Sitara Nieves is Poynter’s vice president for teaching and organizational strategy and the co-lead of the upcoming Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative, along with Kelly McBride, senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at Poynter.
Nieves recently answered some questions about the nine-month fellowship, which is designed to sharpen the management and ethical decision-making skills of leaders in public media and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The application deadline is May 15.
What are some of the current challenges facing leaders in public media that led you to want to offer this training?
One is building up public media’s newsrooms, particularly in places where newspapers have gone away. Thomas Patterson wrote about this recently for the Shorenstein Center, and he writes that most local stations could be leading news sources for their community, but lack funding, an accelerated approach to digital transformation and increased capacity.
That’s admittedly a lot of things! But public media stations have so many strengths that I believe position them well to become that leading news source for their communities. But to get there, I do believe leaders at all levels will need training.
Given budgets and funding, public media stations haven’t significantly invested in professional development. A couple of years ago, there was a survey of hundreds of public media staff. The vast majority of them said their station didn’t prioritize professional development, and fewer than 20% said they were satisfied with professional development opportunities.
Public media is an industry of almost 20,000 people, many of whom work in places where their station is the only source of news and information in their community. And as public media continues to work to reflect the communities it serves, it’s critical that leaders and future leaders have the training they need to thrive, succeed and chart the way forward for their newsrooms.
You have a background in public media. Tell us about some of the addictive qualities of working in public media, the things you really loved about it.
I’ll talk about my first real job in public media. As surprising as this may sound, I loved waking up very early in the morning when I worked on that first morning show, ingesting the news of the day and figuring out how we might best cover it. I also loved the range of things that we covered in a year that were meaningful — and hearing the audience’s response to it. It’s always been a thrill to learn about what somebody’s real lived experience was. And then you hear your work on air, reflect on what went well and what could have been better — and then start the whole thing over again the next day. (laughs)
Flipping that question, what should news audiences know about public media?
There’s been a lot of research that shows that audiences have an incredible amount of trust in public TV and public radio. Public media strives to truly cover and connect with the communities where they’re based, and tell the stories that are important locally. I think a lot of public media stations have started seizing new opportunities to serve more diverse parts of their communities. There’s real opportunity and movement for bringing that trusted news and information and music and all of the things that public media offers to truly serve the entire community where stations are based.
At Poynter, we like to be pretty literal with our training nomenclature, and “editorial,” “integrity” and “leadership” are all pretty pointed. Can you tell me a little more about why you think integrity in leadership is critical?
What’s been clear to me from the last few years is that so many of us learn how to manage without any formal training. And while there’s value in learning from our colleagues and mentors, that’s often not enough, no matter how long you’ve been in leadership. Formal leadership and ethics training can offer a new and needed toolkit for leaders, and create space to reflect on how to lead effectively, champion the people you work with, and build a thriving, productive, strong team culture.
Who should apply for this training?
If you’re reading this, we’re probably looking for you! Ideal candidates are people working in public media who want to focus on their own ethical and editorial leadership, can commit to the 9-month program, and are willing to be open — and perhaps a bit vulnerable. Fellows will learn from each other, along with the facilitators and faculty. Our deadline is May 15.
