Are Publishers Reopening Offices Too Soon?
Posted on Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 9:14 PM
In the news: A new Covid-19 case in a South Carolina newsroom is
raising critical questions about how safe it is for editors to return to
their offices.
Staff at the South Carolina Post and Courier
recently returned to their desks despite widespread concerns about the
safety of the workplace. Those concerns, it turns out, were not
unfounded: This week, reports Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast,
management notified employees that there was a confirmed Covid-19 case
in the Charleston office.
“The Post and Courier has
... eschewed the work-from-home ethos embraced by many media companies
and newspapers, which has aggravated some staff who were concerned about
potentially coming into contact with coronavirus in an office space,”
says Tani. Even worse, he says that an editor was recently fired for
allowing an article critical of the newspaper’s decision to reopen
offices to be posted on the paper’s Facebook page.
The
strategy comes as several states are experiencing major Covid-19 surges.
The city of Charleston itself has become an outbreak zone in recent
weeks, a source of anxiety for Post and Courier staffers required
to return to work. Read more about the controversy here.
Also
Notable
AP Style Update: Capitalizing “Black” and
“Indigenous”
In response to recent antiracism
protests, the AP is updating its style guide to capitalize Black when
“referring to people in a racial, ethnic or cultural context,” reports
the Associated Press. In addition, the AP will capitalize Indigenous “in
reference to original inhabitants of a place.” Read more about the AP
style updates here.
Note
from the editors: Editors Only has also adopted this style change.
Overcoming
Newsroom Racism
This week, Amanda Zamora of Poynter.org
discusses how newsrooms can combat racism. In an open letter to newsroom
leaders throughout the industry, she discusses specific strategies
including salary transparency, not hiding behind human resources
departments, frank discussions about race, and adjusting workplace
practices that have traditionally benefited white employees at the
expense of others. She writes: “I am ... acutely aware. Aware that the
system of white supremacy that paved the way for [George] Floyd’s death
is the same system at work in our newsrooms. Aware of the ways newsroom
leaders have allowed white superiority to harm our colleagues. And aware
of the part I’ve played in that harm, enabling people who have both
given me so much and benefited from my silence.” Read the full letter here.
Publishers
Experiencing “Engagement Surge”
This week, Caysey
Welton of Foliomag.com explores the “engagement surge” publishers have
seen during the Covid-19 pandemic. “During the pandemic,” she writes,
“Americans were hungry to devour news and information about the virus
and its impacts on society and the economy. Likewise, they also wanted
to be entertained and have a chance to escape, even if for a moment.
This was evident to several publishers we’ve spoken to since the
pandemic began, many of whom saw significant upticks in traffic and
engagement across all of their channels.” These gains, she says, present
publishers with an opportunity for sustained growth. Read the full
article here.
Google
to License News Content from Publishers
Why is Google
suddenly announcing intentions to pay for publisher content licenses?
Lucinda Southern of Digiday.com explores the sudden pivot in a recent
piece. The new initiative, she reports, will first launch in Australia,
Germany, and Brazil -- and Google is reportedly in talks with several
other countries. But the internet giant’s motives are unclear: “Writing
a check to publishers in regions where it’s feeling the heat from
regulators for not paying publishers buys some goodwill, according to
sources,” Southern writes. “Google’s responded to comment saying it
recognized it needed to do more for publishers and is keen to expand the
project but could not be more specific.” Many are skeptical of Google’s
real motives, and their carefully worded statement only raises more
questions for some publishers. Read more here.
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