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Thursday, July 16, 2020
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A new study of five countries finds that newsroom leadership is very, very whiteIn Germany and the U.K., not a single publication studied had a top editor of color. By Hanaa' Tameez. |
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These McClatchy financials are a window into how much damage Covid-19 has done to the newspaper businessWhen McClatchy declared bankruptcy in February, its debts were crushing, but its operating numbers weren’t so bad. But the coronavirus ripped away more than a quarter of its revenue in just a few weeks. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
Variety / Todd Spangler
Vox Media lays off 6 percent of staff across its brands after sharp revenue drop-off due to the coronavirus pandemic →
“The Vox Media Union, which is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America East, said in a statement that its reps met with company execs over the last three days and proposed ‘multiple solutions that we believed would make it possible to avert layoffs altogether. Management refused to implement almost all of them.’ The union claimed that it was able to ‘push management and ensure that the company will lay off fewer people than originally planned.'”
The Objective / Janelle Salanga
Filipino Americans are watching the Philippines. Why isn’t American media? →
“Filipino media in the United States, like the Manila Mail and Pinoy Magazine, have covered both the implications of the new law and how Filipino Americans are responding. Mainstream American media may not be watching closely because what's happening abroad feels distant, but in neglecting to cover the suppression of free press and speech in the Philippines as it relates to Filipino Americans, the U.S. media perpetuates the idea of the Philippines as a ‘third world’ country that is separate from — instead of inextricably linked to — the United States.”
Simon Owens's Tech and Media Newsletter / Simon Owens
Can publishers stop their journalists from launching Substack newsletters? →
“With the rise of social media, it became increasingly difficult for publishers to insist that their reporters couldn't maintain an online presence. By 2012 or so, they were grudgingly acknowledging that an employee with a large social media following could actually aid in driving traffic to a media outlet's content. That's not to say they ever grew completely comfortable with this dynamic. Most rolled out vague social media policies that are still regularly used to fire journalists til this day.”
Fast Company / Mark Sullivan
TikTok has a misinformation problem and is turning to its popular creators for help →
“The campaign, called ‘Be Informed,’ features a number of TikTok's most popular video makers, who address topics such as how to scrutinize the credibility of the sources of TikTok videos and how to distinguish fact from opinion.”
NPR / Kelly McBride
NPR’s Morning Edition shouldn’t have let AG Barr to make false statements in a segment on mail-in voting without adding context and fact-checking →
“I agree with the audience members who have cried foul at how this was presented,” NPR public editor Kelly McBride wrote. “While some would argue that when a powerful government offers an outrageous point, listeners should get to hear it, this interview made it too easy for those listeners to come away with an incomplete understanding, or even believing that Barr’s widely debunked statement is a credible concern.”
Epicurious / Tara O'Brady
The color of my skin is sometimes confused with the scope of my talent →
“If BIPOC food writers decide to share our heritage in our work, the outcome is typically molded by external assumptions. We are seldom the gatekeepers, the creative directors, the publishers with the power to assign, shape, and promote the piece. By these others, our food is systematically relegated to a mercurial trend. Or else, our personal narratives are required to justify the food's value.”
Sahan Journal / Ibrahim Hirsi
The cost of practicing journalism for an Ethiopian reporter? A jail cell, a caravan across the Sahara, a raft on the Mediterranean — and exile in Minnesota →
“Since its inception, ZeHabesha has also taken on powerful politicians and government agencies in Ethiopia, exposing corruption, shady business dealings and abuse of power.[Henok A. Degfu’s] latest target, Ethiopian Airlines, recently filed a defamation lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota against him and ZeHabesha over a series of interviews the outlet broadcast on its YouTube channel…Three years later, he started a new life in Minnesota, home to an estimated 30,000 Ethiopian immigrants and refugees, to pursue what his native country wouldn't allow him to do: journalism.”
Twitter
While Twitter temporarily blocked verified accounts from tweeting on Wednesday, the “Temporary AP Stylebook” filled the grammar gap →
“If you're editing a story that's too long you're allowed to just stop.”
Digiday / Kayleigh Barber
The Atlantic wants a million people to “attend” its annual festival →
The Atlantic Festival typically attracts 2,000 to 3,000 paying in-person attendees. This year, the festival will be free to attract a larger crowd through the help of nine advertisers. (Last year's event, by comparison, had 16 total sponsors.)
Quartz / Katherine Bell
EIC of Quartz: It’s time for business journalism to break with its conservative past →
“If we want a better, more inclusive economy, we need a new, more demanding form of business and economic journalism, one that questions the assumptions our organizations, industries, and economies are built on; investigates not only how the systems that govern them are working now, but how they might be improved; and prepares readers to take action to improve them. In other words, we need business journalism to be more progressive.”
New York Times / Editorial Board
The New York Times editorial board says new NYPD rules punish journalists and threaten press freedom →
“The department's proposed regulations would add new reasons to revoke reporters' credentials that allow them past police lines . . . The timing of the changes, in the works for years, sends a message that police officials are trying to hinder an important check on their conduct.”
NPR / Kelly McBride
NPR let the U.S. attorney general lie on the air →
“An estimated 1.4 million people listening to Morning Edition on Friday, June 26, heard U.S. Attorney General Barr falsely declare that mail-in ballots will jeopardize the security of the upcoming presidential election.”
The Atlantic / Margaret Sullivan
The Constitution doesn’t work without local news →
“I'd be going door to door, or meeting with people at a diner or a fair, for example, and in the most isolated areas, a lot of people had no idea that their own congressman had been indicted.”
NPR / David Folkenflik
Disappearing commutes have tanked NPR’s radio ratings →
“The network’s shows lost roughly a quarter of their audience between the second quarter of 2019 and the same months in 2020. People who listened to NPR shows on the radio at home before the pandemic by and large still do. But many of those who listened on their commute have not rejoined from home.”