We’ve all been there: You have an idea for a story so good you can almost see it on your screen, but your editor dismisses it without giving it a second thought and you don’t push back.
All in On The Media
Journalism Has a Focus Problem: How to Combat Shiny Things Syndrome
Julie Posetti, writing for Nieman Journalism Lab, calls for newsroom to slow down, take a more measured, strategic approach to change.
Actual Journalism Is Under an Asymmetrical Attack
Our political media today is a one-sided battle. In one corner, we have the old-fashioned gatekeepers doing business as they always have: fearful of offending the powerful, and constantly attempting to strike a balance between profit and what they deem the “public interest.” In the other is an amalgam of right-wing institutions that found a path to riches by combining lies, prejudice, and conspiracy theories—with precious little actual journalism. Donald Trump’s presidency has boosted the latter’s influence, helping to metastasize its cancerous mendacity throughout the body politic. But the phenomenon precedes Trump—indeed, without it he would still be a C-list celebrity grifter.
There Isn’t One Best Way to Map Local News Ecosystems. But Can We Do it Better?
It’s a series of questions we get often at the Center for Cooperative Media: How many news organizations operate in New Jersey? How many are print versus radio versus television? How many people do they employ? So what parts of the state have no local news source? How can we help those places?
The problem is, we can’t answer these questions with complete accuracy. In fact, we don’t know anyone who can. Despite the volume of research currently under way about news ecosystems, there is no gold standard; many studies to date have critical flaws, such as focusing on only one type of media, using too few sources to feed underlying databases, or considering news only through a strict geographic lens.
Gannett CEO Robert J. Dickey to Retire in 2019
Gannett Co., which operates USA TODAY and 109 local media properties, said Wednesday that President and CEO Robert J. Dickey has decided to retire from the company in 2019.
The Gannett board of directors has initiated a succession plan and engaged an outside search firm to assist in evaluating internal and external candidates.
Digital-Native Publishers Settle In to Face Legacy Constraints, with a Side of Reader Revenue
“It was around this time last year that things were starting to look a little dicey for the media industry’s once breathlessly-hyped digital unicorns,” Joe Pompeo wrote for Vanity Fair this week. BuzzFeed, Vice, Mashable, and Vox, “which once heralded the dawn of a new media age — replete with massive valuations, large fund-raising hauls, and millennial sex appeal — now appeared to exhibit some traits of the brands that they once attempted to disrupt.”
Using Venture Philanthropy, American Journalism Project Seeks to Sustain Vital News Coverage
It was 2015 when an idea first began to germinate for Elizabeth Green, the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization devoted to American education.
“I’d been thinking that the way philanthropy organizes in the education sector had lessons that could be applied to journalism philanthropy sector that was emerging slowly at the time—too slowly, I thought,” she said.
Craig Newmark’s New Hit List
There was hay here once. Horses, coachmen. Carriages were stored one room over. But that was a long time ago, before this house in lower Manhattan was even on the market, before the construction workers arrived, before the limestone tile for an adjoining hallway was cut, before the hayloft was removed to make room for a spiral staircase and more bookshelves. Before it became the two-story personal library of an unassuming internet mogul. Before Craig.
Maria Ressa, Rappler formally indicted by the Philippines on tax evasion charges
Philippines news website Rappler and its chief executive have been indicted on tax evasion charges, the latest in a case that free speech and civil liberties advocates have warned is part of a wider crackdown on dissent by President Rodrigo Duterte's administration.
Rappler said five cases were formally filed against Ressa and Rappler Holdings in two courts, just weeks after the Philippines Department of Justice announced it had found probable cause to indict the pair.
When Fox News staffers break ethics rules, discipline follows — or does it?
There are ethical standards at Fox News, we’re told.
But just what they are, or how they’re enforced, is an enduring mystery.
When Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro appeared onstage with President Trump at a Missouri campaign rally, the network publicly acknowledged that this ran counter to its practices.
A Sinclair exec spoke with the head of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists President Hugo Balta relayed concerns on a phone call Thursday morning with Sinclair Broadcast Group VP of News Scott Livingston, regarding the continued mandate on airing one-sided commentary segments by Boris Epshteyn through local stations. NAHJ feels that on multiple occasions, the commentary has included misrepresentations of the Latino community.
Why Trump Can’t Stop Talking to the Press
Whenever I’m stressed, I overeat. When circumstances overwhelm President Donald Trump’s psyche, he self-medicates by giving sit-down interviews with the press.
Setting aside the usual press gaggles, in the past six weeks Trump has given extensive interviews to The Associated Press, 60 Minutes, Politico, the Washington Post, the Daily Caller, the Wall Street Journal…
The secret cost of pivoting to video
MIC’S WEBSITE AUDIENCE is tanking by millions of readers a month—and if it continues, it just may save online journalism.
That’s because Mic is another example of the cautionary tale set by publications that pivot to video.