The first 180 days of a special projects editor
Read the full interview on journalism.co.uk
It has now been about half a year since I became special projects editor at the Financial Times. I originally pitched for my role to be created because I was convinced that ambitious journalistic projects should be done not through our well-established but rigid ‘waterfall’ newsroom structure, but through nimble, ad-hoc teams that required more active project management.
I had practice managing those projects and wanted my new role to be about helping the FT scale up those capabilities such that they became a part of how our newsroom worked instead of just the result of my personal initiiative.
I’ve made some progress in doing so in the last six months, primarily in figuring out that the ways I would reach that goal: through working with and helping other editors on their projects; through designing tools that make the process easier and nudge people towards asking the right questions; and through more formal internal teaching in workshops.
I recently spoke about my efforts in these three areas with Mădălina Ciobanu for a piece on journalism.co.uk. There’s still a lot to be done!
What to read next: How to find clarity in your projects by asking the right questions