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Romania: A “Roadmap“ for the State Broadcaster

Romanian National Radio has commissioned DW-AKADEMIE to help turn the ‘state broadcaster’ into a modern European station governed by public law. Here’s a progress report.

https://p.dw.com/p/M0IG

In the 1990s, as eastern European countries went through a political transformation, new, commercial broadcasters began to challenge the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by state broadcasters. The same went for Romania, where the state radio station Radio Romania decided to ask Deutsche Welle for help developing its staff’s professional skills.

Over the next sixteen years, Deutsche Welle instructors traveled to Bucharest to give workshops in news coverage, technical skills and to pass on their coaching abilities in Train-the-Trainer courses. But, in 2007, the new director-general decided she wanted more. She commissioned DW-AKADEMIE to help turn the ‘state broadcaster’ into a modern European broadcaster governed by public law.

The first step was a comprehensive analysis of the status quo. DW-AKADEMIE’s consultants, led by Jochen Walter, a specialist in management training and consulting projects, conducted interviews with the entire management staff to discuss the desired changes. Walter describes the initial work as follows: “At first, we applied the method of ‘Appreciative Participatory Organizational Needs Assessment ’ to initiate a process of change management consulting, which also took into account the broadcaster’s positive achievements rather than merely exposing its weaknesses.“

Then, in 2008, the first concrete measures – the “Change Projects“ – were launched. The change process was steered and directed in so-called “future conferences”. It also became clear that, in addition to systemic process consulting, there was a strong need for diverse specialist consulting. The broadcaster’s flagship program, “Radio Actualitati“ urgently needed a clear musical format to survive in the face of new competition. Accordingly, the station invested in listener research, strategic studies on broadcaster positioning and music tests to help develop a new format.

In the meantime, the broadcaster has made great strides in its restructuring drive. And it aims to continue in the same vein at a stiff pace – although the current director-general’s term in office ends this April. The entire management at Radio Romania is convinced that the roadmap drawn up in cooperation with DW-AKADEMIE is taking the broadcaster in the right direction.