Tuesday, January 30, 2024 |
| “The story is less at [the U.S. Department of Justice] than with sheriffs and prosecutors at the local level, mostly the county level.” But how do you tell that story when local news is in decline? By Joshua Benton. |
A student newspaper in Iowa just bought two local weeklies What We’re ReadingThe Walrus / Sonya Fatah
Attacks on press freedoms are having chilling effects far beyond Gaza →“The impact of the silencing and censorship of journalists within mainstream news organizations isn’t limited to the coverage of the current crisis in Gaza. It raises significant press freedom concerns, including the chilling effect of self-silencing that bears on the accuracy of the public record. It alienates journalists who question the status quo.”The Verge / Emilia David
The New York Times is building a team to explore AI in the newsroom →“The publication is hiring engineers and editors for a new team that will experiment with uses for generative AI but says journalists will still write, edit, and report the news.”The Oregonian / Oregon Live / Matthew Kish
A judge ordered The Oregonian to return or destroy documents “inadvertently disclosed” in a discrimination lawsuit against Nike →“The sexual discrimination lawsuit, filed in 2018, claims Nike’s workplace is ‘hostile towards and devalues women’ and the company underpaid female corporate workers. It’s one of the most visible pieces of corporate #MeToo litigation. The newsroom was working on a separate article based on independent reporting when it received the documents.”Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
Guatemala has a new reformist president. Will he get a veteran muckraker out of jail? →“Since taking office earlier this month, [president Bernardo Arévalo] has already engaged on [José Rubén Zamora]’s case, including by asking [attorney general María Consuelo Porras] to clarify the criteria for prosecution in cases involving free expression. Last week, Arévalo met with delegates from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association and promised not to wield the law as a cudgel against journalists.”El Espectador / El Espectador Staff
The Colombian government will formally apologize for its role in the 1986 murder of El Espectador journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza →In Spanish: “[The government] will also admit failure to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for the murder and not having provided due judicial protection to the other victims of the systematic persecution against the newspaper deployed by Pablo Escobar’s criminal organization.”Mother Jones / Sean Kelly
Australia fought back against Rupert Murdoch. Your turn, America. →“Suggestions that the Murdoch empire is declining in the place that Rupert first built it are tantalizing to his critics. That this alleged decline coincides with such a delicate handover—from all-powerful father to relatively untested son—may raise these hopes still higher: Perhaps this is the moment those terrified of Murdoch have been waiting for all these years. After all, if it can happen there, surely it could happen anywhere—perhaps even everywhere.”Intelligencer / Shawn McCreesh
As the “media apocalypse” nears, Condé Nast and other publishers are staring into the abyss →“Increasingly, journalists have moved on from ascribing blame for the collapse of the news business to ‘the internet’ and vast technological forces beyond their control. They’re blaming corporate executives who seem unable to come up with plans that cobble together revenues from subscriptions, dwindling advertising money, e-commerce sales, and events — which is what successful executives have accomplished at the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.”Adweek / Mark Stenberg
TechCrunch is shuttering its subscription product and had laid off eight staffers →“We’ll be sunsetting the TechCrunch+ subscription product in the coming weeks and will refocus our talented writers and editors on strengthening our core product. Building around two businesses hasn’t allowed us to focus where we can win.”Talking Biz News / Chris Roush
Bloomberg now providing news summaries written by AI →“The company has developed a tool that will look for news-related topics in earnings calls, such as guidance, capital allocation, hiring and labor plans, the macro environment, new products, supply chain issues, and consumer demand.”Vermont Public
Vermont Public will adopt the “Citizens Agenda” model to cover the 2024 election →“We’re focused on the stakes of the election, and that starts by putting people — not preconceived ideas — at the center of our reporting process.”Texas Monthly / Michael Hardy
Austin’s daily newspaper is being starved to death →“[American-Statesman staffers] described a newsroom in seemingly irreversible decline. The paper continues to replace long-standing newsroom talent with a revolving door of inexperienced transplants who stay for a few years and then move on.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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