In the news: Many publishers are having a hard time finding talent in the post-Covid employee pool. What’s causing the shortage?

The industry, the newspaper segment in particular, is slowly rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic. Jerry Simpkins of Editor & Publisher discusses some of the promising upswings and some of the challenges ahead in a recent piece. “Most of you have already seen an increase in pre-prints versus the dry period of COVID,” he writes. “Shelves that were bare over the past year are now starting to fill up again, and advertisers seem to be coming back in both preprints and in ROP advertising.”

But publishing (and other industries) are facing new staffing challenges now that the pandemic is receding. “It has become increasingly challenging to find and hire lower wage production workers,” Simpkins says. Due to a confluence of factors, including extended pandemic unemployment benefits, “there is now a significant shortage of qualified workers, and it is affecting our ability to get the job done.” Read more here.

Also Notable

In-Flight Print Magazines: An Endangered Species

Joanna Bailey of SimplyFlying.com discusses the future of in-flight magazines in a recent piece. “As airlines begin to remove the inflight magazine from the aircraft cabin, many are turning to digital downloads to provide the information that was previously offered here,” she writes. But not every passenger has a compatible device, and some are lamenting the loss of this resource. Airbus has patented an innovative idea that sees inflight magazines moving to flexible OLED screens.” Print in-flight magazines are expensive to produce, and inventory management (including finding and replacing damaged copies) creates more work for flight attendants. Some airlines are offering the content in digital format, while Airbus has patented a flexible digital magazine screen, Bailey reports. Read more here.

Journalism Students Step in to Save Local News

Some news companies facing staffing challenges are turning to journalism students to keep things afloat. Mark Jacob of Poynter.org reports that, among others, “University of Kansas students are operating a local news website in a ‘news desert’ about 10 miles east of the campus. Students at Franklin College in Indiana are covering state government for a nonprofit website that is battling against civic disengagement.” Read more here.

Consolidation Boosts Editorial for News Publisher

Last week, Gabby Miller of the Columbia Journalism Review discussed Ulster Publishing’s consolidation of four Upstate New York newspapers (the Woodstock Times, Kingston Times, New Paltz Times, and Saugerties Times) into the new Hudson Valley One. The consolidation, the end result of years of financial struggle made more pronounced by Covid, allowed the publisher to cut the steep overhead costs of running multiple print editions and reinvest the recouped money on editorial content. And it’s stoked some controversy in the region, reports Miller: “Many community members donated to the struggling publishing company ... while other readers were less sympathetic, saying they’d only subscribe if their specific community’s print paper returned.” Read more here.

Summer Fridays and Other Employee Perks Post-Covid

Many media companies are looking for ways to perk up employees burned out by the pandemic. Some are instating “summer Fridays,” which allow employees to work a shorter day and get a head start on the weekend. Sara Guaglione of Digiday reports that some of these companies are also offering flex holidays and additional paid time off. Of course, for employees working in the news sector, summer Fridays aren’t possible: “Sometimes it is not possible for an employee to take advantage of Fridays off, so publishers are trying to find a balance between enabling employees to take care of their work and ensuring they take care of themselves,” says Guaglione. Read more here.

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