Most Recent   |   Special Issues   |   The Kicker Podcast Join us
Columbia Journalism Review
Join us
Local Journalism

Carpenter Media’s Ominous Takeover of Local News

In just a few years, a publisher based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has become the country’s fourth-largest newspaper operator. Some reporters wonder if it isn’t the cruelest.
By Lois Parshley
Podcast

Student, Teacher

Eric Gustafson on fighting for journalistic integrity at every level.
By Megan Greenwell

Waiting for Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

Early last month, the journalist was arrested in Kuwait on the basis of what CPJ calls “vague and overly broad accusations.” I’ve known him to be a reporter who is quick and elegant and resists euphemism.

By Aida Alami

Coverage of the Fossil-Fuel Industry ‘Doesn’t Have to Be This Way’

Michelle Amazeen says oil and gas money is fueling conflicts of interest.
By Lauren Watson

How Bloodstains Photographed from Space Brought Attention to a Forgotten War

When the Sudanese city of El-Fasher was sacked by paramilitaries last fall, ground reporting gave way to long-distance analysis.
By Isma’il Kushkush

Recent

See all recent

Heroes and Villains

Press coverage of the “daring,” “dramatic” mission to rescue a downed US airman followed the logic of a Hollywood movie.
By Jem Bartholomew

Worries at the Door

Estefany Rodríguez was reporting on an ICE raid in Nashville. The next day, she was detained. She has since been released on bond, but her fate is uncertain.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Tony Gonzales and the Patient Work of Local News

Impactful reporting from the San Antonio Express-News; Fargo columnists fed to the wood chipper; profiling the Big Beautiful Bill’s ugliness.
By Susie Banikarim
Sign up for CJR’s daily email

VOA’s Legal Fight for Independence

Journalists at Voice of America have been to court in the hope of getting back to their jobs. Now they are suing to protect against censorship.
By Riddhi Setty

‘If Someone Lit Up a Match, the Place Would Explode’

Viktor Orbán’s regime is increasingly targeting journalists. But even if he loses the election coming up this weekend, Hungary won’t become a press haven overnight.
By Ivan L. Nagy

What’s Up with Tony?

How Tony Dokoupil went from being a hair model to a print journalist to the anchor of CBS Evening News, guided by the principle “We love America.”
By Amos Barshad

Pushed Out. Reinstated. Pushed Out Again.

Last week, New York Times reporters were supposed to return to the Pentagon’s corridors. Instead, the entire press corps was banished to an annex, and the Times is back in court.
By Ivan L. Nagy

Who Is Left to Cover Lebanon?

A nation that helped shape modern war reporting is now treated as peripheral. In the wake of journalist killings, the consequences are clear not only for members of the press, but for how the story of Lebanon is being told. 
By Zahra Hankir

Politics

Survival Guide

How to keep your head above water as Trump floods the zone.

‘It’s Really Hard to Give Up That Kind of Money’

Kevin Ortega-Rojas, the creator of Here’s Why, curates political news for hundreds of thousands of people. Lately, he’s had to make tradeoffs between earning trust and earning a living.
By Lindsay Kalter

Was the FBI Raid on a Washington Post Reporter’s Home an Act of Retribution?

Investigators “assisted” Hannah Natanson in applying her right index finger to a Post-owned MacBook Pro, accessing all its data.
By Jem Bartholomew

Prying Open the Black Box

ICE conceals the breadth of its detention network by limiting access, but recent immigration reporting shows that information can and will emerge if we keep looking.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Unsilencing Voice of America

A judge ruled that Kari Lake’s tenure at USAGM was unconstitutional and ordered employees back to work. But a new appointee and legal challenges could make a fresh start difficult.
By Ivan L. Nagy

CNN’s Missed Opportunity

A promising digital transition is underway. But a Paramount buyout will likely doom the progress being made.
By Kyle Paoletta

The Journalism 2050 Issue

Forecasting

Where the wind is blowing the media industry and habits of news consumption.

Meet the Meteorologists Leaving Broadcast Behind

In an era of extreme weather, indie weathermen are streaming coverage 24-7—and banding together.
By Elizabeth Hewitt

Inside an East African Investigative Newsroom That Has Defied a Decade of Pressure

Africa Uncensored has survived legal threats, intimidation, and politically motivated attacks on its funders to become a prominent force in Kenya’s investigative journalism landscape.
By Maurice Oniang’o

Estefany Rodríguez in Limbo

Last week, a reporter in Nashville was detained by ICE. Officials claimed to have paperwork for her arrest, but her lawyers say it was warrantless—and retaliation for her reporting.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

As US Bombs Iran, a Judge Rules on the Battle for Hearts and Minds

A federal court says Kari Lake didn’t have legal standing to gut federally funded broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
By Jem Bartholomew

On Standing Rock, Local News Is Teetering

“We are like living ghosts,” the editor of the Teton Times said.
By Liam Scott

The New York Times Takes the Pentagon to Court 

As the US wages war on Iran, journalists’ fight for access enters a new phase.
By Ivan L. Nagy

A Reporter in Nashville, Detained by ICE

Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist for a Spanish-language outlet, was covering immigration raids. The next day, agents arrested her without presenting a warrant.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Hyperlocal AI with a Million Subscribers

Patch built a newsletter system to be not hard-nosed journalism but a community-building tool.
By Liz Skalka

Blackout Iran

When the Trump administration launched a major attack on Iran, news organizations had to navigate a shaky environment for communications—and moral clarity.
By Jem Bartholomew, Ivan L. Nagy

What Happened to Trump’s Biggest Fan?

As Marjorie Taylor Greene contemplates her next move, her betrothed, a Trump-friendly broadcaster named Brian Glenn, is adjusting to life on the outside.
By Liam Scott

International

The Story of Gaza

Journalism confronts a crisis—Israeli attacks, starving children, hostages, mass death—that won’t let up.

In This Cleveland Newsroom, AI Is Writing (But Not Reporting) the News

Cleveland.com is embracing AI tools, including an AI rewrite desk.
By Riddhi Setty

The Washington Post Gave Up on Diverse Coverage Well Before Layoffs

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, staffers of color have been frustrated by supervisors’ lack of enthusiasm—and the paper’s diminishing resources—for their work. 
By Riddhi Setty

The Voice of the Uyghur Post 

A Uyghur-language news site is aiming to connect a scattered diaspora and preserve a culture at risk of disappearing.
By Liam Scott

Elbowing In

In Olympia, Washington, a few right-wing media figures have been trying to get credentialed to cover the statehouse. Their efforts—which now include a lawsuit—have shaken up the entire press corps.
By John Stang

Inside the Reviewnaissance

A new generation tries its hand at publishing “the unusual, the difficult, the lengthy.”
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Synthetic Media

Artificial Intelligence

Productivity, parlor tricks, and persuading people that the truth still matters.

What the Post Cuts Will Do

With a third of its staff gone, the Post won’t be able to deliver on the vision its leadership has laid out.
By Siddhartha Mahanta

How ‘Pink Slime’ Publishers Are Weaponizing FOIA 

Metric Media filed more than nine thousand public records requests last year. It used the data to target Democratic politicians and private citizens.
By Miranda Green

Disarming the Global Free Press

For decades, American taxpayers helped promote democracy around the world. Then the US switched teams.
By Joel Simon

Carpenter Media’s Ominous Takeover of Local News

In just a few years, a publisher based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has become the country’s fourth-largest newspaper operator. Some reporters wonder if it isn’t the cruelest.
By Lois Parshley

A Dismantling of the Washington Post

“Our leadership destroyed our brand.”
By Amos Barshad, Siddhartha Mahanta

Standards and Practices

A New Look at Journalism Ethics

Our series in collaboration with the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security.

The Astonishing Arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort

“You cannot be neutral about the dismantling of our democracy and still expect to be protected by it,” Fort said in an interview. Two days later, officers came to her door.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Riddhi Setty

The Fight over AI at McClatchy

“Until we have solid language here, we’re not going to feel safe about the integrity of our jobs—or the language our readers read.”
By Lucy Schiller

‘A Trauma That You Carry’

An unprecedented attack on press freedom at the Washington Post.
By Riddhi Setty

For Venezuelan Journalists, It’s Like Maduro Never Left

“If you have contacts or sensitive information that you’re not supposed to have, you could be thrown in jail.”
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Ivan L. Nagy

A Veteran of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—and Its Long Strike—Prepares for What’s Next

“We didn’t go on strike to put the paper out of business. We went on strike to keep it good.”
By Megan Greenwell

Women’s Glossies Go MAGA

The conservative magazines pulling women into right-wing politics through lifestyle content.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Copper Theft Is Making Small Radio Stations Go Silent

“They destroyed a whole outlet for a few hundred dollars.”
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

And That’s the Way It Is 

At CBS News, the suppression of critical reporting and the promotion of appeasement reveal Bari Weiss’s true colors.
By Jem Bartholomew

Reporting While Trans

A dozen journalists on the risks of working in the news industry—and how to ensure their safety.
By H Conley

What the Dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Means

The parent organization of NPR and PBS, already defunded, is shutting down—and claims that’s for the best. But there are dangers ahead.
By Ivan L. Nagy

Remembering

Lessons Learned (Or Not)

Have journalists gotten better at covering Trump?

Unaffiliated

Some TV news stations are breaking their national network affiliations, and leaning into local programming.
By Amos Barshad

The Law-and-Order Influencer

Turning Point USA’s Savanah Hernandez on her journalistic position.
By Amos Barshad

When to Publish News of War

Trump’s military attack on Venezuela was a social media spectacle. What made the Times and the Post bury the scoop?
By Jem Bartholomew

The Battle for Press Freedom in the Streets

New York media outlets are being proactive about defending their rights as they anticipate the deployment of federal law enforcement.
By Joel Simon

A Newsroom in Exile Imagines a Free Kurdish Press

The Amargi, a digital outlet based in Germany, takes the lead on Kurdish news.
By Seyma Bayram

Reboot

Transformations

How technology is changing journalism.

‘I’ll Hear About It Eventually’

So-called news avoiders aren’t really skipping out on the news. They have alternative, often indirect sources of information.
By Mary Retta

The Idiot

Lex Fridman’s expansive, compelling, anti-journalistic podcast style.
By Maddy Crowell

Bias Busters

The busy work of cataloguing news in the hope of saving humanity from our conspiratorial online disinformation hell.
By Amos Barshad

Can Two Detroit Papers Survive a Split?

The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News had the last joint operating agreement in the country. It just expired.
By Riddhi Setty

Transparency Didn’t Delay Justice for R. Kelly or Jeffrey Epstein. Prosecutors Did.

The systems that should have protected Epstein’s victims failed time and again. For those aiming to keep the details secret, the Kelly case offered a playbook.
By Jim DeRogatis, Seth Stern

The O.G. News Influencer

A recent lawsuit tested whether Perez Hilton is a journalist. Reporters and influencers should be equally concerned with the legal answer to that question.
By Joel Simon

Visions of 2050

We asked prominent media figures to read the present—and try to predict the future.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Riddhi Setty

Locally Sourced Chum

The AI widgets taking over news sites and extracting our data.
By Lucy Schiller

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Is Convicted of National Security Charges 

The former publisher of a pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.
By Liam Scott

The Direct-to-Consumer Playbook

What happens when politicians can get their message out without the press.
By Kyle Paoletta
Advertisement

Magazine

Recent Issues

From the Archive

Corridor of Mirrors

The Democratic Convention in Chicago, in August 1968, was surrounded by protesters and made bloody by police violence. Whiteside was on the scene, following along with CBS News.
By Thomas Whiteside