Media content creators and distributors are being held to high standards, where every word, phrase, and photo is dissected. Publishers insurance, also called media insurance, helps protect news and information distributors as well as their writers, editors, photojournalists and other staff from claims of personal injury. But there are insurance needs beyond liability.
Liability insurance for the publishing and media industry
Publishing has always been fraught with potential risks of defamation and copyright infringement, but today’s sensitivities along with the instantaneous nature of content dissemination and the development of artificial intelligence are exponentially increasing media liability risk. Here are some of the liability coverages you need to consider for your information publishing business.
Media liability insurance for news and content publishers
The primary liability risk publishers face is from allegations that your reporting, photos, information or voice content defamed someone, misrepresented the facts to the financial detriment of a person or organization, or reproduced or misused proprietary content, such as copyrighted or confidential information. In all of these instances, you could face legal fees as well as monetary damages. A media liability insurance policy is critical in helping you pay for expenses that may include punitive or exemplary damages, depending on the policy’s terms. Sometimes called media content insurance, it often includes failure to maintain source confidentiality, distorting lighting in photos, and financial liability because someone relied on the quality of what you published, wrote or otherwise produced, and it was wrong.
Employment practices liability insurance for publishers
Publishing is going through some foundational changes, and employees once constituting the backbone of the industry are suddenly finding themselves at risk for layoffs, reduced work hours and pay, and slashed benefits. It’s a mix rife with the potential for allegations of employment practices wrongdoing.
Employment practices liability insurance can help if you are accused of discrimination, hostile workplace treatment, or wrongful hiring or firing. It provides coverage for legal defense fees, regulatory investigations, and settlements or damages if things get that far.
Workplace violence insurance for publishers
Photojournalists, reporters, live-streamers, and other media employees may become targets of disgruntled readers or story subjects who bring their disputes to your workplace, sometimes very violently. While workers compensation insurance would cover the medical, rehab, and lost wage costs of injured employees, it typically doesn’t cover site cleanup, counseling for witnesses or media relations. Nor would it cover loss of company revenue due to a business interruption that could result from an extended crime investigation. For these loss costs, you would need a workplace violence insurance policy. It serves as a good supplement to workers comp in an industry that has already experienced numerous work-related attacks.
Excess liability and umbrella insurance for publishers
You may find that your exposures exceed the limits of available policies. If they are not sufficient to protect your business from liability risks, you may need to obtain additional coverage. Remember that verdicts often are enhanced for punitive purposes and, if a plaintiff can prove reputational or financial harm, damages could be in the millions of dollars. A primary media liability policy or workplace violence policy might not have enough coverage, in which case you might wish to enhance the dollar level or your protection through an excess liability or umbrella insurance policy.
Excess policies expand coverage for one underlying liability policy. If you want to build out limits of insurance across multiple policies at a time, you can look to commercial umbrella insurance.
Underlying protection is needed in both cases. When it runs out, you can tap your excess or umbrella policy. Be sure that your underlying policy limits are adequate to cover you until the excess policy limits threshold is reached or you could have a gap in coverage.
Workers compensation insurance for publishers
Your employees may work at multiple sites where they can get injured or become ill through the course of their assignments. Workers compensation insurance is the primary way you can help pay for their medical bills, lost wages, and rehab if they need it. Workers comp insurance can be built to insure employees working in your office, working from home and traveling on business, even accommodating foreign voluntary workers comp for employees covering war zones. Talk to your insurance agent or broker about international and interstate terms. These are not always included in a media workers comp policy.
Freelancers and independent journalists you may wish to buy accidental death and dismemberment coverage since you have no employer to insure you with workers comp. Some of these policies cover sickness and accident expenses for medical treatment, emergency evacuation and travel back to your home country. It’s always prudent to have disability insurance if you become disabled from an accident or illness.
There is also business travel insurance, which can complement or replace some of the medical care components of workers comp insurance for those traveling for work duties. These are highly stylized policies that may or may not include evacuation, repatriation, or death benefits. Transportation back to the United States for an emergency medical treatment may not be covered by your medical insurance and can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Your insurance professional can help you find coverage options that suit your needs.
Employers of journalists, broadcasters, and other media content employees must be careful when it comes to classifying those covered under a workers comp policy. Independent contractors are typically not eligible for workers compensation coverage and must be insured under other policies, either by you or under their own protection.
Property insurance for publishers
In the old days, those creating and distributing content had large presses and print shops. While that is still a reality for magazines, mass mail advertisers, political campaigns, newspapers, and journals, there is a heavy reliance on computers for content creation, but outsourced printers are used for manufacture and distribution. There is still office space — maybe even a whole building — as well as computers, desks, fixtures, and other building contents you need to insure. These all fall under commercial property insurance for publishers.
If you have stock or mobile equipment, such as forklifts, you need to insure those as well. You might need an inland marine floater, depending on the kind of items you wish to insure.
Property insurance typically covers perils such as fire, vandalism, theft by non-employees, windstorm, and water intrusion or burst pipes, among other disasters. Flood and earthquake must be insured through stand-alone policies, and in some locations you must do the same for wildfire.
If you wish to insure against equipment failures, an equipment breakdown policy is your best bet. It can be written to insure major systems that power your business and can provide a revenue flow if your business is shut down by an equipment failure. It doesn’t cover wear and tear, but things like power surges, arcing, motor burnout and parts malfunctions are usually included.
If you wish to insure against a business interruption due to a utility failure or supply chain interruption, that is possible under a separate business income policy. You can even include extra expenses, such as leasing new equipment or a new workspace while yours is repaired or replaced.
Cyber insurance for publishers
Cyber insurance comes in two forms: first-party and third-party coverage. Both are important for media businesses.
First-party cyber insurance responds to things like data extortion demands or system repair after a hack of an internet-connected device. It might also be written to cover theft through impersonation, phishing or some other scam that causes an employee to transfer money to an unauthorized person.
Third-party cyber insurance is a liability policy that helps pay for your legal defense, costs of reparation and investigation expenses if your cybersecurity fails and someone exfiltrates your data to the financial detriment of an outside party. An important consideration is the insurance company’s incident response capabilities to respond to a breach in a timely manner, which increases the possibility of recovery.
Work with an insurance agent or broker specializing in publishing
Because the information industry is so vast and, sometimes, so niche, it is best to work with an independent insurance agent or broker who understands your risks and can ask questions about any special operations you might have that aren’t covered under a standard policy. Whether it’s take-home computers and their risks, interstate or international travel — even to hostile locations —or copyright considerations due to use of artificial intelligence, find an agent who specializes in publisher’s insurance.