Author Archive
Articles by Dean Starkman | Email the Author
A new cross-border tax-haven database and its significance
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists pushes into new journalism territory
By Dean Starkman Jun 17, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists hit the mother lode when it published the first of its dozens of exposés... More
Tide goes out on News Corp.’s newspapers
The Times of London newsroom cuts staff as its parent company splits in two
By Dean Starkman Jun 12, 2013 at 06:55 AM
It's not a great sign that the Times of London is laying off 20 editorial staffers just as it parent... More
Nonprofits are still a drop in the news bucket
And there isn’t a growth story
By Dean Starkman Jun 10, 2013 at 02:55 PM
Yes, as Kira Goldenberg writes, the most remarkable finding of the big new Pew study on nonprofit news organizations... More
‘The future is medieval’
A discussion with the scholars behind the “Gutenberg Parenthesis,” a sweeping theory of digital—and journalism—transformation
By Dean Starkman Jun 7, 2013 at 08:05 AM
What follows is an interview and discussion I had in Odense, Denmark, with Thomas Pettitt and Lars Ole Sauerberg, two... More
Official Secrets of the Financial Crisis
Huge public money changing hands in deals that remain undisclosed; part of a widening shroud over government
By Dean Starkman Jun 4, 2013 at 07:05 AM
Jon Weil's column the other day was one you really did not want to miss and points to wider... More
Exclusive excerpts: ‘The Gestation Period of Llama (Or why I quit The Wall Street Journal)’
In an new essay, a former investigative reporter explains how a Murdoch-ized operation led her to leave journalism and reinvent herself
By Dean Starkman Jun 3, 2013 at 06:49 AM
Once, dissent was common in American newsrooms. Today, it's rare for reporters, or even former reporters, to speak up about... More
Those immobile newspaper companies
Only 22 percent of a big sample even offer mobile products
By Dean Starkman May 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM
One of the truisms of digital journalism, and one that happens to be true, is that mobile is a big... More
The importance of counting stories
Schiffrin and Fagan quantify weaknesses in coverage of the stimulus
By Dean Starkman Apr 30, 2013 at 03:10 PM
One of the cold, hard facts of media punditry is that no one can read everything—or should be expected... More
Wall Street Journal: time to look in the mirror
Its Pulitzer shutout reaches six years
By Dean Starkman Apr 17, 2013 at 11:04 AM
Stop me if you've heard this one: Old man goes to shul, prays: "Dear God, just once, let me... More
60 Minutes’s Chevron pollution story springs a leak
An on-camera expert recants in a court statement
By Dean Starkman Apr 16, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Three years ago, we weighed in on a bitter media dispute pitting Chevron against 60 Minutes over a piece... More
Newspaper revenue: good news, bad news
Mostly bad as revenue stops its free-fall but ads remain weak
By Dean Starkman Apr 9, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The Newspaper Association of America takes some comfort, and with some reason, in the news that newspaper revenues declined... More
Investigative collaboration, cross-border edition
A landmark series on offshore tax havens from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
By Dean Starkman Apr 8, 2013 at 11:05 AM
A good sign that your investigation has hit the mark is when law enforcement agencies start demanding to see... More
Advance to nowhere
Newhouse-owned chain slogs forward with discredited free-news model, now in Cleveland
By Dean Starkman Apr 4, 2013 at 05:00 PM
Advance Publications's announcement today on the future of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was less dramatic than the one a year... More
Digital ads and grains of salt
Assessing recent claims
By Dean Starkman Apr 4, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Some data are better than no data, I suppose, but it always pays to be skeptical when companies disclose... More
Three things to like about the Times OSHA exposé
And one thing not to like at all
By Dean Starkman Apr 1, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Ian Urbina's magisterial probe in The New York Times of OSHA's failure to police long-term health risks—like harmful fumes caused... More
The Rise of Longform Newspaper Writing, 1950s-2003
Fink and Schudson document the rise of “contexual journalism” before the longform meltdown.
By Dean Starkman Mar 11, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Katherine Fink and Michael Schudson have a fantastic new paper called "The Rise of Contextual Journalism, 1950s-2003," to be... More
Q&A with the FT’s Martin Dickson
A new US managing editor takes over at the salmon-colored financial daily
By Dean Starkman Jan 28, 2013 at 07:00 AM
Martin Dickson came on as US managing editor of the Financial Times in September, succeeding Gillian Tett, who is on... More
Longform meltdown (cont.)
Reaction to a post on the decline of longform stories at major papers
By Dean Starkman Jan 22, 2013 at 07:00 AM
My post presenting data showing that major newspapers drastically cut back their longform story output in the last decade generated... More
Major papers’ longform meltdown
Stories longer than 2,000 words down 86 percent at the LAT since 2003, 50 percent at WaPo, etc.
By Dean Starkman Jan 17, 2013 at 03:11 PM
No one equates story-length with quality. Let’s start with that concession. But still. Story-length is hardly meaningless when you consider... More
Native ads’ existential problem
L’affaire Atlantic/Scientology points up the format’s built-in problems for news
By Dean Starkman Jan 15, 2013 at 11:00 PM
The Atlantic’s big mistake in the Scientololgy “debacle” has been variously described as: 1. Running an ad in the... More
#Realtalk: This isn’t another ‘golden age’ for print - But it is one for media
Social media in smaller markets - How three social media managers deal with smaller markets and more local coverage.
A rally for laid-off Sun-Times photogs - A protest Thursday morning drew about 150 picketers to the newspaper’s headquarters
Reporting, or illegal hacking - Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Exchange Watch: California Dreaming - Low healthcare premiums on the West Coast were trumpeted as a big, good-news Obamacare story. But: “Compared to what?”
Rolling Stone remembers Michael Hastings, dead at 33
The bold journalist died in a car accident in Los Angeles
On the journalistic value of being “a dick”
Buzzfeed’s statement on the death of its reporter
The disappearance of ‘Sports of the Times’
CJR’s panel discussion on coverage of gay marriage
On the eve of two related SCOTUS decisions, how should journalists be covering the issue?
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.


















