Culled from CJR’s own stories, plus the 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 Inside Story of Matt Taibbi’s Departure From First Look Media (The Intercept) – “Those conflicts were rooted in a larger and more fundamental culture clash that has plagued the project from the start: A collision between the First Look executives, who by and large come from a highly structured Silicon Valley corporate environment, and the fiercely independent journalists who view corporate cultures and management-speak with disdain.”
Should journalism worry about content marketing? (CJR) – Corporate brands now compete for audience with an aggressive storytelling strategy.
Ta-Nehisi Coates defines a new race beat (CJR) – “How big-hearted can democracy be? How many people can it actually include and sustain itself? That is the question I’m asking over and over again.”
My Captivity (NYT Mag) – An American journalist on his two-year kidnapping in Syria.
Chuck Todd’s Obama book says more about the author than it does about the president (CJR) – ‘The Stranger’ underscores a broader problem with the way we cover politics
Journalism’s new beats (CJR) – Today’s coverage areas go way beyond cops, courts, and sports.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.