Singer, J. B., Tully, M., & Harmsen, S. (2015). Making change: Diffusion of technological, relational, and cultural innovation in the newsroom. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(4), 938-958. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699015596337

Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2005). All changes great and small: Exploring approaches to change and its leadership. Journal of Change Management, 5(2), 121-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500082902

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2017). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.