July 1, 2015

Good morning. Here are 10 media stories.

  1. The old guard clashes with the new

    Memos from Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait sent to staffers in recent months suggest “a philosophical shift” underway at the New York-based news organization, according to a 2,653-word takeout published by Columbia Journalism Review Tuesday. “To numerous employees CJR interviewed, they read as a coded rebuttal to time-intensive enterprise reporting, and raise a red-flag about the new regime’s commitment to the work they most prized.” In the memos, Micklethwait outlines an editorial vision that eschews “self-indulgent” longreads and emphasizes covering big breaking stories. In one memo, Micklethwait urges caution over “‘gotcha’ journalism,” warning reporters that a disrespected PR representative might be unlikely to provide Bloomberg with scoops in the future. (Columbia Journalism Review) | A recent profile in Politico Magazine shed light on the cultural gulf between the older and newer elements of Bloomberg’s news operation. “The magazine occupied a floor filled with Brooklyn characters who stood out in contrast to the typical spit-shined employees. Some Bloomberg News staffers referred to the floor as ‘Williamsburg.’ The two operations, so culturally out of sync, often clashed.” (Politico Magazine) | Earlier this month, Bloomberg’s Dawn Kopecki sent a memo to higher-ups that laid bare problems in the D.C. bureau. (Poynter)

  2. News outlets scramble to make sense of Hillary Clinton email dump

    The State Department released another cache of correspondence from democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton Tuesday night. The 9 p.m. release time sent news organizations clambering to publish authoritative accounts quickly, Politico’s Mike Allen noted. (Politico) | As a result, several of the stories were big team efforts: The New York Times had seven reporters on the story; Politico had five; the Los Angeles Times had seven.

  3. Mark Zuckerberg dishes on the future of news

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg held a question-and-answer session Tuesday afternoon in which he opined about the trajectory of news organizations and provided some detail about the social network’s Instant Articles program. “One of the biggest issues today is just that reading news is slow. If you’re using our mobile app and you tap on a photo, it typically loads immediately. But if you tap on a news link, since that content isn’t stored on Facebook and you have to download it from elsewhere, it can take 10+ seconds to load. People don’t want to wait that long, so a lot of people abandon news before it has loaded or just don’t even bother tapping on things in the first place, even if they wanted to read them.” (Nieman Lab) | In other Facebook news, the company is offering video ads that only charge advertisers if viewers watch them for 10 seconds. (The New York Times) | The company is also testing out a redesign of its “trending” sidebar. (The Huffington Post)

  4. The media’s treatment of Brandon Bostian

    Did the media sit in judgement over Brandon Bostian, the engineer at the helm of Amtrak 188, which crashed in May? That’s the contention from Chicago Reader social media coordinator Ryan Smith, a friend of Bostian’s who was interviewed shortly after the train derailed. He tells the story of taping a 15-minute interview for “Today” that was boiled down to a 15-second blurb. “…The media staged a sort of public trial of their own, a trial based on hearsay and inference rather than evidence relevant to that tragic day in Philadelphia.” (Chicago Reader)

  5. Irish Times balks at Taylor Swift’s onerous photo policy

    Citing a photography contract that’s “exceedingly restrictive and just not feasible,” Irish Times deputy picture editor Brenda Fitzsimons justified the paper’s decision not to publish photos from a recent Taylor Swift concert in Dublin. “The photographs may be used on a one-time only basis and by signing her contract we grant Swift perpetual, worldwide right to use the published photographs in any way she sees fit.” (Irish Times) | The “Picture to Burn” singer has been criticized elsewhere for her photography policy. (PetaPixel)

  6. Mexico cuts ties with Trump, too

    Add one more entity to the growing list of people and organizations turning their backs on racist remarks made by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign announcement. “On Tuesday, the Mexican media company Televisa said it would not send a contestant to this year’s Miss Universe pageant, making Mexico the first country to pull out of Trump’s contest in protest of remarks he made about Mexican immigrants.” (Politico) | NBC and Univision have already said they will not air the Miss USA beauty pageant. (CNN) | Trump is suing Univision for $500 million. (Variety)

  7. Here’s how to advertise to millennials

    Mark Duffy who runs the Copyranter blog, offers four pieces of advice to “frustrated” brands that want to sell their wares to twentysomethings: Smear the boomer generation, give stuff away for free, be excruciatingly honest and try to attach your product to a social cause. (Digiday)

  8. Harper’s might leave its union

    Amid all the talk of digital media organizations joining up with unions, one legacy media company might decide to opt out of its union, Nicole Levy writes. Harper’s is holding a vote this afternoon to determine whether it will continue to be represented by United Auto Workers Local 2110. “If union members decide they’re better off without UAW Local 2110 on Wednesday, Harper’s Magazine will provide a counterpoint to the victory that organized labor celebrated on June 4, when Gawker employees voted to join the Writers Guild of America with the support of company founder and president Nick Denton.” (Capital New York)

  9. Front page of the day, selected by Kristen Hare

    The Washington Post goes big with its deep dive into police shootings of the mentally ill. (Courtesy Kiosko)
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  10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin

    Carol Eisenberg will be a deputy editor at Politico Pro. She is a senior editor at Kaiser Health News. (Playbook) | Ali Salama is now publisher at Bloomberg Pursuits. Previously, she was group advertising director there. (Talking Biz News) | Renee Dudley will be an investigative reporter at Reuters. She was a reporter at Bloomberg. (Talking Biz News) | John Russell will cover health care at the Chicago Tribune. Previously, he was a reporter for the Indianapolis Star. (Talking Biz News) | Job of the day: Business Insider is looking for a science editor. Get your résumés in! (Mediagazer) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.

Corrections? Tips? Please email me: bmullin@poynter.org. Would you like to get this roundup emailed to you every morning? Sign up here.

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Benjamin Mullin was formerly the managing editor of Poynter.org. He also previously reported for Poynter as a staff writer, Google Journalism Fellow and Naughton Fellow,…
Benjamin Mullin

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