June 27, 2024

Editor's Note: This newsletter will be taking a short summer break. We'll return to your inboxes on Monday, July 8.

• What media outlets on the right and left are saying about the debate (New York Times) / How PolitiFact and others are preparing for tonight’s presidential debate (Poynter) / The challenge for CNN’s debate moderators: Keeping themselves out of it (Vanity Fair) 

• ‘The White House Correspondents' Association says it's "deeply concerned" that CNN "has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio’ (Ben Mullin) / The National Association of Black Journalists is urging CNN to issue credentials to local Black Press outlets in Atlanta to cover Thursday’s presidential debate (The Hill) 

• Journalists struggle to cover election amid rising anti-democratic rhetoric (Editor & Publisher)

• The real story of the crisis at the Washington Post (The Atlantic)

• ‘CNN CEO Mark Thompson will implement layoffs next month as part of broad restructuring of the business’ (Dylan Byers)

• Sewell Chan named editor of Columbia Journalism Review (New York Times) / Matthew Watkins named Texas Tribune's next editor-in-chief, succeeding Sewell Chan (The Texas Tribune) / Melissa Bell named CEO of Chicago Public Media, will oversee Sun-Times, WBEZ (Chicago Sun-Times) / Bloomberg News White House and politics editor Justin Sink elected as president of the White House Correspondents' Association (Talking Biz News)

• Time dropped its paywall one year ago. Here's what's happened since (AdWeek) / Time strikes licensing deal with OpenAI (Axios)

• News nonprofit sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft for 'exploitative' copyright infringement (Associated Press) / ChatGPT is hallucinating fake links to its news partners’ biggest investigations (Nieman Journalism Lab) 

• AI in newsrooms: New survey shows audiences are warming up to AI news content, but remain skeptical (TVNewsCheck) / We asked people about using AI to make the news. They’re anxious and annoyed (Poynter) 

• Mass. lawmakers eye revival of panel to help struggling journalism industry (State House News Service via WBUR) 

• El País aims for the U.S. with a new, American Spanish-language edition (Nieman Journalism Lab) 

• Cityside launches Richmondside, its third local news site in California (Nieman Journalism Lab)

• Snoop Dogg lands correspondent gig for Paris Olympics (BET)

Press Freedom

• The shadowy judicial system that controls the fate of WSJ's Evan Gershkovich (Wall Street Journal) 

• Julian Assange is free, but troubling journalistic questions remain (Columbia Journalism Review)

Covering the political conventions if you can’t be there

This summer, thousands of journalists are heading to Milwaukee and Chicago for the Republican and Democratic political conventions on July 15-18 and August 19-22, respectively. There are hundreds of events that occur at the political conventions – from breakfasts with state political leaders, to parties with lobbyists – that all culminate on the final evening with the formal nomination of the party’s presidential nominee. 

• Get started now with your remote coverage. Find out who among your county, city and state political leaders are attending each of the conventions and get their phone numbers and emails. If you aren’t sure where to start, look for the leaders of the Democratic party and Republican party in your state. Reach out to the county leaders (most counties have a Democratic and Republican party leaders) in your readership. Find out if there are any local business leaders or activists in your readership who might be attending the conventions and get their phone numbers and emails and what convention stories they think are important to your community.

• Stay in touch with your local political, business, and advocacy leaders during the convention and ask them to describe what is going on and what they are doing.

• Watch the conventions via live streaming on C-SPAN and on the YouTube channels sponsored by the Republican and Democratic convention committees. You can write stories based on what you are seeing and what you think your readers are interested in learning about. “Tweak your mindset a bit,” said Aschbrenner. “As you watch, you’re having the same experience as your readers and viewers in that they aren’t there either, so you are watching it as maybe they are watching this…and use your own knowledge to interpret what is going on for them.” 

• The convention committees will have a schedule of events every day. See if there is anything of interest connected to your state. Watch the Democrat and Republican platform committee meetings. These meetings are often under covered and represent the party’s current and future policies. 

• Not sure what to look for while watching the live stream of the convention events? Consider observing the clothing of attendees, and who people are talking to and how they are interacting with one another on the convention floor. “Something I learned from fashion reporters… is to be really observational about what you are seeing…and really looking at who’s standing next to whom and what are they saying?” said Page. “Turn a weakness, that you aren’t at the convention, into a strength. You are seeing the convention the way most Americans are seeing it… not in the way some convention delegates or political junkies are seeing it.”

National Press Club news

• Tonight: ‘Press vs. Politicians’ Spelling Bee. Join in person or watch the livestream. (June 27, 6:30 pm ET) 
• Podcast: NGPA executive director advocates for equality on the flight deck
• Interested in becoming a Club member? Learn more.

Resources

• Mindful movement: How writers can reduce body stress and boost wellness during the workday (July 12, 12 p.m. ET)
• Disappearing Options: Tracking the story on reproductive health care (July 31, 1 p.m. ET) 
• Writing workshop at Poynter for journalists of color Nov. 12-15 (Applications now open, due Sept. 6)

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.

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