Robin Kwong | Project management in newsrooms

一Welcome

This is a website about how people can organise themselves to create meaningful work at the intersection of journalism and technology.

It is also the personal website of Robin Kwong, Director of Audience Loyalty at the Wall Street Journal. You can start reading my writing below. My most recent post is on:

Epic 2023 Wednesday conference notes

You can see all my previous posts here. I also regularly recommend interesting pieces of digital journalism.

Want to find out more about me? There's a whole section below.

Get in touch by email at robin.kwong@gmail.com, follow me on Twitter, or visit my LinkedIn profile.

二Highlights

Journalism that Tells Emotional Truths 10/2019
Why emotional storytelling is the future of journalism 06/2019
Lessons from making the 'Dodging Trump's Tariffs' newsgame 04/2019
What art and drama can do for journalism 04/2019
Reflections on The Uber Game, one year on 10/2018
Contemporary Narratives Lab: Work-in-progress presentations 07/2018
The Contemporary Narratives Lab project 06/2018
A list of recent newsgames 02/2018
On language, articulation, and organisational change 10/2017
Mind the gap 09/2017
Factories, workshops and labs 06/2017
Games and Empathy 04/2017
How do we create a need for news? 03/2017
Two types of journalism 10/2016
Eight questions to ask before choosing a web publishing platform 10/2016
Wicked problems in the business of journalism 07/2016
What history can tell us about the future of interactive journalism 04/2016
Why editors ≆ project managers 02/2016
Why newsrooms need project managers 01/2016

三Seen this?

Recommendations of articles pertinent to digital and visual journalism.

27/09/2020
What if all covid‑19 deaths in the United States had happened in your neighborhood?
The social share function produce an image that is customised to your query

→ More recommendations

四Posts

Epic 2023 Wednesday conference notes 10/2023
Epic 2023 Tuesday conference notes 10/2023
Epic 2023 Monday conference notes 10/2023
Project Management in Newsrooms Guide 07/2023
Epic 2022 day 3 conference notes 10/2022
Epic 2022 day 2 conference notes 10/2022
Epic 2022 day 1 conference notes 10/2022
ONA 2022 Board Election Speech 09/2022
Interactivity is not (the) objective 10/2021
Epic 2021 day 2 conference notes 10/2021

→ Archive

五Fellowship

I participated in the inaugural Nikkei-FT fellowship programme in San Francisco, from March to May 2017.

During the fellowship, I explored how we can create a need for news by igniting curiosity and encouraging exploration, and how we can tell stories that create emotional understanding and empathy.

I set out my case for why these are important questions in this post, and summarised my thoughts and findings here.

→ Fellowship

六Projects

Purpose vs Profit: The Trade-off Game 10/2019
Dodging Trump's Tariffs 04/2019
The Uber Game 10/2017
Life beyond the pit 09/2017
Making peace with the robots 06/2017
Can a robot do your job? 04/2017
Financial Times special projects toolkit 03/2017
Seven robots you need to know 05/2016
The corporate jet files 03/2016
Modern-day slavery 12/2015
Inside Isis Inc: The journey of a barrel of oil 10/2015
When interest rates rise 09/2015
Wearables at work 06/2015
Could subscriptions fund the BBC? 02/2015
Refugees in America 12/2014

七Canon

A list of articles, books, videos and podcasts that I find myself returning to over and over again. They have shaped how I think about my work.

→ The Canon

八Press

The Drum

The Wall Street Journal’s innovation chief on the future of media in a pandemic 09/2020
L'Obs

Dans la peau d’un chauffeur Uber ou d’une réfugiée: ces jeux vidéo qui changent notre regard sur l’info 09/2020
Splice Beta

How we prototype news products at The Wall Street Journal 09/2020
ICFJ

Journalism and the Pandemic: Innovative approaches to reporting 06/2020
INMA

Reinventing newsroom innovation at The Wall Street Journal 06/2020
Media Voices Podcast

Developing features for a news brand 06/2020
Interhactives

This is what media innovators are doing in 2019 03/2019
projectmanager.com

The 18 most influential people in project management 03/2019
Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab Predictions for Journalism 2019 12/2018
Journalism.co.uk

The Financial Times mixes journalism with performance to engage wider audiences 07/2018
The Idea, Atlantic Media

Q&A on the FT's new Digital Delivery Team 05/2018
Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab Predictions for Journalism 2018 12/2017
Source Opennews

How (and Why) the Financial Times made The Uber Game 10/2017
FT Engage

What will we do when machines do everything? 06/2017
Journalism.co.uk

Three lessons in editorial collaboration 06/2017
Source Opennews

The FT's newsroom project management toolkit 03/2017
The Splice Newsroom

Why I talk about what I do 02/2017
Digiday

Bring me your broken dreams 01/2017
Journalism.co.uk

The first 180 days of a special projects editor 08/2016
Journalism.co.uk

The best experiments are the ones no one talks about 08/2016
Flow

How to find clarity in your projects by asking questions 06/2016
Poynter

How to get more out of your newsroom experiments 05/2016
Journalism.co.uk

Podcast—The benefits of project management 02/2016

九About

Robin went to prison once … to interview the disgraced former president of Taiwan.

That wasn’t nearly as scary as the time he accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of an Airbnb in Athens.

Robin’s life has taken him to some pretty unexpected places, but it’s not the places that interest him as much as the people he meets and the stories they have to tell. As Director of Audience Loyalty at the Wall Street Journal, Robin leads a team of developers and designers exploring the future of news and journalism.

Figuring that out has meant learning how to code, how to design, and how to help other people become their best selves.

Are you a fellow traveller keen to swap tales around the proverbial campfire? Get in touch at robin.kwong@gmail.com, follow me on Twitter, or get a more traditional view of what I've done on LinkedIn.