Is The New York Times’ newsroom just a bunch of Ivy Leaguers? (Kinda, sorta.)

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Is The New York Times’ newsroom just a bunch of Ivy Leaguers? (Kinda, sorta.) They’re not a majority, based on a new look at education data, but they are wildly overrepresented. By Joshua Benton.

San Francisco Chronicle tries an AI chatbot — er, Chowbot — for food recs Chowbot is the Chronicle’s “first real foray into audience-facing AI.” By Sarah Scire.

The Guardian’s new “Deeply Read” article ranking focuses on attention, not just clicks What We’re ReadingSubstack / Matt Pearce“Journalists need to get involved in journalism policy, and they need to get involved right now.” →On his last day at the LA Times, Matt Pearce argues we’re in “a journalistic emergency.” NPR / Dara KerrOwner of Time magazine tells NPR journalist investigating his land acquisitions he has personal info on her →“During that call, [Marc Benioff] also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, ‘It’s my job. You have a job and I have a job.’ During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.”WIRED / Kate KnibbsHow a small Iowa newspaper’s website became an AI-generated clickbait factory →“The Clayton County Register was founded in 1926 and covered the small town of Ekader, Iowa, and wider Clayton County, which nestle against the Mississippi River in the state’s northeast corner…Former coeditor Bryce Durbin describes himself as ‘disgusted’ by what’s now published at its former web address.”New York Times / David StreitfeldHow the media industry keeps losing the future →“The slow crash of newspapers and magazines would be of limited interest save for one thing: Traditional media had at its core the exalted and difficult mission of communicating information about the world. From investigative reports on government to coverage of local politicians, the news served to make all the institutions and individuals covered a bit more transparent and, possibly, more honest … Now there are signs that the whole concept of ‘news’ is fading.”Washington Post / Jeremy BarrMehdi Hasan launches his own media company after leaving MSNBC →The company will launch on Substack and “will publish a weekly streaming show (“Mehdi Unfiltered”) hosted by Hasan, a weekly podcast and a regular slate of written pieces by a host of prominent contributors. Full access to the site will eventually cost users $6 per month with an annual subscription.”The New Republic / Harry CheadleThere will never be another magazine like Vice →“Vice journalists did great work and garnered accolades, but that was no great achievement on the company’s part — hire journalists and you’ll get journalism. Where was the business plan?”Washington Post / Philip Bump“Let’s say YouTube were a newspaper. How much would it weigh?” →In Monday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court in NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton — a dispute over the ability of states to impose constraints on social media companies — Justice Samuel Alito had a question. The Washington Post attempted to answer it.CNN / Oliver DarcyKara Swisher warns that news organizations need to “reinvent” themselves amid an existential crisis →“This was a long time coming. Let’s be clear: A lot of what’s happened is the fault of the media…it’s a fault of the media letting technology take the business — like really impact the business in ways they did not anticipate.”Fast Company / Talib VisramIs journalism school unethical at a time of mass layoffs? →“Given the broad range of journalism models today, schools will have to do a better job studying their potential audiences.”404 Media / Samantha ColeTumblr and WordPress to sell users’ data to train AI tools →“The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself.”TechCrunch / Sarah PerezFormer Twitter engineers are building Particle, an AI-powered news reader →“While Particle hasn’t yet shared its business model, it arrives at a time when there’s a growing concern about the impact of AI on a rapidly shrinking news ecosystem. News that is summarized by AI could limit clicks to publishers’ websites, which means their ability to monetize via advertising would also be reduced.”Documented NY / Mahira Dayal, Sheridan Wall, and Paroma SoniRemembering Fazil Khan, an education data journalist killed in an NYC fire →“With careful thought, he crafted each word for his stories and chose colors for his graphics that truthfully represented the news, pausing to offer book suggestions to colleagues working on their own stories, or to ponder over lunch options at the canteen.”Literary Hub / Robert MoorOn the rise of “autojournalism” →“Because journalists have erased themselves from their own stories for so long, it is easy to forget how profoundly weird — in the old sense of that word — it feels to actually be a journalist: to sit in a room and ask probing questions of strangers; to follow them around and dig through their (real and metaphorical) dustbins; to collect details, like so many stray hairs and nail clippings; and then to use that sparse and disconnected material to try, via a kind of magic incantation, to create something living (or at least, life-like).”Columbia Journalism Review / Jem BartholomewRevealing the U.K.’s effort to blacklist critics →“The blacklisting seemed to be particularly fervid in Britain’s education department. Reporting from The Observer revealed that at least nine child-development experts had been surveilled and had their invitations to speak at conferences challenged or rescinded.”The Guardian / Sirin KaleVice’s cunning, irreverent journalism is dead — and executives with bloated paychecks helped kill it →“In 2023, about the time Vice filed for bankruptcy, senior executives were reportedly paid six-figure bonuses. While Vice writers are now laid off en masse, some of them while on maternity leave, [founder Shane Smith] is the proud owner of a $23 million mansion with a temperature-controlled wine rack, which he bought in 2015.”LatAm Journalism Review by the Knight Center / Katherine PennacchioLatin American news outlets are using YouTube Shorts to increase views, monetize, and reach new audiences →“This format has been fundamental because it has also allowed us to seek new audiences. The people who watch the Shorts have a lower average age than those who watch the rest of the videos, so the YouTube Shorts have not only allowed us to grow but also to create and reach new audiences.”Bloomberg / Advait Palepu and Chris KayBillionaire press barons are squeezing media freedom in India →“[To] many journalists, leadership changes at NDTV and diluted coverage across India illustrate how Prime Minister Modi has effectively brought to heel a once-riotous media. Newsrooms are being reshaped, they say, by India’s richest press barons, many of whom are close to the ruling party and depend on millions of advertising dollars from the government.”Jacobin / Chip GibbonsBasic press freedoms are at stake in the Julian Assange case →“The United States is seeking to put the WikiLeaks founder on trial for exposing its war crimes — which would set a precedent that the Espionage Act can be used to prosecute journalists who publish information the U.S. government doesn’t like.”

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