The Industry
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Behind the News — November 30, 2012 03:29 PM
NY community papers struggle post-Sandy
Small papers were washed away when their readers most needed them, and they're still recovering
The Wave offices, post-Hurricane Sandy. Photo credit: Henry Gass
During Hurricane Sandy, the offices of The Wave, a community newspaper in the Rockaways, Queens, got hit by a five-foot tidal surge.
Now the paper’s general manager, Sanford Bernstein, is figuring out how to publish his weekly newspaper with half the equipment, a bare-bones staff, and almost no advertising to...
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The Kicker — November 30, 2012 03:00 PM
Must-reads of the week
A day without violence in New York, an immortal jellyfish in Shirahama, the last bookstore in Nashville
Culled from CJR’s frequently updated “Must-reads from around the Web,” our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and other miscellany) on the Internet, here are your can’t-miss must-reads of the past week:
Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system for women — Saudi women's male guardians now receive text messages informing them when women under their custody leave the...
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Minority Reports — November 30, 2012 06:50 AM
Gay at the Times
A lot has changed at the Gray Lady since the early '90s
In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities.
It turns out that the bad old days were, in fact, pretty bad.
On Wednesday, The New York Times’s LGBT employee affinity group commemorated a cover story about the paper that ran in the Advocate 20 years ago. Called, “Out at The New York Times:...
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The Kicker — November 29, 2012 12:30 PM
The media news cycle is bananas
What's up with the last couple of days?
We seem to be in the thick of a media news maelstrom right now:
—Jeff Zucker was officially named the new head of CNN.
—The Leveson Report on media ethics in the UK was published, and reporters have been frantically digesting its 2,000 pages.
—Syria has cut Internet access as violence continues to engulf the country.
—The...
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#Realtalk — November 29, 2012 06:50 AM
Relationship advice for writers and editors
How to work together smoothly
How do you let your editor know you appreciate all they do for you without sounding like a suck-up? —Anonymous
Awww, this question is so sweet! If you’re producing good work, you have good ideas, and you’re on good terms with your editor, then saying thank you is never sucking up.
Editors work behind the scenes, so there’s...
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The Kicker — November 28, 2012 06:08 PM
Pass the #popcorn
ICYMI: TechCrunch errs, other tech writers pile on
According to a recent Pew study, 15 percent of adults online use Twitter — 8 percent daily. I’m pretty sure most of that 8 percent are journalists. Journalists love Twitter, whether using it for writing, conversation, or fighting. And I love to watch—and judge—the sparring. If you see a #JournoTweetFight that you think merits inclusion, please give me a heads...
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Swing States Project — November 27, 2012 11:06 AM
Dart: CBS and the Goldman Sachs solution
Another weak showing on Social Security
Maybe CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was so awestruck by a chance to visit one of the seven trading floors over at Goldman Sachs, and by a rare interview opportunity with Goldman’s CEO, that he forgot about good, skeptical follow-up questions. He and the CBS Evening News get a CJR Dart for this fairly embarrassing effort.
Pelley...
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Behind the News — November 27, 2012 10:21 AM
Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present
A report by Emily Bell, CW Anderson, and Clay Shirky has just been released
Today we publish our report, “Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present” from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School. We hope you will read it and let us know what you think.
The report came out of conversations provoked by Columbia j-school Dean Nicholas Lemann and builds on the work we have done in...
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Minority Reports — November 23, 2012 06:50 AM
Five awesome blogs about minority communities
These sites do a good job giving a sense of their group’s culture or politics, or pointing out media stereotypes
In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities.
One of the tough things for journalists writing stories about unfamiliar minority groups is getting the full context. That’s why one of the things I’m thankful for this year is all the bloggers, activists, and media watchers of social minorities who take the time to...
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The Kicker — November 21, 2012 12:15 PM
Must-reads of the week
Passwords, Tina Brown, failed right-wing storytelling
Culled from CJR’s frequently updated “Must-reads from around the Web,” our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and other miscellany) on the Internet, here are your can’t-miss must-reads of the past week, the turkey coma edition:
In Conversation: Tina Brown — She talks with Michael Kinsley shortly before the end of Newsweek's print edition
How the Conservative Media...
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Between the Spreadsheets — November 21, 2012 11:30 AM
A database that brings radio to life
This American Life's archive as an interactive map
Data journalism and information visualization is a burgeoning field. Every week, Between the Spreadsheets will analyze, interrogate, and explore emerging work in this area. Between the Spreadsheets is brought to you by CJR and Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
Data isn’t always a number. It can be more abstract — an mp3 file, for example. Thus, a radio show's...
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Behind the News — November 21, 2012 06:50 AM
Translating America, into Wolof
How a radio host explains US politics to Senegalese listeners in New York and Africa
At about 7:30 p.m. on election day, as Dame Babou waited for the returns at Londel’s Restaurant in Harlem, he bristled. A disc jockey bumped Make it Funky, by James Brown, competing with ABC’s pundits, talking about the early results on wall-mounted flat screens. Women in business suits and men in Yankees caps chomped on yams and drinkers clinked their...
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Behind the News — November 20, 2012 03:30 PM
Martin Baron’s plans for WaPo
Will he bring the Globe's double-site strategy to the Post?
Boston Globe editor Martin Baron will be The Washington Post's new executive editor come January 2013, replacing Marcus Brauchli. Three days after his first visit to WaPo’s newsroom to meet his future colleagues, I asked Baron what strategies he planned to take from the Globe to his new job.
Last year, Baron told CJR about the Globe's then-new creation of...
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Behind the News — November 20, 2012 02:21 PM
Stories I’d like to see
Ad technolology that may threaten newspapers; winners and losers of the fiscal cliff
In his weekly “Stories I’d like to see” column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion, have received insufficient media attention. This article was originally published on Reuters.com.
1. Another threat to newspapers’ business models?
This article in The New York Times last Friday and this one in the National Journal pinpoint two important developments in...
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The Kicker — November 19, 2012 06:13 PM
Tom Rosenstiel leaving Pew
He'll be American Press Institute's executive director
More changes are in store for the Pew Research Center. As Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor and online executive editor Alan Murray prepares to begin his presidential duties there, Tom Rosenstiel, founder and director of Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism, is leaving PEJ for an executive director position at American Press Institute. Rosenstiel’s departure was announced on Monday.
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Behind the News — November 19, 2012 02:40 PM
A reporter is fired; colleagues quit in protest
The Hudson Register-Star reporter refused to include information in his story
On November 8, Tom Casey, a reporter at the Hudson Register-Star, a community paper in upstate New York, wrote an article about a city budget meeting. The next day, he was fired. The week after that, nearly half of the newsroom resigned.
The story that Casey, 24, wrote contained a lot of interesting information—the proposed budget for 2013 ($11.9 million),...
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Behind the News — November 19, 2012 11:00 AM
Israeli airstrikes hit Gazan media facilities
At least six employees were wounded
On Sunday morning, Israel’s warplanes attacked two media centers as part of its current military offensive against Gaza. The first of the two strikes hit a building where I worked for three months in 2010, and where my former colleagues at the Palestinian news agency Maan still work.
The first strike, at around 1:30 a.m. local time, hit the Shawa...
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Behind the News — November 19, 2012 06:50 AM
Buzzfeed president talks branded content
The future of media revenue has its roots in the past
The Columbia Spectator, The Blue & White, and the Columbia InterPublications Association hosted the Columbia Media Conference last weekend. The daylong event consisted of four panels covering mostly future of media industry issues with an impressive roster of panelists (keynote speakers included Mother Jones founder Jeffrey Klein and ProPublica president, CEO, and editor in chief Paul Steiger; New York Times...
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The Kicker — November 16, 2012 04:00 PM
Must-reads of the week
David Petraeus, Mormon reporters, Guy Fieri, stray penises
Culled from CJR's frequently updated "Must-reads from around the Web," our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and other miscellany) on the Internet, here are your can't-miss must-reads of the past week:
How I was drawn into the cult of David Petraeus — One journalist on the role he played in the mythmaking surrounding Petraeus
After Sandy —...
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The Kicker — November 16, 2012 03:37 PM
Overholser leaving USC j-school
She has been the director there since 2008
Geneva Overholser, the director of The University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is stepping down at the end of this academic year, the school announced on Friday. She has held the position since 2008.
“My time as director of this school has been enormously rewarding, and it is gratifying to see the results of our efforts...
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The Kicker last updated: Fri 3:00 PM
- Must-reads of the week
- The media news cycle is bananas
- Pass the #popcorn
- Must-reads of the week
- Tom Rosenstiel leaving Pew
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