N.Y. TIMES STAFFERS' OUTSIDE PROJECTS BEING CHECKED BY A COMMITTEE

 

New York Times staffers doing outside work now have to run those projects past a committee to make sure there is no conflict or take away from their Times jobs, observes Grumpy Editor.

 

A memo, cited by Tom Jones at The Poynter Report, says “The committee will primarily review outside projects that have the potential to be competitive with our journalism and business, could conflict with or distract from your work or The Times, involve payment or could be covered in any other way by the policies defined by the Ethical Journalism Handbook.”

 

The memo cites examples of outside work might include book deals and TV and film projects, including consulting work, adding the committee will review audio projects such as podcasts, paid or unpaid newsletters and “any activity requiring you take a leave of absence from The Times.”

 

Jones points out that "the latest mandate appears to be in reaction to a recent controversy involving longtime Times columnist David Brooks, who was receiving money from an Aspen Institute project that was partly funded by Facebook. Brooks mentioned the project he was working on and Facebook in his writing, but never revealed that he was being compensated for it.”

 

Jones cites "news outlets should be a lot more liberal in what they allow their journalists to do, such as books or podcasts. In most of those cases, the news outlet benefits from the exposure their journalists are providing. In other words, if a journalist writes a book that gets plenty of attention, it’s not only good for the journalist, but good for the outlet that the journalist works for.”

 

 

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