A rival bid might actually keep Tribune out of Alden Global Capital’s hands — and Alden might be just fine with that

Monday, April 5, 2021

A rival bid might actually keep Tribune out of Alden Global Capital’s hands — and Alden might be just fine with that Win or lose, the hedge fund comes out richer. By Joshua Benton.

Jeff Israely: Getting paid means some work for brands — and it’s O.K. to talk about that It is only the latest, though perhaps most complicated, chapter of the marriage of convenience between advertising and news. By Jeff Israely.

What We’re ReadingFiveThirtyEight / Meredith ConroyWhy being “anti-media” is now part of the GOP identity →From 2016 to 2019, “the role of media distrust in opinion formation shifted such that individuals who distrust the media more consistently consolidated around Trump. Essentially, that media distrust now operates ‘as a basis for Americans to sort themselves into political tribes’…a way for Trump supporters to distinguish themselves, ideologically, even from other Republicans.”The New York Times / Ben SmithThe lawyer behind the throne at Fox News →“Mr. Dinh finds himself in the strange position of many of Rupert Murdoch’s top lieutenants: He is paid like a chief executive, and fills much of the larger strategic role that comes with that job…[but] is still working for a business dominated by the need to follow Mr. Trump and Fox’s audience wherever they lead.”NBC News / Brandy ZadroznyIn a Pennsylvania town, a Facebook group fills the local news void →“The News Alerts of Beaver County isn’t home base for a gun-wielding militia, and it isn’t a QAnon fever swamp … It’s subtler and in some ways more insidious, because it’s more likely to be trusted. The misinformation — shared in good faith by neighbors, sandwiched between legitimate local happenings and overseen by a community member with no training but good intentions — is still capable of tearing a community apart.”The Guardian / John NaughtonWhy Silicon Valley’s most astute critics are all women →“…the industry that is reshaping our societies and undermining our democracies is overwhelmingly dominated by males. Yet — with a few honourable exceptions — male critics seem relatively untroubled by, or phlegmatic about, this particular aspect of the industry; they seem to see it as inevitable and pass on to more ostensibly urgent concerns.”The GuardianItalian prosecutors wiretapped several journalists who were covering the refugee crisis →“Prosecutors allegedly tapped [freelance journalist Nancy] Porsia’s phone for several days, collecting personal details and the names of her sources, Domani reported. The investigators also tracked her movements using her mobile phone’s geolocation facility.”Press Watch / Dan FroomkinAs the voting issue gets white-hot, political reporters try to duck the moral implications →“Reporters should be covering the battle over voting as a civil rights issue…The principle that everyone deserves a vote, that every vote counts, and that every vote should be counted ought not be controversial — it is one of several principles, including accountability, transparency, and fair play, to which American journalists have historically been proudly devoted.”The Atlantic / Anil DashNFTs are an art project gone awry →“We took that shortcut because we were running out of time. Seven years later, all of today’s popular NFT platforms still use the same shortcut. This means that when someone buys an NFT, they’re not buying the actual digital artwork; they’re buying a link to it. And worse, they’re buying a link that, in many cases, lives on the website of a new start-up that’s likely to fail within a few years.”Media Nation / Dan KennedyA remarkable editorial in the Orlando Sentinel pleads for deliverance from Alden →“Alden’s history with newspaper ownership is akin to a biblical plague of locusts — it devours newsroom resources to maximize profits, leaving ruin in its wake.”ICIJ / Will Fitzgibbon and Michael HudsonFive years later, the Panama Papers are still having a big impact worldwide →“In just the past month alone, more than 300 news articles in 14 languages referenced the Panama Papers as authorities continue to pursue investigations and push for reforms…Beyond individual countries, the Panama Papers has become a global touchstone of the debate around corruption, financial crime, and inequality.”The Princetonian / Nhuquynh Nguyen and Liana SlomkaThe main student newsrooms at all 8 Ivy League schools are now run by women →“Even with a common background in newspaper work prior to entering college, few of the current EICs imagined that they would rise so high up in the ranks when they first joined their respective college newspapers…there was one common thread that influenced these women’s decision to run for EIC: fostering diversity in their papers.”Rolling Stone / Regina KimWhat Korean-language media told us about the Atlanta shooting that the mainstream media didn’t →Sang-Yeon (Paul) Lee, publisher and CEO of Atlanta K Media: “I do wonder if the English-language media is interested at all in the victims. Some media outlets seem overly fixated on the spa industry, and I wonder why that is. Why can’t they talk about the victims as women and as mothers, instead of just talking about the spa industry?”The Atlantic / Josh MarshallScale was the God that failed →“Many of the jobs that have disappeared over the past three or four years never had business models that could sustain them — at least not in the old-fashioned sense of bringing in more revenue than they cost. These hires were made in pursuit of a theory of publishing economics that was simply wrong. The journalists themselves, in most cases, weren’t read into this part of the equation.”The Guardian / Poppy Noor“I had to change who I am”: TV reporter Deion Broxton on changing his way of speaking to land a job in television news →“He is happy for his success, but he can’t help but feel conflicted. Sometimes he feels robbed of his identity. For a long time, he argued with family over being an ‘Uncle Tom’ and although his old accent slips out around Black people, he feels he fits in neither space.”Associated Press / David BauderDonations poured in after a Kansas newspaper published a blank front page →“In the past week, the 89-year-old newspaper has received more than $3,000 in pledged donations, including one from Florida after the blank front page received national attention. A handful of new advertisers have emerged, along with other ideas to keep the Northeast News afloat, said Michael Bushnell, publisher and co-owner.”CNN / Brian StelterWhy the news media can’t stop talking about Biden’s dogs →“The bottom line, [CNN’s Kate] Bennett said, is that ‘the stories that rile up the Twitterverse…the most are the ones that are human. And there’s nothing more “human” than a story about a pet dog. Right?'”The Hollywood Reporter / Alex RitmanVice Media is opening an office in Saudi Arabia →“While the Saudi Arabia outpost may be its first in the kingdom, it’s not its first collaboration within the country, having previously worked with SRMG, known to have close links with the Saudi government…However, in late 2018 Vice said this contract was under review in the wake of the global scandal that erupted following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” Columbia Journalism Review / Jon AllsopA traumatic news cycle for journalists and audiences →“In addition to the bleakness of the news, many journalists — and women and reporters of color, in particular — are under direct attack. Trump may be gone from the White House, but the anti-press hostility he stoked lives on, and online abuse seems only to have gotten worse in recent months.”Generocity Philly / Tauhid ChappellThe case for having more public editors in Philadelphia →“In the past, greater numbers of newspapers had public editors who worked on behalf of the public, holding media institutions accountable and investigating readers’ grievances about coverage. Their presence and service have been greatly diminished by media companies, but I believe that in a city like Philadelphia, we need to have more public editors that hold media corporations accountable for their actions and move them to directly address racism within their organization, and within their news products.”IGNWhy pay for Disney+, Peacock, or Paramount+ when you can watch their shows on Netflix and Prime Video? →“More than half of the most-watched programming this week on streaming services that Nielsen tracks came from ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, or Disney, but streamed on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video…Netflix knows how to make hits, but it doesn’t yet have a 100-episode plus series that people want to throw on again and again.”

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