Education outlets and teams have adopted more flexible schedules to accommodate the challenges of remote working and the ongoing demand for COVID-19 stories.
By Mary Jo DiLonardo
The new normal in today’s newsroom is anything but. Like employees in so many businesses, reporters, editors, and managers are working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, often juggling childcare and new roles as temporary homeschoolers.
They’re attending all-hands meetings via Zoom, interviewing subjects via FaceTime, and adjusting deadlines to work around homework schedules and mental health breaks. All while dealing with growing headlines about many news outlets having to institute furloughs or pay cuts to keep businesses afloat.
In response to the much-changed circumstances, reporters and editors have adopted new, more flexible working arrangements — among them, changing schedules and allowing reporters to work less than full time.
From the Los Angeles Times and EdNC.org to Chalkbeat and The Hechinger Report, flexible schedules don’t appear to have affected productivity as many writers report working longer days and seven-day weeks to make sure they get their stories done.
“There’s so much going on that we aren’t even thinking about the hours,” Los Angeles Times education editor Stephanie Chavez told The Grade in a phone interview. Staff members are working flexible schedules but are still working 12-hour days almost every day of the week.
ABOVE: Clockwise from top left: Stephanie Chavez (LA Times), Rupen Fofaria (EdNC), Sarah Garland (Hechinger Report), Jennifer Bramble (Chalkbeat).
Rupen Fofaria, a reporter for the nonprofit news outlet EdNC.org, is the father of two boys, ages 8 and 11. The only one of the organization’s 15 staff members with school-age children, Fofaria is home with his kids around the clock now. He says that the biggest impact that has on his job are the hours in which he writes, which impacts his workflow.
“I used to love writing first thing in the morning. That’s when I felt the most creative and the most focused,” Fofaria told The Grade in a phone interview. But mornings are now when he prepares his kids’ schedules and cooks for the day. He has shifted his writing to later in the evening. That affects a story’s publish date because deadlines are 3 p.m. for EdNC.org.
“I either need to file a story a day early or it runs a day late,” he said. Because other staffers have older kids or no children, they have been able to work around his need to have flexible deadlines now.
Fofaria recently wrote about phonemic proficiency while colleague Liz Bell discussed “Suddenly at home with your young children? Here’s how to keep them engaged and learning.”
Editors have been incredibly understanding of his situation, Fofaria says. Early on, his editor would check in every day to see how the new situation was working out. When Fofaria would say he was just trying to establish a new routine for the kids, his editor responded, “Sounds great. Sounds like you’ve got your priorities in order.”
“I used to love writing first thing in the morning. That’s when I felt the most creative and the most focused.” — Rupen Fofaria, EdNC
The nonprofit Chalkbeat has newsrooms in seven locations around the country with three to six reporters and a bureau chief in each. As the coronavirus crisis began to intensify in March, each newsroom was asked to stagger work shifts to accommodate employee needs.
The company also created a master schedule so everyone would know who is working when in each location, Jennifer Bramble, the chief people officer at Chalkbeat, told The Grade in a phone interview. At one site, for example, there’s a reporter who is taking off Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. Another reporter is taking off Fridays, and the two are filling in for each other.
“In some of our newsrooms, we have folks who are taking four-hour breaks for two days during the week and they are having colleagues cover for them while they homeschool or take an elderly relative for a walk,” Bramble explained. Twenty of the site’s 65 employees have children under the age of 13.
In addition, Chalkbeat’s policy is that reporters don’t need to take PTO (personal time off) or take time off without pay for the hours they miss.
Bramble says with the changes, there’s been no impact on story production or the staff’s ability to get stories out the door. “These are desperate times and our folks need support,” Bramble said. “We are just trying to accommodate their lives as best we can.”
Chalkbeat’s recent reporting includes “When teaching and parenting collides” and “Goodbye playgrounds, hello virtual debate clubs.”
“In some of our newsrooms, we have folks who are taking four-hour breaks for two days during the week and they are having colleagues cover for them while they homeschool or take an elderly relative for a walk.” — Jennifer Bramble, Chalkbeat.
At The Hechinger Report, executive editor Sarah Garland wrote, “Many of us feel exhausted and frayed by this new expectation that we add homeschooling to the already overwhelming demands of parenting and working.”
Garland, who has kids ages 4 and 6 who are usually in New York City public schools, explained how the site has addressed parenting and working with staff.
“At Hechinger, we’ve tried to ease the stress by asking parents with kids at home to put in half days and make up the rest of their work when they can,” wrote Garland, “although many of us are staying up late and working seven days a week to get everything done.”
The Hechinger Report’s recent coverage includes how parents of kids with disabilities are worried quarantine could lead to regression and planning ahead to help students catch up when schools reopen.
“At Hechinger, we’ve tried to ease the stress by asking parents with kids at home to put in half days and make up the rest of their work when they can.” — Sarah Garland, Hechinger Report.
The education team at the Los Angeles Times also has been working 12-hour days, seven days a week, education editor Stephanie Chavez told The Grade in a phone interview. But that wasn’t going to be sustainable. So they all took a recent weekend off, she said, at her insistence. “We realized we need to pace ourselves,” she said.
Two of the team’s four reporters have school-age children. Flexibility has been key with reporters working around spouse and children’s schedules, as nearly everyone is reporting from home.
“We know each other well and care about each other well. We all feel a magnificent amount of pressure to do this coverage and to do this right because of who we are and this broader mission,” Chavez said. “We are really understanding of people’s needs to make it work at home under very stressful times.”
Some of the team’s recent notable work includes low-income students who need headphones to avoid distractions at home and thousands of high school students who are AWOL online.
“We know each other well and care about each other well. We all feel a magnificent amount of pressure to do this coverage and to do this right because of who we are and this broader mission.” — Stephanie Chavez, LA Times.
“I think we’re all in the same boat right now, and the keyword is flexibility,” Kristen Hare, a reporter at Poynter.org, told The Grade via email.
Hare, who has two children ages 9 and 12, says she has shifted her schedule to work around her kids’ virtual school days.
From her home office, she has observed reporters making the most of being confined to electronic interviews.
“I see journalists asking the right questions and painting powerful pictures despite not being able to be someplace in person. And there are opportunities for creativity and connection with audiences that newsrooms are making the most of.”
Related stories:
How mainstream COVID-19 schools coverage surged — then fell
Making the map: How EdWeek devised a must-have pandemic resource
Coverage challenges in the coronavirus era
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Jo DiLonardo
MARY JO DiLONARDO has worked in print, online, and broadcast journalism for more than 25 years. She has covered a wide range of subjects including education, health, and science.
