Even before the full-scale invasion operating a media company meant shifting between different roles and expecting the same from your team. However, the unstable number of employees, the need to work from different parts of the country and the extreme psychological pressure forces employees of media organizations to take on responsibilities that are not related to their qualifications. In addition, strategic and operational planning, which was not implemented everywhere before the invasion, has now been narrowed down to a week.
Relocation
Until February 24, 2022, the outlets that participated in the study were evenly distributed throughout the regions of Ukraine, with a slight predominance of respondents from Odesa and Zaporizhia regions (3 respondents in each region, while other regions are represented by 1-2 respondents).
However, at the time of completing the questionnaire (mid-April), the physical locations of the newsrooms changed: with a predominance of Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhia and Odesa regions (2 respondents each).
Thus, we note the relocation of newsrooms from potentially unsafe cities to safer western regions. However, it can also be seen that 60.5% of newsrooms remained in their home regions.
Changes in the number of employees
Almost half — 48.64% of respondents — note that there were no changes when it comes to the number of employees in the newsroom. At the same time, the editors and media managers who filled out the questionnaire indicated that they were making efforts to maintain the core team of the media outlet.
In 33.28% of the surveyed media, on the contrary, the number of employees increased. And those are full-time members of the team, and only in isolated cases — it's freelancers or volunteers.
17.93% of respondents indicated that their team had decreased. At the same time, it was not possible to correlate with the geographical location of the outlets: the number of media workers was reduced both in newsrooms from the east of the country and from the central, southern and western regions.
Freelancers were at the greatest risk of layoffs: 3 out of 39 media outlets stopped working with freelancers while focusing on keeping the core team. And only one of the surveyed media began to engage freelancers as a supplement to the main team, which remained unchanged.
Roles and responsibilities
Previous research has shown that planning and assigning responsibilities within a team is still a challenge for media organizations. Although they are increasingly demonstrating a good will for strategizing and foreseeing their own activities. The war did not thwart these intentions, but significantly weakened them, adding a chaotic variety of approaches to the organization of work.
In general, there are three different ways in which newsrooms can handle the division of responsibilities.
The first approach is to adhere to a "pre-war" distribution of responsibilities. Newsrooms that follow this scenario have been able to retain most of their employees and, consequently, processes because they were based in safer locations or adapted quickly to the new conditions.
Of course, the psychological and emotional climate within the team and the general security situation do not allow everyone to demonstrate the pre-war level of productivity, but with the preserved workflows, the media outlet can gradually adapt to new conditions more meaningfully. This is the case in 47% of media outlets that participated in the survey.
The second approach (29% of media) is a significant increase in the responsibilities of team members, given that employees additionally engaged in volunteer work or territorial defense and have to deal with the challenges of remote work. Editors become grant managers, journalists run social media pages, and everyone is involved in content production:
“
As an editor, I am now looking for grants, running a channel on Telegram, and sometimes writing news. Journalists volunteer and write news that they monitor themselves, partially write articles for other outlets, both foreign or national; the system administrator has switched to part-time because we are not in the office, so he has no workload, and the advertising manager is working as another grant manager
- Media based in the center of the country
The third approach (24% of media) is that the work of the newsroom is divided into shifts and without a clear division of responsibilities. This format is aptly described by the quote "everyone does everything". This kind of distribution does not depend on the newsroom location.
“
In fact, now it is difficult to say who is responsible for what, because there is a lot of work, it often does not correspond to the specialization of performers, just everyone does what he or she can and helps others
— Media based in the center of the country
Psychological and emotional state of the team
Most often, newsrooms report that their teams feel exhausted (the poll was conducted after the 40th day of the full-scale invasion). Depletion occurs for a number of reasons:
night air raid alerts that disrupt the ability to sleep;
personal experiences related to the safety of family and relatives;
lack of days off (some outlets introduced a mode divided into work shifts).
Accordingly, productivity and communication within the team suffer. Of course, this is also influenced by the fact that the newsrooms have returned to remote work within the team (some employees have relocated and cannot return to their initial locations). But also the general unfavorable background exacerbates emotional breakdowns and conflicts. Some outlets acknowledge that the cycle of "tension-breakdown-stability-tension" tends to repeat itself. The psychological burden on team members is one of the biggest problems faced by the editorial staff. 61.44% of the media say they are experiencing such a problem.
At the same time, about half of the editors also say they understand the importance of their own work as part of joint efforts by the whole society and that allows for cautious optimism:
“
We are holding on, although it is difficult, but the courage of the Ukrainian army and the hard work of volunteers is encouraging!
— Media based in the west of the country
It can be seen that compared to the first days of war, some newsrooms were able to cope with excessive emotions through general stabilization, involvement of psychologists, meaningful activities, which, according to editorial staff, accelerates and brings victory over the enemy:
“
Everyone worked like a maniac, but probably only about a month later team members managed to get on track, if you can call it that. Anxiety attacks at night, personal experiences are exhausting… I was also emotionally overwhelmed, so I took the opportunity to work with a psychotherapist who specializes in working with journalists. Now the situation has more or less stabilized for everyone.
— Media based in the center of the country
However, being far from home and exposed to the intense news flow about shellings worsens employee well-being, increases anxiety and triggers a cycle of alternating phases of stability and emotional breakdowns.
Work capacity
33 out of 39 respondents were able to reflect on the effectiveness of their media outlet's work. 46.08% of the media note that the percentage of their work capacity has decreased. Among the reasons: increased news flow and at the same time psychological pressure on the team, relocation of newsrooms and the dispersion of teams, frequent air raid alerts.
A slight decrease of capacity (within 90-70% of normal) was noted by 7 respondents (17.92%). Another 6 indicated that their work capacity fell below 50% of normal (15.36%).
“
60% (of work capacity preserved) due to air raid sirens, team relocation
— Media based in the center of the country
Despite the difficulties, there are some media outlets that have been able to increase their workflow(23.04%). Another 15.36% were able to maintain the same level of work capacity as before the military escalation.
“
I am proud that we know how to mobilize in a crisis. I believe that we work with 100% efficiency as for such a small team and manage to create unique stories, not just news pieces
— Media based in the center of the country
Planning time-frame
In one of the previous sections, 38.4% of respondents indicated that one of the problems in their work is the inability to plan ahead. The vast majority of newsrooms now plan their work only a week in advance — 35.84% of respondents. Another 15.36% of the media work with a planning time-frame of 3 days. One of the outlets that joined the poll is generally planning only one day in advance. However, there are some media that plan their work processes for 6 months and by the end of the year — 5.12%, respectively. Another 15.36% plan for a month in advance, and 7.68% — for a few weeks.
A wider range of problems
Other common issues of the media include lack of human resources (46.08%), access to sources of information and human stories (35.84%), and inability to plan work (38.4%). Some 23.04% of respondents also noted difficulties in access to infrastructure as one of the problems they face. Another 28.16% cannot guarantee safety for all team members, while 10.24% indicated public distrust of journalists. Three other outlets noted the risks associated with the possible mobilization of journalists: part of the newsrooms may leave at any time, and due to the lack of qualified personnel, the situation will not be resolved quickly.
