The Latest: Young news readers + future of news; C-SPAN co-CEOs stepping down; FOIA appeals webinar March 15; Evan’s parents to join SOTU

March 5, 2024

Top stories

The future of news consumption can be glimpsed in the habits of younger news consumers today, study shows (Northwestern Medill School of Journalism)

NY Times boss defends Israel-Hamas coverage : 'We'll never win over the partisans' (Daily Beast) / ‘Mutual incomprehension now exists seemingly everywhere’: The New York Times’ publisher responds to its critics (Nieman Journalism Lab) / Full text of A. G. Sulzberger's speech

‘A Congressman, Rep. Mike Collins, participated in a vehemently anti-Semitic attack against a Washington Post journalist . His response was to pretend it didn't happen. Prominent corporations that are backing Collins' reelection are taking the same approach’ (Judd Legum)

LinkedIn doubles down on news as social rivals retreat (Axios)

C-SPAN co-CEOs to step down in 2024. Succession planning has been underway for more than a year (The Hollywood Reporter)

Former Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman returns to Wired as a contributing editor (Max Tani) / Nieman Lab hires new staff writers , Andrew Deck and Neel Dhanesha (Nieman Journalism Lab) / Boston Globe hires Diamond Naga Siu as newsletter editor (Talking Biz News) / Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew Ackerman, laid off last month, returns to the Journal (Talking Biz News)

How a lack of local reporting affects the Supreme Court (Columbia Journalism Review)

Microsoft derides 'doomsday futurology' of New York Times AI lawsuit (Financial Times) / Tech companies are creating conditions that will deal a death blow to journalism everywhere (The Walrus) / TollBit, a start up that aims to create a marketplace for publishers and AI companies, raises $8 million (Axios) / Google is starting to squash more spam and AI in search results (The Verge)

Unionized Desert Sun journalists reach agreement after first open-ended strike in paper’s history (Poynter) / The era of abundant labor reporting is coming to an end (In These Times)

Sign of the times: CNN officially out of the CNN Center as staff move to the Ted Turner Techwood Campus (AdWeek) / Gannett will soon move into its New York City headquarters (Media Post)

NTWRK, the celebrity-backed e-commerce startup, folds into Complex...plans to revive Complex’s print magazine (Axios)

Rupert Murdoch pulls Fox News-style channel off the air in UK after failing to build an audience (CNN)

With Midwest expansion, the Pivot Fund tries to put grassroots news on philanthropy’s radar (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Press Freedom

Parents of Russian-held Evan Gershkovich to attend Biden’s State of the Union (Wall Street Journal)

US sanctions spyware company and executives who targeted American journalists , government officials (Associated Press)

‘Just in time for #SunshineWeek! I'm launching a weekly #FOIA newsletter for Bloomberg News called FOIA Files where I will challenge gov't secrecy & unshroud the documents recalcitrant agencies preferred never saw the light of day’ (Jason Leopold)

Career Day at the National Press Club. Join us in person from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 22, 2024. Meet journalism & communications recruiters. Get free professional headshots. Join job-search workshops. Access to on-site workspace.

Open records advice from a business reporter

“Federal and state lawsuits underscore riffs between employees, former employees, investors, vendors, customers, and business partners. Repeated lawsuits over similar issues can point out specific issues within a company. Don’t forget to search for cases in local courthouses when researching a story . Another place to search for complaints and cases is with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Most of the case documents are public, and you can also file FOIA requests for them if they aren’t already accessible on the website.”

-- Jessica Mathews, covers startups and the venture capital industry for Fortune, excerpt from “A business reporter’s guide to documents”

The Appeals Process: Steps to take when your FOIA requests are denied. A Sunshine Week webinar on Friday, March 15, 12 pm ET.

Join us during Sunshine Week to learn all about open records appeals

Public records belong to the public. So what recourse do journalists and the public have when your records requests are denied?

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute for a free webinar at noon ET on Friday, March 15. You'll hear practical advice on the records appeals process: how to start, how to track, and how to succeed with your open records requests. Whether you are seeking federal, state, or local records, you’ll learn how to get the information you’re after (with patience, perseverance, and a plan).

Speakers:

Nate Jones, FOIA Director at The Washington Post
Gunita Singh, staff attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Mark Walker, Investigative Reporter at The New York Times

Leadership Tip: 3 ways to help your team get things done

“Give employees the resources they need . That includes training and tools as well as people. Identify gaps, and work to ensure employees have a way to call out when they don’t have, as well as what they need, to work effectively. Track goals and discuss progress . Establish what success looks like, and measure progress regularly. Adjust as needed, and do so early in the process. That can be the difference between success and failure. Learn from successes and failures . Successes serve as a template for improvement and are worth repeating. Failures provide valuable learning opportunities to understand what went wrong and what to avoid.”

-- Bob Helbig, media partnerships director at Energage, excerpt from "Are You Getting Things Done? Why Execution Matters "(Washington Post Jobs)

Resources

This newsletter is written & edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Bara Vaida, and Holly Butcher Grant. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press, and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire a more representative democracy. As the non-profit affiliate of the National Press Club, the Institute powers journalism in the public interest. The Institute's tax ID number is 52-1750908.