Quartz co-founders Kevin Delaney and Jay Lauf and former New York Times executive Erin Grau, have launched a new media company Charter focused on “the future of work”. The self-funded company already publishes a free newsletter “Reset Work”, which has 20,000 signups. It tracks trends and provides analysis on workplace issues and the post-pandemic recovery.
The founders say: “The return to the workplace will be a chaotic reckoning for some companies, and executives who think their firms are immune from these strains are just one tweet away from being painfully exposed. We need a new playbook for how to build companies, teams, and careers that is coherent with the landscape in front of us—to build better models in the face of remote and flexible work, racial and gender inequity, economic inequality, multiple generations in the workforce, automation, and climate change. We need a playbook for managing fairly and effectively, so we can catalyze a new era of dynamic organizations where all workers thrive.”
As if to emphasise the potential importance of media focused on post-pandemic employment, US tech venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says he believes remote work is “a permanent civilizational shift.” Its impact could be even greater than that of the internet itself: “It is perhaps the most important thing that’s happened in my lifetime, a consequence of the internet that’s maybe even more important than the internet. Permanently divorcing physical location from economic opportunity gives us a real shot at radically expanding the number of good jobs in the world while also dramatically improving quality of life for millions, or billions, of people.”
Charter plans to launch a paid-for subscription newsletter later in the summer. Charter hopes to differentiate itself from other media companies focusing on the hot topic of ‘future work’ by providing services in addition to content, first with online courses (and a qualification) on hybrid working for employers and employees. Expect imitators in the US and elsewhere.
