Founded in 1933 during the Great Depression, the NewsGuild has represented reporters and other employees at news operations through good and bad times, bargaining for improved wages and working conditions and promoting honesty in journalism. Now, amid a pandemic and another extraordinary economic downturn, the NewsGuild is pushing hard for measures to aid its members as newspapers and other news media in the U.S. and Canada lay off and furlough reporters and cut their salaries to compensate for lost advertising revenue.

Timely and reliable news reporting is more important than ever now as the coronavirus pandemic spreads rapidly across the world. The challenge is a daunting one for journalists faced not only with the task of sorting through complicated and often contradictory information but also the risk of contracting COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the new virus. And even as people turn to the news media for information on the crisis, many U.S. newspapers are letting go of reporters and editors as advertising all but disappears.

Many professional communicators, including National Press Club members, learned their craft in schools of communication here in Washington and beyond. In this edition of Update-1, NPC Broadcast/Podcast Committee co-vice chair Adam Konowe speaks with fellow committee member and American University School of Communications Professor Gemma Puglisi. Joining them is Jolene Levesque, an AU undergraduate majoring in public relations, to discuss AU’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and its activities for PR majors like her.