Attention everyone relying on media right now

Media statistic of the week 

Facebook has announced an additional $100 million investment to support the news industry — $25 million in emergency grant funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million in additional marketing spend to move money over to news organizations around the world. In the first round of grant funding, 50 local newsrooms across the US and Canada are receiving $5,000 USD grants to help cover unexpected costs associated with covering the crisis in their communities. 

The funding is desperately needed. On Twitter, Erin Miller, Founder & CEO of The Discourse, shares, “Reviewing applications for  @Facebook Local News COVID-19  fund and it’s terrifying how in trouble local news is right now. Here’s the first round of grants awarded (3 in Canada). We’re hoping to award the rest by Apr 6. 900 applications! The need is huge.”

This week in media history

On April 11, 1931, Dorothy Parker resigned her job as drama critic for The New Yorker. She continued to write book reviews for the magazine until 1933, though, and those were compiled for the 1971 book, “A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by ‘Constant Reader.’” Parker had previously worked at Vanity Fair as its chief dramatic critic (and New York’s only female theater critic), including during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.

This week in the media industry 

Ugh

Another week, another round of newsroom pay cuts, layoff, furloughs and schedule reductions. 

Gannett, owner of USA Today and a number of other large newspapers, announced pay cuts and furloughs across its entire media company. Maxwell Tani of The Daily Beast obtained an email to Gannett staff from CEO Paul Bascober last week, in which Bascober explained that the company will ask staff to make a “collective sacrifice” to keep the company intact amid the crisis by cutting pay “as soon as this week.” As Michael Luo says, “Ugh.”

“The further erosion of local journalism hurts everyone, especially now when accurate info can be a matter of life and death,” notes Kytja Weir. Adds Thomas Taschinger, “Sure hope our #Newspapers survive this crisis too; the coverage I have seen is truly outstanding, right when we need it most.”

Lee Enterprises, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Tulsa World and the Omaha World-Herald, among others, joins Gannett in announcing pay cuts and furloughs. Kristen Hare has those details at Poynter. As Amy Sisk of The Bismarck Tribune tweets, “Last week it was primarily alt weeklies and smaller newspaper chains. Yesterday it was Gannett. Today it’s us.”

It’s not pretty

And there are so many more. Tani of The Daily Beast reports that Vice Media is cutting salaries for top staff, halting 401K matching benefit-matching and freezing promotions. Florida’s largest newspaper, The Tampa Bay Times, announced a temporary shift to producing print editions only on Sundays and Wednesdays due to a steep drop in advertising. Langston Taylor says it’s “Worth at least being aware... the industry that is informing you of the biggest pandemic of your lifetime is so flimsy that one of the biggest newspapers in the country now has to furlough staff and cut benefits, just weeks after layoffs and paycuts.”

“Here is a dire warning of what could lie ahead for the Canadian media industry. It’s not pretty,” says Mario Toneguzzi. Or “Today in definitely-not-crying-at-my-desk,” as Jackie Hong puts it. They’re referring to Daniel Bernhard’s op-ed in The (Toronto) Star, which sums things up in stark terms: Our media is on the brink of mass failure. “Attention everyone relying on media right now,” tweets Robyn Doolittle. “From Canada but applies here too,” says Michael Lycklama.

And elsewhere. Jim Waterson and Roy Greenslade of The Guardian write that UK national print newspaper sales have fallen by as much as 30%, and journalists at many local newspapers have been placed on leave. There are warnings that hundreds of reporters could be without jobs as the advertising market collapses. 

“Newspapers suffer from the #covid19UK pandemic. Despite hunger for news sales have plunged by 30% due to store closures and self-isolation. Free titles also in meltdown. Breaking the newspaper habit, already weak, could hasten the end of newsprint,” notes Greenslade.

The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, based at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, is conducting a project to track newsrooms lay-offs and cutbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. If your newsroom has been affected, take a moment to fill out their survey here. 

The hardest part

Last week, all staffers at the San Francisco Examiner and SF Weekly were notified that they’ll be taking a 40%  cut in hours and salary. In a recent episode of KQED’s The Bay Podcast, host Devin Katayama spoke with Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, a reporter and columnist with the Examiner, who talked about how he found out, what he was working on, the broader impact of losing local reporters and Why Local News Is Suffering When People Need It Most. “The hardest part is not a furlough of pay,” he told Katayama. “The hardest part is the furlough of mission.” 

“When I hear @SFExaminer’s @FitzTheReporter talk about his love for local news it makes me want to cry. This is who I want reporting on my community: People with heart and a deep love for community. Please listen to today’s episode of @TheBayKQED,” urges Ericka Cruz Guevarra. 

Examiner editor-in-chief Deborah Petersen is encouraging readers to help the San Francisco Examiner and SF Weekly continue their mission of providing free, local news.

Supporting the local news ecosystem

Across the country, Vermont Governor Phil Scott posted a video message of support for local journalism, noting that accountability and facts are important, especially now. “Like many in business, trusted news organizations are being hit hard by this pandemic. If you can, please consider subscribing to your local paper or contributing to a VT news organization. You deserve transparency and the truth, and they work hard to keep you informed,” he tweeted.

News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern and Dean Ridings, CEO of America’s Newspapers, have written a letter to President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlining the struggles of local news publishers and urging action to help sustain our local news ecosystem. 

And here’s an idea: As John Battelle, Co-Founder and CEO of Recount Media, wrote in a LinkedIn post this week, it’s time for brands to stand for something — and they ought to start with journalism. Battelle points out, “if marketers are smart, they’ll realize that running their messaging in high quality news channels isn’t just good business, it’s good for society as well.”

Dear Ben

Remember Ben Smith’s New York Times column arguing that we should bail out journalists and let newspaper chains die? Poynter’s Rick Edmonds responds to the second half of that proposal: No, it is not time to ‘let newspaper chains die.’ Len LaCara says, “This column sums up my issues with @benyt’s misguided column perfectly.” And Smith himself says it’s “A thoughtful rebuttal to my column this week from @RickEdmonds.”

What we’re losing

Meanwhile, “This is a great, disciplined account of what we’re losing as local newspapers wither,” says John Temple. “The size of a publication where a reporter works isn’t the measure of quality. It’s the heart, spirit and determination of reporters and yes, even editors.” In that piece for The New Yorker, ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong writes about Eric Eyre and the Pulitzer Prize-winning work he did at the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail to expose the opioid crisis. 

Eyre has a new book out, but as Armstrong reveals, his “work is part of the deeper, darker narrative of local journalism” as more and more small newspapers have consolidated, been bought out or gone under completely. 

“The Sisyphean work that @EricEyre did to expose the opioid crisis is almost beyond belief. Yet he’s now out of a job,” tweets Pamela Colloff. “A heartwrenching and important story about the essential-ness of good local journalism...and what happens to the reporters who do it. Pls read and share,” adds Jane Black.

Essential reading

We’ve seen a wave of outstanding journalism during this pandemic, and here’s one particularly noteworthy example: Marc Tracy tweets, “I wrote about STAT, which has been essential reading for those wanting to know more about the coronavirus (and to know what the rest of us would be covering next).” In that piece for The New York Times, Tracy tells the story of digital publication STAT News, The Medical News Site That Saw the Coronavirus Coming Months Ago, and reporter Helen Branswell, who first wrote about a “growing cluster of unexplained pneumonia cases” in Central China on January 4.

Nicholas Jackson quotes, “‘We were built for this.’ It’s nice to see traffic up for a lot of sites, but doubly so for @statnews, which has been dedicated to rigorous yet accessible health and medicine reporting for years and is producing exactly what you want people reading now.” Adds Deborah Blum, “This. @helenbranswell is the best infectious disease reporter working today and @statnews is incredibly smart. If you aren’t following, you should be.”

Also take a moment out to read Pete Pachal’s column for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute about what’s working and the lessons the coronavirus has for us about service journalism. He notes, “The current crisis is literally every story right now, so it’s probably no surprise my latest column for @RJI is about what lessons coronavirus has for service journalism — which, I have to say, has been of unprecedented quality lately.”

Brother act

If you’ve been tuning in to the TV coverage, you may have caught some of the Cuomo brothers in prime time lately as CNN’s Chris Coumo has been interviewing his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The brother act has gotten a lot of positive notice, but in a column for Columbia Journalism Review, Jon Allsop questions whether it’s actually a good idea. “Should Chris be allowed to interview a family member in a journalistic setting?” he asks. On Twitter, Kenneth Lipp responds with “No. Definitely no.”

For the counterpoint, turn to former reporter and media critic Jon Katz and his analysis at Bedlam Farm Journal, The Cuomo Brothers Versus The President: What A Show! “As a former TV producer,” Katz writes, “I would have cut off an arm for content like this.” Jim Zirin calls that one “A must read.”

A few more

Sports journalism is dealing with its own unique problem: not having any live sports to cover. Pete D, Camarillo links to this “Great read” from Lorraine Joyce and Danielle Clements of Seton Hall University College of Communication and the Arts on The Impact of COVID-19 on Sports Media. Sahil Patel of The Wall Street Journal spoke with ESPN’s Vice President of Marketing, Laura Gentile, about how the absence of live sports is changing ESPN’s marketing plans and programming schedule.

Axios’s Sara Fischer has the details on how McClatchy decided to put its coronavirus paywalls back up, and Damon Kiesow says, “This is a fascinating story from a business perspective. It includes more specific numbers than usual and explains some of the complicated mechanics of paywalls/advertising.”

Here’s a bit of good news. In A letter to writers, Chris Best of Substack announced that the newsletter subscription company is donating $100,000 in no-strings-attached grants to independent writers who are experiencing economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic. While the window for grant applications closed on April 7, Best promises, “This is just the first step. We hope to find more ways to support writers in the coming weeks and months.” 

One publisher bucking the trend of pay cuts and retrenchment: Time, which is benefitting from its billionaire owners, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Lynne Benioff. At Digiday, Kayleigh Barber reports on howTime plans to continue growing through new hires and investing in its consumer products and long-form video division. And Matthew Carroll points out, “This qualifies as good news these days: Time mag says no layoffs for at least 90 days.”

 From the Muck Rack Team

Join Aaron Strout, CMO of W2O, Jennifer Choi, Managing Director, News Integrity Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and me on April 9th for a live webinar analyzing findings from Muck Rack’s 2020 State of Journalism report. We’ll explore how the media landscape is changing in 2020 and reporters' outlooks on the future of journalism; where journalists are getting the most value on social media; tips for pitching journalists and landing coverage; and how to best collaborate and build relationships with journalists Sign up here!

On the Muck Rack Blog, Nicole Schuman shares how journalists can practice self-care amid COVID-19, especially as media professionals are feeling the pinch. As she reminds us, we can’t do our best work without taking care of ourselves as well. 

As the ramifications of your socially distant reality set in, life is undoubtedly full of new and frustrating challenges. Thankfully, meeting with your colleagues remotely doesn’t have to be one. Also on the blog, Justin Joffe draws on Muck Rack’s experience as a remote-first company for more than ten years to offer you 6 tips for productive remote meetings.

We know that this crisis has wide-reaching impacts and implications, and we’re here to help in any way we can. As a remote-first company for over 10 years, we’re sharing some resources that help our team stay collaborative and connected, as well as some new tools and content to keep you informed. Check out Muck Rack’s collection of COVID-19 resources here.

Question of the week

What’s your take on the Cuomo brothers’ “show”? Is it crossing a journalistic ethics boundary? Should Chris recuse himself from covering and interviewing his brother? Or, like Poppy Noor of The Guardian, do you think their brotherly love is just what we need?