Global expansion in media rarely follows a tidy plan. For most newsrooms and production companies, it’s already happening.
Editorial teams set up bureaux in new locations. Crews are pulled together across borders. Contributors are commissioned wherever stories break. Speed matters, especially under pressure. But by 2026, moving fast without the right structure is creating real risk for media organisations.
Expansion in media is often uneven and driven by deadlines. One breaking story can lead to an overnight hire. A one-off commission can quietly turn into a long-term working relationship. Over time, those informal decisions add up.
This checklist is for media teams already operating internationally and taking a step back to ask whether their current setup still works.
1. Be clear what “global expansion” means
For media organisations, expansion is rarely about market presence alone. It’s usually about access. Access to stories, skills, locations, languages, or production capacity.
Before hiring internationally, it helps to be clear whether you are:
- Commissioning contributors in a specific region
- Setting up a permanent editorial desk or production hub
- Scaling crews or post-production teams to meet ongoing demand
These differences matter as many organisations move from short-term commissioning to long-term reliance on the same contributors without formally changing how those people are engaged. That’s often where compliance issues begin to show.
Clear intent makes it easier for editorial and operational teams to put the right structure in place early, without reducing flexibility.
2. Choose a hiring model that fits how media teams work
Media teams don’t expand in straight lines. Growth follows projects, production schedules, and unpredictable news cycles.
Deciding whether to hire directly, set up a local entity, or use an Employer of Record should be driven by how fluid your workforce needs to be. For example, a permanent bureau may justify long-term employment, while recurring production output often needs speed and legal certainty. Heavy reliance on freelancers can also increase misclassification risk in many countries.
When the model doesn’t fit, delivery slows or teams rely on workarounds that increase risk. The right approach supports fast onboarding, local compliance, and the ability to adapt as needs change.
3. Understand where compliance risk really comes from
News organisations and production teams face higher risk because they often rely on contributors who work regularly, on rolling contracts, across multiple countries.
In many jurisdictions, long-term contributors are legally treated as employees. As working relationships deepen, informal arrangements are often pushed further than intended.
Issues rarely surface at the point of engagement. They tend to appear later, during audits, disputes, acquisitions, or formal reviews, when there’s less time to respond.
A useful sense check is simple: if one of these arrangements were reviewed tomorrow, would you be comfortable explaining and defending it?
4. Contributor and employee experience affects output
In media, experience and delivery are closely linked. When contributors are paid late or unclear on their status, it shows quickly. Stories slip. Crews disengage. Relationships become harder to manage.
A strong international setup usually includes clear, locally compliant contracts, reliable payroll, benefits that meet local expectations, and access to real human HR support that understands local rules.
When these basics work consistently, editors and producers can focus on commissioning and delivery, rather than fixing operational issues.
5. Fix international payroll before it causes problems
Payroll issues don’t stay hidden for long in media environments. Contributors and crew rely on predictable income, and delays or errors are felt immediately on the ground.
If payroll only works because one person is constantly chasing it, it’s fragile.
Managing multiple currencies, pay frequencies, and statutory deductions across disconnected systems increases the risk of mistakes. Over time, small inconsistencies become recurring problems.
For organisations operating internationally, payroll is core infrastructure, not a back-office task.
6. Align people policies with local expectations
Editorial standards may be global, but employment expectations aren’t. Working hours, overtime rules, leave, and termination protections vary widely by country.
Media roles often sit at the edges of standard employment frameworks, which increases risk when global policies are applied without local adaptation.
Aligning people policies locally reduces compliance exposure and supports better working relationships with journalists, producers, and technical specialists.
7. Check whether your current model will scale
Media expansion rarely stops at one new territory. One region often leads to the next.
Many early international setups are built for speed rather than longevity. Over time, those decisions can limit visibility, control, or flexibility as operations grow.
Scalable structures make it easier to respond to new editorial or production opportunities without rebuilding processes each time.
A practical checklist for 2026
As you look ahead, it’s worth asking:
- Are any contributors engaged long term without a clear framework in place?
- Do hiring, contracts, and payroll work consistently across countries?
- Can you onboard and pay someone in a new country without creating manual processes?
- If a contributor’s status were challenged tomorrow, could you clearly explain it?
- Would adding another country this year require restructuring?
If these questions raise uncertainty, it’s often a sign that early expansion decisions need reviewing.
How Project Global supports media teams
Project Global supports compliant global hiring, payroll, and workforce management in over 130 countries.
We work closely with newsrooms and production teams and understand how quickly contributor relationships evolve. This includes working alongside your existing legal and tax advisers, providing operational support that helps their guidance work in practice. Our approach is practical and hands-on, designed to support international growth without slowing output.
If global expansion is part of your 2026 plans, now is a good time to check whether your workforce structure really supports how your team works today and how it will need to work next.
