Exam on Friday about the new 3-pillar “target structure” in the multimedia newsroom. Lots of job advertisements necessary
On Friday, General Director Alexander Wrabetz presented employees with a new structure for ORF information under one
ORF boss Alexander Wrabetz is very proud: “Despite Corona, our multimedia newsroom for online TV-radio-social media is on schedule and on budget – interior work begins!”, He posted these days – also in English – on various social channels. In addition, the building shell of the new heart of the ORF information can be seen on a photo, himself and his husband, construction project manager Pius Strobl, just in case.
They will soon be followed by (primarily) the journalists who, with the previously scattered ORF radio, television and online locations, will now be brought together in the ORF center. From mid-2022, they will provide information from the multimedia newsroom, expanded to include social media.
Tomorrow, Friday, Wrabetz (for years General and Information Director in personal union) will inform the ORF employees as part of an “on-boarding process” about construction progress and further settlement steps.
Around 30 ORF top executives will also discuss in an online exam – it's not just about their happiness or end for the five editors-in-chief (from radio, ORF1 and 2, online) and their deputies. Because with the newsroom, work patterns, internal processes and accounting groups and, last but not least, responsibilities change. Basically, you are following a concept that was initiated by the editors a decade ago and, after the location decision was made in 2012, was developed by the ex-radio editor-in-chief and former ORF2 info boss, Stefan Ströbitzer. He is on board as a consultant for the implementation phase.
Cultural revolution
With the organizational follow-up in terms of digitization of the information area, the ORF is facing the greatest reform since the referendum in 1967 and a “cultural revolution”, as those concerned with the innovations call it. First off: There should be no all-powerful editor-in-chief – considering Werner Mück's years under ORF boss Monika Lindner. The new magic word is “newsroom management”. It will be responsible for uniform management in editorial, commercial and technical terms. The newsroom will be “a company within the company,” say insiders.
Below the management, there should be, also for the sake of the often invoked “inner plurality”, a tripartite division according to tasks (not according to output channels):
– A news desk, headed by news managers, will take care of everything so that information is sent out quickly. This includes news monitoring and verification as well as our own live teams. Work is mainly carried out for online, social media, radio and teletext.
– Another pillar are specialist departments (planned: domestic, international, chronicle, economy, weather). There are currently several – depending on the channel. Their merger, especially at management level, will be a challenge.
– The third pillar are the broadcast / platform teams: These include “ZiB” broadcasts, Ö1 journals, Ö3 info or ORF On. You order content from specialist departments, but also work with your own teams and have to coordinate with each other.
Organizational step into the digital world: In the multimedia newsroom, the departments no longer differentiate between play channels
New jobs and boardrooms
A consequence of this realignment will cause some rustling of the leaves: There must be many new advertisements for numerous new (management) jobs, while previous ones will no longer be available. That could, it is said, “still be loud and bloody” – ORF journalists tend to publicly show their bosses limits for the independence that they believe.
For Wrabetz, always more a politician than a manager, the meeting of the imminent completion of construction, reorganization and the ORF election in the summer must seem like a lottery hit. A huge job bazaar is opening up at a time when he's about the general manager.
His administration is currently working on the organizational instructions. If they are there, the calls for tenders will follow in autumn – after the ORF election. Wrabetz, who also lends a hand as a lawyer, can give directions here. Also in the event that his tenure as ORF boss, which has lasted since 2007, ends on December 31, 2021. He will try to play all of this out in poker with the ÖVP, which has an absolute majority on the board of trustees.
