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Prioritizing a culture of care and rest

By Pinay Jones

When was the last time that you took a true break? Folks often only take time off when they desperately need it, for example, due to an emergency or sickness. But imagine being able to take a month of paid leave off for no reason other than to rest. That is exactly what the staff at Scalawag Magazine, a media outlet that mobilizes journalism and storytelling to work in solidarity with oppressed communities in the South, does. Initially a two-to-three week break for the holidays, the magazine now pauses all business activity from mid-December until after MLK Day in order to rest. News about this practice was made public when Ko Bragg, formerly Scalawag’s Race & Place editor, wrote a piece discussing how taking this time off has been transformative for their workplace. 

But how is this possible? In response to this frequent query, Cierra Hinton, Scalawag’s executive director-publisher, clarifies that taking substantial time off from work has always been possible for their team. That is because they consider rest to be a practice, or a “continued commitment.” “Especially in our society where we live under a system of racial capitalism, rest is actually discouraged,” Hinton told me. “Production is valued over rest.” In light of this, she highlighted how crucial it is for whole teams and organizations to commit to rest by doing so collectively. While discrete instances of individual team members taking paid time off are important as well, collective bouts of rest can help to ensure that folks avoid fears and anxieties about letting the team down, for instance, in the wake of ongoing projects. When everything comes to a halt, taking time off becomes easier and less shame or guilt-ridden.  

Since news about Scalawag’s commitment to rest became public, Hinton notes: “People really were amazed…[and] a number of newsrooms have since taken off…extended periods of time…that they maybe never would have considered taking off before, which is exciting to see.” In journalism especially, a culture of urgency and hyper-availability can take precedence over a true commitment to rest. Cycles of stress and burnout are common in the industry, pushing many to call for change. Hinton is familiar with this culture, but she ultimately encourages others in the field to be imaginative. Through the extended time off and more, she and the Scalawag team urge us to give ourselves permission to envision what is possible outside the bounds of that which already exists or is accepted as normal. 

In order to get there, she pointed in our conversation to a few integral values and guiding principles that have worked for Scalawag and could work for others. Honesty, communication, trust, and vulnerability can go a long way once implemented across teams and organizations in the media/journalism space. “Everybody is tired, and I think that if we were just honest about that, we could probably rest a lot more,” Hinton said. She also reminds us that self-awareness and radical responsibility are two principles that operate at the root of prioritizing a culture of care and rest. “It’s really easy to just ignore your body in this system as well and ignore your needs.” Taking ownership of one’s needs can be transformative, especially when encouraged and supported in the workplace. 

Learn more about Scalawag Magazine’s work and prioritizing rest and care in journalism:

• Scalawag’s six most-loved stories in 2022 — Scalawag staff
• Scalawag is the Magazine Remaking Southern Journalism — Sarah Leonard, AJ+
• News organizations: Here’s what your teams are trying to tell you about burnout — Karolle Rabarison, Online News Association
• ​​A month of paid leave was transformative for my workplace — Ko Bragg, Teen Vogue

On our radar

Reads

• 8 women redefining journalism — Elena Coll, Indiegraf
• Why journalism in Spanish matters — Mythili Sampathkumar, The Pivot Fund
• Announcing the News Executive Leadership Transition Guide — Amy Kovac-Ashley, Reynolds Journalism Institute
• In Sacramento, local outlets join forces to report on solutions to the city’s tricky problems — Hanaa’ Tameez
• How The Trace is building community engagement into its local reporting as a national outlet — Staff, The Trace
• Local That Works is ending, but long live local — Julie Drizin, Current
• Heather Bryant on how collaboration empowers small local news startups — Will Fischer, Center for Cooperative Media

Opportunities and events

• Fellowships
  • Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism Fellowships, $10,000, deadline April 7
  • McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism, $15,000, spring cycle deadline March 31
  • Maynard 200 Fellowship, tuition-free professional development for media leaders of diverse backgrounds
• Jobs
  • Marketing manager, LION Publishers, $65,000-$70,000 with benefits, deadline March 26
  • Director of development, El Tímpano, $100,000-$120,000 with benefits, rolling deadline
• Events
  • Newsletter Professionals Meetup, ONA, March 29 2-3pm ET
  • Public Media Career Fair, Current, March 29 12-3pm ET

Here’s hoping you can prioritize rest this weekend,

Christine & Pinay

The Local Fix is a project of Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program, which supports work that aims to transform journalism so everyone has access to information they need to participate in our democracy.

Disclosure: Some projects mentioned in this newsletter may be funded by Democracy Fund. You can find a full list of the organizations here.
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