A normal day in THE WORLD begins ... In fact, it neither begins nor ends. Twenty-four hours a day, journalists, technicians, secretaries, executives, auxiliary services ... there is always someone waiting to keep information on paper and on the web alive at the San Luis headquarters in Madrid. Now everything is different. Or maybe not so much.
" The newsroom of EL MUNDO will not close, unless they oblige us as an extreme security measure ." With this challenge of the contingency plan drawn up months ago, the staff of the Editorial Unit Group (EU) yesterday launched the most advanced phase of a roadmap that guarantees that all the headlines will fulfill their commitment to readers and listeners despite that almost 100% of the staff no longer go to their job .
"From the noisy staff meetings with the section chiefs to specify the informative and opinion content, we went, first, to reduce the number of attendees and sit more than a meter away from each other. Now, not even that: everyone in videoconference and with only the essential staff in the newsroom », explains Juan Fornieles , deputy director of EL MUNDO and responsible for the Print Desk , the section that is in charge of editing the newspaper in its paper version.
Those "essentials" were yesterday a minimum of three and a maximum of seven people , located in a space that usually occupies more than 200. The afternoon session began with the company nurse taking the temperature to each one to authorize them to continue in their tables, which are disinfected every night. "Thirty-six and a half degrees," says Francisco Pascual , deputy director of EL MUNDO, responsible for national information. "I a tenth less, I'm like a bull," jokes Daniel García , the only editor of Closing who sat at his post yesterday.
"Team pride". This is how Francisco Rosell, editor of the newspaper, summed up his feelings when seeing how the newsroom was transformed without major imbalances to face the challenge of making a newspaper with a virus as a great enemy .
In reality, the work system is not entirely new , many editors already wrote regularly from outside the headquarters. But the publishing company of EL MUNDO, in anticipation of any scenario due to the pandemic, ordered more than a month ago the massive purchase of equipment for teleworking , as well as telematic platforms that offer editors the same tools that they would have on their tables. "We see each other through our cameras, we share our documents on virtual desks, we receive instructions through private chats, we access everything we would have if we were occupying our position ... It goes a little slower, but sometimes you forget about You're home. It seems incredible, but everything works ", agree by video conference Isabel Munera and Daniel Somolinos , editors of the Print Desk .
This litmus test on the possibilities of teleworking occurs in an exceptional situation, in a perfect storm for journalism : everything at the same time, everything relevant, almost everything at the last minute and with a great demand for information from the population. " Our great challenge is coordination , not only with the Madrid editors but also with the correspondents," explains Silvia Román , editor-in-chief of the newspaper's International section, the last to leave the classroom ship and start working from home.
"The most important thing is the attitude of the workers: they all demonstrate that they are very committed to their duty to inform so that citizens can enjoy their right to be informed, " insists Joaquín Manso , deputy director of EL MUNDO and responsible for the new offer. weekend.
" The disease has faces. And we look for them every day in the Madrid section," explains its editor-in-chief, Ferran Boiza , who is in charge of one of the territories hardest hit by the pandemic. Boiza highlights the added difficulty of being at the epicenter of contagion, and acknowledges that several of its journalists have to repeatedly identify themselves to the Police . "We are on the street, with self-protection measures, but without giving up our commitment to inform," he says. "I have been in the newsroom for 30 years. This crisis stimulates everyone's creativity , we have to go out and look for the stories of everyday life," supports Rafael Moyano , deputy director of EL MUNDO.
In one of the busiest scenarios, the secretary pool , all your computers are now turned off. But the work is even more intense: "We have to cancel all the trips, the hotel rooms of the sports colleagues, negotiate the reimbursements ... It is a break that gives a lot of work," explains Pilar Retamosa .
About to start the last telemeeting of the day to specify the contents that you already have in your hands today, or on your screen, Miguel G. Corral , director of the Health area of Unida Editorial, is emphatic: "Not everything here Ok. Scientific rigor is not negotiable . I spend more time filtering hoaxes than writing. We cannot allow a false alarm to slip through . We do not join those who publish a rumor to get more visits on the internet, "he insists.
The closing time for the newspaper is approaching. The journalists on the night shift at elmundo.es take their seats ... at home. Many phones ring. There are those who still do not know that our work is carried out in a different way now. " What is evident to everyone is that the coronavirus will not stop THE WORLD, " says Juan Fornieles.
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