Month: June 2022

“We’re excited for these pillows to be at select hotel locations around the country, to surprise and delight and engage with our guests,” said Nicole LaSpina, Days Inn’s senior brand marketing director. Some of the Days Inn locations that will use these pillows include Anaheim, California, San Antonio, Texas, Brunswick, Maine, and Pensacola, Florida.

For this product launch, Days Inn spent 40% of its budget on awareness through social channels such as YouTube and TikTok, and 60% on connected TV. 

It is unclear how much of its advertising budget is allocated to the product or the campaign to support it, as LaSpina would not share overall budget specifics. However, LaSpina noted that Days Inn’s advertising budget did increase year over year from 2021 to 2022. According to Kantar, the company spent $800,000 in 2021 for marketing efforts and a little over $200,000 so far this year.

Taking advantage of social media, Days Inn has amplified this campaign heavily on TikTok and other platforms. There is also a sweepstakes in which three winners will receive a pillow to take home. The contest runs through July 8.

The pillow product is part of Days Inn’s overall strategy to find unique ways to stand out and help drive brand awareness, as well as to become more appealing to its customers, capture their attention and drive engagement with its brand. Other hospitality brands such as Hilton and Marriott have also done recent campaigns to boost brand awareness to become more appealing to their customer base.

“With a brand that’s all about making every day brighter. What better way to brighten someone’s day than with the compliment?” said LaSpina. “Compliments make people happy. It lifts their spirits and it helps reduce stress.”

Brands partnering with celebrities to boost awareness is a tactic often used by marketers. “A celebrity in your room is memorable and it means more than a normal voice,” said Allen Adamson, founder and CEO of Metaforce, a brand consultancy that works with clients including Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft.

The travel and hospitality industry was down during the last two years due to the ongoing pandemic. As people return to travel, Days Inn is hoping to capture more consumers’ attention. “During that time, we were hyper focused on going after those travel intenders, those people that were comfortable and knew that they were going to travel,” LaSpina said, commenting on customer confidence about traveling more often in the future. 

Comparison shopping

The key hits:

• Publishers are testing new pricing models in their commerce businesses, which enables them to be paid at different points during the consumer buying journey. 
• Flat-fee pricing is being used by some publishers as a step below branded content, but some execs worry it will impact their commerce content’s editorial integrity to include paid product placements. 
• Cost-per-click pricing tends to pay publishers less, but it gives them the chance to get paid while testing trends and new products with their audience. 

Over the past few months, some publishers with commerce businesses have begun testing new pricing models with the hopes of increasing e-commerce revenue beyond the incremental commissions earned from affiliate links featured on their sites. 

For those publishers, commerce is starting to be seen as an avenue for advertisers to reach their target customers who are closer to the point of making a purchase. To win that bottom-of-the-funnel business, commerce teams have begun offering cost-per-click and flat-fee rates for brands. 

“I just got back from Cannes and what I heard from most CMOs is not so much about budget reduction, but a shift between upper funnel and lower funnel spend,” said Josh Stinchcomb, CRO of Dow Jones, which recently launched its new The Wall Street Journal-adjacent commerce brand Buy Side earlier this month. 

Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) has been the traditional pricing structure for publishers with affiliate businesses, given how much of a “set it and forget it” business model it is. And while it is still the lion’s share of how affiliate revenue is earned for many publishers, the passive nature of it also limits negotiations and leaves media companies at the mercy of brands who operate through affiliate networks like Skimlinks. 

Not all publishers are sold on these new pricing models, however. Some fear that they could impact editorial integrity or simply aren’t worth the hassle. But of the publishers I spoke with, entertaining direct deals with retailers and merchants has become a no-brainer strategy to improve commission rates and overall commerce revenue. 

“The intention is not to have any kind of branded content or pay-to-play content. That’s not part of our strategy at all. But I do think there are going to be more opportunities over time to do more direct affiliate deals with brands,” said Stinchcomb.

Here are three different pricing models being used in publishers’ commerce businesses and pros and cons as to why publishers are or are not incorporating them into their strategies. — Kayleigh Barber

Flat-fee

What it is: 

Flat-fee partnerships are direct deals closed with a retailer or merchant in exchange for guaranteed placement of the brand’s products or services within the publisher’s content. The retailer pays the publisher a fixed amount of money upfront, whether or not the publisher ends up driving sales. Typically, the publisher does not make any specific guarantees, such as minimum number of impressions or even which products will be featured. The deals can become more nuanced beyond this, given the flexibility and customization that direct deals allow for, but for the publishers that practice this model, like Vice Media Group, certain boundaries are put in place, such as not allowing the brand to see the content before publication, to make sure that editorial integrity is maintained. 

Pros:

• Similar to an advertising deal, the publisher earns thousands of dollars through a flat fee partnership at one time, versus waiting for commissions to trickle in through affiliate links. 
• Like a branded content deal, flat fee deals can encompass a variety of ways in which the brand’s products are included within content, including podcasts, newsletters and live shopping. This provides a degree of testing and learning to see which platforms and content products are the most impactful for that brand in converting audiences, without risking the chance of the publisher not earning any money from including the product. 
• Guidelines can be set in the contract to limit how much oversight a brand gets with the content, unlike branded content partnerships where an advertiser often receives final say before publication. 

Cons: 

• If a brand or a product proves to be really popular with the publisher’s audience, there runs the risk that the publisher will not earn as much money from the sales it drove as it would if it used a traditional CPA model. 
• Some publishers feel that paid placements or inclusions of products in articles threaten editorial integrity. 
• Flat-fee modeling can compete with the advertising side of the house, and if not careful, brands will pay a fraction of the price for what could be considered comparable campaigns internally. 

Publisher example:

Vice Media Group is one media company that is not only testing flat fee pricing, but hoping to see it grow as an option that brands choose, according to chief digital officer Cory Haik, who added that the volume of deals executed in this category have increased by 1,000% from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022. Haik would not disclose the total number of flat fee deals.

At the company, flat-fee partnerships cap out at $50,000, according to Samantha Baker, vp of commerce and partnerships, who spoke about this model during Digiday Media’s Commerce Week event that took place last month. She said during the event that any brands looking to exceed that price point gets sent over to the advertising team to work with them on a branded content deal instead. 

Flat-fee deals are typically reserved for brands that consider VMG to be a top driver of sales, Baker said, such as Our Place or Nordstrom, who are likely to ask for a flat-fee deal.

A deal of this nature can include anything from a dedicated newsletter inclusion to a minimum number of mentions in commerce story round-ups to a set number of dedicated articles on products from that brand in a given month – or a mix of those. Those deals, however, never guarantee which products will be selected, or if the reviews will be positive, and the brand doesn’t get to see the content ahead of time, Baker added. 

Cost-per-click

What it is: 

Cost-per-click (CPC) pricing gives publishers a referral fee when a reader clicks through to a brand’s website or product page. Unlike an affiliate link that uses a cost-per-acquisition model, the publisher does not earn a percentage of any sales made through that link, but are awarded a comparably smaller rate for getting a consumer into the brand’s ecosystem. 

Pros: 

• This opens a door to working with retailers and merchants who have smaller marketing budgets and couldn’t otherwise afford the commission rates of a CPA model or the price of operating within an affiliate network. 
• CPC pricing can be used in both direct deals with brands and as a pricing option through affiliate networks. 
• This is also a way for publishers to write about new brands or products and potentially make money while learning whether or not those things resonate with their audiences. For example, if a publisher is writing about vitamins for the first time, it will earn a small referral fee from the vitamin retailer when a reader clicks the link to learn more about the vitamin, versus only making money after the customer purchases the product. If the vitamins are not appealing enough to the publication’s readers to get them to buy, the publication will still earn some money from clicks to learn more about the product.

Cons: 

• The price point of what a publisher can earn is much lower than a CPA model. On average, a publisher can earn between $3,000 to $5,000 per month from a CPC deal. 
• Some publishers do not think the revenue earned from this model is worth the effort of setting up the deal in the first place, particularly if this pricing model is done through a direct deal. 
• Not being able to see conversion rates can make it hard for publishers and brands to know how successful they were in driving sales of the product or how well the publication’s audience liked or disliked the product/brand. 
• Brands who cannot afford to operate in an affiliate network might not have the stamina or bandwidth to handle traffic or sales that come in through publications with large audiences, according to Wirecutter’s executive director of commerce Leilani Han. 

Advice from a consultant: 

If a brand chooses to go this route, they should ensure that they’re making the most of having the new reader in their ecosystem, according to Ben Zettler, a digital marketing and e-commerce consultant. 

To do this, when a user comes in through the specific link, set a pop-up offer that entices them to sign up for a newsletter in exchange for a discount, like 10% off your first purchase. “Then you can see really quickly, like within the first week [or] first couple of days, if people are converting,” said Zettler. 

Cost-per-acquisition 

What it is: 

Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) pricing is the most traditional pricing model for publishers’ affiliate businesses because they often are coordinated through large affiliate networks, though they can also be used in direct deals with brands. A publisher earns a commission from the direct sales it drives through the coverage of a product or service. Commission rates can vary drastically based on product category, price point and brand budget. 

Pros: 

• Publishers tend to earn more revenue from commission rates versus from CPC referral fees. 
• Figuring out what products audiences like and are willing to pay for is really easy because the publishers can see exactly what their readers are buying thanks to the conversion measurement. 
• Some links allow publishers to earn a percentage of the customer’s total cart sales, beyond the specific product it covers, potentially increasing the amount of commission revenue earned

Cons:

• Revenue is not guaranteed.
• There are many opportunities to lose attribution from the publisher to the point of purchase. If a reader doesn’t complete a purchase, or waits until later to buy the product by going to the site directly, the publisher loses out on the commission rate.

What we’ve heard

“I don’t really go on the Reels. I feel like my mom does that.”

— Cadence, a 16-year-old who was among the Gen Z attendees that Digiday interviewed during VidCon

3 questions with The 19th’s Julia B. Chan

The same day the Supreme Court announced it would overturn Roe v. Wade, Julia B. Chan, editor in chief of The 19th, tweeted that the non-profit news publication — which covers the intersection of gender, politics and policy — was “made for this moment.”

The name for The 19th comes from the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The site’s logo contains an asterisk as a reminder that the amendment applied only to white women.

“All of the news that has been coming out in The 19th’s lifespan in the last three years has shown exactly why a newsroom that centers women and LGBTQ+ communities and women of color is so, so necessary,” Chan said.

Digiday spoke to Chan to find out how The 19th prepared for the Supreme Court ruling and its plans for future coverage, the record traffic the site received last week and her thoughts on social media policies discouraging journalists to take a stance on the ruling. — Sara Guaglione

This conversation has been edited and condensed.

How has The 19th prepared for the news of the SCOTUS ruling, and how do you plan to move coverage forward?

We’ve had about a dozen pieces published since Friday. [Breaking news reporter Jennifer Gerson and economic reporter Chabeli Carrazana] spent all day making calls on Friday to cover clinics, in order to report out and get these pieces out into the world that were essentially snapshots of the moment Roe fell. We wanted to make sure we had a very human-centered approach threaded throughout our coverage. We were able to publish our breaking news piece three minutes after the news broke from SCOTUS, because we were ready. We’ve been planning for this for – if not this entire past year, for the last three years, quite honestly. We were ready at every [SCOTUS] decision day to basically mobilize as soon as the news came down. Our abortion tracker – which is essentially a state by state tracker – was published before Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case through which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade]. We knew it was something we could use as a tool for our audiences to keep them up to date on breaking news and how that news impacts each state.

About a year in, The 19th expanded its mission from wanting to center and serve women to really recognizing we do not want to just talk to and serve women, but we want to be engaging and serving any marginalized gender. That is how our coverage has expanded around LGBTQ+ communities – a segment of communities that has not been served historically by legacy media. With that in mind, we are looking at what the impact on LGBTQ+ communities in light of Dobbs will be. This is a major topic for us as a news organization.

Did you see an uptick in traffic after the ruling? 

It was one of the highest readership weeks of our history. We saw three times the average engagement across social media platforms. It was double our average weekly newsletter subscriber growth. We also saw new commitments to our donations from our members, which is a huge sign of support. They saw what was happening and they felt galvanized to take action. And one of those actions was to either donate or to re-up their donation to the 19th.

I’m sure you’ve seen the chatter about the memos newsrooms received, reminding them of their organizations’ social media policies and to not take a public stance on the SCOTUS ruling. Do you agree with those policies?

It’s a welcome conversation. We saw a lot of these guidelines come from legacy organizations. I think some of these guidelines are couched in the myth of objectivity – that journalists need to appear or be perceived as objective to report. But we know that’s not the case because journalists are humans. And that needs to be what informs and inspires our guidelines and our policies. When I think about objectivity, it’s not perceived objectivity of an individual, which we can’t control. I can’t control what you think about me, right? But it’s about the objectivity in our processes. How are we creating the journalism? 

I think these guidelines are not black and white, and I do think some of the initial ideas that they are sourced from deserve to be interrogated, and I’m in the business of interrogating that. At The 19th, we really do encourage our journalists and our entire staff to bring their lived experiences to the work and to the workplace. As an organization, we believe bringing your full lived experience to the journalism is a benefit to the journalism, not a detriment. It’s what makes our journalism special. It makes our journalism stand out and is differentiated from other outlets.

Numbers to know

$3.99: Monthly price for Snapchat’s new subscription tier that’s imaginatively titled Snapchat+.

1 million: Number of email subscribers that Axios Local has accumulated in total.

-12%: Percentage decline in print sales for the top 25 U.S. newspapers from March 2021 to March 2022.

>360: Number of newspapers that have shut down since late 2019.

How TikTok took over VidCon in 2022

After a two year hiatus, VidCon returned to Anaheim, California, in late June, and the 2022 edition was a mix of Comic-Con for creators and their fans, a reunion for the digital video industry and a debutante ball for the creators — and one creator platform in particular — that stole the spotlight during the pandemic.

But there was one big difference. What was once an event dominated by YouTube has now been taken over by TikTok.

During VidCon, Digiday spoke with various creators from TikTok, YouTube and Instagram as well as industry executives about what this year’s version of the annual event indicated about the state of the digital video industry and creator economy. Watch the video above.

What we’ve covered

Vice Media Group brings back program for small, Black-owned businesses:

• Called Black+, the program’s second iteration will feature five business, down from 12 last year.
• VMG said the smaller selection is meant to allow the media company to provide more quality support to each business.

Read more about VMG’s Black+ program here.

Bustle’s Charlotte Owen is on a mission to turn around Elite Daily:

• In April, Owen was tapped as the editor-in-chief of the Gen Z-focused publication in addition to her roles overseeing Bustle and Bustle U.K.
• On the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, Owen talked about applying the Bustle approach to Elite Daily.

Listen to the latest Digiday Podcast episode here.

Publishers evaluate cost-per-click pricing models in their commerce businesses:

• Vice Media Group and Leaf Group’s Hunker are experimenting with the CPC model in addition to the traditional cost-per-acquisition model.
• A CPC deal typically earns publishers between $3,000 and $5,000 per deal per month.

Read more about publishers’ CPC commerce pricing models here.

Media ERGs foster community among hybrid workforces:

• Publishers’ employee resource groups can serve as the glue holding employees and teams together while working remotely.
• ERGs can play an especially important role for new and junior employees.

Read more about media ERGs here.

Publishers grapple with younger audiences avoiding the news:

• 42% of people under 35 years old sometimes or often actively avoid the news.
• Younger audiences’ news aversion was a cause of consternation among a panel of executives and editors from The New York Times, Vox Media, Reuters and Google News Lab.

Read more about publishers’ younger audience concerns here.

What we’re reading

Attack on abortion coverage:
The National Right to Life Committee is trying to get states to pass laws that could be used to prevent journalists from providing coverage that include information about getting an abortion, such as New York Magazine’s recent abortion guide (or potentially even this newsletter that links to that guide), according to Scalawag.

Layoffs at Substack:
The newsletter platform provider has laid off 14% of its employees and has slowed its hiring pace in order to manage the company’s costs after canceling its fundraising plan, according to The New York Times.

Did the pandemic make publishers recession-proof?:
Media executives feel like the moves their companies made to weather the pandemic have prepared them to withstand the looming potential of another economic recession, according to CNBC.

BuzzFeed’s bumbled SPAC sell-off:
Intelligencer has published a deep-dive on how BuzzFeed allegedly bumbled its current and former employees’ abilities to sell their shares in the company when the publisher went public late last year.

Creators combat misinformation:
Platforms including YouTube are often cited as founts of misinformation, but some YouTube creators as well as Twitch streamers have been using the digital video platforms to host debates and dispel conspiracy theories, according to CNET.

Next month, Bloomberg Green will add more coverage verticals to its homepage for the first time since its launch in January 2020, including New Energy, ESG Investing, Weather & Science, Electric Vehicles, Climate Politics, Cleaner Tech and Greener Living. There were five sections on the site when Green launched, Fraher said.

The new sub-verticals are “an evolution of what we’ve done,” and “a reflection of how our priorities have evolved” since Bloomberg Green’s launch, Fraher said. “It’s a way of focusing readers’ attention on some of the stuff that we’re already doing.”

To support the expansion of Bloomberg Green, the company hired climate solutions reporter Zahra Hirji and Greener Living editor Kira Bindrim this summer. Todd Woody, another climate solutions reporter, joined the team in January. Fraher plans to add a few more people to the team soon, he said, though he did not give an exact number. Since 2020, Bloomberg Green’s dedicated editorial staff has tripled, according to a spokesperson, who did not give exact figures.

The addition of more service-oriented content is “good news,” said Oliver Joyce, Mindshare’s global chief transformation officer, in an email. “Not only are these environments attractive to advertisers, but from a reader perspective — both the shopping consumer and those with a professional interest in sustainable innovation — this will be welcomed,” he said. Joyce said the number of sustainable products that can align with this coverage is “rapidly growing.”

While the sustained interest in climate content among advertisers is at risk of slowing due to inflation, “medium-term consumer interest and demand plus regulation will only accelerate” clients’ demand for sustainability-related insight and services, Joyce added.

Bloomberg Green hasn’t experienced that slowdown yet. The vertical’s 2022 ad revenue is on track for a 100% increase compared to revenue in 2020, and has already surpassed revenue from 2021, a spokesperson said. Bloomberg Green advertisers include General Motors, Holcim, McKinsey & Company and SAP, which have sponsored media, events and custom content.

Greener Living

While most of the new sub-verticals formalize existing coverage areas at Bloomberg Green, the most uptick in coverage will come from the new Greener Living section, Fraher said.

“In the first phase of Green, we focused a lot on the big picture climate story. We focus a lot on what the business is doing, what governments are doing. We launched a lot of very successful investigations into things like methane emissions. We wrote a lot about climate science,” Fraher said. “As we look ahead to what’s next for Green, one thing that we’re really focusing on now with this new range of news channels and products that we’re doing is looking at what does climate change mean for consumers?”

The Greener Living section will look at topics like the products and technologies being developed to help consumers lead a more climate-conscious life, food (such as the impact of warmer temperatures on agriculture), sustainable clothing and climate-proofing homes, Fraher said.

“We are seeing more interest from our readers in those spaces,” he said. Stories related to renewable energy and electric vehicles have recently been top drivers of traffic for Bloomberg Green, a spokesperson said. Readership for Bloomberg Green’s daily newsletter has grown 32% over the last year, they added.

This fall, Bloomberg Green will also debut a new weekly podcast called “Zero,” hosted by senior reporter Akshat Rathi. “Zero” will feature interviews with business leaders, investors, policymakers and innovators shaping the transition to the carbon-free future. “Zero” is Bloomberg Green’s second podcast. A nine-part, limited investigative series called “Blood River” came out in 2020.

In October, Bloomberg Green will premiere “Getting Warmer with Kal Penn” on Quicktake, Bloomberg’s round-the-clock CTV business network that launched in November 2020 (Quicktake also streams daily on YouTube as well as Bloomberg’s digital platforms).

“A lot of what we’re trying to do here is to try to explain to readers how they can decarbonize their lives… whether it’s the TV show or the new stream of stories that we’re doing,” Fraher said.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, Patagonia, Levi’s and Starbucks were among the major retailers who have put out announcements since Friday in response to the ruling. Many of them stressed that they will support employees should they seek abortion care, and reimburse employees for expenses should they have to travel out of state for an abortion. However, what’s not immediately clear from some of these announcements is how many employees will be covered by these new policies. 

Many large retailers typically employ a variety of part-time, full-time and contract employees through their stores, warehouses, customer service centers and corporate headquarters. For many of these retailers, the most straightforward way to assist their employees right now has been expanding health care benefits to cover travel for out-of-state procedures. However, in many cases this applies to those employees who have health care through their employees, which in some cases leaves out part-time employees. Meanwhile, smaller startups that don’t have as big of a budget are creating funds dedicated to abortion-related travel expenses to cover employees in affected states. 

Here’s just a few examples of how retailers have sought to protect their employees’ right to abortion care in the days following the Supreme Court’s announcement, and how the benefits offered vary:

• Dick’s Sporting Goods was among one of the first companies to put out an announcement on Friday; In a LinkedIn post, Dick’s president and CEO Lauren Hobart wrote that the company will reimburse “teammates,” their spouses or their dependents up to $4,000 for out-of-state reproductive health care. “We are making this decision so our teammates can access the same health care options, regardless of where they live, and choose what is best for them,” she wrote. “This benefit will be provided to any teammate, spouse or dependent enrolled in our medical plan, along with one support person.” Dick’s Sporting Goods did not respond to a request for comment about how the company defines “teammates,” which employees are eligible to be enrolled in the company’s medical plan.
• Levi’s was one of the first retailers to put out a statement in May, when it was first leaked that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade. The denim brand reiterated that its employee benefits plan allows for “reimbursement for health care-related travel expenses for services not available in their home state, including those related to reproductive health care and abortion.” The company said in that same statement that “there is also a process in place through which employees who are not in our benefits plan, including part-time hourly workers, can seek reimbursement for travel costs incurred under the same circumstances.”
• Patagonia put out an announcement last week stating that “all U.S. employees on our health plans are covered for abortion care. Where restrictions exist, travel, lodging and food are covered.” Patagonia also said that it would bail out employees who were arrested for peacefully protesting  for reproductive justice. Patagonia covers medical insurance for both full-time and part-time employees, and a spokesperson confirmed that the abortion care and bail policies applied to all full-time and part-time employees, including all employees in the company’s retail, distribution, operations and customer service divisions.
• Chicago-based Flowers for Dreams, a flower company that services Midwest metro areas like Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, initially turned its Mother’s Day customer service portal into a legislative canvassing call center when it was leaked in May that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade. “As the new reality settled in, our leadership met to quickly create a dedicated fund,” Flowers for Dreams co-founder and CEO Steven Dyme told Modern Retail. Flowers for Dreams announced its Reproductive Freedom Fund last week, which will reimburse employees up to $500 for any reproductive travel expenses. The company is allowing all full-time employees and their dependents access to the fund, “but that could change as things progress,” Dyme said. Currently, 68% of the company’s full-time staff is female, Dyme confirmed.
• Haven’s Kitchen founder and CEO Alison Cayne also said that in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling, her startup — which sells cooking sauces — instituted a health policy in May to include out-of-state travel and lodging “for anyone who cannot access the health care they need within 250 miles of their home. No questions asked.” Cayne confirmed that anyone who qualifies for health care – full-time employees after 60 days of employment – will be covered by the policy. “This is a business issue and a public health disaster,” she said.

As the above sample shows, the variety of reproductive rights benefits that companies start rolling out are likely to vary, depending on how many part-time and full-time employees a company has, and what financial resources they have access to. Particularly in the retail industry, where the average number of hours worked is 30 hours a week, workers are less likely to have access to health insurance through their employer. 

Overall, there are about 15.7 million retail workers in the United States as of May 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Historically, roughly half of them don’t have access to employer-sponsored health care, according to 2021 BLS data. Around two-thirds have access to paid time off.

The Society of Human Resource Management earlier this year surveyed more than 1,000 HR professionals after the draft opinion of the Dobbs case leaked, and found a wide range of what was currently offered.

While 32% of respondents said they currently provide paid time off to access reproductive care, just 5% said they provide travel expense benefits outside of a health savings account for employees to access abortion services out of state. And, 4% said they offer company matches for employee donations to groups that support reproductive rights.

Such policies may become a new chip for companies to play as they’re hiring: the survey also found nearly a quarter of organizations agree that offering a health savings account for travel costs enhances their ability to compete for talent. 

But “how these policies interact with state laws is unclear, and employers should be aware of the legal risks involved,” Emily M. Dickens, chief of staff and head of government affairs at SHRM, said in a statement.

The brunt of the Dodd decision is likely to fall on the poorest communities, said Cynthia Sanchez, an assistant professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work who specializes in underserved populations and health equity. 

“Women of means, women that have money, are going to be able to leave the state,” she said. “It’s the women living paycheck to paycheck who are not going to be able to afford it.”

Even if there are company reimbursement policies, Sanchez said the Dodd decision could wind up causing women to have abortions later into their pregnancies as they spend time-saving up money to travel or filing requisite paperwork. 

“Those contract employees, those part-time workers, people with limited income, they’re going to end up getting abortions in much later stages because they weren’t prepared to go out of state,” she said. “It’s going to delay the needed health care.” 

Sanchez said she wonders whether federal tax incentives for reproductive care access could help woo more companies to provide such benefits. Otherwise, it may only be larger companies that can take on the additional benefit, she said. 

Relying on company benefits also leaves self-employed people without any protections, Sanchez said. 

Anna Hensel contributed reporting to this story

“With respect to companies managing internal dialogue, we know every company has their own culture, values and approach to conducting business,” said Tracy Avin, CEO of the HR networking platform Troop HR. “While remaining respectful of that, it is of the utmost importance that employees know they have a safe space to deal with their professional matters and personal issues that may cross over into the workplace. Without that, there can be no trust, and trust is the foundation of any healthy relationship, professional or personal.”

With that in mind, Troop HR — which counts among its members HR executives from companies like Amazon, Walmart and Johnson & Johnson — has in recent days seen companies use employee resource groups (ERGs) to facilitate employee conversations, as well as executive leadership sending companywide emails to employees stressing their support for their teams’ wellbeing and the availability of managers for support. 

For the full story first reported on and published by Digiday sibling WorkLife, click here.