El Toque’s informal exchange rate is used by taxi drivers, restaurateurs, and small businesses across the island. It’s also grown the news site’s traffic tenfold.
It has a much better chance of success than CNN+ ever did. But it still has to convince people its work is distinctive enough to break out the credit card.
“To look at cities that used to be served by newsrooms of 300, or 500 journalists, now reduced to virtually nothing, is terrible. This is the way democracy decomposes. We’re sleepwalking into an absolute disaster,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said. “Jefferson had it right almost 250 years ago when he said he’d rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers.”
“Today, every member of the House, some themselves targets of sharp investigative reporting or frequent critics of the news media, has supported swift passage of the PRESS bill. There are three Republican sponsors of the bill in the Senate, but it is opposed by a small clutch of conservative senators — most notably Tom Cotton, a hard-right Republican from Arkansas — attempting to keep the legislation bottled up in the Judiciary Committee.”
“The new deal raises the previous salary floor from $60,000 to $63,000 if the contract is ratified, with $2,000 bonuses awarded to staffers making less than $65,000 a year, the union stated … The deal arrives a little over a week since The New Yorker Union threatened a strike in advance of the publication’s annual festival, which is scheduled to take place between Oct. 25 and 27.”
“Photographers may aspire to capture scenes that galvanize public opinion and pressure world leaders to act to end wars, but few images — if any — have ever done this. The most graphic and disturbing images from Ukraine and Gaza have hardly slowed the carnage. So I focus on gentle interactions, quiet conversations and gestures. I’m steadily amazed by the openness and candor with which people share their lives and experiences, no matter how traumatic.”
“The commercial, which is a minute long, begins with shots of people with duct tape over their mouths while the narration tells viewers that ‘Big Tech is suppressing free speech’ and that ‘there’s a place where your voice matters, a place where freedom of expression is cherished and the love of our country unites us.'”
“Condé Nast’s high-profile head of diversity quietly stepped down in June amid bitter internal tensions over alleged antisemitism and divisive arguments about the war in Gaza … In September 2020, Condé Nast hired its first head of diversity, equity and inclusion. It was a point of pride for the magazine publisher: Yashica Olden, a veteran DEI officer, became the highest-ranking nonwhite employee at a company that had been roiled by a year of internal frustrations around race.”
“Her newsletter, Fresh Hell, is set to debut on Tuesday. In an introductory note to readers, she said the title referred to the experience of waking ‘every day to a news alert from Hades.’ The newsletter, she said, would be written mostly in weekly ‘notebook form,’ rather than ‘Big Think columns.'” (Note: the Times reports Substack did not offer Brown payment, as it did for other writers years ago.)
“No other Muslim-majority country imposes similar restrictions, including Iran and Saudi Arabia. During their previous rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban banned most television, radio and newspapers altogether.”
“All BBC divisions have been told to reduce content creation by one-fifth. The newsroom cuts announced on Tuesday include closing the bespoke Asian Network News service, axing the HARDtalk long-form interview program, and synchronizing the production of news bulletins used on Radio 5 Live and Radio 2.”
“Most of the publication will be free to read. But it will offer several subscription tiers for those who want a deeper experience. A basic subscription ($70 a year) includes unlimited access to the site and the ability to comment on the site. The highest tier, Super Deluxe Remastered Hi-Fi Membership ($1,000 a year), includes a handmade mix CD or cassette or streaming playlist made by a Hearing Things editor, as well as quarterly hangouts with the staff.”
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