Sarah Kelzer 9/27/2013 Organizational Comm.

Instructor: Hall Organizational Communication: Northern Iowan Newspaper Organizational Communication can be a tricky subject to analyze because it is so complex and involves people from every stage of the workplace hierarchy. To dig deeper and to further understand how Organizational Communication is exhibited in a work place environment, I decided to interview Michele Smith, Manager of the Northern Iowan Newspaper. The Northern Iowan is the official student newspaper for the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. A new issue comes out twice a week: every Tuesday and Friday. Producing an entire paper every couple of days for the academic year can cause tensions and conflict, especially when students are competing with the internet to report the most up-to-date, breaking news. Times have changed, technology is a staple in everyday life and the entire newspaper industry is dying. Technology changes have greatly impacted the atmosphere, culture and overall productivity at the Northern Iowan. The stress of a failing industry is obviously taking over. Michele Smith has been the manager of the Northern Iowan for the past 17 years. The office, sales, writing and production staff that she manages is made up entirely of students. While managing, she is also part of the sales team. This means that she has weekly meetings with a variety of local businesses, urging them to advertise with the newspaper. Every year her sales are less and less. Therefore, Michele is in a unique situation for three reasons. First, because she is in a dying industry, conflict is high and culture is changing. Second, since the newspaper is student

run, turnover rate is high because each year part of her staff graduates. And third, she works for a school. Most of her superiors are people who have nothing to do with journalism, but still control major decisions. Obviously Michele is in a fascinating situation, so I was excited to interview her. I have worked with her at the Northern Iowan and she has mentioned my future as taking over her position as the manager when she retires - since she is 60 years old and nearing retirement. Since my minors are marketing and journalism, this could be a theoretical possibility. As of now, my plans are to become involved in corporate communications when I graduate, but Michele has placed the Northern Iowan Manager idea into my head. The following is a paraphrased recap of our interview together: 1. Tell me about yourself and the Northern Iowan. a. Well, my name is Michele Smith and I have been the Northern Iowan Manager for the past 17 years. I came here from John Deere where I used to work in accounting. I liked it, but not as much as I love the Northern Iowan. Theres just something about a freshly made newspaper, you know? It has that smell that Ive loved since I was little. Anyway, the Northern Iowan isnt as big as busy as it used to be. I used to have pages and pages of ad! Now Im lucky to get five. It wasnt even that long ago that we were thriving maybe six seven years. Such a shame. 2. What types of communication channels do you use? a. We use email, phone, text and face-to-face. It depends entirely on the situation. Usually I email the staff. Sometimes I text if I need to get a hold of them right away. Sometimes I email clients, but rarely. Usually I call clients. If they are

stubborn, I meet with them in person, usually for lunch or some sort of meal. There are certain clients that are pretty regular, and it doesnt take much. But Ive been here for a long time and for example, I know I have to take Cost Cutters out for dinner. Hes stubborn and will look for any way to get a free advertisement. Its really situational and whats appropriate. 3. What are the steps to handling conflict? What is the conflict hierarchy? a. I like to sit down and talk to them one on one. I usually take them out to lunch. I just like when we talk over food. It just seems to go better; no is depressed. Its just common business sense 101. b. I have to take (sales girl) out tomorrow. She should be beating the heck out of the streets for sales. Somethings wrong. I just sense it. So I texted her this morning. We are going to have a face-to-face meeting tomorrow where we can go in the back room and get to the bottom of this. I dont know why the sudden change. She wasnt like this last year. We just need to sit down and talk it out. 4. What types of culture do you encourage? a. Oh, we used to have so much fun here! There used to be a game room down the hall in Mauker where the whole staff would just go down together and have fun. We dont have anything like that anymore. I mean, even last year we used to get pizzas for writers meetings. This year, I dont pay for that. They dont appreciate it and its not in the budget. If they are going to argue with me at every turn, b. Then we have the conflict that every newspaper seems to have: the writing side versus the production side. ITs mostly about seeing each others side. The production side this year actually does a good job of trying to understand the

others point of view, but the writers are just terrible. They think that without them, there is no paper. What they dont seem to realize is, you cant produce a paper without money, and you cant get money without advertisers. They think they can say whatever they want about whoever in town and it wont turn around and bite us in the ass. Well let me tell you, Ive built a rapport with the business owners around here for almost 20 years now, and I cant tell you how many times one of the sales people have gone to Main and have gotten chewed out because the writers wrote some horrendous article about them. Way to send them into the line of fire! So I guess a lot of our conflict comes from lack of communication. But once something big like that does happen, we find out via email, and then talk face to face. The problem is, I have a new staff every couple years. The lessons I teach this generation will be lost on the next! 5. Since your organization is made up of a small amount of people what are the pros and cons to this? How does this affect things? Example when this affected communication? a. We only have about 15 people. Tension can get very high. Sometimes there are yelling matches, if you know what I mean. If someone makes a mistake, you pretty much know exactly who did it. However, this means that there is more accountability here. Everything can be traced back, you cant hide anything. 6. Do you encourage people to express their individuality or to become a unified team? a. I would love it if people were more creative here and expressed themselves. We used to have such fun here with the articles. Some were so clever! But these days, whatever is easiest, they go with. I think if they expressed their creativity more, people would be more inclined to read the paper because it would be fun!

7. What kinds of incentives, rewards, motivation is there? a. Every year we have a rewards banquet. All the winners have to be nominated by the staff. There is one winner from production, one from writing each gets a $500 award. That money comes from a donator who ran the paper before I did. Im not sure how much longer this will continue because shes getting older and she was the only source for that money. It was nice while it lasted. b. The managing editor of production and executive editor from writing each get a $900 stipend in the beginning of the year. c. Also, I take one or two students each year to the CNBAM (College Newspapers Business & Advertising Managers, Inc.) convention. Thats where I can network for our national advertisers. Without that convention, I wouldnt be able to network with any of the big advertising firms we even have a New York firm that advertises with us because of CNBAM. The organizational communication that takes place at the Northern Iowan is astounding. I have concluded that the basis for communication can be traced to one person: Michele. I have learned that organization communication does not have to be separated and labeled by each person. One person does not handle conflict, another leadership, etc. As the manager, Michele is an integral part of the entire organization and deals with leadership, conflict, networking, communication channels, personal expression and motivation on a daily basis. This is just one example of how truly complex organizational communication can be.