By William Turvill, PressGazette, Jan. 19, 2023
UK media WFH policies are generally hybrid/flexible. But editors are keen to rebuild a pre-pandemic atmosphere.
Last week Robert Thomson, the chief executive of News Corp, emailed staff to promote his vision for recreating a “thriving office environment” nearly three years after working from home (WFH) became a norm across many professions.
Thomson spoke of the need to “enhance productivity and creativity”, which he suggested could not be “consistently generated in not-so-splendid isolation”. The company, he added, would be working to ensure “more people return more frequently to our offices”.
This may be easier said than done for some divisions of News Corp
The Times and Sunday Times, both part of News Corp’s News UK publishing arm, merged onto the same floor of the company’s London Bridge office during the pandemic. Two newsroom sources suggested that the 13th floor is not big enough to accommodate all of the titles’ journalists on any one day.
The general policy across News UK, which also includes The Sun, is for staff to be in the office at least three days a week, according to a spokesperson. However, the nature of many journalistic jobs means that this is difficult to monitor, with many staff required to be out and about rather than at their desk.
A newsroom source at The Sun said some younger employees, especially those working for the website, have seemed “pretty resistant” to working in the office.
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