A SHELL OF ITSELF
The New York Daily News fired its sports editor yesterday, the latest in a series of moves that has gutted a paper that at one time sold more print copies than any other paper in the country.
Eric Barrow, a 15-year veteran of the paper, notified his staff via email of the news, and initial reports indicated that he wouldn’t be replaced. And he won’t be, exactly. Instead, reportedly, the paper is opting for a new “director of digital audience development for sports.”
Read our full story here.
THE FUTURE OF PERSONHOOD
The New York Times’s Opinion desk took aim at the media’s role in perpetuating racism with Slandering the Unborn, the fourth of its eight-part series “A Woman’s Rights.”
From the piece: “Today, with some notable exceptions, the nation is reacting to the opioid epidemic by humanizing people with addictions — depicting them not as hopeless junkies, but as people battling substance use disorders — while describing the crisis as a public health emergency. That depth of sympathy for a group of people who are overwhelmingly white was nowhere to be seen during the 1980s and 90s, when a cheap, smokable form of cocaine known as crack was ravaging black communities across the country.”
Here’s the interactive editorial feature, which includes loads of original reporting in pieces like “When Prosecutors Jail a Mother for a Miscarriage” and “How My Stillbirth Became a Crime.”
ON THE VERGE OF SOMETHING …
AT&T is up to something in the streaming services realm … again. First came DirecTV Now, then WatchTV last year. Last month, the telecom giant filed trademark applications for something called “Verge TV.” Vox Media’s technology site, The Verge, has something to say about that: “AT&T tries to trademark ‘Verge TV’ as if we’re going to let them get away with it.” There’s no word yet on whether AT&T has filed trademark applications for “Engadget TV” or “Recode TV.”
CHECK THE RATINGS
Saying that the companies are at a impasse, CBS announced Thursday that it is seriously considering abandoning its relationship with TV ratings king Nielsen — and it isn’t alone.
“The TV ratings business has become increasingly complex in the last decade as viewers consume TV content on mobile devices, delayed (recorded) playback and through third-party providers,” writes Poynter’s Al Tompkins.
Read his take here.
Poynter’s ICYMI headlines:
- The Washington Post: The Style section at 50: Still sharp, snarky and soulful — and always a work in progress
- ProPublica’s Year in (Mostly) Visual Journalism
- 60 Minutes: The interview Egypt’s government doesn’t want on TV
On Poynter.org
- A New Year’s resolution for reporters: Be less technodeterminist. By Daniel Funke and Alexios Mantzarlis.
- Facebook’s anti-misinformation boss talks about the future of the company’s fact-checking program. By Daniel Funke.
Upcoming training:
- Becoming a More Effective Writer: Clarity and Organization. Deadline: Jan. 14.
- Write Your Heart Out: The Craft of the Personal Essay. Deadline: Jan. 25.
From PolitiFact.com:
- Can House Democrats release Donald Trump’s tax returns? By Louis Jacobson.
- Did police shootings plunge under McCarthy’s leadership? By Kiannah Sepeda-Miller.
PolitiFact is a property of the Poynter Institute.
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