Standing before her new newsroom colleagues on her first day on the job, Julie Anderson wanted to leave no doubt to her priorities as editor in chief of South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel.
Parkland. Parkland. Parkland.
“We’re going to cover Parkland and the aftermath like no one ever before,” Anderson recalled in an interview. “We’re not going to give any ground on that. All the different angles.”
Then, teamwork.
The Sun-Sentinel would focus on working together, on individual self-improvement, on being smarter about the work it would be doing, on not being afraid to experiment and take risks, she told the newsroom.
We talk to Anderson about her new job and the many jobs she had before this one, the type of skills an editor must have today and the characteristics she looks for in her employees. Read the full interview, but first, here’s a look at the media stories that may affect your world.
Women in media share their strengths but face uphill battles
On Monday, Poynter staged its first ever Women’s Leadership Symposium in New York. There, executives addressed some of the bigger issues that women in the media face: pay equity, dealing with double standards, legal issues involved in sexual harassment cases and maintaining a work/life balance. This story by Poynter’s Ashley McBride summed up a powerful panel discussion around the idea of pay equity and double standards and offered lots of tips and advice.
The Women’s Media Center also has issued a report called “The Status of Women of Color in the U.S. News Media 2018.” The report notes that it has been 50 years since the Kerner Commission criticized the news media for not sufficiently covering race issues. The report says that “Women of color represent just 7.95 percent of U.S. print newsroom staff, 12.6 percent of local TV news staff, and 6.2 percent of local radio staff, according to industry research …” Journalists featured in the report include author Dana Canedy, the first black female and youngest person to helm the Pulitzer Prize organization; such marquee broadcast news leaders as Ann Curry, Soledad O’Brien, Maria Hinojosa and Joy Reid; MacArthur “genius grant” winner Nikole Hannah-Jones; and freelance journalist Jenni Monet. You can read a summary of the report here in our story on Poynter.org. You can also read the full report here.
Quick Hits:
PODCAST GETS ACTION: A podcast uncovered a possible legal violation by the Trump Organization, which was seeking to put presidential seals on his own brand of golf tee markers. The criminal offense is punishable by up to six months in prison, reports Trump Inc., a podcast by Pro Publica and WNYC. UPDATE: After the Trump Inc. article was published, the Facebook page with the image of the Presidential Seal golf tee marker was removed.
SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING: Fake videos are getting very realistic, posing new problems for verifiable journalism, the NYT’s Kevin Roose writes. Important to note: The person in the lead of Roose’s story just looks like Michelle Obama. “This is turning into an episode of Black Mirror,” wrote one Reddit user. (Reader: Hold that thought. We’ll get back to it later in this report.)
YOUR TURN, REDDIT: You, too, Tumblr. Senate investigators are seeking to question leaders of both companies on the role they played in spreading Kremlin disinformation ahead of the 2016 election intended to boost Donald Trump, hurt Hillary Clinton and weaken America through racial, ethnic and political division. The move was prompted by a report last week by the Daily Beast in which 21 Tumblr accounts were tied to Moscow’s troll factory.
COMINGS AND GOINGS: Patrick Healy was named the political editor of the New York Times, which puts him in charge of the news operation’s 2018 and 2020 coverage. Healy, a former NYT deputy culture editor, has covered war in Iraq and Afghanistan and three presidential campaigns, beginning with John Kerry’s 2004 candidacy. Also, Elizabeth Williamson (pictured), formerly of The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, was named a feature writer in the NYT’s Washington bureau.
JUST DOING HIS JOB: He considered himself a patriot. A pro. He didn't know U.S. politics — and how Russia and the GOP would seek to block his inconvenient facts about the 45th American president's vulnerability to Moscow's spymaster. Here’s Jane Mayer’s magisterial portrait of ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele in The New Yorker. Most intriguing tidbit: Steele’s second memo — and testimony before the Mueller investigation — alleged that Russia was able to “veto” President Trump’s initial plan to name Moscow antagonist Mitt Romney as secretary of state.
SPEAKING OF ROBERT MUELLER: Where is he? This back-hallway shot from June 21 is the last image photo editors have of him — and it’s driving them crazy, says Slate’s Heather Schwedel. “Our nation’s poor photo editors,” writes Schwedel, “are stuck with a cache of boring, already-used shots of one of the most newsworthy figures of our political moment.”
‘I WANT TO WIN YOUR TRUST’: That’s a Hearst executive, talking to Digiday about a new, flexible paywall. Instead of short-sheeting the bed, having readers bump into a paywall and clicking away angry, a new design gives editors flexibility to decide what should be in front or behind the paywall at individual Hearst properties. At the Albany Times-Union, the first paper to test the flexible paywall, the total number of subscribers has doubled since it started tests in September, and the overall number of new subscriber numbers for Hearst Newspapers has jumped 10 percent, Digiday reported.
STORY IDEA: What books are “lost” the most frequently from your local library? Here are some of the top titles of missing books from the past five years at the Boston Public Library (via Laura Crimaldi of the Boston Globe):
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid (other series books are #6 #9 #12 #17 #18)
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Catcher in the Rye
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The Great Gatsby
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A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage To Survive
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
7. Fifty Shades of Gray
8. The Alchemist
11. The Fault in Our Stars
15. The Book Thief
19. The Hunger Games
20. The Cat in the Hat.
What we’re reading:
THE 4-YEAR-OLDS BEHIND YOUR SMARTPHONES, ELECTRIC CARS: CBS News reports that kids as young as 4 are mining cobalt, a key element for batteries for your computer devices, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than half of the world's supply of cobalt comes from the war-torn nation, and 20 percent of that is mined by hand. Amnesty International says Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Samsung use it.
NO MEANS NO, CONTRACTUALLY: A new app lets users select sexual boundaries and it is enforced by an updateable legal contract, the NYT’s Maya Salam reports. Yes, Netflix users, this does bear a resemblance to the “Black Mirror” episode “Hang The DJ.”
THAT'S MY LOVE LIFE: New York’s first lady says her respectful and joyful office romance with the future Mayor Bill de Blasio has been mistakenly “hijacked” into a #MeToo moment. Writing for Refinery29, Chirlane McCray said: “When we conflate respectful dating and flirtation with sexual harassment, we do a giant disservice to this important moment in our culture.”
RESPONSIVE TO WHOM?: “Corporations are more responsive to customer concerns than lawmakers are to their constituents." That’s Ethan Zuckerman writing on Parkland in an Atlantic article entitled “A Bright Red Flag for Democracy.” Poynter readers, remember: If your corporation says it loves you, check it out.
THE PROMISE OF BETTER TIMES: How illustrator Jenny Kroik let her mind wander to come up with “Next Stop: Spring,” her cover for this week’s New Yorker.
New on poynter.org
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This could be a game-changer: This tool can record your phone calls and make transcripts of them within minutes.
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We were having a hard time finding some good example of digital storytelling. And then our readers eagerly showed us their favorites.
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