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The Hearken platform is a tool that anyone in the newsroom can use. There might be a single person operating the platform, or it could be something that every single reporter and editor uses. But you definitely don’t have to hire new people to run the Hearken platform.

So now you may be wondering: OK, but how do I staff the Hearken process? Managing the Hearken process goes beyond managing the platform. It involves engaging the community, from soliciting questions to curating voting rounds to reporting stories. So how do you staff the process from question submission to finished story? It depends.

It depends on how often you’d like to produce these public-powered stories. And it depends on what parts of your newsroom want to use the Hearken process.

You may want to create a series or vertical only for Hearken-powered stories. You may use Hearken to encourage audience involvement in a serial investigation. Or you may want to use Hearken throughout your newsroom for different beats or individual reporters. Learn more about Hearken use cases

Staffing the Hearken platform and process can work at all newsroom sizes. You do not need to have a large staff to make it work. Here are a few approaches to staffing the platform and process we have seen from partner newsrooms. We've seen:

However you plan to use Hearken, there should be at least one point person. This person keeps tabs on incoming questions, manages the tech platform, and fosters audience engagement. Their title is not the most important factor. It could be a manager, reporter, producer, editor, social media strategist, engagement editor, or intern. What is important is the person needs to be passionate about community engagement and have a personality-type that lines up with collaborative journalism. They're also well-respected in the newsroom. 

As with anything, it's harder to get traction on an initiative when the folks helming it aren't in a good position to get internal buy-in. 

Note: You or your bosses may worry that using Hearken will take away time from your main job in the newsroom. Do not fear; Hearken is just a process and tool to help you do what you’ve always done: create stories. 

At least one person in the newsroom needs to be reviewing the submitted questions. They can flag the best ones to assign to reporters or to add to voting rounds. This can also be the person who first communicates with question askers to clarify a question or to alert them when their question is in a voting round. 

This is by no means an all-day task. Some newsrooms check and organize the questions on the Hearken platform for a few minutes each morning, or before an editorial meeting to bring the best ideas forward for consideration. You can also set up email notifications or Slack integration to be notified when new questions come in. And some newsrooms make use of interns to help run the administrative side of Hearken. This person (or people) might have other platform-related tasks. If you have moderation turned on, they can review and approve all submitted questions before they are publicly-visible, e.g.  in a list embed. 

It's great to have someone in the newsroom working on outreach strategy and promotion when you first launch the platform and beyond. It helps to educate your audience about the Hearken process and get them excited about participating. And in order to foster ongoing participation, repetition is key. So it's very valuable to have someone in the newsroom who keeps the promotion going: soliciting questions, sharing details about the Hearken process on social media, and promoting Hearken-powered stories. Learn more about promotion and engagement strategies. 

However you plan to use Hearken in your newsroom, you’re going to need to get buy-in from editors and fellow reporters. It may happen one at a time. That’s especially true if you’re hoping to use Hearken to generate stories throughout your newsroom, rather than for a dedicated series. Even if other reporters and editors have access to submitted questions on the back end, they may need encouragement and reminders to pursue audience questions. The point-person for the platform can look out for questions that might be appropriate for a certain section, beat, or reporter and send them along to editors or reporters in the newsroom. They can also identify editors and reporters who are particularly invested in audience engagement, and find ways to get them more involved. 

It's ideal if the person in charge is or can be part of editorial and pitch meetings. That way they can regularly advocate for audience questions to become stories across the newsroom. When a reporter pitches a topic on a certain subject, the person running the Hearken platform can say "Hey! We got a great question about that from this community member. Let's work on having you report out your story in this framework instead."