Is there a bigger red flag than this?
Media statistic of the week?
A survey of 132 senior news industry leaders from 42 countries found that 89% are now committed to a mixture of remote and office-based working, and only 9% plan to return to the same working model as before the pandemic .?
The findings are detailed in the “Changing Newsrooms 2021” report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The survey also reveals that leaders are concerned about recruiting and retaining technology, data and commercial talent.
This past week in the media industry?
Danny Fenster freed
Last week, American journalist Danny Fenster was sentenced to 11 years of hard labor in Myanmar . As Shibani Mahtani reported at The Washington Post, the 37-year-old Detroit native received the harshest possible sentences under the law for his charges, and was still facing two more serious charges.
Cezary Podkul called it a “Terrible day for #pressfreedom,” and as Richard C. Paddock reported at The New York Times, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the ruling was meant to intimidate other journalists working in Myanmar and send a warning to the United States.
In an unexpected but welcome turn of events, on Monday, Mahtani reported that Fenster was released from the Myanmar jail where he had been held since May after an arrangement was secured by former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson. Grant Peck and David Rising shared more details about the arrangement in their reporting for The Associated Press, US journalist jailed in Myanmar for nearly 6 months is freed .?
As Jason Rezaian says, “Danny Fenster should not have spent a single day in prison, but I’m very happy and relieved he is finally free after 176 days. The efforts of his family and the hostage recovery community succeeded to #BringDannyHome.”
What happened to RTHK
At The New York Times, Vivian Wang takes a look at a Hong Kong Broadcaster’s Swift Turn From Maverick Voice to Official Mouthpiece . Observers say the broadcaster that was once compared to the BBC for its fierce editorial independence now more closely resembles China Central Television, the propagandistic Chinese state broadcaster.
Ilaria Maria Sala notes, “One of the first changes in HK in ’97 was a black fence around government offices. One of the first changes at RTHK after the new chief came in was a padlock at his office.”
“RTHK, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, used to be residents’ most trusted news source. I took a deep dive into how the government is working to bend it to its will,” Wang says. Gregor Stuart Hunter describes it as a “Heartbreaking story about how the Hong Kong government has defanged @rthk_enews.”
Choppy waters
In her latest New Yorker piece, Can Russia’s Press Ever Be Free? Masha Gessen profiles Dmitry Muratov , the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. She also spoke with other journalists at the paper who are reporting on dangerous conflicts while enduring threats of their own.
Meanwhile, for Columbia Journalism Review, Maria Bustillos interviewed the now former editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, Brian Bonner . Last week the paper’s owner, Syrian-born construction mogul Adnan Kivan, fired the entire Kyiv Post newsroom. Bonner says he was blindsided by the decision, as was the Ukrainian expat community.?
“Hey, that's our boss speaking!” tweets Illia Ponomarenk , who adds, “Just imagine a newspaper publisher coming to your newsroom for the first time and telling you that ‘silence is gold.’ Not the very best start possible, yeah?”
Euan MacDonald shares, “I remember hearing Kivan say ‘silence is golden’ to the Kyiv Post newsroom, and having immediate misgivings. @BSBonner navigated choppy waters from Day One of the Kivan era - he was/is a great captain.”
Whew this story
For New York magazine’s Intelligencer, Clio Chang did some digging into Felicia Sonmez’s War Against the Washington Post , and as Sarah Weinman puts it, “Whew, this @cliomiso story.” Chang says Sonmez’s lawsuit “details a level of persecution from management that is as cruel as it is baffling.”
Tweets Lainna Fader , “@feliciasonmez Is there a bigger red flag than this ? My jaw is on the floor (by the way always always take notes and look into laws governing recording in your state).”
Alex Shephard says, “This outstanding @cliomiso piece about Felicia Somnez, Marty Baron, and The Washington Post is also one of the best things I’ve read about how an obsessive focus on ‘objectivity’ actually impacts reporting.”
“As I’ve noted previously: None of these is about the objectivity of someone’s journalism, they’re each about broadcasting the *appearance of objectivity* to a theoretical reader (typically imagined as white and moderate to conservative),” tweets Wesley Lowery .
Eye-opening and damning
For their special report in the Chicago Tribune, Women in Chicago radio call out ‘toxic and sexist’ culture in male-dominated industry , Tracy Swartz and Christy Gutowski interviewed three dozen women who work for Chicago radio stations about the culture they said they have endured in what many described as an industry dominated by men.
“Life as a woman in Chicago radio, according to a new @chicagotribune report: Bosses ask you to pose for a ‘strategically covered topless photo.’ Harassment after ending a relationship you felt coerced into. Being the only woman in the room,” tweets Ariel Cheung .
Gregory Pratt sums it up: “This @chicagotribune investigation of Chicago radio culture is eye opening and damning: Women are demeaned, harassed, silenced and underpaid.”
Some painful but necessary reading
Bill Grueskin has a new guest essay in The New York Times arguing that The Steele Dossier Indicted the Media . In looking at how the media got the dossier so wrong, he acknowledges that there were a number of things that complicated the situation. “But news organizations that uncritically amplified the Steele dossier ought to come to terms with their records, sooner or later,” he writes.
Jesse Eisinger says, “This makes for some painful but necessary reading from @BGrueskin.” And Grueskin highlights, “‘There are worse things in this world than getting beaten on a story.’ That’s the kicker, via one of the most courageous editors ever to work in this business, Paul Steiger.”
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Late to admit the obvious
Also at The New York Times, Jennifer Szalai reviews Jonathan Karl’s new book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” and notices, In Another Trump Book, a Journalist’s Belated Awareness Steals the Show .?
Isaac Chotiner praises this “Excellent piece by @jenszalai about another Trump White House chronicle—this one by Jonathan Karl—where the author pretends to be much less intelligent than he surely is.”
Garance Franke-Ruta thinks it’s “Fascinating how mainstream DC journalists were so late to admit what was obvious much earlier to those not putting a finger on the scale of objectivity. By end of 2020 all the portentous male voices of authority on TV sounded like @michelleinbklyn in 2017.”
A tremendous (and long overdue) moment
It took almost 150 years, but America’s oldest daily college newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, has elected its first Latina president, Raquel Coronell Uribe . In an interview with The Washington Post’s Adela Suliman , Coronell Uribe said, “I want to make sure people feel and know there is a place for them at this organization.”
You could say journalism is in her genes. Her parents are both well-known Colombian journalists. The family fled to the U.S when she was six after they received death threats in response to her father’s investigative reporting. They escaped with the help of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“What a tremendous moment for Harvard, for America & for an extraordinary young woman, @raquelco15, the Harvard Crimson’s 1st (and long overdue) Latina president,” tweets Manuel Roig-Franzia . And Isaac Lee says, it’s “Hard to think of someone who deserves this more.”
More interviews
Maxwell Strachan of Motherboard interviewed former Facebook VP Sam Lessin and YouTuber Marina Mogilko about his firm’s investment in her : She gets $1.7 million. Lessin’s venture firm gets 5% of her creator earnings for 30 years.
The New York Times has published a transcript of Nicole Hemmer’s interview with Jay Rosen for ‘The Ezra Klein Show.’ Pat Kreitlow says, “If you’re someone who prefers to read the transcript, keep this link handy for your must-read/long-reads list.”?
For her piece A Good Newsletter Exit Strategy Is Hard to Find , Vanity Fair’s Delia Cai interviewed newsletter writers Charlie Warzel , Casey Lewis and Nick Quah on their experiences, including moving back to legacy outlets, issuing refunds and more.?
“Delia’s piece is here, and is great,” says Uri Bram . “I love paid subscription newsletters so much, and they have a lot of room to grow, but they’re not an easy business. We shouldn’t let Substack-the-company sell us monorails and then skip away when the bills come due.”
Tough questions
On the subject of Substack, it’s supposed to be an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but Substack Is Now a Playground for the Deplatformed , writes Chris Stokel-Walker , in a new piece for Wired about the polarizing writers who’ve found a new home at the newsletter platform.
“Substack wants to redraw the worlds of journalism and social media in its own image... but is that image all that different from the bad old ways?” he wonders. “My latest for @WiredUK asks their CEO some tough questions.”
The ‘Wild West’ of media
Meanwhile, disinformation isn’t just spreading on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. On Podcasts and Radio, Misleading Covid-19 Talk Goes Unchecked , as Tiffany Hsu and Marc Tracy point out at The New York Times. In fact, the false claims about vaccines “have spread on the ‘Wild West’ of media, even as some hosts die of virus complications.”
“Audio platforms attract charismatic hosts, millions of fans and, in the pandemic, a hefty serving of vaccine misinformation,” notes Tsu. “While social media outlets now attempt to remove such content, major audio companies appear to take a light touch.”
Thoughtful reflections
The final New York Times “Fixes” column is a Q&A between the two founders, Tina Rosenberg , and David Bornstein , who share what they’ve learned in 11 years: If We Can Report on the Problem, We Can Report on the Solution .
"As journalists, what should we be looking for? What information does society most need to do better against big problems?” Catherine Cheney quotes, adding, “Thoughtful reflections from @dnbornstein and @tirosenberg in their last Fixes column. A must-read for journalists!”
You could be *the guy*
Paris Martineau of The Information has a great profile of Amazon’s Spinmasters: Behind the Internet Giant’s Battle With the Press .
Mark Di Stefano points out that “When you go to journalism school, they don’t tell you that you could be *the guy* who leads the project to improve the optics for the richest man in the world by making his thirsty Instagram content .”?
And Ryan Mac says, “I like how some tech billionaires hire people to make them look normal, while Elon just tweets ‘hehe i luv 420 69 pp to the moon.’” For the record, Sahil Patel shares that “Going forward, I, too, would like be known as a swashbuckling innovator and fun guy. Great profile on Amazon’s PR team.”?
A few more
From the Muck Rack Team
Last week, Muck Rack released our first State of PR Measurement survey to find out how PR pros measure success in 2021 and their plans for measurement and reporting in 2022. Head over to the blog to see some highlights of what we learned and to download the full survey results .