The Latest: X CEO steps down; Indiana public media layoffs; ‘Click-to-cancel’ blocked

July 9, 2025

■ Indiana public media journalists to be laid off after state budget cuts (IndyStar) / CapRadio to end management of NSPR, KHSU (Current)

■ X CEO Linda Yaccarino to step down (Axios) / ‘She did not cite a reason for her departure.’ (NPR) / ‘Yaccarino’s departure caps a tumultuous run atop Elon Musk’s social-media platform and comes after the merger of xAI with X.’ (Wall Street Journal)

■ Interim U.S. attorney orders Times Union removed from media list (Times Union)

■ A 'click-to-cancel' rule , intended to make canceling subscriptions easier, is blocked (Associated Press) / Streaming subscriptions may get tougher to cancel (Hollywood Reporter)

■ Can the New York Times turn its writers into video stars ? (Vulture)

■ The AI scraping fight that could change the future of the web (Wall Street Journal) / OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome (Reuters)

■ Oil City News launches new weekly print newspaper in Casper, Wyoming (Oil City News)

■ ‘As the Ellisons prepare to take over Paramount, the future of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and CBS’ appetite for political comedy hangs in the balance.’ (Status)

■ The Guardian appoints Nicole Kotzen as senior vice-president for development and executive director of theguardian.org (Guardian) / Semafor appoints Saudi Arabia bureau chief as part of regional expansion (Arab News) / The Atlantic hires Vivian Salama as staff writer (The Atlantic)

■ Bluesky chooses sports news to launch push notifications (Nieman Journalism Lab)

■ Thirty years after New York Newsday, there’s never been another paper like it (Columbia Journalism Review)

A collaborative approach to crafting headlines

“Usually well-reported stories already have the truth of the details in the story. Have a collaborative workflow. Let the story’s producers or reporters view the headline options and weed out the bad ones or veto them . Pick from the rest. … For stories that appear on NPR’s website, their general assignment desk directly allows reporters to weigh in. Reporters draft the initial headline, which the editor reviews, and discusses options with the reporter soliciting further input. And between them, they will settle on what they think is the perfect headline for that story.”

-- Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, excerpt from “Guardrails for news headlining: Principles and workflow ” (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics)

Don’t ignore software updates on your devices

“Software updates are essential for maintaining the security and performance of devices and applications. Updates provide protection against cyber threats, improve the user experience, and ensure compatibility with other software and hardware. Not updating leaves an open window for vulnerabilities. … You can have a very secure password, but if you never updated the software, any attacker could access the device , take whatever they want, do whatever they want, leave, and you would never even know it.”

-- Luis Assardo , digital security trainer and investigative data journalist, excerpt from “The 8 most common cybersecurity mistakes journalists should avoid ” (LatAm Journalism Review by the Knight Center)

NPF, NPCJI award nearly $44,000 to 5 grantees for environmental justice journalism

The National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute have jointly awarded $43,700 to fund five reporting projects on environmental justice. This is the fourth year that the two leading journalism organizations have partnered to fund investigative reporting on disproportionate environmental harms.

The 2025 Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting grantees and their projects are:

Tristan Baurick and Halle Parker, Verite News
Bradford Davis, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Max Filby, The Columbus Dispatch
Carla Samon Ros and Johanna Hänsel, Inside Climate News
Helina Selemon and Jordan Gass-Pooré, New York Amsterdam News

The Kozik Grants are funded by a 1991 gift from the late Dr. Franklin Kozik in honor of his deceased son, Robert Kozik. The five grantees were selected by judges Yvette Cabrera, Rob Chaney, Charles Self, and Kat Stafford.

To learn more about the grantees, click here .

Resources

This newsletter is written and edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Holly Butcher Grant, Elliot C. Williams, Allison Prang, and Mitch Harle. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

Get this from a friend? Subscribe, and view the archives.

DONATE TO THE INSTITUTE

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.