Are you passionate about journalism? Job ads and hiring editors sure want you to be
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Wednesday, January 26, 2022
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Are you passionate about journalism? Job ads and hiring editors sure want you to beNews outlets seem to want “passion for the work” above all else in who they hire. But all that passion comes with an unhealthy price tag. By Joshua Benton. |
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“To kill a journalist in Mexico is like killing no one”: Journalists in 40 Mexican cities protest following three murders"Every time a journalist is killed, it silences the issue they were investigating." By Hanaa' Tameez. |
What We’re Reading
Jezebel / Jenna Amatulli
This editor-in-chief is calling for salary transparency (only if it isn’t his) →
“He went on to say that he'd ‘rather not say publicly for lots of practical reasons and admitted that it ‘feels a little wimpy, but also prudent’ to not be transparent.”
Vulture / Nicholas Quah
It’s the end of an era for Radiolab →
“It's hard to overstate the significance of what Radiolab has done for the podcast world. The show continues to reach millions of people directly through their phones, in addition to many others reached through the 450 or so public-radio stations that syndicate the show. It's influenced an entire generation of producers.”
New York Times / John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum
Can CNN’s hiring spree get people to pay for streaming news? →
“It remains an open question if CNN+ can actually draw the interest — and monthly payments — of viewers already overwhelmed with streaming options. Heavyweight services like Netflix and Hulu have struggled to find success with shows that riff on current events.”
Philadelphia Inquirer / Jacob Adelman
With most still working from home, The Philadelphia Inquirer plans to move and shrink its office footprint by 60% →
“The change will save the paper about $1 million a year in real estate costs.” (Some were more interested in the new beer garden downstairs.)
Press Gazette / Andrew Kersley
The “slow news” startup Tortoise will grow its membership program and lean into podcasting →
“[Tortoise’s] podcasts reached almost 3m monthly downloads in December. Sweet Bobby, a deep dive investigation into ‘one of the world's most sophisticated catfishers,’ reached the number one spot on Apple podcasts in the UK and US in December.”
WNYC Studios
Radiolab founder and cohost Jad Abumrad will step aside from the podcast →
“For the last few years — since 2016, really — I’ve told myself there’d come a point when the team would be ‘ready’ for me to leave … I think we’re at that point.”
Vice / Viola Zhou
"There is no point being a journalist anymore." The demise of Hong Kong’s independent news outlets has left hundreds of journalists out of a job. →
“The city's most influential independent media have shuttered, some with their assets frozen and top editors put behind bars. Websites went dark. News alerts stopped popping up, and social media accounts with millions of followers vanished. Front-line journalists who used to shout thorny questions at government officials fell silent. Some left the profession altogether, taking with them decades of experience and, in Lai's case, stories that are now told in the confines of a cab instead of on the pages of a newspaper.”
TechCrunch / Frederic Lardinois
Google kills off FLoC, its proposed replacement for third-party cookies, in favor of “Topics” →
“The idea here is that your browser will learn about your interests as you move around the web. It'll keep data for the last three weeks of your browsing history and as of now, Google is restricting the number of topics to 300, with plans to extend this over time.” (Our own Joshua Benton has written about Google’s struggle to satisfy privacy advocates without crippling its ultra-successful ad business.)
URL Media
The community-focused URL Media is now a year old. Here’s what it has accomplished so far →
And the company has more in store: “…we plan to continue to disrupt power structures and change the narrative in 2022 and beyond.”
Long Beach Post / Melissa Evans
The Long Beach Post takes a hard look at its own election coverage →
“Reporters too often write up any press release that arrives, cover staged events, or allow candidates to respond to questions without challenge. The candidates and campaigns with the most money and the loudest voice get what they want, which is to drive the narrative, to get the media to do their PR for them. This, in turn, results in coverage that, at best, is boring, and at worst is misleading and detrimental to voters.”
Scroll.in / Naresh Fernandes
As Scroll.in turns eight, the digital news site launches an initiative to help polarized India find common ground →
“For us at Scroll.in, January 26 is always a bit of a paradox. It is the opportunity for us to remember the excitement with which we launched India's first independent digital-only news site on this day in 2014 and to reflect on the lessons we've learned over the past eight years. But increasingly, the debates that inevitably bubble up around Republic Day offer hard evidence of just how polarised India has become.”
Kathmandu Post / Ankit Khadgi
Women face workplace harassment in Nepali newsrooms, but journalists don’t always feel safe sharing their stories →
“Like every other sector, Nepali media is still primarily controlled by men. According to the Federation of Nepali Journalists, only 16 percent of journalists in Nepal are women. And even within those who work, only 6 percent are in decision-making positions like editors.”
Platformer / Casey Newton
How creator funds fall short for creators →
“As [Hank] Green notes, he's making less money now despite the fact that TikTok is much more successful financially than it was when the fund started, all thanks to the that creator funds are designed. ‘When TiKTok becomes more successful, TikTokers become less successful,’ he says in his video. ‘When TikTok makes more, creators make less.'”
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