(Vickey Williams)

Only occasionally do hints of Francisco Aguilar Chang's previous profession peek through as he talks about the challenges of newspapering today. Like when he compares his job at Nuestro Diario to that of an enzyme in a human body.

If Aguilar Chang's analogies are a little more intellectual than typical for a journalist, it could be his medical school education. That he would leave a career in medicine to be a newspaper journalist is only part of what makes Aguilar Chang an interesting guy.

I was just as intrigued about his role today at the Guatemala City daily that is seeing huge traffic for its mobile and online news after building a print circulation of 280,000 in just a decade. With a state edition and six regionals, Nuestro Diario is breaking records among newspapers in Latin America and Mexico for growth.

Just as an enzyme plays the role of speeding up a chemical reaction in living organisms, Aguilar Chang is charged with facilitating communication between his paper's newsroom and its business departments, he explained while doodling a series of interlinked arrows to help illustrate his point. It was only a little like a biology lesson.

Aguilar Chang developed a passion for sports at a young age. But as the son, grandson and nephew of medical doctors, he gave in to family tradition. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Universidad Del Valle and graduated from medical school at Universidad Francisco Marroquin, both in Guatemala, with some specialized study in the United States at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

While still in medical school he began working for a weekly magazine as sports editor. For most of the decade after graduating medical school in 1989, he managed dual career interests, indulging his love of sports through more magazine work, some free-lance writing for a weekly and later during stints as a television or radio sportscaster.

He continued his medical education with specialized training in sports physiology in Italy 1997-98, then entered a medical practice while somehow juggling his time to allow for two sports radio programs. In 2000, he was recruited to be vice minister of culture and sports, a government office. Later that year, he felt he had to make up his mind.

"I decided I had to do one thing," he said. Journalism won. "It was not a difficult decision."

So Aguilar Chang joined the staff of Nuestro Diario as sports editor. Two years ago, the publisher and editor created for him a new role as change agent to try to break through a stalemate between the news and business sides of the operation.

The silo atmosphere that Readership Institute research shows is typical in the culture of U.S. newspapers – where people in various departments tend to protect turf versus working together across boundaries on behalf of readers - was in evidence at Nuestro Diario. In fact, the story on workplace culture is the same around the globe, newspaper executives tell us.

At Aguilar Chang's paper, there was such a divide the senior editor had not attended operational meetings for two years. The editor enjoyed a good dialogue with Nuestro Diario's publisher, and it was through that relationship that business with the newsroom got done.

At Aguilar Chang's paper, the editor and publisher have equal authority. He reports to the editor, but in addition to overseeing six regional editions, it is part of his job description to serve as a liaison with other departments. He's charged with continuously ferrying to the newsroom information from sales, finance, distribution and human resources operations.

The publisher and top editor collaborate on new products. But day to day, "the editor focuses on editorial things," he said. Aguilar Chang attends all the operational meetings to ensure the newsroom keeps up to speed on business operations.

"We move at different speeds and that creates conflict," said Aguilar Chang in describing the various departments of his newspaper. "Many times business departments say things that hurt feelings. I was seen as someone who could take the blows and not personalize it. This position is a good one to be a buffer."

The creation of his job broke an impasse. Leaders at other newspapers might be wise to find similarly inventive bridges.

An inability to fully engage employees is a legacy of the top-down hierarchies that have existed so long across media organizations across platforms. The challenges of growing audience and revenue today require the smarts of every employee working at his or her highest potential. Newsroom employees won't be able to take their rightful seats at the table without getting up to speed on the facts of how their content connects or fails to connect – from market research to online usage stats to advertising sales. In short, journalists need to know much more about the full operations of their companies.

Nuestro Diario ensures a steady flow of information through Aguilar Chang. Other newspapers – including many Gannett newspapers – have routinely scheduled meetings where the publisher updates staff on the company's performance, including comparisons with like-sized papers in other markets.

During our three weeks together as classmates in the Media Management Center's Advanced Executive Program, Aguilar Chang came to be respected as a nearly Google-like authority for sports trivia. He still hosts a twice-a-week program on cable television with his youngest brother. They leave the practice of medicine to a sister.

"If I had it to do all over again, I would still study medicine. It gave me many good tools for life and for journalism. Giving life, dealing with death, skills for interviewing patients are almost all the same."


By Vickey Williams (Vickey-Williams@Northwestern.edu)
Vickey Williams is director of the Media Management Center's Digital Workforce Initiative.