PARTNERSHIPS

Over the past decade The Sydney Morning Herald has supported major exhibitions at the National Gallery. Our media partnership taps into a shared passion for storytelling that educates, informs and entertains our collective communities. In the changing environment of COVID-19, we spoke with the Herald Editor, Lisa Davies, about how the newspaper has adapted.

What have been your daily challenges - and wins - in managing a newsroom during the international COVID-19 crisis?

Putting out the Herald remotely has been a huge challenge, and I can’t speak highly enough of the resilience of all staff members who just one day had to adjust their working environment so drastically. Anyone who’s been in a newsroom approaching a newspaper deadline knows there’s always lots of noise - people rushing around checking proofs and calling out asking for last minute changes to copy or headlines. All of that is far easier in person. Instead, we’ve used a combination of phone calls and our internal messaging platform Slack to get the job done with surprisingly few dramas. We’ve also seen an enormous surge in our subscriber numbers, which is heartening. The Herald has been around for 189 years this year, so it’s gratifying that our brand of trusted journalism continues to be such a valuable asset to so many Australians in times of crisis.

What lessons as a leader will you take forward from this period?

The importance of taking time to connect. I generally talk to reporters via text, WhatsApp, Slack, email or a quick phone call to check a detail or commission directly. But that is usually balanced by face-to-face conversations around the office, whether it be in the newsroom or

Above: The Sydney Morning Herald Editor Lisa Davies (left) with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney. Below: Lisa Davies is the third female editor in the 189-year history of the SMH

just in the queue for a coffee. You can find out a lot by just spontaneously stopping to chat. But with everyone working remotely, I’ve instead tried to reach out to people more directly via a phone call to check-in. It’s impossible to talk to everyone that way, but it’s made me value that incidental connection, and the benefits of collaboration in the newsroom environment. While reporters are filing from their lounge rooms, we still want them to feel connected.

You are only the third female (and youngest) editor in the history of the SMH, how has this shaped you as a leader?

I started by giving people the respect they earned long before I was their boss, and being consultative. I’ve often been told I make quick and decisive decisions, which in the heat of a major news story is a valuable skill to have. (My gut instinct rarely lets me down!) But on bigger decisions, perhaps related to strategy or editorial direction, I regularly seek input from those who’ve worked in their areas of speciality for a long period of time.

What is the role of arts and cultural content in The Sydney Morning Herald during these times?

Arts and culture are such a crucial part of our offering in normal times, and that’s the case even more so now. Stories about how institutions like the NGA are coping in lockdown and what they’re offering their audiences is important, but also finding ways ourselves to showcase artistic expression in all its possible forms. It might be a smaller section for a time, but Spectrum on Saturday and our arts pages during the week are still the places we’re doing that as much as possible.

What are you watching / reading / listening to that inspires you right now?

Confession: I actually spent the first month of lockdown watching the entire six seasons of Downton Abbey,which has been a nice escape - although the household’s brush with the Spanish Flu in season one was rather timely! In another step back in time, I’m reading Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall - another thing I’d never found time to absorb. I’m also trying to slow down through yoga and mindfulness, and see the lessons we can learn from this enormous global event.

While Archie Rose Distilling Co. are internationally recognised for their range of gin, vodka and rye whisky, the company is equally passionate about the arts. As we enter our third year of partnership, Archie Rose is supporting our gender equity initiative Know My Name. In light of the pandemic, the company began producing hand sanitiser. Here, Head of Marketing at Archie Rose, Victoria Tulloch, discusses how they pivoted their business.

Archie Rose turned to manufacturing and distributing hand sanitiser in response to pandemic with an overwhelming response. How were you able to pivot so quickly to respond?

Our switch from producing spirits to hand sanitiser happened in line with the government’s bar shutdown in March which saw the Archie Rose Bar close for anything bar takeaway sales, impacting the jobs of our 15 permanent and casual bar team. As a distillery we were already lucky to have the required federal licences, approvals and access to raw materials and expertise so with hand sanitiser in short supply and with the wider Archie Rose team keen to look at how we could re-deploy our bar team ASAP we moved into immediate sanitiser production. We launched our first batch of 4500 x 500ml hand sanitiser on 23 March which sold out within hours. We’re proud to have produced 101,959 x 500ml equivalent bottles since.

In pivoting this way you have not only bolstered much-needed health supplies but also managed to save jobs. How has this affected your team morale?

It’s been a really incredible thing to be part of. We’ve now been lucky to add 12 new people from the hospitality team to the bottling line which together with our 15 bar staff takes the team to 27. So whilst it’s been a massive effort

Above: Archie Rose hand sanitiser (left) and the special edition Know My Name gin, in collaboration with the NGA. Below: Archie Rose Head of Marketing Victoria Tulloch

and many long days and nights we all feel very proud to have been able to make it happen and a lot of our bar team are really enjoying getting to know another part of our business.

Amongst it all three weeks ago we received the amazing news that our Rye Malt Whisky had won the World’s Best Rye Whisky at the World Whiskies Masters, the most prestigious whisky awards in the world. So that was another massive boost to morale.

What lessons will the business take forward from this period?

We’re really thankful for the support we’ve received from suppliers, customers and the government, and most importantly for people’s patience as we navigated the transition from being a spirits and hospitality business to producing hand sanitiser. People’s support of Archie Rose, together with the resilience and positivity of our team, is something that will continue to drive us – and also shows the importance of continuing to invest in the values that underpin your business, which in our case is innovation, quality and education, all things that helped us move quickly from spirits to sanitiser production.

You have championed the arts with several collaborations. Why has art and design played a key role in the Archie Rose story?

Culture and collaboration gives us the opportunity to bring our spirits and the Archie Rose story to life in very unique and beautiful ways. At its core distilling spirits is a science – but art, creativity, innovation – and of course drinks! – are elements that take our products from being just technically incredible to something that people can really connect with.

What are the key things about National Gallery’s Know My Name initiative that inspired your support?

We’re proud to have built relationships with various cultural partners that push boundaries and innovate creatively, and Know My Name is a shining example of what we can do to support our partners. We’re proud that Know My Name’s values of inclusion and progression mirror our own, and so we’re thrilled to support the initiative with a new Tailored Gin emblazoned with #KNOWMYNAME on the label, in order to throw some serious spirit behind this important message.