Education Reporter's New Initiave is Empowering Journalists Affected by Gannett Job Cuts

In August 2022, Kati Kokal, an education reporter at The Palm Beach Post, found herself caught in a whirlwind when her employer's parent company, Gannett, announced significant layoffs affecting 3 percent of its U.S. workforce. Fueled by a desire to support her colleagues who were facing unemployment, Kokal swiftly took action, creating a community aid response to assist the affected journalists. Through her efforts, she provided a lifeline to her peers and became a driving force in building a nationwide journalist-aid network.

Having anticipated the impending layoffs, Kokal had already begun organizing a community aid response. As news of the layoffs broke, she quickly took to Twitter, offering her assistance to anyone affected by the job cuts. “It happened so fast,” she said, “I put out a note on Twitter that was like, ‘If you’re laid off (direct message) and I’ll send you this Google Form.’ It really blew up and all of a sudden I had a hundred DMs from people who had been laid off.”

Kokal mobilized a team of volunteers and established a comprehensive support network that included financial aid, job leads, child care help, and other essential resources.

“Then I had like 300 DMs from people who wanted to help. This was where the community-aid network was born,” Kokal said. “I was just feverishly answering Twitter DMs into the wee hours of the morning.”

Overwhelmed with hundreds of direct messages, Kokal realized the potential for a larger community-aid network. Inspired by the actions of journalists at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Kokal decided to create a space of compassion and care for affected journalists.

“We had a jobs team, we had a needs team, we had a financial support team, a moral support team. The moral support team ended up starting a letter-writing campaign with encouraging notes, with Starbucks gift cards and things like that,” she explained. “It really created a space of compassion and care where a lot of times we find a lot of anonymity in media layoffs. It took off very quickly.”

The network flourished, providing a supportive environment that countered the anonymity often associated with media layoffs.

With another round of layoffs hitting Gannett in December 2022, displacing a further 6 percent of their staff, Kokal and her team were better prepared. By then, the infrastructure for the community network was in place, making it easier to coordinate support. 

“By December, we pretty much had the infrastructure in place to create this community network. It was a lot easier the second time,” she mused. 

Drawing inspiration from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and author Dean Spade’s book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), she decentralized the network, allowing each affected community of journalists to take charge locally.

Recognizing the potential to make a broader impact, Kokal made the mutual aid network her innovation project for the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship. As a fellow, she developed a website offering resources, a guide on setting up aid networks, and numerous job-listing links. Kokal's dedication to helping her peers earned her a cash prize at the fellowship's closing summit, which she plans to distribute among the volunteer team. 

Through her work, Kokal has transformed the perception of news layoffs. “I talked to people who were devastated and so, so ashamed and embarrassed,” she said. “We can challenge the idea that this is a personal failure you shouldn’t talk about and that you shouldn’t seek help.”  Kokal's efforts have shown that unity and solidarity are powerful tools for keeping communities safe.