By Lucía Baldomir
Reporter, El País
Montevideo, Uruguay
Hosted by the Sun-Sentinel

A month had passed after I arrived to Miami when I realized there is not much difference between a newsroom and journalists in the United States and Uruguay. Before I came here I was expecting to learn what it is to work in a professional manner. I thought US newsrooms were very organized, highly productive, and lead by book-theories of independence, which are difficult to apply in Uruguay. I was also expecting to meet very sharp journalists. But I wasn’t completely right.

In the last five months the Sun-Sentinel has gone through one of its most difficult moments: decline in readership and profits that prompted lay-offs. Making decisions was a big issue as no one wanted to be vulnerable by having the responsibility. The journalist were more concerned about their future and their way to survive in the company.

However, through my experience at the Sun-Sentinel first and foremost I learned the importance of focusing on the readers. In different ways and besides being in difficult times, the company pushes for what they consider is the best for readers, who not only buy the paper but also are the main reason we are journalists.

Freedom of speech: make the reader count. First of all I learned what free speech is first hand by writing columns and editorials for the Sun-Sentinel. In my almost nine years working as a journalist I don’t remember asking myself my opinion about a specific issue. I just tried to balance my story. But at the Sun-Sentinel, it wasn’t only about my right of speech, it also included the readers’ right. I realized in the United States people actually feel they have the right of saying what they think. As nasty as it could have been, it showed me how readers react to what we write. And the best part is that they engage with journalists by writing emails or calling them. At the Sun-Sentinel each story has a tag line in which the email and phone number of the writer is listed, encouraging the readers to speak up if they see mistakes or they disagree or agree with the article. I would propose to the upper management of El País this idea and work along with designers. Ultimately I feel that is a way of making the reader part of the news process and showing them they have a role in it. It engages the reader and builds a relationship between the paper and the reader. The success here will be measured with reader reactions. The paper has already started to allow comments of the stories on the web so it should not be a problem to implement it.

• Humanize stories: why readers would care? At El País most of the articles are related to breaking news or soft news. Many of them are about who said what but there is little practical use for readers. Having opinions of common men and women in almost every story is one of the main differences between the American newspapers and the ones in my country. I think contrary to what I could see in the United States, journalism in my country is too far from the average people. We hardly ever have an average Uruguayan talking about his concerns. As a business reporter I will try to especially emphasize this when looking for story ideas that could have an impact on readers or try to explain how something that seems to be far away of daily life actually has an impact on it. At the Sun-Sentinel I could see how readers enjoyed the articles that spoke to them: What impacts them today? Neither journalists nor companies are the main focus. It is readers that matter. Again, success will be measured by reader’s response.
• Press Freedom: going down the basics. In Uruguay, it can happen that stories are held back if they hurt the advertisers' interest. One of my first questions to the Editor at the Sun-Sentinel was how that works in the United States. He told me that journalists or newspapers can’t lose their focus, which is their readers. Besides, he said, the impact an advertisement can have in the paper is bigger than a bad story so journalists should never be threatened by advertisers saying they are going to take their money away. Working at the major newspaper in Uruguay I think this is something we should fight for.
• Style Manual: speaking the same language. It is common at El País that in different stories one department writes “US$” other writes “dollars” while others write “American dollars”. It’s the same with other aspects, which makes the newspaper a bunch of islands without coherence. I would like to propose to the managing editor to write a Style Manual available to everyone, even students. In the United States I had the chance to read many Style Manuals that helped journalists to answer simple questions on how to write or correct. I think having coherence in the text shows respect for the readers.

OTHER IDEAS
• Comparison: room for improvement. Something I really liked about the Sun-Sentinel is that everyday they hand out the front page of the paper and compare it to the one of the Miami Herald. I think that could be good to implement in the morning meetings at El Pais.
• Team Work. At the Sun-Sentinel I also experienced teamwork but not among journalists. As in Uruguay, in the United States I found that journalists try to avoid working with each other. The teamwork here, however, is done with the art departments, editors and copy editors. The graphics and the photos were planned together in advance and each of the members in the team tried to make a better story in the hole.
• Criticize and Encourage. Before coming to the United States a business man in Uruguay told me that at the Sun-Sentinel I would learn how to write positive news compared to in Uruguay where more and more news tends to criticize or illustrate the negative. Indeed that was what I found at the Sun-Sentinel. I didn’t meet any journalists or read stories that try to question what the government or a company is doing. The editorial page is the only place where I could find that. On the other hand, I saw many journalists writing about success stories. With this in mind I would like to implement a weekly column about entrepreneurship in Uruguay to encourage people to DO and to be creative rather than to be pessimistic.

All in all, working in a U.S. newsroom, seeing my bylines in the newspaper and proving to myself I could be a reporter in another language and country helped me build up confidence in what I do. I feel ready to lead some of the improvements I want to make. My goal is to try to implement some of these ideas before the end of the year. I know some will require a bigger commitment from the paper with some investment. However, those changes that require a pro-active attitude from the journalists I expect to share with my colleagues by first practicing them myself. That should be journalists’ nature: share what we learn.