Jewish News response to Studio Republic
In early 2024, Jewish News approached Studio Republic, along with other web design firms, about relaunching its website. Studio Republic responded with an impressive PowerPoint proposal for the new platform and followed this with an equally polished Zoom from its pitch team to secure our business. After assessing this bid against competitors, we concluded Studio Republic’s was the strongest. We accepted the proposal and expected work to begin.
Days later I received the following email written by the managing director: “While we love and applaud the mission of the organisation, the overwhelming feeling from our team is that, with the current situation in Gaza, they are not comfortable working on a project for a media outlet. Although we could insist as owners of the business, their hearts would not be in the project, and the outcome would not be the best it could be for Jewish News. For this reason, we don’t believe we are the right agency to deliver this work.”
In a second email, the managing director added: “Ultimately, as an agency we have decided that we do not want to be seen as having a bias to either side of such an emotionally charged and divisive conflict. Subsequently this has raised further conversations and we have decided to not work with media outlets as a whole.”
In this second email, the MD makes clear the decision not to work with media outlets was “subsequent” to the decision not to work with us. The chronology matters.
It had been decided that designing our website (despite nobody really caring who designs a website) might reflect poorly on Studio Republic. The hardest thing to read was the staff’s admission that their “hearts would not be in the project”, from which it can be reasonably concluded that it was staff who took concerns about working with Jewish News to management.
Would Studio Republic staff have questioned their “hearts” had they been asked to build a website for, say, PinkNews or The Voice?
This was yet another example of a Jewish organisation being scrutinised and held to account in a way that non-Jewish counterparts are not.
It should not need stating, but we are called Jewish News, not Israel News.
I understand why the company is now deflecting. But facts cannot be obscured by retrospective spin.
Having actively pitched for our business, Studio Republic backtracked and made clear it was no longer willing to work with Jewish News. The company’s subsequent decision to avoid working with media publications altogether is understandable. But attempts to present this policy as the reason it rejected Jewish News at the time are incorrect and chronologically false.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. After this, therefore, because of this.
My final email to Studio Republic read: “In my 30-year career, I’ve never encountered a situation where collaboration has been declined on religious grounds. It’s harrowing to witness the alienation of Jewish businesses and individuals in the wake of the Hamas massacre. How have we arrived at a point where working with Jewish News, a community service owned by a charity, dedicated to fostering unity within the Jewish community and beyond, is seen as “having a bias”? Honestly, my heart sinks. I considered publishing a news story to shine a light on your conduct and forwarding it to B Corp, an organisation with the motto ‘Make business a force for good.’ However, I’ve been persuaded not to – at least not immediately – by colleagues who are concerned this might affect your ongoing work with other organisations.”
Months later, I spoke to the chief executive of World Jewish Relief to notify him I intended to write a column about this episode and told him I would not be naming the company to protect their ongoing relationship. This is the column.
Since writing that piece last October, I’ve received a slow but steady stream of emails from Jewish people asking for their names to be removed from the Jewish News website for fear it could damage their job prospects. The experience with Studio Republic was never far from my mind. After receiving the latest wretched request last weekend, I wrote a column this week naming the company – two years after the event.
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