Social responsibility only in the neighbor’s backyard

Working as a journalist is a sacrifice, for it demands longer working hours as compared to other professions and often unpaid overtime.  It also requires permanent readiness, because it is always time for news. By these statements, Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva, moderator of the debate “CSR in the media: agenda and management”, questioned: how can press companies demand a sustainable behavior from other companies when they do not have this behavior themselves?

“By doing their homework”, answers Albert Alcoulumbre Junior, director of planning and social projects of Central Globo de Comunicação. “There are companies known by their unsustainable practices, who don’t make any effort to solve these problems. On the other hand, there are other companies who, even at hard times, are concerned with sustainable management”, he said.

A company’s profitability is a touchy matter in this issue. According to Antonio Manuel Teixeira Mendes, director superintendent of Grupo Folha, there is some stress between the editors and the advertisers. In his opinion, advertisers often boycott, causing a tense atmosphere that is part of the game, but affects the revenues. “A historical factor worth mentioning is the pressure of costs and the media companies’ indebtdness”, he stresses. Nevertheless, said Mendes, many of these companies survive because they are family businesses. Ricardo Gandour, director of content of newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, remarks “one has to be profitable in order to avoid becoming an advertiser’s slave”.

According to Caco de Paula, director of the Tourism Center of Editora Abril, the fact that many journalists are holding management positions at companies is favorable to the development of socially responsible actions. He believes the soul of a press company depends on the journalists that are able to address sustainability.