The Winnipeg Free Press: Not a Newspaper—It's a "News Engine"

The Winnipeg Free Press is not a newspaper.

It used to be, editor Paul Samyn said at Going Barefoot 5, the bi-annual communications and marketing conference at Canadian Mennonite University.

But not today. 

“We are a news engine that produces a newspaper—and a website, a Facebook page, video, livestreaming, and a salon at the News Café,” he stated.

Today, he went on to say, the Free Press is “trying to shake off the print legacy. That legacy doesn’t work any more.”

“We are not a newspaper, but we publish one.”

This change is being forced on them, he went on to say.

“The biggest change is the pace . . . we used to make people wait 24 hours to get the news from us. People don’t want to wait that long any more.”

One thing they no longer think of are “print deadlines,” he stated. “If something is ready, we post it.”

This is different than in the past, when a newspaper would wait until it had all the information before publishing.

“Now, we know we can do more digging later,” he said.

Samyn’s comments reminded me of what Barth Hague, Chair of the Board of The Mennonite, the official publication of Mennonite Church USA, said a couple of years ago about changes at that publication.

Writing about the resignation of then-editor Everett Thomas, he observed that under his tenure the magazine had moved from being “a print magazine to a content distribution system.”

Like at the Free Press, The Mennonite was no longer just a magazine, he told me.

"We're transitioning from being a magazine to a content distribution system," he said of how The Mennonite now offers a traditional print magazine, website, blogs, podcasts, video and a weekly information e-mail.

"The traditional methods of sharing content are waning—it’s rapidly becoming digital now," he said. "The media are being transformed."

What does this mean for non-profits?

Just like the way the media is being transformed, non-profits are changing, too, or should be.

Like with the traditional media, non-profits also need to stop thinking about deadlines and publications. 

Today, our supporters are like subscribers to a newspaper. They are no longer willing to wait until when we are ready to share information—until the fall issue of a newsletter, or the spring issue of our magazine. 

Today we live in a web-first (or, as ESPN has said, a mobile first) world. 

If something is ready to be shared, it should go up immediately on a website, ready for sharing via social media.

It could still be published in a printed publication for those who prefer to get their information that way. But that should never be the first use.

Why? Because just like the Free Press isn’t a newspaper, non-profits are no longer in the publishing (print and deadline) business when it comes to sharing their information.

We are a news and information engine.  

Memento Mori: Closure of Canadian Hunger Foundation a Reminder to Non-Profits That They, Too, Can Die

Last summer, the Canadian relief and development community got a shock when the Canadian Hunger Foundation suddenly closed down.

CHF, as it was known, was no fly-by-night organization.

Founded in 1961, it was well-respected by other NGOs and the Canadian government, which provided generous funding for its programs in the developing world.

But it all came to an end on July 31, 2015, when it shut down.

What was the reason for the closure? Lack of investment in fundraising.

“While we were reaching more people [with international programs] than ever over the last couple of years, we weren’t investing what some other organizations were on marketing to donors, and ultimately that meant we couldn’t keep pace with our fundraising needs,” said former President and CEO Stewart Hardacre.

At the root of the problem was too much success: CHF was able to win a number of matching grants from the federal government for its overseas programs.

While the grants helped the organization help many more people, CHF was required to come up with $1 for each $3 or $4 provided by the government.

Unfortunately, CHF couldn’t come up with the matching funds.

"The fundamental problem was they were too successful in getting projects, and not successful in raising in a very significant manner the donations to CHF," said management consultant Garry Comber, who also served as interim executive director.

Adding to their woes was the loss of a major foundation donor, which provided $1 million a year—a loss that was impossible to make up.

The fundraising challenges came together “into sort of a perfect storm” that ultimately meant CHF had to cease active operations, said former Director of Communications Mike Jones.

So: What can other non-profits take away from CHF’s demise?

The number one lesson is the importance of investing in donor relations, marketing, communications and fundraising.

It’s all very well to have great programs; every NGO and non-profit should. But if you don’t have the money to support them, it ultimately won’t matter in the end.

In my experience, this is something many NGOs are loathe to do. Fundraising is overheard, after all—and we want to keep that as low as possible.

Plus, most NGO executive directors and presidents I know rose to their positions through the program side of things. They're great people, but their primary interest is in the delivery of assistance overseas—not marketing and fundraising. 

The result is that many NGOs routinely underspend when it comes to resource gathering. 

The result? Overworked and under-resourced staff do their best, but there’s only so much a few people can do to raise funds.

In the end, it's sort of like the children of Israel in the land of Egypt in the Old Testament who were told by their Egyptian overlords to make more bricks with less straw.

You can do that for a while. But one day the weakened bricks will give away and the whole edifice can crumble—as it did with CHF.

In that respect, CHF has become a memento mori for other Canadian NGOs:

Memento mori is Latin for “Remember, you too will die.”

In the middle ages, it was common for paintings to feature memento mori in the form of skulls and other death motifs. (As in the picture above.)

It was a reminder of how precious life is, and how quickly it can be over.

Instead of a skull (too macabre), maybe every NGO leader should keep the CHF logo on his or her desk or desktop screen.

It will be a reminder that every NGO, like CHF, can die if they don’t invest in fundraising and communications.

So, farewell CHF. And for the rest of us: Memento mori.