“Like playing a game of 3D chess.” That’s how special projects editor Mark Rice-Oxley describes the process of planning the Guardian’s latest editorial project. Part investigation, part fly-on-the-wall documentary, This is the NHS takes a detailed look at one of the world’s biggest employers – and a service that all of us in the UK benefit from at some time in our lives. But how did the project come to fruition?
“Over the last five years at the Guardian and Observer, we’ve started to work in different ways,” explains Rice-Oxley who, along with news planning editor Mark Oliver, project-managed the investigation. “We have access to all sorts of new teams, skills, digital products and networks. We wanted to do something that would harness all these internal resources and bring a complex and important story to life.” With 1.6m employees and gripping human dramas playing out every day in hospitals and surgeries around the country, the NHS fitted the bill.
Initial planning began in September 2015. “We started out with 30 people in a room, writing down ideas on Post-it notes about how we could make this happen,” says Paul Johnson, deputy editor of the Guardian. “Over time, those ideas were distilled down into areas and themes in a process that was open and methodical and, in the end, involved more than 70 people.”
The preliminary research included callouts to readers, asking them what they wanted to read about the NHS. “The three priorities that emerged were good news stories instead of just negative ones, costs and mental health,” Johnson says.
Storytelling
The storytelling devices employed include print articles, interviews, interactives, graphics, quizzes, first-person diaries from frontline NHS staff and stories from people whose lives have been saved by NHS staff. “The challenge of keeping a nation healthy involves failures as well as successes,” says Rice-Oxley. “We wanted to understand and share the triumphs as well as the disasters.”
The project team had fantastic co-operation from the start, from both the NHS and the Department of Health. “We were all upfront and honest about what we wanted and what was possible,” says Johnson. “The Department of Health were very good in an advisory capacity and gave us the access and the figures we needed,” adds Rice-Oxley.
The more detailed project planning began in November. “The NHS is a sprawling subject and our coverage has so many moving parts,” says Rice-Oxley. “But as always, I was heartened and uplifted by the number of hands that went up when we told colleagues about the project. Despite the extra workload, the energy and enthusiasm and their commitment to what we were doing was extraordinary.”
Engagement
The project is set to run for four weeks. Is it possible to engage readers in one topic for that length of time? “That’s where journalism has changed,” observes Rice-Oxley. “We’ve so many more tools in the box and we need to make the most of all of them. But more than ever that means the skill comes down to the editing.
“We need to judge what to run where, making sure what’s on offer is diverse and stimulating and appeals to as many people as possible. That’s where the judgment comes in.”
A significant percentage of the Guardian’s online readership lives outside the UK but it is hoped that the coverage will resonate across the board. Rice-Oxley says: “It will stimulate debate and get people in different countries talking about their own healthcare systems, and how they value them. We can compare and contrast and learn from each other’s approach to cancer treatment, maternity provision, mental health services and so on.”
Measuring success
The project will come to an end in February. How will we know if it’s been a success? “That’s a difficult question to answer in this age of Facebook visits, internet hits and ad revenues,” says Rice-Oxley. “Obviously we will be able to monitor traffic to our website. But our emphasis will be on bringing the NHS with us, getting the 1.6m working in the service involved in and engaged with what we’re doing. We want to start a conversation that goes on even when the project is finished.”
This is the NHS is a first for the Guardian. Will there be a repeat? “Doing this type of journalism over a month is very unusual,” says Johnson. “We’ve never done anything on this scale before, involving people and resource from across the organisation right from the start. What we learn from it will certainly inform and guide how we work in the future.”
• Guardian Live’s This is the NHS event takes place at 7pm on 21 January. Look out for a podcast of the event on theguardian.com/members on Monday 25 January.
There are further events planned in February. To find out what else is coming up and to support Guardian journalism sign up to become a Guardian Member.
