The clicks are trampling the slicks
Media statistic of the week
Three cheers for newsroom collaboration!
In a recent article for his Substack, Dan Stone explores some interesting data around New York Times bylines.
“Looking at thirty years of the Times index I found that today about 18% of all New York Times news articles (and 20% of those appearing in print) are multi-bylined,” he explains. “The proportion of multi-bylined articles has sharply increased in recent years, doubling since 2016, quadrupling since 2009, and octupling since 2001.”?
This past week in the media industry?
The clicks are trampling the slicks
“I miss magazines,” writes Alexandra Jacobs, book critic at the New York Times. “It’s a strange ache, because they are still sort of with us.”
In her piece, “The Magazine Business, From the Coolest Place to the Coldest One,” Jacobs reviews two new books about the rise and demise of the industry—“Dilettante,” by Dana Brown, a longtime editor at Vanity Fair, and a new biography of Anna Wintour, by Amy Odell.?
“I love the media environment we're currently in and am super excited about the growth of the Creator Economy, but I must admit that it would be cool to travel back in time to work for glossy magazines during their golden age,” Simon Owens shares.
In the ode to magazines, Jacobs points out that, “The clicks are trampling the slicks.”
“I didn't realize we'd reached this point but, yeah, I guess we did. A eulogy to ‘the slicks,’ may they rest in peace,” tweets Phil McKenna.?
“Smartphone, noun, ‘little self-edited monster magazines that will not rest until their owners die.’ One of many unforgettable lines in this heartbreaking ode to magazines,” writes Julia Love.?
Baltimore welcomes a new Black-led print newspaper and site
Baltimore is welcoming two new outlets this summer!?
The first? The Baltimore Beat, which had emerged after The Baltimore Sun bought and then shuttered the former alt-weekly City Paper, is re-launching this July as a bi-monthly, Black-led print newspaper and website, reports Ron Cassie for Baltimore Magazine. Initial funding for the re-launch came from a $1 million gift from the Lillian Holofcener Charitable Foundation.?
“This is a Black newspaper,” Snowden-McCray, The Beat’s editor-in-chief says. “I know we have Black newspapers here, like The Afro, but it does Black people a disservice to say we only get a few. The more that there are, the better. Black people are not a monolith, so we provide another perspective, and we provide another opportunity for Black journalists to work.”
“I’m so psyched for this and proud of all my friends who have been working so hard to make this happen for the city. @LisaMcCray @JBrianCharles @halleteri @notrivia and Adam Holofcener—y’all rule. Much love and awed solidarity,” tweets Baynard Woods.
And the second: The Baltimore Banner will be a daily news site “that is expected to rival The Baltimore Sun with a promise of $50 million in startup money from founder Stewart Bainum and other investors.”
(More) bad news out of Netflix
Another round of layoffs has hit Netflix just a few weeks after the streamer laid off editorial staffers and contractors at Tudum, reports Nellie Andreeva for Deadline Hollywood.
“About 150 positions out of the streamer’s workforce of 11,000 are being eliminated amid a slowdown in the company’s revenue growth,” Andreeva writes. “They are largely based in the U.S., with a significant portion in creative, across both film and TV, sources said.”
Many former staffers took to Twitter to share the news:
“Last week was the most difficult week of my life. Just when I thought I was out of the woods, I was laid off by Netflix today, along with dozens of the most talented people I’ve ever met. Please consider me for your freelance assignments. Thank you all in advance for your love.” -Tess Garcia
“Welp, after nearly 2.5 years working w/ Netflix, I, along w/ countless other colleagues over the last few weeks, have been let go. As good feelings go, this is not one — especially finding out in the press ahead of your actual dismissal. It's also in a weird way a relief. Onward!” -Evan Ross Katz
“Unfortunately I, too, was affected by the netflix layoffs today. it was a wild ride and i'm really proud of the work that i did, particularly being part of the @netflixgolden launch, and feel v. lucky i got to work with such brilliant people.” -Madelyn Chung
Lots of good journalists available for hire at the moment.
'Protest is no longer the vibe’
Axios has changed its tune. In June of 2022, the DC-based media company said it supported and encouraged employees to protest after George Floyd’s murder.?
*Record scratch*
“Two years later, Axios appears to have licked its finger, stuck it in the air, and decided that protest is no longer the vibe,” writes Laura Wagner for Defector. “In a Monday memo to staff, the subject line of which was ‘This is hard [heart emoji],’ Axios told employees the company did not support anyone joining protests related to abortion.”
"Truly fascinating to see a news person describe the summer of 2020 as a ‘moment of unity,’” tweets Tim Murphy in response to a line in the memo sent to Axios staff.
Here’s another interesting layer to the memo: “The funniest part of this embarrassment is that the memo is written in Axios’s lobotomized house style. The company’s professed belief that their dumbed-down format is the best way to cover the news and communicate the essential information of a story does therefore imply that all their internal memos should also be formatted that way; they couldn’t type this memo up in a normal human way without implicitly repudiating their own highly weird way of talking to readers.”
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Unsurprisingly, journalists on Twitter did not take kindly to the leaked memo.
“Jobs doing things like writing memos to you like you're a 13-year-old and including a heart in the subject line is precisely why everyone is big on unionizing these days,” tweets Hannah Gais.?
“Axios bans staff from protests related to abortion rights. ‘Two parts of who we are feel in conflict: our journalistic commitment to remain fair in our reporting — and our humanity.’ If those things are in conflict, you're doing journalism wrong,” adds King Kaufman.
“Telling your employees what they can and cannot publicly speak about is not compatible with claiming your company has an "awesome culture of trust and respect" as you clearly don't trust or respect your employees,” says Heather Bryant.?
The shooting at a Buffalo supermarket
“The suspect in Saturday’s killing of 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket allegedly wrote a document endorsing ‘great replacement theory,’ a once-fringe racist idea that became a popular refrain among media figures such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham of Fox News and conservative writer Ann Coulter,” writes Paul Farhi for The Washington Post.?
“Gendron, who is White, allegedly indicated that he chose a neighborhood with a large number of Black residents for his alleged attack. In the document that Gendron is suspected to have written, he indicated that he was radicalized online,” Farhi continues.
Journalists on Twitter praised the Post for their direct reporting.
“Good for the @washingtonpost and @farhip for being direct about where this vile hatred can be found, and who is spewing it. More of this candor by the press, please,” tweets Dan Rather.?
“Glad to see explanatory pieces today on how conservative pundits and politicians have turned racist ‘Great Replacement’ theory into a mainstream talking point. But some of us have been warning about noxious power of Fox News racism for many years,” tweets Eric Deggans.?
Earlier this week, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, urged Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and the network’s top executives in a letter on Tuesday to “immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory on your network’s broadcasts,” reports Nick Confessore for the New York Times.
A changing of the guard?
Last week, Jen Psaki held her 224th and final briefing as White House press secretary.?
CNN’s Brian Stelter writes, “In about 16 months working on behalf of President Joe Biden, Psaki held a greater number of briefings than all of President Donald Trump's press secretaries combined.”
Get to know the new White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in this profile written by Darlene Superville for the Associated Press.?
Jean-Pierre is the first Black and gay woman to be chief spokesperson for the president of the United States. She says she hopes she can inspire young people to “dream big and dream bigger.”?
They’ll never get all the books
NBC News’ David Ingram’s piece “Conservative parents take aim at library apps meant to expand access to books” discusses the battle against tech companies like OverDrive and Epic.?
He explains that In several states, apps and the companies that run them have been targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets and laptops.?
One example? “A school superintendent in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, pulled his system’s e-reader offline for a week last month, cutting access for 40,000 students, after a parent searched the Epic library available on her kindergartner’s laptop and found books supporting LGBTQ pride.”
“Someone should tell these folks that they'll never get all the books,” tweets Brandy Zadrozny.
Cannes drama is starting early
“No journalist should be allowing copy approval. No one in the industry should be asking for it,” writes Deadline’s Andreas Wiseman explaining why the publication won’t publish its interview with Cannes Film Festival’s Thierry Frémaux.
She adds: “Long a bastion of artistic freedom, the Cannes Film Festival has a secret: it censors interviews with festival head Thierry Frémaux … The festival has not only been demanding copy approval as a condition for interviews with Frémaux (something no other festival or organization has asked of Deadline), but after pledging not to make any changes to copy, it has been removing content including potentially uncomfortable answers from Frémaux relating to diversity and controversial filmmakers.”
“Deadline really said not today... juicy stuff about Cannes,” tweets Tufayel Ahmed while Tom Davidson adds, “Cannes getting the drama started EARLY.”
"Sadly, copy approval, particularly for interviews with politicians, is granted by far too many people in French journalism. Which leads to French institutions expecting it everywhere,” writes Oliver Farry.?
But not everyone agrees with Deadline’s approach here.
“This is weird: what appears to be a principled stand against copy approval hides the fact they… published half the interview after agreeing to copy approval?” tweets Chris Stokel-Walker.
“Off topic for me on here, but this is weird. Fremeaux has been at Cannes for 20 yrs. Is this practice just starting now? If not, how was it not reported sooner? And why did deadline publish some of this intvw while also whistle blowing on the procedure?” adds Emily Pontecorvo.
A few more
?From the Muck Rack Team
In the 2022 State of Journalism, we reported that 77% of journalists value Twitter more than any other social media platform. And even amid controversies and potential acquisitions, it’s likely Twitter will remain a leading platform for the foreseeable future.?
We've compiled the 10 most followed journalists on Twitter, media outlets with the most tweeting journalists, media outlets with the most collective followers and most followed journalists who created their accounts in the last year and more.?