Feature Story

Retention has become a key issue in the ranks of NIE professionals as greater emphasis on fund raising and circulation has changed the job and its expectations. What can be done to better retain good people?

By Don Williamson

When Mary Miller became New York’s statewide Newspaper In Education coordinator in 2001, she checked annual turnover among NIE coordinators at the 53 papers under her jurisdiction.

“The turnover rate was an amazing 45 percent,” Miller says. “I’d love to say that it has changed significantly, but I don’t think it has.”

No official numbers are kept on retention of NIE professionals nationally, but changes in the annual directory and farewell messages and new names that appear almost daily on NAA Foundation’s e-forum indicate a significant rate of turnover.

While the numbers can be debated, the effects of turnover cannot. When NIE professionals discuss their successes, they credit familiarity with teachers and school officials, building relationships at the newspaper and enhanced knowledge of the intricacies of their position, resources available to them and ABC rules. Such elements come with time.

But results of an NAA Foundation questionnaire sent to NIE professionals nationwide in 2004 underscore levels of frustration among veterans and newcomers alike. They see professionals who wear multiple hats and receive relatively low compensation. They see one-person departments and jobs split between NIE and something else. There’s also sentiment that the growing emphasis on fund raising and circulation numbers is a major concern.

“The reason for such turnover started in the last 5–7 years,” says Robie Scott, education services director at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. “It has not always been that way. When I started in NIE 15 years ago, there were many mentors who had been in NIE 7–10 years and more. Things were warmer and fuzzier in the industry for NIE. Then as papers began losing circulation, NIE became more accountable for the end result of what we’re producing–future readers or immediate circulation gains.

 

Robie Scott

"It's a matter of newspapers being clear in their expectations for NIE leadership."

“It was when sponsorship came on the scene, and papers began saying we not only want you to produce curriculum, train teachers and promote the paper, we want you to secure money to pay for it. It added a whole new dimension to NIE,” Scott says. “Folks responsible for these other items in the past were now also fund raisers. Those are two very different things. Many papers continued to hire the same type of managers for these two very different jobs. In the past, NIE managers were basically teachers who left the classroom or retired.”

NIE departments that previously reported to marketing or community relations departments are increasingly being moved to circulation departments. Critics say that places greater emphasis on numbers and diminishes the education role many NIE professionals see as their best way to becoming a solid program.

 

Delores Badillo

"We need to get sharp marketing people together... Let them come up with a campaign to support and fund raise and get all of this off the NIE person's back."

“Anyone can throw papers in front of a school,” says Delores Badillo, who ran NIE programs at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and The San Diego Union-Tribune before leaving the industry. “The question is whether teachers and students are utilizing those papers as educational tools.

“In the debate about where NIE belongs, marketing is the best place for the strongest connection. Marketing is an important component of the paper and a liaison between all departments. We need to get sharp marketing people together and figure how to tackle this. Let them come up with a campaign to support and fund raise and get all of this off the NIE person’s back.”

Scott worries about young people starting work in the NIE world. She uses the word “overwhelmed.”

“I have people come shadow me for a day,” she says. “It’s pitiful to see someone plucked from a classroom who understood they were hired because the paper wanted a teacher to go back into the classroom and relate to teachers, when the actual job description is something very different.

“It’s a painful thing for me to see so many new NIE programs that were started with one thing in mind–circulation. They’re missing the boat,” Scott says. “I get numbers every day, and I’m accountable for them. But that’s not my only mission. I’m also here to provide quality educational programs for schools in my distribution area. It’s an investment, and you have to decide whether you want something quick and short-lived with little gain or something that’s a long-term investment with a high-yield return.”

Right Person for the Job

The day of the traditional NIE coordinator who is a former teacher may be ending. People with better-honed marketing and fund-raising skills may become necessary if turnover is to be avoided.

 

Jason Quackenbush

"[In circulation], I work with a bigger staff, and they're receptive to things I want to try."

“My predecessor was here less than a year,” says Jason Quackenbush, NIE coordinator for The News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. “The company wanted to take the program to the next level. They had a corporate fund-raising program and wanted someone comfortable with doing that rather than someone constantly visible in schools as a pseudo-educator.

“The bias among some NIE professionals who come from educational backgrounds is that they will be educators on behalf of the paper. That’s not what they wanted here any longer.”

Quackenbush has a degree in mass communications and worked in marketing before coming to the News-Gazette six years ago. He reported to marketing for the first two years before NIE was moved under circulation.

“It was a positive switch for me,” he says. “I work with a bigger staff, and they’re receptive to things I want to try. The circulation director feels as I do that NIE is about education but also circulation. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can measure the impact of the program by the number of teachers enrolled and the number of papers you are selling to the schools.”

 

Jennifer Dang

"It's valuable to bring in someone who has been out in the community, [especially] when it comes to getting sponsorships."

More and more newspapers seem to be looking for NIE professionals with varied skills not necessarily learned in the classroom. Jennifer Dang may epitomize the new breed. She spent 20 years as a fund-raiser in the nonprofit community in Honolulu and impressed representatives of The Honolulu Advertiser at a children’s festival she organized.

“[The job] encompasses all I’ve done in the past as an educator, public relations person, and fund-raiser,” Dang says. “As soon as I arrived at the paper and got the lay of the land, I felt at home. It provides endless possibilities for me–combined with the excitement of selling, altruism, education and bettering the community.”

She is aware of the circulation issues and takes that in stride.

“Sponsorships are growing, and I feel as long as I do a good job of educating teachers in how to utilize the newspaper, we’ll continue to grow the program at a steady pace,” Dang says. “My bosses don’t pressure me on numbers. You always have to be aware of the marketplace and the competition and do things differently and better to maintain a competitive edge. If you’re not growing, you’re slowly dying. We are growing at a 2–4 percent rate each year.”

Dang credits her fund-raising background for her comfort in the job. “It’s valuable to bring in someone who has been out in the community, [especially] when it comes to getting sponsorships,” she says.

 

Kevin Fuller

"If I ask for something, it’s not enough for you to say it’s not a good idea....Have a conversation with me about what I can do that does fit."

Another aspect of the job cited by many NIE professionals as a cause for turnover is lack of respect for what they do or the complexities of their job. Kevin Fuller, a 12-year NIE veteran at The Oregonian in Portland, says respect is important for job satisfaction.

“I get respect from the company,” Fuller says. “The circulation director recognizes the efforts and successes of the NIE department. I often talk to coordinators at other papers who feel their work is not valued or seen as important as home delivery or single copy. Here at The Oregonian, I feel part of the leadership team and that I contribute to the overall goals of the company.

Fuller says that being on the same incentive plans as people in advertising or as other circulation managers makes him feel valued. “If single copy has trips or bonuses, the same set of rewards exists for NIE,” he says. “I’m also included in meetings and invited to contribute to the overall goals for the paper, rather than just being given numbers to meet or called to speak at career day.”

Fuller adds that he is seen as an expert in what he does and feels that his superiors trust him. Allowing him to return to school for a master’s degree is another factor that he says increased his job satisfaction and performance.

“If I ask for something, it’s not enough for you to say it’s not a good idea,” Fuller says. “Show me how it does not fit into the structure of the company and have a conversation with me about what I can do that does fit. I know newspapers are struggling financially, but I need to know that this is a component of the newspaper that you are going to support.”

 

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Staying in School

While increasing numbers of NIE professionals are filling roles such as fund-raising, public relations, curriculum development and teacher training, pockets of resistance remain to support the “E” in NIE.

Janet Gibson, NIE manager of The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., does not do fund-raising or sponsorships, and she has been there seven years. “I was hired for the educational side, and that’s what I do,” she says. “I’ve seen NIE people who started more in education and were moved to being numbers-driven. I know someone thinking about quitting because of that, but my job description has not changed.”

 

Janet Gibson

"I've seen NIE people who started more in education and were moved to being numbers-driven."

Some things have changed. “One big change that has made NIE different is state-mandated objectives,” Gibson says. “We now have to align our products with what teachers are required to teach, but people are not leaving because of that. I’ve heard from people who have to hit circulation numbers. They call me and say they have to sit and do cold calls to schools. That’s wrong no matter how you look at it. People in those situations are the ones who leave.”

Heather Weathers certainly isn’t leaving. She has a journalism degree, has raised funds for nonprofits and is educational services coordinator at the Tulsa World. She may be one of the happiest people in NIE.

“I do no fund-raising, thank goodness. That’s why I took the job,” Weathers says. “The paper fully supports what isn’t paid for by teachers and vacation-stop donations. I have no numbers goals. The Tulsa World sees NIE as giving back to the community. That’s why NIE is in community relations at this paper and not in circulation.”

While the situation in Tulsa may seem ideal to many longtime NIE professionals, it does not match reality at a growing number of newspapers. Kim Svoboda, who has been an NIE manager at The Oshkosh (Wis.) Northwestern, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Chicago Tribune, says papers must rethink before making hires.

“I don’t see any frustration between sales and education,” Svoboda says. “I understood the need for money. Too many think NIE just has an educational role. There has to be an even mix of both. “The biggest frustrations I saw among coordinators were those who lacked sales savvy. They felt they had to go out and beg for money. They didn’t know there were other things they could do with a creative twist.

 

Kim Svoboda

"The biggest frustrations I saw among coordinators were from those who lacked sales savvy."

“The biggest frustrations I saw among coordinators were those who lacked sales savvy. They felt they had to
go out and beg for money. They didn’t know there were other things they could do with a creative twist. I’ve noticed that Scholastic Inc. does a great job managing both the education and the sales side. That might be a good model for NIE to follow.”

Svoboda says she thinks that NIE “doesn’t do a good job of explaining to the outside world what its goals are. I frequently speak to education professionals in the New York City area who have never heard of NIE. Is it that NIE lacks the sales and marketing focus or needs to do a better job of reaching out to the general public?”

For NIE veteran Scott, the bottom line is what newspapers are supposed to do best–communication.

“It’s a matter of newspapers being clear in their expectations for NIE leadership. If a paper wants someone to train teachers, develop curriculum, raise $100,000 a year, market the program and do basic public relations, then they need to find someone skilled in all those areas,” says Scott.

Award-winning journalist Don Williamson has written for several newspapers and industry publications. He can be reached at donw222@aol.com.

 

Published Apr 25, 2005