Immediately trampled by ALL THE NEWS
Media statistic of the week?
A new Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 shows TikTok on the upswing and Facebook taking a nosedive.?
Around 67% of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly, while Facebook usage has plummeted from 71% in the 2014-15 survey to 32% today. At the top of the pack? YouTube, which is used by 95% of teens. Instagram (62%) and Snapchat (59%) round out the top five.
This past week in the media industry?
Local news layoffs
We’re starting on a down note, admittedly, but as Nina Metz points out, “When digital outlets (usually based in NY/LA) lay people off it’s often a major story in journalism circles and I’m always going to point out that it’s just as big a deal when this happens to people working at regional newspapers.”
Metz links to the news, reported by Poynter’s Angela Fu, that Gannett laid off journalists from at least 20 papers across the country on Friday after dismal second quarter results. “Meanwhile, CEO Mike Reed was paid $7.7 million last year, and the company is spending $100 million on stock buybacks,” Sammy Roth notes.
“They also spent a bunch of money union busting,” adds Wagatwe Wanjuki.
The way Carol Marbin sees it: “Hedge funds are destroying American journalism -- and fracturing communities that depend on their local papers for news, accountability and civic connection. No conglomerate should be allowed to own 250 papers, and wreck them.”
Dan Kennedy wrote about the layoffs at Media Nation, Gannett lays off journalists, closes papers and keeps the numbers to itself. As he points out, “We don’t know the extent of the damage,” but we do know that “the cuts were broad and deep, from Worcester County, where, according to Grafton Common, the chain’s weekly papers were decimated, all the way up to the flagship paper, USA Today.”
Kennedy adds that he’s “Still shaking my head over this. @RickEdmonds reported on Aug. 4. that massive layoffs were coming at Gannett. On Aug. 10 (!!!) we learned Gannett was unveiling a feel-good ad campaign about local journalism. And then, on Aug. 12, the layoffs came.”
Just last Wednesday, Tanya Gazdik reported at MediaPost about the Gannett campaign to promote local journalism.
“Today, on ‘Child, Please…’” tweets David Neal. As Denis Gorman says, “Promoting local journalism is important. You know what is also important? Corporate management actually [f***ing]? investing in their own product.”?
About free speech and wealth
Meanwhile in Aspen, Colorado, It’s The Rich Developer vs. the Local Paper.
Jack Healy of The New York Times reports that the West Virginia-based corporate owners of The Aspen Times did not allow it to cover a libel lawsuit against the paper, demoralizing the newsroom. One editor quit. Another editor was fired after running opinion columns about what happened.
“Today, the paper is down to just one reporter,” Dodai Stewart highlights, adding, “this is wild.”
“The ins and outs of local journalism in rural areas can get plenty complicated, esp when it comes to outside land investors in a resort area and corporate ownership of the paper,” tweets Anthony F. Pipa. “Case study: The Aspen Times.”
You may have missed it, due to, well, another big news story taking over your timeline late last week, which is why Healy tweeted, “Doop dee doo, wrote a story about free speech and wealth in a mountain town, just gonna set it here and <is immediately trampled by ALL THE NEWS>”?
But this is a great read about, among other things, “What happens when local newspapers are not actually local and don’t report on local news,” as Martina Navratilova puts it.
Cosplaying as journalism
What else do we lose when we lose legitimate local news? As Anne Nelson says, here’s “Another case for the hometown newspaper —and how Metric Media’s hyper-partisan non-factual ‘pink slime’ profits from our neglect.”
In The Washington Post, Ryan Zickgraf wrote about how ‘pink slime’ journalism exploits our faith in local news. He also details how the disappearance of local news outlets has been weaponized by partisan interests.
Zickgraf coined the term “pink-slime journalism a decade ago to describe “the sneaky way companies like Metric Media exploit Americans’ lingering trust in local newspapers to peddle an inferior product… It wants to quietly smuggle low-quality pastel goo from a machine into your regular media diet.”
Grant LaFleche says there “Are a few outlets in Niagara that would fall under this category of groups cosplaying as journalism.” And “This is just one of the many reasons why legitimate, strong local news coverage is so important,” tweets Jerry Zremski.
Dominion’s case
Don’t count on Dominion’s $1.6 billion case against Fox being settled out of court. As Jeremy Peters writes at The New York Times, the case has been steadily progressing in Delaware state court this summer, inching ever closer to trial, and the lawsuit against Fox could be one of the most consequential First Amendment cases in a generation.
Not only does it threaten a huge financial and reputational blow to Fox, “legal scholars say it also has the potential to deliver a powerful verdict on the kind of pervasive and pernicious falsehoods — and the people who spread them — that are undermining the country’s faith in democracy,” Peters writes in this deep dive into the high-stakes suit.
According to Peters’ sources, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are expected to sit for depositions as soon as this month.?
In the meantime, Lachlan is getting involved in more legal wrangling in Australia. Zoe Samios of the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Lachlan Murdoch has threatened news website Crikey with legal action over an article that suggested he and Rupert were responsible for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
Bill Grueskin notices, “Lachlan Murdoch spends a great amount of time pursuing legal action against Australian news orgs that publish things he doesn’t like — such as a recent piece assigning him and Rupert blame for the January 6 riot.”
领英推荐
‘Exponential’
At The New York Times, Katie Robertson wrote about how, in the wake of Roe’s reversal, readers are flocking to publications aimed at women, including Jezebel, The 19th and The Cut.?
Eric M. Garcia notes, “When @LeBassett took over @Jezebel in 2021, one of the first things she did was hire a reproductive rights reporter in Texas. Good writeup of Jezebel here. It feels very much like the irreverent and smart site I read in college.”
Alexandra Smith, the audience director of The 19th, told Robertson that growth in traffic there has been “exponential.” On Twitter, she added, “A *magical* thing happens when you listen to and act on what your readers want + need alongside the smartest, dreamiest team in the biz.”
The TikTok troubles
Kaya Yurieff of The Information has the scoop on Instagram’s attempted TikTokification and How Instagram’s TikTok Envy Finally Backfired. She has details on the broader effort, codenamed Panavision, to compete against TikTok.?
Things not to envy or emulate: On TikTok, Election Misinformation Thrives Ahead of Midterms, Tiffany Hsu reports at The New York Times.?
Researchers say the platform’s poor track record during recent voting abroad does not bode well for elections in the U.S. In other words, “Expect an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation this elections season,” tweets Christina Veiga.
Are we surprised? As Ali Winston says, “Wow, who could’ve expected such a development from an app that’s effectively a data-harvesting op for China’s intelligence services?”
Also at the Times, David McCabe has a piece on How Frustration Over TikTok Has Mounted in Washington as national security concerns remain unresolved. Officials with the House of Representatives have advised staff members not to use or download the service.?
India and the fight for free speech
In India-administered Kashmir, it’s not easy to be an influencer, especially with frequent government-led internet blackouts. A new feature for Rest of World by Gafira Qadir, with photography by Showkat Nanda, explores how Kashmir’s influencers seek internet fame but can’t get online.
“With the growth of social media platforms, the Indian government has struggled to control news in the area, even after placing restrictions on mainstream media, and so internet shutdowns have become common,” writes Qadir, who spoke with content creators in Kashmir and others for this deeply reported piece.
Anup Kaphle praises the “Fantastic feature from Kashmir by @GafiraQadir on the struggle of social media influencers who are toiling through frequent internet interruptions to keep their audience intact, and to keep their dream alive.”
India marked 75 years of independence on August 15. But as Amitava Kumar writes, in an introduction to PEN America’s India at 75 feature, “What should be a moment of celebration and joy has become a moment of deep despair and reflection.”?
PEN America reached out to authors from India and the Indian diaspora to write short texts expressing what they felt, particularly now that “the institutions that can defend India’s freedoms—its courts, parliament and civil service, and much of the media—have been co-opted or weakened.”
Samanth Subramanian shares, “Along with dozens of others, I wrote a short piece for @PENamerica about India's 75th -- a moment that warms the heart, wracks the nerves, and chills the soul, all at the same time. Happy 75th, you. Never stop fighting.”?
Essential?
In his piece Salman Rushdie and the Cult of Offense, The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood writes, “We have conceded moral authority to howling mobs, and the louder the howls, the more we have agreed that the howls were worth heeding,” he writes.
“Team ‘to be sure’: ‘those who muddle the distinction between offense and violence, and between a disagreement over ideas and a disagreement over whether your head should remain attached to your body,” Pamela Paresky quotes, from this “Essential read.”
You love to see it
We started on a down note for local news, so let’s spend a moment highlighting some more positive and inspiring local media stories.
From James Anderson at Nieman Lab, Meet The Kansas City Defender, a nonprofit news outlet aimed at young Black people across the Midwest.
The Kansas City Defender was established in 2021 by Ryan Sorrell, who grew up in the area and is the outlet’s sole full-time staffer.?
As Anderson writes, “The Defender is a news and culture platform consciously rooted in the tradition of both the Black and the abolitionist press, also reaches an under-served audience of predominantly Black teenagers and young adults, across the greater Midwest, on social media.”
“You love to see it,” tweets Amanda Becker.
Next, Greta Jochem, a reporter for The Berkshire Eagle, sets up “My most unconventional (and sweatiest) assignment yet -- hiking the 90 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts, all of which are in the beautiful Berkshires.”
As she explains in her piece, In search of 90 miles of news, an Eagle beat reporter hits the Appalachian Trail, “As a newspaper that covers the Berkshire County, I felt we should be writing more about a famous trail that cuts straight through the region from Connecticut to Vermont…I’m going to explore miles and miles of the Berkshires that are rarely traveled by local journalists.”
And last up, here’s a cool story from John Burnett of NPR about “The Legend” 1050 KVPI, aka, “The little station has been on the air for nearly 70 years doing everything it can to keep alive a dying language.” Read (and listen) as Le bon temps continue to roll on Cajun radio in Southern Louisiana.
A few more
From the Muck Rack Team
Here at Muck Rack, we love data. We recently combed through our data to identify the crypto journalists with the most viewed profiles on Muck Rack in 2022. Head over to the blog to find out who made the list of the?10 most popular crypto journalists on Muck Rack.