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Monday, December 20, 2021
 | Turning technology into an accelerant for truth“If money and criminality know no boundaries, then why should journalism?” By Raney Aronson-Rath. |
 | Inverting the talent pipeline“To grow talent, news organizations need to invest in creating fertile ground for emerging journalists to do their best — and to make occasional mistakes.” By Doris Truong. |
 | Can journalism survive in a post-news world?“In a world of surplus information, news as a product is fast losing its relevance.” By Shalabh Upadhyay. |
 | Drawing lines between corporate and local news“Media insiders have understood for decades that newspapers weren’t dying — they were being murdered. Now we’re finally saying it out loud.” By Tony Baranowski. |
 | Information wants to be free, but digital property won’t be“What Web 3.0 represents is an Internet where private digital property is finally realized. Safe and secure property rights are the basis of any thriving marketplace.” By David Cohn. |
 | You’ll be able to buy a newspaper day pass“2022 is the year that publishers can, will, and should start offering daily passes to read articles.” By Brian Moritz. |
 | Building operational resilience into newsrooms“Suddenly, operations isn’t just process — it’s the whole strategy.” By Millie Tran. |
 | OK, boomer: Time to think of your Plan B“Boomers preparing and planning for graceful exits will fare much better than newsroom leaders who don’t have their go-bags ready.” By John Davidow. |
 | We’re not going to take it“We now have a better understanding of our power, not just to generate revenue but to create a news business that is more equitable, more fair, and better to the people who power it.” By Meena Thiruvengadam. |
 | From extractive to regenerative“Regenerative industries and processes focus on developing self-renewing systems that take both natural and human resources into account. They recognize that both are finite.” By Jessica Clark. |
 | We admit the market won’t save us“Journalism leaders called for Lee to fend off the vulture hedge fund in order to help preserve a democratic press. Lee told Alden they’d just need a higher return to sell us out.” By Simon Galperin. |
 | Media 3.0: The news creator economy arrives“This shift will untether journalists and their audiences from the rigid 20th-century paper-digm we live in today.” By Matt Karolian. |
What We’re Reading
Columbia Journalism Review / Andrew McCormick
This year disappointed on climate. Fierce accountability journalism can help save 2022. →
“As important as emissions policies are, they’re too wonky to connect with many news consumers. And so, journalists must continue to emphasize people’s lived experience of the climate emergency — increasingly dramatic and deadly, as humanity careens towards 1.5 degrees C — while drawing a clear connection to the policies that are helping or not.”
Star Tribune / John Reinan
New buyer promises to improve Minnesota newspapers that previous owner “stripped” →
“CherryRoad Media bought seven newspapers from Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain. The seven previously were owned by GateHouse Media, another large chain, which merged with Gannett in 2019 and adopted the Gannett name.”
The Marshall Project / Keri Blakinger
The prisoner-run radio station that’s reaching men on death row →
“‘They may not all have TV, but most everybody has a radio,’ Dickerson told me. ‘And anybody who’s been on a cell block knows some folks will turn the radio up loud enough where even if you didn’t have one, you’re probably going to hear it anyway.'”
The Guardian / Sophie Zeldin-O'Neill
The Guardian ends its six-year “Inside the Guardian” series →
“At the end of 2015, we asked editors and writers to tell us their predictions for 2016. Not everyone got it right (our then deputy national news editor foresaw the big story of 2016 being ‘the government’s decision on airport expansion’).”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
CNN closes offices (for now) as Covid-19 cases rise →
“Employees who don’t need to be in the office to produce shows or provide other essential functions for the network’s broadcast operations will be asked to work from home, Mr. Zucker said, citing a surge of cases of Covid-19 at CNN.”
