What’s going on in Las Vegas?
In addition to the streaks of scorching weather and Donny Osmond extending his award-winning residency at Harrah’s, readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are heated over the newspaper removing its baseball page.
“I heard your complaints. So, resuming Thursday, the baseball page is back in the newspaper where it belongs,” executive editor Glenn Cook wrote in an email to subscribers. “I’m genuinely sorry for upsetting many of you. I’m also heartened to know that so many readers get so much enjoyment reviewing the previous day’s baseball games in the newspaper.”
Cook also responded to reader feedback about the latest crossword puzzles. They’re too hard, readers complained. Cook explained that the syndicate who creates the puzzles has a new editor.
“Just as I listened to your feedback on the box scores, the puzzle purveyors will work to meet players’ preferences going forward,” he wrote. “So please be patient.”
Print subscribers may be dwindling at most publications, but ask any newspaper editor (or reporter, or photojournalist, or just about anyone who has ever answered a newsroom phone call) and they’ll tell you that those readers who remain are, erm, fervent. Decisions like replacing “Peanuts” with something a little fresher or moving high school sports scores to the website often result in more feedback than some high-profile investigations.
The trend is beyond clear: Fewer and fewer Americans get their news via print publications. Most newspapers have reduced print days and are staking out new business models through means other than print advertising and classifieds. Widespread printing plant closures are hastening the trend. Print just doesn’t make much economic sense for most news organizations anymore.
But try telling that to the loyal readers looking for their daily Sudoku fix.
By Ren LaForme
Initiative aims to fund local news to the tune of $1 billion
A massive funding effort aimed at strengthening local news will be even bigger than expected.
The so-called Press Forward campaign was originally slated to inject $500 million into the local news industry. Now, a group including the MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation and a dozen or so other funders hopes to double that figure, according to Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen.
“That’s one billion, with a ‘b’,” Ibargüen said this week during a keynote speech at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s conference. Though light on details, he said the money could go toward experimentation with artificial intelligence, among other initiatives.
“There is no shortage of good ideas that are ready to scale: whether it is by thinking anew about local public radio or television, new digital-only community news sites, exciting new efforts at journalism schools, or innovative new models for how to inform and engage communities,” MacArthur Foundation president John Palfrey wrote in a February essay.
By Alex Mahadevan
Media tidbits and links for your weekend review
- Diana Marcum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has died. Marcum was 60. In a tender obituary published Thursday, Times staff writer James Rainey wrote that Marcum gave voice to largely ignored Californians. “Her favorite subjects were strivers and oddballs, the dispossessed and the people who dared to be delighted in the face of life’s struggles,” Rainey wrote. Marcum won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing, for dispatches from California’s Central Valley offering nuanced portraits of lives affected by the state’s drought. Marcum was “an extraordinary writer, with a strong, resonant voice and exquisite observational skills,” wrote Kevin Merida, the Times’ executive editor. Read the full obituary here.
- The New York Times announced Thursday that Scott Cacciola is joining the Times’ Styles section. Cacciola is a longtime and well-respected sportswriter at the paper, which recently announced it is dismantling its sports section and turning its coverage over to The Athletic, the website the Times bought in early 2022 for $550 million. When the Times announced it was breaking up its sports section, it also announced that it would find other roles at the paper for its sportswriters. Cacciola was especially known for his basketball coverage. Styles editor Stella Bugbee wrote in a memo, “We know that Scott will continue to make good use of his self-described ‘odd sensibilities’ on Styles as he tackles everything from quick news hits, to profiles and reported features. We look forward to having his Sports expertise and giving him a wide berth to explore more than sports. His great sense of humor will be much appreciated on the desk.”
- The Hollywood writers and actors strikes have pushed the 2023 Emmy Awards ceremony into 2024. The Emmys, which recognize the best in TV, are usually held in September. But, last month, the announcement came that the awards show would be postponed because of the two strikes. Now the show is slated for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2024. Fox will air the show on Jan. 15.
- For the Medill Local News Initiative, Mark Caro writes “Restart the Presses? Plant closures and consolidation prompt earlier deadlines, longer drives, higher costs as papers scramble to stay in print.”
- Shortly after the Instagram account of former child influencer Lil Tay announced she had died Wednesday, several news outlets reported that they had confirmed her death with her “management.” The problem? Lil Tay, whose real name is as murky as the rest of this story, is still alive. For Vox, it’s Rebecca Jennings with “Lil Tay’s reported death hoax, explained as much as possible.”
- Two cows, the First Amendment and … Joaquin Phoenix? A bizarre free speech lawsuit is unfolding in Newfane, a small town in western New York. Patrick Lakamp covers it for The Buffalo News in “Gag order in Niagara County cow controversy remains in place.”
- On the other side of New York brews an odd defamation suit involving a teenager taking revenge on an exclusive hotel for refusing to serve him alcohol. The New York Times’ Liam Stack with “A Wealthy Teenager, a 5-Star Hotel and a Bizarre Defamation Fight.”
- ProPublica’s Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski with “Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel.”
- NPR’s Eric Deggans with “I’ve spent my career explaining race, but hit a wall with Montgomery brawl memes.”
- For The Appeal, incarcerated reporter Christopher Blackwell writes, “Prison can be a hostile place. Then the birds came.”
More resources for journalists
- Covering Climate Change Science and Policy in a Polarized World (Seminar, Washington D.C.) — Apply Aug. 14.
- Executive Leadership Summit (Oct.) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 14.
- Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Media (Mar., May & Sept. 2024) — Apply by Sept. 8, 2023.
- Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color (Nov. 15-18) (Seminar) — Apply by Sept. 15.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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