In late October, I, and CJR’s daily newsletter, The Media Today, went on hiatus. As I explained in a note at the time, I had run myself into the ground after writing the newsletter (almost) every weekday for four years, and so needed to take some time to recharge and unplug—a break that, happily for me, coincided almost exactly with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. I also wrote in October that The Media Today would return in January, in a new form. And so here we are, as promised. It’s good to be back—even if Elon is still in the news.
As for our “new form,” The Media Today will retain its essential Media Todayishness—we’ll still be in your inboxes every weekday morning with information, insight, and analysis, and we’ll still be covering a wide range of stories about the media and assessing how the media is covering everything else. We’ll also continue with our quick daily roundup of other notable stories that we’re watching on the media beat. As I wrote in October, however, we’re also hoping to add some depth, and a bit more structure, to what we hope was our prior breadth. (We’ve also had a snazzy redesign; thanks go to our creative maven Darrel Frost for that.) Going forward, here’s what subscribers can expect to receive from us on a daily basis:
- On Mondays, I’ll be in your inbox with my reflections on coverage of US politics and current affairs, in DC and beyond, and on the latest happenings in political media.
- On Tuesdays, I’ll reflect and report on the wide world of media beyond US shores—and how it’s intersecting with, mirroring, or preempting stories on the US media scene.
- On Wednesdays, you’ll get an interview tied to a key media story of the moment—hearing either from someone right at the heart of the story, or a perspective from among our own staff at CJR.
- On Thursdays, my colleague Mathew Ingram will continue to cover the intersection of journalism and tech, as he did under the previous iteration of The Media Today.
- And on Fridays, you’ll hear from Kyle Pope, our editor in chief and publisher, who will offer up his thoughts on a major story of the week, and point you toward a great related weekend read from CJR’s archives.
As with any new venture, our first steps may occasionally be rocky as we figure things out. We’d ask for your patience on that front. We’d also love your feedback, as well as suggestions for things we should cover. You can email me anytime at jallsop@cjr.org. (Overseas readers: I’m particularly on the lookout for international media stories that may have escaped attention in the US. If you know of one, I’d love to hear about it.)
That’s it for today; the newsletter will restart in earnest tomorrow, with a story I’ve been working on that mixes both US politics and international media (in part to compensate for today’s lack of promised political focus). I hope you’ll enjoy it—and the revamped Media Today more broadly. As I wrote when I signed off in October, your attention in such a crowded news cycle is always appreciated and never taken for granted. That hasn’t changed at all.
ICYMI: The Abortion Issue
Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJR’s newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.