Good morning, Broadsheet readers! You can now get reimbursed for your ‘tampon taxes’, Hello Alice faces litigation over a grant program for Black small businesses, and Fortune senior writer Alicia Adamczyk writes about the women shaping the future of news who spoke at the final day of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Have a fabulous Thursday.
– Read all about it. Fortune’s 2023 Most Powerful Women Summit wrapped up yesterday, and, as always, I’m in awe of the breadth of conversations my colleagues are striking with the impressive lineup of speakers and guests.
There was no shortage of thought-provoking discussions, from how AI is changing our world with executives from Anthropic and Google, to leadership lessons with Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson, to the state of women in Hollywood with actress and activist Connie Britton.
But one of my favorite discussions came near the end of the conference, when Meredith Kopit Levien, president and CEO of the New York Times Company, and Sonal Shah, CEO of the Texas Tribune, discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion in—as well as the ever-changing nature of—the news business, with Fortune’s Ruth Umoh.
I’m biased, of course, but it was an important reminder of what journalism can be at its best: Focused on providing accurate and important context and details on the major events of the day, and representative of the myriad experiences and viewpoints of readers and consumers.
Levien noted that when she started at the Times a decade ago, she was one of the only female leaders at one of the world’s most prestigious news outlets (Jill Abramson was executive editor on the editorial side at the time). Now, she’s one of many across the newsroom. That experience has informed “the religion I have of why no one should ever be an only,” she said.
“It is incumbent on every leader at every organization, and maybe especially news organizations, to see that the whole team, top to bottom, reflects the diversity of lived experience—race, gender, ideology—of the world around them,” she said.
“The newsroom…needs to be reflective of the audience,” added the Texas Tribune‘s Shah. She also emphasized the importance of adapting to new mediums and meeting readers or viewers where they are.
“A journalist is no longer just writing an 800-word story,” she said. “They’re thinking about TikTok, they’re thinking about going on TV…We have to be way more agile than we ever have been before.”
We are all likely familiar with the challenges media outlets must contend with. Full-time newsroom jobs have fallen by almost 30% compared to 2008, leaving fewer people to produce more stories, especially at the local level. Consumers often expect instantaneous answers “in the palm of their hand,” as Shah put it, and can be siloed in their own echo chambers. Meanwhile, one tweak of the Facebook or Google algorithm can tank an outlet’s web traffic. Trust remains near a record low.
Amid this turmoil, women now lead some of the most vital news organizations in the U.S., including, ABC News, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, The New York Times Company, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and, yes, Fortune (that makes the U.S. an outlier in terms of representation).
They can’t solve every problem, but as Levien and Shah discussed, their point of view is imperative to reach the most people possible—particularly those whose perspective has been historically overlooked or dismissed.
“I don’t think you can be a news organization endeavoring…to be at our best if we are not as diverse as the population to whom we are trying to give understanding,” said Levien. “Hard stop.”
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
@AliciaAdamczyk
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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- Pay back. The Tampon Tax Back Coalition, which includes period care brands August, Cora, LOLA, The Honey Pot, Rael, Here We Flo, Saalt, and DIVA, launched a program yesterday to reimburse customers for taxes they pay when purchasing tampons and other menstrual products. Reimbursement procedures can be found on the Tampon Tax Back Coalition website for customers in the 21 states that tax menstrual products, like Indiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. CNBC
- Alice in lawsuit-land. Hello Alice is the latest company targeted by a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit from Stephen Miller's America First Legal. At question is Hello Alice's partnership with Progressive Insurance that offered 10 Black small-business owners a total of $25,000 in grants. AFL says the program discriminates against non-Black owners. Hello Alice cofounders Elizabeth Gore and Carolyn Rodz defended the initiative and slammed AFL, which has sued companies like Salesforce on similar grounds, for trying to undercut such programs. Santa Rosa Press Democrat
- Building bridges. Alice Walton, one of the heirs to Walmart, is giving away $40 million in grants to more than 60 museums across the country through her foundation Art Bridges. The grants are intended to help museums bring in new audiences and reverse pandemic-related losses. NPR
- Stop the clock. A 60 Minutes producer who was fired for allegedly bullying an associate producer filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against CBS Tuesday that claims the network allowed far worse conduct from male employees, including sexual misconduct, without the same punishment. Plaintiff Alexandra Poolos claims that “sexism and misogyny defined the workplace” and alleges that both current and former 60 Minutes employees were kept on after facing sexual misconduct allegations. CBS declined to comment. The Hollywood Reporter
- Saving STEM. Katalin Karikó’s Nobel Prize win last week was a powerful moment for historically under-appreciated women in STEM, but pandemic-related setbacks and a lack of institutional parity could make such moments few and far between. Fortune Commentary
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