Boulder Reporting Lab, a new nonprofit newsroom, finds its footing in Colorado
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Thursday, February 10, 2022
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Boulder Reporting Lab, a new nonprofit newsroom, finds its footing in ColoradoNewsletter signups went up 60% following the news startup’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Marshall Fire. “We will not survive if we're not meeting the information needs of our community. It's not a side project we have. It's just who we are.” By Sarah Scire. |
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A new study shows how newsroom and audience diversity affects coverage of political candidatesThe study suggests audience diversity results in favorable coverage for non-white political candidates. But newsroom diversity may be a boon for white candidates. By Shraddha Chakradhar. |
 | An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalismThat “rapper” accused of billions in crypto fraud was also a Forbes contributor. Is it finally time to move past the contributor network? By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
El Faro / Julia Gavarrete and Roman Gressier
“Pegasus is fuel on the authoritarian fire”: After 35 journalists were spied on, El Salvador’s government hasn’t shown any interest in investigating →
“…Either the Bukele administration or some other government was doing this targeting. If it was another government, then that is a clear national security concern. If it was the administration, then there's a very serious question about whether Salvadorans' constitutional and civil rights were violated. Clearly, the government doesn’t want to address either question. That's really troubling, given that El Salvador is, on paper, a democracy.”
Center for Cooperative Media / Rachel Glickhouse
The Center for Cooperative Media is organizing a national journalism collaboration to cover the threats to American democracy →
“We intend to pick a date on which print, radio, TV, and digital media on the national and local level can come together to report on the threat we're facing. This would include original reporting, aggregations of existing reporting, and op-eds. Through the collaboration, we'd make some Creative Commons reporting free for all to republish and use across various mediums.”
Devex / Stephanie Beasley
How to sustain minority-led and locally led nonprofits? Endow them →
“‘But an endowment — which, again, is this super old tool — is literally the most profound way of transferring power,’ said [Bridgespan's William Foster]. He called it a ‘radical’ tool for philanthropists seeking authentic engagements with communities. By transferring assets to the nonprofits, donors allow them to be the decision-makers, he said.”
Press Gazette / Andrew Kersley
Live blogs are growing as news publishers try to mirror the experience of social media scrolling →
The BBC’s live pages saw more than one billion visits during 2021. “As a result, the BBC is launching a new live team with 31 journalists, led by new live editor Kevin Ponniah and supported by significant investment, as it looks to expand its live page coverage beyond the pandemic with new topics, formats and use of video.”
The New Yorker / Kyle Chayka
I can’t stop thinking about this →
“On the internet, where attention is the currency, obsession has become a default register. If something doesn't wholly consume you, occupying your brain in spite of your desire to forget it, it is presumably not worth talking about. Conversely, when prefaced by the phrase, even the most mundane topics can be justified as comment-worthy.”
The Atlantic / Matthew Hindman, Nathaniel Lubin, and Trevor Davis
Facebook has a superuser-supremacy problem →
“The most abusive people on Facebook, it turns out, are given the most power to shape what Facebook is.”
Teen Vogue / Ko Bragg
Scalawag’s month of paid leave was transformative for its workplace →
“A shift that I've made, and something that I really came to understand in the last couple of years, is rest is a practice. Racial capitalism and white supremacy trick us into believing that everything is urgent and that we don’t actually have time to rest and that we can’t. Anything’s possible when you have a radical imagination.”
ProPublica / Caroline Chen, Vianna Davila, Melissa Sanchez, and Liz Sharp
Here is ProPublica’s 2022 diversity report →
“Out of 50 positions filled in 2021, 55% of the candidates we interviewed identified as women, and 47% identified as being part of a racial/ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white. Of those we hired, 45% identified as women and 44% as being part of a racial/ethnic group other than solely non-Hispanic white. The percentage of all ProPublica staff members who identified as solely non-Hispanic white was 59%, the same as last year.”
Better News / Joel Christopher, Brenna McDermott, and Cynthia Benjamin
How Gannett’s Knoxville News Sentinel shifted its coverage for Black communities →
“Our main initiative was to form a Facebook group that journalists could check in with. We grant members a trial subscription as an incentive to join and share their feedback with us.”
AP NEWS / David Bauder
Critics said NBC was “shaming” and "torturing" skier Mikaela Shiffrin after an Olympics flameout. NBC says it’s just doing its job. →
“Here we are in 2022 and we have a double standard in coverage of women's sports … Women's sports should be analyzed through the same lens as the men. The most famous skier in the world did not finish her two best events. So we are going to show her sitting on the hill and analyze what went wrong. You bet we are.”
Newsweek / Steve Friess
Only one sports writer has been to every Super Bowl. Meet Jerry Green. →
“That attitude has been a balm against the disappointment of his other intriguing distinction: Of the original Super Bowl reporters, Green is the only one whose hometown team, the Detroit Lions, have never played in the Big Game.”
Spotlight PA / Christopher Baxter
Spotlight PA will expand to include a regional reporting bureau in central Pennsylvania →
“The State College regional team will be employed by Spotlight PA and receive organizational support from the statewide newsroom … thus avoiding the significant start-up costs associated with launching a brand-new, nonprofit news outlet.” Coverage plans include an investigative reporter assigned to Penn State University and a rural affairs reporter.
ProPublica / Caroline Chen, Vianna Davila, Melissa Sanchez, and Liz Sharp
Here’s what ProPublica is doing about newsroom diversity in 2022 →
In their annual report, the nonprofit newsroom looks at its own staff and shares its internal rules for recruiting, hiring, and retaining journalists from underrepresented backgrounds. (For example, “We require that hiring managers interview at least one person who does not self-identify as solely non-Hispanic white. In addition, we have made it explicit that every application must be read by at least two people.”)
Reuters
Mexico has arrested three men allegedly responsible for the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado →
“Maldonado, 68, was shot in front of her house in the border city of Tijuana on Jan. 23. Three years earlier, she had raised the issue of journalist killings with Lopez Obrador during a news conference and said she feared for her life. So far this year, three other journalists have been killed: Jose Gamboa in the eastern state of Veracruz, Margarito Martinez in Tijuana and Roberto Toledo in the western state of Michoacan.”
New York Times / Marc Tracy
Local papers are feeling optimistic about their ability to sell enough digital subscriptions to survive →
“For an industry accustomed to doomsaying, the willingness of people to pay for digital access is giving many publishers hope that they have found a way to survive — and, according to the most optimistic, even thrive.”
CNN / Oliver Darcy
News orgs are calling on the Biden administration to allow journalists to embed with military forces as they deploy to Europe →
“For decades, American journalists have been granted embed opportunities when American military forces deploy abroad. It has been a long and proud tradition, one that has showcased not only transparency from the US government, but the country’s commitment to a free and open press. But, with this latest deployment of troops to Eastern Europe, something has gone awry. Reporters have been given no such opportunity to embed with the troops aimed at bolstering NATO as Russia amasses troops along the Ukrainian border.”
CNBC / Hugh Son
The world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange is taking a $200 million stake in Forbes →
That will make Binance one of the top two biggest owners of Forbes. (Yesterday, we told you about a "rapper" accused of billions in crypto fraud who was also a prolific Forbes contributor.)
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