This year, the New York Times added a 24/7 news team to its London office but the pandemic forced it to rethink the way journalists work. A desk editor shares her experience of breaking news across time zones and talks about the impact of working from home on mental health
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2020 has been the year of disruption. Many of the plans and strategies we had high hopes for in January went out of the window three months later.
The New York Times (NYT) is no exception. At the beginning of the year, the publisher planned to add a fresh team to its London-based office to take advantage of working across time zones when covering 24/7 breaking news.
However, global pandemic had other ideas. A national lockdown put these plans on ice for eight months. In October, US staff began to flock over but a second lockdown followed soon after and teams remained, again, away from their new newsroom.
One reporter who made the transnational trip was Erin McCann, the deputy editor of NYT's breaking news team, express desk. In this week's episode of the Journalism.co.uk podcast, she shares her experiences of working on the breaking news team during times of constant disruption.
McCann opens up on the challenges of managing teams clocking in across different time zones, working from home and the pressure of negative news headlines. She also shares insights on how passing the baton between teams has become NYT's vital strategy to protect fatigued staff.
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