Playful, responsive, creative and optimistic in 2024

You may have selected a word of the year for yourself. I recently took an online “quiz” on the Washington Post website titled “What’s your nudge word for 2024?” It helped guide me to my personal word of the year: playful. I aim to add more play to my life in 2024.

 

I’ve talked with friends who have selected their words. They run the gambit from words of self-improvement to words of strength to words of optimism. Some people put their words on bracelets or post them on the fridge. I write them in a column.

 

This year, at the paper we enter 2024 focused on three new words and an old standby: playful, responsive, creative, and always optimistic.

 

These words stem from an improv group business workshop I attended led by local improv group Theater 99. In addition to putting on great shows, the group is available to lead playful and educational workshops. We learned that improv only works when you embrace the play, respond to what is thrown at you and embrace creativity. 

 

These words serve as reminders, as guides, to keep the paper’s content and business goals on track for 2024.

 

Playful

 

Play is fun. In our work at the paper, we hope to use play to foster enthusiasm and creativity, enhance problem-solving, encourage unconventional thinking, and engage the community. 

 

We like to include play in the pages of the paper. In the past year, we’ve sponsored basketball and tennis trivia and pet trick video contests, the football pick ‘em, mystery photo contest and the weekly puzzle pages. In the community, we’ve promoted playfulness with the Bark in the Park, the Author Series, and the Bike Helmet

Challenge.

 

This year, we hope to include more “fun” content in the paper and to create more community events that foster playfulness. Be on the lookout for “Pop-Up Fun” and share your playful ideas for the paper and the community with us.

 

Being playful can also help our staff. The rate of burnout in newsrooms is high and gets worse in election years. It’s stressful. Finding ways to have fun, like hula-hooping at editorial meetings and taking staff sunset cruises helps foster teamwork and relieve stress.

 

Ultimately, our goal is to infuse joy into our work and our content to create a vibrant, adaptive, collaborative newspaper and community.

 

Responsive

 

At the improv seminar we learned that before we respond, we need to listen and then build on what is passed to us. This is great advice for business and life. 

 

We often receive suggestions for stories. We are grateful for suggestions because we have a small staff and are not omnipresent. 

 

In addition to story ideas, we get feedback. Some positive and some negative. We take both to heart as they let us know if we are on the right track or not. This year, as in year’s past, we aim to listen and respond to feedback from the community and to adjust and improve from it. 

 

Creative

 

Producing newspaper and online content each week requires creativity. The paper involves four basic functions: Writing, design, advertising sales, distribution. Creativity is needed in all aspects of what we do. Yet, it is easy to get into and stay in the same old way of doing things.

 

The newspaper industry and this paper are facing more and more challenges, including finding funds to produce the news. We will continually ask: In what creative ways can we address these challenges?

 

Optimistic

 

Being playful promotes resilience, as it nurtures a mindset of responsiveness and creativity that embraces change and challenges with enthusiasm. Newspapers face many challenges, and The Daniel Island News is no exception. Increased costs, burnout, more responsibilities and loss of advertising to social media are real but not insurmountable. 

 

A playful attitude that relies on responsiveness and creativity lets us be optimistic as we continue to publish the news in 2024. 

 

We encourage you to be playful, responsive, creative and optimistic in 2024 too!