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Wednesday, May 13, 2020
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Take this survey about the effect of COVID-19 on journalism“We are launching a global survey today to track and assess the impacts of the pandemic on journalism worldwide, and to help reimagine its future.” By Julie Posetti and Emily Bell. |
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In Rhode Island, the state’s largest daily no longer has any opinions of its ownThe Providence Journal’s former publisher calls its elimination of editorials “an affront to Rhode Islanders.” But Gannett’s knife keeps cutting. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
The Wall Street Journal / Dan Strumpf
NABJ cancelled its coronavirus panel after flak over Huawei sponsoring it →
The National Association of Black Journalists was planning a discussion on misinformation with musician will.i.am and CNN host Van Jones as panelists, among others. “The backlash erupted after Huawei's U.S. subsidiary posted a tweet promoting the online panel and encouraging its followers to register, saying "#misinformation on #COVID19 is hitting African-American, Asian, Hispanic, rural & low-income Americans hard." The NABJ had promoted the event on its website without mentioning Huawei.”
The Guardian / Mark Sweney
BuzzFeed is pulling the plug on its U.K. and Australian news operations →
“According to sources, those furloughed are ‘highly unlikely’ to return to BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed UK will keep staff covering news with a ‘global audience’, such as its investigations operation and celebrity news coverage, for now at least.”
Patreon / Allegra Hobbs
How Civil didn’t save journalism →
“Civil indeed helped launch a handful of publications, but it fell short on its promise to solve the media industry's problems by finding a viable, alternative funding model. This might be because Civil's mission was always more about investigating the viability of cryptocurrency. Study Hall's interviews with former staffers and founders of struggling or defunct Civil newsrooms revealed a complicated legacy for the company. On one hand, the cryptocurrency technology never really delivered, leaving newsrooms without funding to continue publishing; on the other hand, those newsrooms would likely not have existed in the first place without Civil’s cash.”
Poynter / Mark J. Rochester
Investigative journalism, long criticized for a lack of diversity, has made significant developments since March →
“‘The only way this won't be a 'short-term blip' is if folks like Mark J. Rochester (editor-in-chief of Type Investigations), Ron Nixon (global investigations editor of the Associated Press), Matt Thompson (editor-in-chief of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting) and others, hire and groom investigative journalists of color, particularly women, to be decision-makers. They finally have a seat at the table. Time to pull up an extra chair.’"
CCM Notes / Kavitha Rajagopalan
The Center for Community Media is developing a network of media outlets along the southern U.S. border →
Based in El Paso, Texas, “this regional hub will examine the vital role of community media in supporting communities navigating hostile federal policies and political strife, and will seek to support their First-Amendment rights.”
Medium / Damon Kiesow
Missouri School of Journalism will run a pop-up newsroom staffed by current students and recent grads this summer →
From May to August, the 10-person newsroom will cover the impact of COVID-19 across Missouri. Stories, multimedia, and data collected and produced by the team will be made available for free to any news outlet in the state.
TechCrunch / Brian Heater
Twitter says staff can permanently work from home if they want to →
Other tech companies like Google and Facebook have extended their work from home orders to the end of the year.
WAN-IFRA / Simone Flueckiger
WAN-IFRA Women in News launches a gender balance guide for media organizations →
The guide aims to help journalists and newsrooms understand the importance of gender balance in content and develop strategies to improve gender balance in coverage.
The Stack
The Daily Bruin modeled the spread of coronavirus if UCLA were to re-open in the fall →
UCLA’s student newspaper The Daily Bruin found that “with an R0 value of 5.7, 94% of UCLA undergraduates could be infected by the end of fall quarter, and with an R0 value of 2.0, 34% of UCLA undergraduates could be infected.”
The Discourse / Lauren Kaljur
La Converse launches as a four-week pop-up delivering “community-powered journalism, the francophone way” →
All of the articles for the month-long experiment will be delivered through a newsletter, either weekly or biweekly depending on the depth of the featured stories. “We decided we're not going to wait 25 years to get the media we want. We need to give people the journalism they deserve.”
Axios / Ina Fried
Why has virtual reality missed its pandemic moment? →
“Virtual reality can bring faraway people together and take us places we can’t physically go. That should make it the perfect breakout technology for both personal and professional life in the stay-at-home era — yet it remains a niche product…VR is more immersive than the competition — but computers and gaming consoles offer more precise controls, TVs offer higher resolution, and both allow you to multitask.”
Nieman Reports / Casey Quackenbush
Without a campaign to cover, reporters shift to covering the voting process itself →
“Every election, the media beats itself up about covering the horse race and not the issues. Now, with an extremely limited horse race to cover, journalists are covering the terrain: how the election even happens.”
The Washington Post / Elahe Izadi
COVID-19 has changed the size and character of the obits page →
“At a time when social distancing has forced us to abandon many of our usual grief rituals, obituaries and paid death notices have turned into important proxies for mourning…Some almost feel like substitutes for eulogies yet to be delivered now that so many memorial services and funerals have been postponed. One Chicago death notice listed the name of every cat the deceased had ever owned.”
New York Post / Keith J. Kelly
Tribune Publishing will furlough 160 unionized newsroom staffers →
“…for one week in the months of May, June and July, while postponing discussions of longer-term furloughs until at least the end of July…The furloughs apply to the unionized employees with an annual base pay of $40,000 or higher. Staffers facing a furlough also have the option of taking a voluntary buyout package.”
The Washington Post / Tony Romm
Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington →
“The organization is called American Edge, and it aims through a barrage of advertising and other political spending to convince policymakers that Silicon Valley is essential to the U.S. economy and the future of free speech, according to three people familiar with the matter as well as documents reviewed by The Washington Post.”
The Wall Street Journal / Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
Condé Nast will lay off about 100 employees in the United States →
A spokesperson for the company said no magazines would be closed or transition to digital-only publication.
Democracy Now! / Amy Goodman
ProPublica’s Adriana Gallardo reflects on crossing the border as an undocumented child to winning the Pulitzer Prize →
“I think earlier in my career, [being previously undocumented] made me afraid that it would disqualify me from covering such issues. And it has been really difficult to — you know, when we were covering zero tolerance, to sort of separate myself from that kind of story. I've been able to translate that into, I hope, better journalism, because I can understand, and, beyond empathize, I think I see the value of seeing those stories from beginning to end, instead of the part in the middle that gray.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Apple plans to add audio versions of publisher articles to Apple News+ →
“Apple will handle production costs, and compensate publishers in the same way it compensates them for the written content available on Apple News+, two sources said…The option of listening to stories on Apple News+ fits into a recent trend of publishers offering audio versions of their stories on their own properties, such as their websites, or within their mobile apps.”
The Verge / Casey Newton
Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job →
“Each moderator will receive a minimum of $1,000 and will be eligible for additional compensation if they are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or related conditions. The settlement covers 11,250 moderators, and lawyers in the case believe that as many as half of them may be eligible for extra pay related to mental health issues associated with their time working for Facebook, including depression and addiction.”
ProPublica / Paul Kiel
The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The New York Times, ProPublica, and Dow Jones sue the Small Business Administration for loan info →
“The [Paycheck Protection Program] has been plagued with problems, and five weeks after it was launched, the SBA has yet to divulge the names of any recipients. The names of a few — Shake Shack, Ruth's Chris Steak House and the Los Angeles Lakers among them — have come out through other means.”