Good morning.
- Generations of males disconsolate?
“For a generation of American men, reading Playboy was a cultural rite, an illicit thrill consumed by flashlight. Now every teenage boy has an Internet-connected phone instead. Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.” (The New York Times) “Pornographic”? Well, they could have used some editing there, but the point of this saga remains: Nudes will be gone for a publication whose circulation was 5.6 million monthly in 1975 and is now down to about 800,000.
“There will still be a Playmate of the Month, but the pictures will be ‘PG-13’ and less produced — more like the racier sections of Instagram.” Hugh Hefner, 89 and who changed American culture with the magazine, is said to have agreed. Most folks may not even know his name these days (who’s he married to now, anyway? I used to know). If any of the new digital media entrepreneurs, whose coffers are filled with venture capital dollars, has a sliver of his impact, they’ll have done well.
- McClatchy closes its foreign bureaus
McClatchy, whose history is a strong one, will succumb to economic imperatives and perceived changing tastes and cut out its full-time foreign bureaus and focus on individual overseas projects. This continues an industrywide cost-cutting trend of about a decade, especially among regional papers, like the Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune. (Poynter) Meanwhile, some upstarts, like VICE, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and POLITICO see digital dollars in expansion overseas. Though nobody at McClatchy will lose their job, it said, its news came as VICE announced a new effort in Italy. (Poynter)
“I think the actions of these two news organizations reflect two vastly different approaches to dealing with the problems facing the media,” says Jim O’Shea, former editor of the Los Angeles Times who authored a report on the state of international reporting for the Pulitzer Center in Washington, D.C. He dispenses with diplomatic equivocation: “McClatchy represents the old, calcified approach of retrenchment — cutting budgets to protect the bottom line. Most news organizations have been doing this since the early 2000s or even earlier and where has it led? To loss of readers, loss of advertisers and loss of revenue. VICE represents a much fresher mindset that views growth as the way forward. My bet is on the VICE approach.” That said, he told me last night, “The real test is what do VICE editors do with the bureaus? They must generate some compelling copy, stories that give a reader insights or a different take on the news. That is the real test.”
- The Village Voice sold again
“The sale of the Village Voice Monday to a wealthy out-of-towner hardly qualifies as big media news. But it marks one more chapter in the long decline of the alternative weekly category — along with its most famous title.” (Poynter) Growing up in New York, it was once essential and provocative reading. Whether about local politics, media or the arts (even its dance criticism was stellar), it provided a true counterpart to mainstream coverage. Now its newsroom is down to 10, its core audience pretty darn old and a new generation just not interested.
- Twitter suspends sports accounts for copyright violations
“Twitter is cracking down on digital media properties that publish highlights of football games on Twitter without permission. Twitter temporarily suspended the main account run by Gawker Media’s Deadspin sports site, which had been sharing GIF and video highlights of NFL games. Over the weekend, Twitter also suspended an account, @SBNationGIF, run by Vox Media-owned SB Nation* for posting GIFs of college football highlights. It has yet to be reactivated.” (Re/code) For its part, the NFL said that it had sent “routine notices as part of its copyright enforcement program requesting that Twitter disable links to more than a dozen pirated NFL game videos and highlights that violate the NFL’s copyrights. We did not request that any Twitter account be suspended.”
- Want to be a great foreign correspondent?
Of course, it’s not as easy as real foreign bureaus are shuttered. Regardless, New Yorker correspondent Evan Osnos, a National Book Award winner and a former terrific Beijing correspondent himself, asked that in a tweet Monday. What was up? He was touting “Follow the Money,” the last episode of a 12-part series via the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute. It “focuses on the behind-the-scenes story of the journalists who during 2012 conducted ground-breaking investigations about China’s nouveau riche, and the dramatic, controversial, and often frightening consequences.” Fabulous work by Bloomberg News and The New York Times amid giant obstacles is cited. The primary reporter for this is Mike Chinoy, a former CNN Beijing correspondent. (USC)
- BuzzFeed goes native
The financial lure is irresistible, the seeming growing ignorance of readers is clear and the ethical quandaries don’t make many news executives too anxious these days. BuzzFeed announced it will aggressively move into the native ads for politicians and advocacy groups. Steve Brill, the journalist and successful media entrepreneur, emailed me, “To the extent that native ads are recognizable as such, they are worthless. To the extent that they fool readers, they are unethical. Either way, a losing proposition.” For the moment, BuzzFeed and others differ. (Poynter)
- The love and persistence of Jason Rezaian’s brother
Ali Rezaian, a consultant in Northern California, is racking up the most melancholy of frequent flyer miles. He embarked on his 15th trek of the year to Washington, D.C. yesterday. It was, he told CNN’s Brian Stelter, his 19th wedding anniversary. But that would be left for another day. While he was in the air, Iranian TV disclosed the verdict in his brother’s long-concluded sham “espionage” trial. Guilty, as rigged. Jason, the Washington Post correspondent, himself apparently learned about it via TV while in a Tehran prison. Meanwhile, the brother landed and did a day’s worth of interviews amid the media focus on other matters (ah, I think there’s some sort of presidential debate tonight, no?) and what may be modest public concern. He doesn’t care, given a true believer’s sense of resolution and, in this matter, of rank injustice. He told Stelter how Jason dropped all when his own son, a mere 5, died from an H1N1 swine inflection. He told the reporter, too, that another son asked if he’ll be home for Halloween. Maybe, the dad said, maybe. There is still, after more than a year of pleading a case to anyone who will listen, another priority. (CNN)
- The cost of candor
“A court has ordered the arrest of Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş after he was taken into custody Friday evening, on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan via his tweets, in what is seen as another blow to freedom of the press in Turkey.” (Today’s Zaman) He’s been targeted in a variety of criminal complaints, lawsuits and defamation investigations apparently all launched by Erdogan, an American ally. He was in the newsroom, working on the weekend edition, when the cops took him into custody.
- Fox News atypically mum
Fair, balanced and laying low? New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza disclosed Sunday that he’d been ripped off by Fox News. (@RyanLizza) The network is usually quick to seek clarifications amid perceived imprecision in reporting about its operations. It’s not so quick on this one, it appears from an unanswered query. Once again, this is from Lizza’s New Yorker opus: “Representatives of the Vice-President held a meeting this week with Democratic National Committee staffers. They briefed Biden’s aides on arcane but crucial rules that the Vice-President would need to understand if he decides to run, according to a D.N.C. official.” Then here’s Fox: “A source telling Fox News some of [Biden’s] representatives held a meeting this week with Democratic National Committee staffers. They brief Biden’s aides on arcane but crucial rules that he’d need to understand if he decides to run.” And the explanation? No word yet.
- ‘Why accuracy doesn’t matter’
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told Bloomberg TV that much of what’s depicted in the new Steve Jobs movie just didn’t happen, certainly the scenes in which he’s played by Seth Rogen. But it’s the best depiction of the company yet, even if the flick “is not about reality.” (Bloomberg)
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
Today’s front page comes from the Arizona Republic, which led with tonight’s first Democratic presidential debate. (Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Jo Tuckman is now Latin America bureau chief for VICE News. Previously, she was a correspondent for The Guardian. Alberto Riva is now managing editor at VICE News U.S. Previously, he was senior world news editor at International Business Times. (Poynter) | Job of the day: Nerdwallet is looking for staff writers. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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