The answer is a lot

The Muck Rack Weekly newsletter includes some of the most talked about stories in the journalism and public relations communities over the past week, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of Muck Rack.

Media statistic of the week

The Washington Post’s non-endorsement could cost the paper more than $20 million in lost online subscriptions. Owner Jeff Bezos’s decision not to publish an endorsement for president has reportedly contributed to 250,000 subscription cancellations as of last week. And as Bron Maher writes at Press Gazette, “The financial hit would mark a notable setback in Bezos’ attempts to make the paper profitable, which have already seen the title cut 10% of its workforce — some 240 roles — through voluntary buyouts.”

This past week in the media industry?

Behind the curtain

News organizations spent the past week gearing up for the U.S. election, and, as David Bauder of The Associated Press noted, a number of them were also focused on “trying to explain things.” His story gave us a Peek behind the curtain: News outlets are conscious of the need to explain election reporting.

Bauder reported, “At the AP, editors are mindful of political misinformation and opinion polls that reveal a growing distrust of the media, said Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor.” Among the examples he provided, “NBC News has published explanatory stories on its website…CNN is also posting a series of articles that explain the projection process and exit polls, and gives advice on how people should follow election night coverage.”?

At The New York Times, Sarah Bahr explained How The Times's Home Page Comes Together on Election Night.

Michael P. Hill of NewscastStudio gave us a literal behind-the-scenes view of the major networks’ election sets, One election eve, networks move to election headquarters sets.

In another piece for AP News, Bauder spoke with Brian Williams about his election night special coverage on Amazon Prime Video: Brian Williams and Amazon are asking election night news-seekers to take a leap of faith with them.

And Ana Altchek of Business Insider wrote about how The election is a big test for AI companies

Per Altchek, “Alon Yamin, the cofounder and CEO of AI-based text analysis platform Copyleaks, said Perplexity's approach ‘can certainly help filter and contextualize content,’ helping users access reliable sources.” And then the caveat: “However, Yamin said that the chance of AI hallucinations and accuracy issues presents risks.”

Reflecting on how it’s played out?

While Jeff Bezos’s non-endorsement decision may have gotten the most attention, The Washington Post isn’t alone: Roughly 3/4 of major American newspapers aren’t endorsing anyone for president this year. Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton takes a deep dive into a trend that began in 2012 and has been accelerating ever since.

For the What Works project from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, Ellen Clegg highlights another non-endorsement in “this astonishing season of non-endorsements” — at?The Minnesota Star Tribune — and how the Star-Tribune’s non-endorsement led 15 former staffers to write their own.

Jon Allsop of Columbia Journalism Review shared “Some high-level thoughts from me reflecting on how this election has played out in the press, as it enters its final days.” Here’s his take on The know-nothing election.

“Taken together, this year’s election story has felt like the product of staring—for a really, really long time—into a muddy puddle and concluding that, yep, it’s full of mud,” Allsop writes, adding, “It didn’t have to be this way.”

For her American Crisis newsletter, Margaret Sullivan spoke with media critic Jay Rosen about how things panned out, A media critic urged ‘not the odds, but the stakes.’ Did it work? Per Rosen, “I said real success would have required broad adoption of a more urgent principle, replacing ‘state of the race’ reporting with the race to secure democracy.”

The defining characteristic?

Casey Newton of Platformer wrote about “X’s plan to interfere with the election” and “what to look for, with a focus on where falsehoods about the election will have the greatest intersection with tech platforms.”?

Meanwhile, Emily Baker-White of Forbes reported last week, “Facebook Took More Than $1 Million For Ads Sowing Election Lies.”

Timothy Caulfield wonders, “Is the embrace of #misinformation – about election process, vaccines, immigrants, crime, etc – the defining characteristic of the US 2024 election? Stunning the degree to which lies dominate public discourse…” Caulfield links to the BBC News story, Crowdsourced voter fraud claims flood social media before US election, by Mike Wendling.

The soul & future of UK journalism

Elsewhere, Carole Cadwalladr shares, “Many people have asked me what is going on at @guardian & @observer. The answer is a lot. To be clear, this isn’t an ‘internal dispute’ between 700+ journalists & their management. It’s a struggle for the soul & future of UK journalism.”?

She links to James Warrington’s reporting at The Telegraph, Guardian bosses offer concessions to save Observer sale from rebellion.

Cadwalladr adds, “And this just in: an overwhelming display of support from UK's authors, writers, poets & illustrators who understand the threat to UK journalism”: From The Bookseller editorial team, Authors, illustrators and agents back readers’ campaign to ‘Save the Observer.’

“And here, importantly, is the counter view, the management's view of the situation,” Cadwalladr says, linking to Dominic Ponsford’s story in Press Gazette, Guardian CEO warns staff Observer faces 'difficult decisions' if Tortoise deal fails.

A media milestone

Last up, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic was first to report that Bob Costas is retiring from MLB play-by-play duties after 4-plus decades.

“Media milestone,” as Christopher Calnan says, of the news that Costas is stepping down from what Marchand describes as “a legendary run in which he became synonymous with the game over four decades and earned a place in the broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.”?

Mark Neal admits, “I didn't always agree with Costos (and he once left me a phone message to tell me so), but I trusted him as a journalist.” Adds Roger Watson, “He’s earned this but his voice and calm sense of historical perspective will be missed.”

More notable media stories

• Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter profiled Kristen Welker, Kristen Welker's Quest for 'Meet the Press' to Survive, and Thrive, In this Moment.
• For her Embedded newsletter, Kate Lindsay spoke with Semafor’s Max Tani “about why so many people often think the mainstream media is not covering a story it is, in fact, covering.” Check out that Q&A on the common gripe, Why isn’t anyone covering this??
• Elisabeth Egan and Christopher Lee of The New York Times spoke with Craig Garnett, the publisher of The Uvalde Leader-News, about How Uvalde's Newspaper Kept Going, Despite Unimaginable Loss.
• Sareen Habeshian of Axios reported Trump is suing CBS News for $10 billion over the “60 Minutes” Harris interview. Here’s CBS News’ story and response to the lawsuit: Trump sues CBS News over 60 Minutes interview with Harris; network says suit is "completely without merit."?
• In other lawsuits, Gene Maddaus of Variety reports Sony has sued CBS for self-dealing on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy!’?
• Last week, Gerrit De Vynck of The Washington Post reported OpenAI has added search to ChatGPT to help you find answers more quickly. Here’s Platformer’s Casey Newton with more on that, OpenAI adds search.
• Meta's Threads has 275 million users. It sure doesn't feel that way, says Peter Kafka of Business Insider. Kafka says he wants “a version of Twitter like the one I spent way too much time on,” but he also recognizes that “Threads doesn't seem like it's ever going to be that, and Meta doesn't seem very interested in trying to make that.”

From the Muck Rack Team

Muck Rack is proud to sponsor the?MaKi Media Conference, which connects international media with communications directors from the world’s leading graduate business schools and universities. Join us in New York on 12/10-12/11 for two full days of media panels and best practice sessions featuring editors and journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist, CNBC, Fortune, Money, Forbes and many more. To take advantage of Muck Rack's sponsor discount ($200 for universities and $500 for corporations), email the organizer.