The Weekly Wrap: February 16, 2024
The week we wanted to see The Cut’s traffic numbers
The Cut told me they’ll have more “complete” info to share next week, but who even knows whose money we’ll be talking about at that point! Would anyone like to share some Chartbeat screenshots in the meantime? Printouts in a shoebox via my minivan’s back window would be acceptable.
In other news, “content slit” entered the canon.
— Laura Hazard Owen
From the week
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| “When you end up in an extreme situation, you can’t think properly. In a virtual situation, you realize how you would feel and you can imagine the kind of decisions you will make. It works with your emotions.” By Laura Oliver. |
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| “Blogging is the media. Blogging won.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
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| The key quality journalists looked for in leadership? Whether the newsroom leader could do the jobs they supervised. By Gregory P. Perreault. |
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| Plus: What local news audiences really value, defining ‘precarious’ journalistic work, and what journalists say good newsroom leadership is. By Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis. |
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| “Frankly, the nation’s media may well be talking and thinking too much about the need for someone to ‘save journalism’ when all of us should be laser-focused on doing the work that may well save democracy.” By Joshua Benton. |
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| “Owning our own work, and being beholden to no one but our readers and colleagues — as opposed to say, investors, venture capitalists, or out-of-touch executives — feels like the future.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
AI adoption in newsrooms presents “a familiar power imbalance” between publishers and platforms, new report finds Highlights from elsewhere
BBC NewsAlexei Navalny, a blogger who became Russia’s most vociferous Putin critic, dies behind bars →“It helped that Navalny spoke the street language of younger Russians, and used it to powerful effect on social media. His Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) made detailed claims about official corruption.”
Rest of World / Damilare DosunmuHow an African streaming service dethroned Netflix →“Showmax has overtaken Netflix amid intense competition brewing in Africa’s video streaming industry, where global firms, major telecoms, and several country-specific apps are fighting for consumers’ bucks.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew IngramThreads: You can have political content but you will have to work for it →“What remains to be seen is whether Meta’s decision to de-emphasize politics will stunt the service’s growth or lead to the departure of some of its early users and fans.”
Vanity Fair / Charlotte KleinForget A1. The most coveted “front pages” of The New York Times are now The Daily and its flagship newsletter The Morning →“’Occasionally, ‘The Morning’ is responsible for more than half of an article’s online audience,’ [David] Leonhardt told me, with recent examples including Wirecutter advice on black tights and a politics story on how the cold weather was affecting the Iowa campaigns. But Leonhardt’s approach has raised questions about how the paper distinguishes between analysis and opinion—and whether Leonhardt, an institutional star, has more latitude than others to toe that line.”
New York Times / Dwight GarnerWhat was The Village Voice? →“For many oddballs and lefties and malcontents out in America’s hinterlands (I was among them), finding their first copy of The Voice was more than eye-opening. Here was a dispatch from another, better planet. There was nothing else like it. It drove many to go into journalism, or to move to New York, or both.”
The Boston Globe / Aidan RyanLayoffs and closures have roiled the media industry. What will happen to the young people studying journalism? →“I definitely want to go into journalism after I graduate,” said Sophia Harris, 20, a junior at Framingham State University and the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Gatepost. “The only thing holding me back is…the layoffs, high cost of living, now inflation, and that most people, when they start in journalism, they’re not making a ton of money.”
The Washington Post / Erik WempleJimmy Finkelstein, The Messenger, and the curse of the meddling media owner →“Conversations with former employees [suggest Finkelstein was] a fiddling, meddling presence in the daily production of Messenger journalism — a guy who distracted and flustered his staffers with every last directive…One former deputy section editor of the now-defunct site received 1,300 interventionist emails from Finkelstein between early July and the site’s demise.”
Semafor / Max TaniSlate just had its most profitable year ever →“Slate’s chief executive officer Dan Check and chief revenue officer and president Charlie Kammerer said that they were a bit hesitant to celebrate their record-setting year due to the gloomy state of digital news media. But they also said the company’s leadership was proud of their strategy. By focusing on its podcasts and website, Slate was able to weather an otherwise dark media business climate and continue to grow.”
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