Nieman Foundation at Harvard
National news outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN are restricting travel for staff because of the coronavirus outbreaks in the United States and around the world. The Daily Beast’s Maxwell Tani reported that other newsrooms are taking unique precautions to avoid the virus: “Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget sent an email to staff last week suggesting staff try alternatives to shaking hands, including ‘bumping elbows or tapping their feet together’ when meeting with guests.”
But none of this greetings revisionism has stopped anyone from launching pop-up news products. If you’re itching for more information about coronavirus and its specific impacts, there’s a product for you and it’s probably free. There are so many coronavirus newsletters popping up that even the same Twitter jokes are going viral.
A newsletter about all your coronavirus newsletters.
— erin mccann | (@mccanner) March 3, 2020
Sign up for my newsletter about the spread of coronavirus newsletters.
— Meg Marco (@meghann) March 3, 2020
A (necessarily partial) list:
Yesterday, CNN launched Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction, a free daily podcast hosted by chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. In the first episode, Gupta addresses some of the most common questions about the virus. Today’s episode is about the effectiveness of face masks in reducing spread of the virus.
Quartz’s newsletter Coronavirus: Need to Know is also free and will inform subscribers about how the virus is affecting the global economy a few times a week. The first edition is expected to go out today.
The Coronavirus Newsletter by BuzzFeed News breaks down the number of cases in the U.S. and around the world and provides one update a week, including a “tip of the day.” The first one: Don’t go shopping for face masks because they don’t prevent infection. (Another tip: Click on the tweet below to see the payoff at the bottom of the image.)
Awkward email cut-off point for @BuzzFeedNews' new coronavirus newsletter pic.twitter.com/31K68ByR3w
— Rob Price (@robaeprice) March 2, 2020
Morning Consult, which specializes in survey research and polling, is now updating its weekly consumer confidence indices every day to track consumer responses to the virus.
Viral: Coronavirus, a weekly podcast from the studio Three Uncanny Four, launched yesterday with a 28-minute primer on what the virus is, why this virus has a specific name, and the effects it’s had on the market.
The Washington Post’s To Your Health: Coronavirus newsletter is a takeover of the regular To Your Health newsletter and is focused on general interest coronavirus news, with bullet-point updates on major stories and links to other reporting by the Post on the virus.
NEW: We launched the @washingtonpost's special coronavirus newsletter today, which I'll be authoring with @ReisThebault. As long as virus dominates the news, we'll deliver the latest straight to your inbox.
Sign up here — then wash your hands. ✌️https://t.co/5A0lI8EhgO pic.twitter.com/NCXCKlqI6N
— Angela Fritz (@angelafritz) March 2, 2020
The New York Times’ Coronavirus Briefing daily newsletter sums up the day’s major developments and offers tips on what you need to know after reading the updates. It also includes an FAQ at the bottom of the newsletter with answers to basic questions about the virus.
sorry to tell you this, but you should probably sign up for the Coronavirus Briefing, a new @nytimes newsletter that will send you non-hysterical updates every night. sorry. https://t.co/xnU8oZHM5p
— Sam Dolnick (@samdolnick) February 26, 2020
The NYT's pop-up coronavirus newsletter. You can print it out and use it as a facemask. https://t.co/JwJxW7ofiO
— Neal Freyman (@Neal_Freyman) February 26, 2020
USA Today has launched its own Coronavirus Watch newsletter, which includes answering questions from readers. (“Gary in Victorville, Calif., wants to know: Are medical masks effective in preventing infection?”)
In local news, The Dallas Morning News will send out breaking news updates in a newsletter starting tomorrow about “the latest on the coronavirus and how it’s affecting Texans locally, across in the U.S., and internationally.” The DMN’s homepage also lists “Coronavirus Updates” as the top issue under its “What Matters” section.
We're launching a #coronavirus popup newsletter. Sign up here to get the latest on how the disease is affecting us in D-FW — for free — straight to your inbox. https://t.co/e4Y9CUs2BS
— Jesus Jiménez 🌩 (@jesus_jimz) March 2, 2020
In the Pacific Northwest, the region of the U.S. hardest hit thus far, The Oregonian is publishing Oregon Coronavirus News each day at 1 p.m. PT, starting out with local updates then spreading out to news from the region, country, and world.
KUOW in Seattle has live blog updates in English and Spanish on its website as there have been 17 confirmed cases of the virus in Washington.
Stephen Stirling, the project editor for Columbia Journalism Investigations, started his own daily newsletter Coronaviral on updates in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut (and Pennsylvania, depending what you include in tri-state). Stirling wants to track the fluctuation of people wearing surgical masks on the subway compared to major news updates and asks for submissions.
Tired of the coronavirus info firehose? I started a free, evening coronavirus newsletter for the NYC metro.
Sourced, local data and info. Apolitical. If we're all gonna die, you might as well have a handle on why.
Sign up here: https://t.co/S4oGGK3HIn
— Stephen Stirling (@SStirling) March 3, 2020
McClatchy launched a daily update newsletter called Coronavirus: Latest News that rounds up coverage from all of its 29 properties and goes out at 5 p.m. ET. Some of its local newspapers will send out the same daily newsletter to its subscribers while other properties on the west coast will be more locally focused.
And all of that isn’t even counting the various Substack newsletters and podcasts coming from non-media sources, even random citizens. (Searching your favorite podcast app will turn up dozens of shows, a number of them seemingly from people just looking to ride the wave of interest.)
these coronavirus podcast episodes are so bleak guys
— Amy Pedulla (@amypedulla) March 2, 2020
No thank you. I don't want to watch your coronavirus webinar, listen to your coronavirus podcast, read your coronavirus blog, newsletter or special report, subscribe to your coronavirus text alerts or participate in your coronavirus roundtable discussion 1/
— Joar (@JoarGarrosh) March 3, 2020
So if you’re sitting in your newsroom right now and wondering if you should jump on this train, here are some tips from the Asian American Journalists Association on how you shouldn’t report on coronavirus.
We urge media to be mindful of photos, context and word choice surrounding #coronavirus.
We warn against usage of:
-images of people wearing face masks without proper context
-generic images of Chinatown if unrelated to story
-the term “Wuhan virus”https://t.co/5pEN7WT0i0— AAJA National (@aaja) March 3, 2020
Now wash your hands.
