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ON THE INDIANA FRONT
DOWN WITH DEI: Gannett, owner of IndyStar, dropped DEI from its website citing the president’s EO. America’s largest newspaper chain will no longer publish demographic and diversity data about its workforce and has revamped its corporate site to remove mentions of diversity. The announcement was made in a company town hall meeting. “While we will no longer publish workforce demographic metrics or sustainability and inclusion reports, Gannett is deeply committed to our ethical business model,” Lark-Marie Antón, Gannett’s chief communications officer, told Nieman Lab. That apparently means “treating employees with respect and ensuring a culture of belonging.”
From Gannett’s latest annual report for EOY 2024, here are the circulation numbers for The Star:
Daily Print – 18,187
Sunday Print – 26,618
Digital Only – 48,714
A LITTLE MORE SUNSHINE: Here’s a recent APRA ruling from the Indiana Supreme Court that AG Todd Rokita lost – concerning the private entity HealthNet and Family & Social Services Administration (FSSA) documents used during Medicaid settlement negotiations.
NEW PODCAST: WXIN-Fox announces multiple new shows/content to reach viewers including a podcast hosted by Cameron Ridle and three additional weekend shows hosted by Sierra Hignite airing once on Saturday morning and twice on Sunday morning. The weekend shows will be recaps of the news while the podcast may feature more community highlights and hyping other station programming – such as coverage of the Indy 500. The podcast is available through Roku, Fire or Apple TV. (The station has also re-ordered its staff page to alpha order listings – bumping down some of its top anchors.)
LOCAL SCHMOCAL ON TRUMP: WXIN promoted its Statehouse reporter Hannah Adamson as one of a select few journalists to get an invite from the White House to attend a ceremony celebrating the president’s first 100 days of office. (Inviting local media for presidential access is considered a sure way to get soft media coverage and isn’t new to this administration.) The station also promoted her invite on social media. I am assuming local TV stations don’t turn this opportunity down – no matter which presidential administration offers the invite. The report wasn’t great. The reporter seemed to struggle asking Trump anointed spokespeople there about state issues related to national ones like tariffs. Such as asking the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene about Stellantis. ICYMI – Stellantis announced approximately 900 temporary layoffs at facilities in Michigan and Indiana and paused production due to Trump’s tariffs. No members of the Indiana delegation were included in that broadcast.
AWARDS SEASON: Congrats to photojournalist Kelly Wilkinson at IndyStar who has been honored by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) with a Longevity Award. According to the group’s website: “This award recognizes a visual journalist who has completed at least 40 years of service in the visual journalism profession, whether or not they are a member of NPPA.” What Kelly said: “In Indianapolis, I joke that I’ve photographed everyone at least once. I spend my days seeing through the eyes of others. And I realize that is a wonderful way to live.”
ALSO NOTEWORTHY: The Indiana Capital Chronicle's Casey Smith landed Indiana Journalist of the Year - and the same nonprofit outlet carried the award for best journalism website. Both awards are via SPJ hosted by the Indy chapter and are open to self nominations statewide. A full list of winners can be find on the SPJ chapter's website sometime soon.
PROMOTION: WRTV’s Todd Klaassen has been named chief meteorologist at the ABC affiliate in Indy.
WEATHERMAN HONOR: Indy Eleven sold “The Loft” t-shirts at its April 19 game in honor of WTHR-NBC’s departing Chuck Lofton. He joined WTHR with the launch of 13Sunrise in 1985. The black-and-white shorts with Lofton’s headshot cost $20 – along with discounted tickets.
NEW DEAL: WTHR also landed an extended contract to broadcast The Fever games through September. WTHR or MeTV-affiliated sibling WALV-TV will air 18 of the games.
NEW ANCHOR: Casie Mason is joining WFIE in Evansville as a morning anchor. The NBC affiliate said Mason has gained national recognition as host of the syndicated country music news series, Nashville Insider, along with her role as a host and entertainment reporter for WTVF in Nashville, Tenn. Mason began her broadcasting career at WEHT in Evansville as a reporter and anchor. She takes over for Jamee French, who moves to evenings.
GONE: WTHR-NBC has apparently also terminated anchor/reporter Karen Campbell abruptly over a sloppy on-air read on the rumors of an Obama divorce. She has updated her LinkedIn page to show her last month at the station as April.
ALSO GONE: Also apparently gone from WFYI is Lee Gaines whose email has an auto reply directing people to contact Eric Weddle instead. She’s now listed as a freelancer on LinkedIn.
LEAVING: Bob Papper, who served in various roles in Indiana, is stepping down as the longtime director of the RTDNA salary survey for broadcasters. In 2006, Papper was honored as the Ball State University Researcher of the Year. In 2007, the Associated Press Broadcasters inducted him into the Indiana Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service in Broadcast Journalism.
SELLING: The IU Media School appears to be selling off its jumbotron video screen that displayed the news. The screen was featured in a photo from the school was posted by the IU Surplus Store for sale under govdeals.com with open bidding on that site. It weighs more than 2,500 pounds and is 23.62 feet wide by 12.6 feet tall. Reserve was $20K. It was either withdrawn or has been sold.
IN ON IT: Speaking of IU, rumors are swirling in social media from sources at the university and close to the university that President Pam Whitten was in on the decision for Gov. Mike Braun to take over the appointments of the IU trustees – rather than have IU alumni elect them to this oversight board. No comments from Whitten per her usual silence on most matters.
WHO'S THE FAVORITE: Now that Anne Hathaway is gone as GOP state party chair, the GOP newsletter is starting to use links to local media again – but only sparsely and on two TV stations they seem to favor for fluffy Gov. Braun headlines. Those include WTHR-NBC and WXIN-FOX. Previously the GOP emailed newsletter linked only to state officials’ social media posts.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Local Js who used to hold coffee meetups seem to have dropped in persons for now – with the exception of Mirror Indy going strong with its neighborhood “chat n chews.” You can find a calendar for those events with the nonprofit newsroom online. However, Statehouse reporters for IndyStar did do a 30-minute live Reddit Q+A close to the send of the legislative session. And Axios Indy recently offered an “exclusive webinar with an inside look at our newsroom.”
KILLER DRUG COSTS: The Indiana Department of Correction disclosed that the state paid $900,000 for the execution drug pentobarbital weeks after the Indiana Capital Chronicle sued the department for access to the information. Free legal support was provided by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. However, the news outlet is still seeking additional information, including how much of the drug was purchased. The drug was used to carry out the death penalty execution for convicted killer Joseph Corcoran. Attorney Kris Cundiff represented the Indiana Capital Chronicle in this case.
INDIANA NEWSMAKER: The off-and-on announcements from Honda continue with the automaker now saying a specific model made in Japan will only be made in Indiana. Honda currently sources the Civic Hatchback hybrid from both its Indiana Auto Plant and Japan. Starting later this year, the car will be produced only at the Indiana Auto Plant in Greensburg, Eric Mauk, a Honda spokesperson told IndyStar. If you recall, this move was mentioned by Trump – then denied by Honda – and now apparently going to happen. According to The Star - Some news reports say the change will occur in June or July. Honda would not confirm when the operation shift will occur or how it will affect staffing and production output at the Indiana Auto Plant.
SPEAKING UP NEWSMAKERS (via Mirror Indy): Hoosier college presidents have signed on to “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” a letter that was released April 22 by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. It called for the federal government to end stipulations on public research funding and to promote academic freedom and free speech. The letter does not specifically mention President Donald Trump. At this point, 562 college presidents have signed onto the letter. Butler University President James Danko was one of four Indiana college leaders, all of whom represent private colleges, to sign. The Rev. Robert Dowd, president of the University of Notre Dame, Katie Conboy, president of Saint Mary’s College in South Bend and Paul Sniegowski, president of Earlham College, also signed.
RIP: Howard “Skip” Hess, 86, died April 18 at his home in Holiday, Fla., after a long illness. Hess was a journalist for 50 years working at Indy newspapers.
RIP: Larry David Henry, who worked in radio broadcasting from the age of 16 to 56 at stations in Columbus and Indianapolis, Ind., and Detroit, Mich., died April 11. He was 73.
RIP: Ken Kurtz died at the age of 95. Kurtz was a news director in Lexington and Fort Wayne.
ON THE NATIONAL FRONT
THE BILLIONAIRE BUYING CLUB (via Seattle Times): David Hoffmann, the latest billionaire plunging into the newspaper business, may be the most ambitious one yet. A lifelong newspaper fan who made his fortune with an executive recruiting firm, Florida-based Hoffmann heads a sprawling business network that began buying newspapers in 2022. A trust in his wife’s name began buying shares of Lee Enterprises, the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, in hopes of acquiring the Iowa-based company with newspapers in 72 communities in 25 states. “If all goes according to plan, we’ll probably surpass Gannett as the largest newspaper” publisher, he said by phone.
AI IN YOUR GOOGLE CHROME (via The Verge): Google is preparing to publicly unleash its AI Mode search engine tool. The company announced that “a small percentage” of people in the U.S. will start seeing an AI Mode tab in Google Search “in the coming weeks,” allowing users to test the search-centric chatbot outside of Google’s experimental Labs environment. Google’s AI Mode will answer questions with an AI-generated response based on information within Google’s search index. This also differs from the AI Overviews already available in Google Search, which sandwich an AI-generated summary of information between the search box and web results. AI Mode will be located under its own dedicated tab that will appear first in the Search tab lineup, to the left of the “All,” “Images,” “Videos,” and “Shopping” tabs. It’s Google’s answer to large language model-based search engines like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT search features.
PALIN LOSES LIBEL CLAIM: The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial that contained an error she claimed had damaged her reputation. The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict. A judge and a different jury had reached the same conclusion about Palin’s defamation claims in 2022, but her lawsuit was revived by an appeals court.
DOGE AND FOIA (via Freedom of the Press Foundation): District Judge Christopher Cooper recently ruled that DOGE will “likely” have to respond to FOIA requests. This good news comes from a FOIA lawsuit brought by the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which challenged the Trump administration’s claims that DOGE shouldn’t be subject to the transparency law — but red flags are already high in the air. The government argued during the hearing that, even though DOGE has existed for two months, it would take three years to release the records sought. This is an absolutely staggering level of stalling from a group led by Elon Musk, who famously said there should be no need for FOIA because government records should be transparent by default. This begs further questions about what staffing levels would be needed to make sure DOGE can respond to FOIA requests in the statutory timeframe. One thing is clear: it needs to get in the habit of hiring and retaining FOIA officers, not the other way around (the Office of Management in Budget, also part of the White House, has already lost 75 percent of its FOIA staff this year).
CITIZENS BETTER THAN JOURNALISTS: A new study in the Journal of Civic Information shows that summaries of local government meetings by citizen documenters are easier to read than official meeting minutes and more likely to include helpful links and additional context. The author, Nina Kelly from Wayne State University, concludes that while not a substitute for paid professional journalists, the documenters program offers an important role in filling the gap left by disappearing newspapers. (FYI – Mirror Indy employs citizen documenters cheaply to cover all manner of local government meetings.)
HOUSTON NP NEWSROOM CLOSES: Another NP media org closes – the Houston Landing. The nonprofit news startup raised $20 million well before it began publishing, from the American Journalism Project and the Knight Foundation along with local philanthropies the Houston Endowment, Kinder Foundation, and Arnold Ventures. But less than two years after the Landing officially launched, its board has voted to shut the news outlet down. The site will stop publishing by mid-May, CEO Peter Bhatia said, and its 43 employees will be laid off.
THE GAYLE-NAUT: CBS Anchor Gayle King rocketed into space April 14 – along with several other women who were invited by rocket owner Jeff Bezos (including his bride-to-be). Much hoopla was made of this including live network coverage on the local channel. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has shot up other celebs before including Bill Shatner, who played Capt. Kirk on Star Trek. This time it was an all female group as these special invite tourists experienced space for 11 minutes. This includes the time to reach the edge of space (62 miles, or the Kármán line), experience several minutes of weightlessness, and then descend back to Earth. Private companies charge anywhere from $80,000 to $250,000 a pop to take this trip. No word on King’s trip as to who paid – or accepted as a freebie. Most citizens of Earth seemed to think it was all pretty cringeworthy.
FIRED: Columbia Journalism Review has fired its editor of less than a year. Sewell Chan posted the same thread in all of his social media about his firing, including this one on LinkedIn. Most of his colleagues responded in his support – while another social media post said his management style bordered on “rage.” Via NYT: Chan, a well-known figure in journalism circles, started in the top role in September, after the job was vacant for almost a year. He was a former editor in chief of The Texas Tribune and held senior roles at The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, as well as a number of board positions. The magazine, which has been running under tight budgetary constraints, was beginning a fund-raising campaign, two people familiar with it said.
STEPPING DOWN: ESPN Host Shannon Sharpe is stepping away from his TV job after a Nevada woman sued him for sexual assault and battery in Nevada civil court. "At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties," Sharpe said in a statement. "I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason." ESPN also issued a statement, saying: "This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon's decision to step away."
REMEMBER FOIA: Congress held its first hearing on the Freedom of Information Act in three years, and it was the first to feature public witnesses since 2015. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing didn’t hear from any federal employees at all — in large part because the Trump administration recently fired the most likely government witnesses. The timing of the hearing raised questions about whether Congress can defend FOIA offices from the administration’s mass firings, as well as about the future of a law that has enjoyed bipartisan support for 60 years. Happening also as federal employees are being forced to take polygraph tests about leaks to the media. Read that a second time.
NATIONAL TO LOCAL (via Semafor and NYT): Former NBC broadcaster Chuck Todd is rumored to be in negotiations to launch a “local” news network that some believe may be targeting Nextdoor (which seems to be looking for a buyer). According to media reports, Todd is prepared to invest up to $2 billion, though he didn’t identify any backers or say what company they were looking to buy other than ruling out major newspaper groups. According to Media Nation, $2 billion is four times the initial pot of money assembled by Press Forward, a philanthropic collaborative aimed at reviving community journalism.
And more from Semafor (starting to be my favorite source of big media news): Nexstar looks to be bending the knee to Trump. Too large of a story to summarize, so here’s the link. Nexstar owns WXIN/Fox59 in Indy. This incident appears to be over reporting at The Hill, also owned by Nexstar.
ORGANIZING (via the News Guild): After more than two years of organizing, bargaining, and weathering multiple rounds of layoffs, the workers of Daily Kos have officially ratified their first collective bargaining agreement with the Pacific Media Workers Guild, Local 39521 of The NewsGuild-CWA.
INDIANA IN NATIONAL NEWS: A 9-year-old boy who was a victim of e. coli in Indiana is mentioned in NBC News coverage. Here’s the headline – “A deadly E. coli outbreak hit 15 states, but the FDA chose not to publicize it. The outbreak linked to romaine lettuce killed one person and sickened at least 88 more, including a 9-year-old boy who nearly died of kidney failure.” It’s a disturbing story on many fronts as the federal government continues to be DOGE-d.
Who won an award from Investigative Reporters & Editors? No one in Indiana.
And from RTDNA: Former New York Times’ Executive Editor Dean Baquet receives the 2025 Paul White Award. The Paul White Award, named for the first news director of CBS, is RTDNA’s highest honor, presented annually to recognize a lifetime of achievement and service to the journalism profession. “Dean Baquet will go down in journalism history as a transformative leader helping to bring the ‘Gray Lady’ into the 21st century by ensuring it now reaches news consumers wherever they are,” said RTDNA President and CEO Dan Shelley. “Even more important, he upheld the highest standards of ethical, responsible reporting, never shying away from holding those in power accountable to the public they served.”
ABOUT MEDIA MOVES
This newsletter is free. My readers are generally in media, formerly in media, in media law, in media education, in government or practicing their PR and communications skills in those sectors. Plus, a few randos. Per usual, thanks for reading and sending feedback and tidbits when you have time. If you don't know my background - and why I care about media today - check out my LinkedIn profile.
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