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Midwestern news nonprofit The Beacon shuts down its Wichita newsroom
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Midwestern news nonprofit The Beacon shuts down its Wichita newsroom
“We’ve realized that we can’t do it all, and have made the decision to no longer have a staffed newsroom in Wichita.”
By Sophie Culpepper
With Hurricane Milton looming, NPR stations got a lower-bandwidth way to reach residents
In normal times, text-only websites are a niche interest. But a natural disaster is not normal times.
By Joshua Benton
How a 19th-century news revolution sparked activists, influencers, disinformation, and the Civil War
Long before anyone was accused of being “woke,” the Wide Awakes used new news technology to rapidly construct a national movement.
By Jon Grinspan
How The New York Times incorporates editorial judgment in algorithms to curate its home page
The Times’ algorithmic recommendations team on responding to reader feedback, newsroom concerns, and technical hurdles.
By Zhen Yang
Want to change money in Cuba? It’ll probably involve an exiled news outlet — and AI
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.
By Andrew Deck
The former host of S-Town has a new subject to investigate: Journalism
After more than a decade in the industry, Brian Reed is Question(ing) Everything about it.
By Neel Dhanesha
What’s the journalism we can make for people who don’t trust journalism?
“You just need somebody with enough charisma that they would carry people over the line. And it wouldn’t be a traditional journalist.”
By Neel Dhanesha
Journalism scholars want to make journalism better. They’re not quite sure how.
Does any of this work actually matter?
By Jacob L. Nelson, Andrea Wenzel and Letrell Crittenden
Congress fights to keep AM radio in cars
The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is being deliberated in both houses of Congress.
By Matthew Jordan
Going back to the well: CNN.com, the most popular news site in the U.S., is putting up a paywall
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.
By Joshua Benton
The New York Times redesigns its app to highlight a universe beyond just news
It’s the first major redesign since the app launched in 2008.
By Neel Dhanesha
Midwestern news nonprofit The Beacon shuts down its Wichita newsroom
“We’ve realized that we can’t do it all, and have made the decision to no longer have a staffed newsroom in Wichita.”
By Sophie Culpepper
With Hurricane Milton looming, NPR stations got a lower-bandwidth way to reach residents
In normal times, text-only websites are a niche interest. But a natural disaster is not normal times.
How a 19th-century news revolution sparked activists, influencers, disinformation, and the Civil War
Long before anyone was accused of being “woke,” the Wide Awakes used new news technology to rapidly construct a national movement.
What We’re Reading
Status / Oliver Darcy
The Atlantic editor-in-chief warns newsroom decline is how “democracy decomposes”
“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.”
New York Times / The Editorial Board
New York Times Editorial Board urges Congress to pass law safeguarding the anonymity of reporters’ sources
“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 Hollywood Reporter / Katie Kilkenny
New Yorker Festival strike averted as Condé Nast reaches deal with union
“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.”
Washington Post / Finbarr O'Reilly
Why I keep taking photos the world ignores
“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.”
Marketing Brew / Ryan Barwick
Trump-owned social platform Truth Social is buying ads on Fox News and Newsmax ahead of the election
“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.'”
Semafor / Max Tani
Inside Condé Nast’s Gaza war
“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.”
New York Times / Jessica Testa
Tina Brown, the queen of legacy media, takes her diary to Substack
“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.)
AP
Taliban-run media stops showing images of living beings in some Afghan provinces
“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.”
Financial Times / Daniel Thomas
The BBC will cut 155 roles from its news operation
“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.”
New York Times / Ben Mullin
What should a music magazine be in the TikTok era? Pitchfork alumni have an idea.
“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.”
Nieman Lab is a project to try to help figure out where the news is headed in the Internet age. Sign up for The Digest, our daily email with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.