December 2020

Posts published in December 2020

Improving mental health in the newsroom

The coronavirus pandemic has been tough on journalists. It is a sad and negative topic to keep reporting on. It is also a lonely time. Lots of us are in constant Zoom meetings but in-person, meaningful interactions are rare.

Decades of newsroom culture have also reinforced the message that it is ‘not cool to talk about your feelings’, that it is part of the job to ‘put up and shut up’. However, when journalists are not well they cannot properly tell the stories that matter to their readers and viewers.

Experts from Sky News, Reuters, Reach Plc and the Ethical Journalism Network share practical tips around taking care of our colleagues and ourselves when we are feeling low.

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Podcast: Penelope Jones, founder of My So-Called Career, on building a resilience toolkit

2020 has cast doubt over many areas of the journalism industry. Newsroom revenue, job security, even our own health; these all feel precarious during a global pandemic.

In the face of uncertainty, you have two options. You can sit and wait for the worst to happen or you can start to work on a plan so you are not taken aback if the worst-case scenario came true.

At our digital journalism conference Newsrewired this week (8 December 2020), one workshop explored this idea. Workshop leader and career coach Penelope Jones has spent 17 years in the media industry, holding leadership and strategic roles at The Guardian and Condé Nast. She later founded a career development company My So-Called Career that helps early and mid-career journalists achieve their potential.

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Leveraging audio to drive subscriptions and memberships

The coronavirus pandemic has forced news organisations to reconsider many of their strategies, both because of the economic pressures facing newsrooms and that audiences have been stuck indoors during lockdown.

The Telegraph, Slate and Frontier Myanmar discussed how leveraging audio can be a way to drive subscriptions and memberships.

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Podcast: Julie Posetti, global research director of ICFJ, on post-pandemic future

From battling disinformation to dealing with online abuse and mental health crisis, journalists around the globe are feeling the impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

At our digital journalism conference Newsrewired this week (1 December 2020), Julie Posetti, global research director of the International Centre for Journalist (ICFJ), gave a keynote speech on how covid-19 has impacted both journalists and news organisations, with one eye on how to enter 2021 with renewed strength and determination.

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How the pandemic made newsrooms more creative

One of the biggest challenges for newsrooms during the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to lead change and innovation, while staff are burning out and the industry faces economic pressures.

Newsroom leaders and industry experts discussed how the crisis brought new opportunities to experiment and innovate.

Regional publisher Reach Plc had to juggle new working practices and furloughed staff with the launch of new websites. Meanwhile the BBC pressed ahead with smart speaker technology during the pandemic.

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