Forget ‘to be;’ whether to text, email or call — that’s the real question
For an industry built on communicating information, journalists are absolutely terrible at communicating with each other. I’m always surprised by it. But given the number of anecdotes, jokes and horror stories I’ve heard, maybe I shouldn’t be.
Whether I’m teaching in St. Pete, Singapore, New York City or a virtual environment, I always get the same reaction: a guilty laugh. Everyone knows how bad we are at communicating with our peers, bosses and coworkers about our needs and problems at work.
It’s natural to want to avoid conflict, dodge difficult conversations and sidestep small talk. That instinct only grows stronger in distributed workplaces, where coworkers are spread across locations, timezones and schedules.
Related Knowledge Center: Inside the newsroom
As newsrooms struggle with rickety business models and precarious finances — as well as new technologies — they are deploying an array of editorial responses.
The Times and its critics | Washington Post mortem