TVN Focus On Business | Stations: No Rush To Return From Remote Work

In Charleston, S.C., employees of The Post and Courier, were asked to return to work full-time on Monday as the state’s cases of COVID-19 continued to trend dramatically upward.

The mandate left employees wary for their health, and their concerns over a premature return to onsite working were widely shared among their media-watching peers.

In the world of local television, by contrast, such a move seems inconceivable right now.

Interviews with half a dozen major station groups reveal plans to return employees from remote working are proceeding with an abundance of caution. Having scrambled to get most of their workforces situated safely at home over an intense, unprecedented shift in mid-March, no one is eager to call them back the office if it isn’t absolutely necessary.

“The decision on when to allow employees to return to the station will prioritize employee safety and workplace health,” said Brian Lawlor, president, local media, at the E.W. Scripps Co., via email. “There is not a return-to-work date for the entire division or any specific location or function.”

Barb Maushard, VP of news at Hearst Television, says remote working has become a smooth process for the broadcaster. “We will continue to use the technology that we have and the lessons we have learned to operate in a heavily remote way for quite some time while we make sure that we can go back,” she says. “I don’t think we are in a hurry to get more people back in, but we don’t have to at this stage of the game.”

The if-it-ain’t-broke approach to sticking with majority remote workforces — especially as the pandemic continues to spawn new hotspots across the U.S. — was widely shared among broadcasters interviewed. “For the immediate future we are actually going to stay the course and continue to work remotely for the most part,” says Emily Barr, president-CEO of Graham Media Group. “We probably have had well over 80% of our staff work remotely over the last two months and it has worked remarkably well.”

Broadcasters are assessing their returns on a market-by-market basis, using reopening guidelines from state and local authorities as only the first of multiple criteria for considering bringing any staffers back.

“As more markets open up, we are working through gradual and deliberate plans, following the data in each state and market, prioritizing planning for where the data supports bringing more staff back into our buildings,” said Lynn Beall, EVP and COO, media operations for Tegna.

Gray Television’s EVP and Chief Legal and Development Officer Kevin Latek echoes that incremental approach. “Gray will work with each station to determine what changes need to be made physically and operationally to permit a return of those remote workers who are willing and able to return,” Latek said via email. “Reentry is a process, not an event, that will unfold over several weeks or months depending on the location and evolving public health guidance.”

Fox Television Stations are following the same case-by-case approach, and Houston’s KRIV is one station eyeing a return of 11% more of its personnel. That comes on the heels of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s announcement that the state was moving into phase two of its reopening.

Coupled with those still currently showing up to KRIV’s building, that would see 35% of its workforce returning to the office on a regular basis. But SVP-GM D’Artagnan Bebel says there’s no timeline attached even to that incremental 11% return.

It will be up to Bebel in conjunction with Fox’s corporate leadership when more employees eventually return. “I have got to make that decision based on how I feel about the facility,” he says.

And KRIV’s facility has some advantages, including its sprawling 100,000 sq. ft. size and the fact that it’s situated behind a gated parking lot.

Bebel himself returns onsite for just two days a week, largely to oversee what he calls a “COVID retrofitting” of the building including the installation of touchless faucets, hand sanitizers and safety reminder signs throughout the building and reframing cubicle spaces to have at least a six-foot distance.

Meanwhile, the station’s fleet of vehicles are also being outfitted with plastic barriers such as taxis use so that reporters and photographers can once again go out on field assignments together and in anticipation of severe weather coverage now that hurricane season has arrived (it’s company policy that journalists never head out solo to storm coverage).

At Fox’s WOFL in Orlando, Fla., SVP-GM Mike McClain says less than 20% of its staff is back onsite. To optimize safety for those who have returned, McClain says the station follows a three-step cleaning process, including daily regular cleanings, weekly deep cleanings and a weekly electrostatic cleaning.

Among those personnel who have returned are the station’s anchors, who came back following phase one of the state’s reopening. McClain’s reason for prioritizing their return was practical. “Our viewers depend on us here, and the one thing we can’t control in a home studio situation is the reliability of an internet connection,” he says. “Every system is different. Every connection is different.”

In order to allow for an abundance of social distancing between those returning anchors, McClain says the station created a series of isolated studios throughout its building in areas vacated by now-remote workers.

“We created a studio in the green room, we created a studio in the creative services department,” McClain says. “So they come in, they anchor from that room, and we set up a microphone on a stand so they don’t have to put a lavalier in.”

Those anchors working out of studios A or B use lavaliers, he adds, but they’re put into an ultraviolent cleaning machine after each usage to make sure they’re sanitized for the next user.

Of course, the unprecedented circumstance of safely equipping stations for COVID-19 conditions has now been exacerbated by two further complications for workplace health and safety: the onset of hurricane season and widespread protests over the death of George Floyd.

As to hurricanes, McClain says WOFL is ready to spin up a larger in-house staff if need be. “Having the sales and traffic teams work from home, we now have space if we need to bring back some of the news producers, editors and associate producers if we need to bring them back,” he says. “We can spread them throughout the building in the areas that are vacant and increase the distancing.”

KRIV’s Bebel adds that his station also has an alternate studio at its transmitter site and a jump team assigned to it. “Basically, they get a phone call or text message and they are on their way,” he says.

As to covering the protests, riots and lootings, safety is more complicated with dangers coming from potential bodily harm as well as the virus. On the security side, Bebel says his journalists have the option of calling on armed or unarmed security to accompany them in the field “if we feel we need to have a crew with eyes behind their heads.”

Bebel adds that if a journalist feels unsafe in the field, “unilaterally they can make a decision to pull back, get out without question.” McClain says his journalists have the same authority to make that ground call.

As to navigating those dangers plus the coronavirus, “our folks are smart, they understand,” McClain says. “They have boom mics, masks, sanitizers, wipes, and we are very confident that they will be able to continue to do their jobs.”

To read more TVNewsCheck coverage of how TV stations, station groups, news organizations and individuals are pivoting to work amid the coronavirus pandemic, click here.