FACE TO FACE IRVING WASHINGTON
SWITCHED ON IrvingWashington , executive director of the Online News Association (ONA), talks fake news, annoying his grandparents, dealing with uncertainty, and providing a platform for black CEOs…
I N T E R V I E W J AM E S L A N C A S T E R
excellence in the industry. Twenty years ago, one of our founders, who worked for MSNBC.com, was not allowed to join a prominent journalist association because he was not considered a ‘journalist’ at that time. And so, it grew from that basis of changing the industry, recognising the power that was going to unfold with the internet. So now we’re one of the larger journalism organisations and our mission is still the same. We were focused on innovation back then and we still are. However, what has changed is what innovation looks like. So now innovation’s not just technology, it’s about diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace culture, it’s about sustainability, it’s about emerging tech. That breadth of what innovation looks like is what our members are now championing across the world. JL How many members do you have? Are they individual members or organisations – or both? IW We are an individual member organisation and we have about three thousand members. JL Are they all US-based or do you have international members? IW Mainly in the US. We’ve been growing globally, so we have about twelve per cent international members now. Of course, the internet has been the ultimate equalizer of places across the world, and so our international membership has grown with that, too. JL So, these are journalists who exclusively work online – or do some work for publishers who maybe lead on print but have an online component? IW This is the best part of my job: it’s everybody. Our members are reporters and editors, but
JL Give us a synopsis of your career: where it all started and how you ended up at ONA. IW One of my earliest memories is of being fascinated with all facets of media –TV, radio, games – and recognising early on the power of media in a way I was unable to articulate at the time. I was podcasting by myself before podcasting was a thing, annoying my grandparents by recording them doing these shows on a tape recorder! But the traditional option for getting into media back then was becoming a reporter: go to a small city; work your way up, and none of that really appealed to me. So, I was confused for quite a while: why do I have this passion for media and what it can do, but don’t want to follow this sort of very rigid career path? And that lasted all the way through college. Anyway, I ended up moving to DC and I applied for a job advertised in the Washington Post and the organisation was RTDNA, which stood for Radio-Television News Directors Association. It was only when I was sitting in the interview that it hit me: ‘this is it!’. It took two decades to get there, but I knew this is what all those experiences were leading up to and that’s how I found my unique niche in the media world. So, I’ve worked for RTDNA, the National Association of Black Journalists, and for the last ten years at Online News Association. JL And in those jobs, were you doing any meeting and event planning? IW They were all small staffs, and we are a small staff, so, yeah, you do everything! I think between all three jobs, I have done pretty much every area of association management there is! JL So, tell me a bit about the ONA. What are its objectives? IW Our core mission is to inspire innovation and
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