A natural evolution

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

On the day before first-round voting opened for the 67th Grammy Awards last week, the Recording Academy released its 2024 Membership Report, which shows the Academy added more than 3,000 women voting members since 2019 , exceeding its goal of adding 2,500 women voting members by 2025.

Additionally, per Jem Aswad of Variety, the report indicates the Academy has added around 8,700 new members since 2019, with 65% growth in the percentage of voting members who are people of color, 90% growth in the percentage of Black or African American voting members, 43% growth in the percentage of Hispanic or Latin voting members and 100% growth in the percentage of Asian or Pacific Islander voting members. While the new membership is more diverse, challenges remain. For example, the total membership is 62% men, 32% women, with the remainder non-binary, gender non-conforming or unknown.

“We are not at our ultimate destination yet, but the Recording Academy membership has never been more reflective of the music community than it is today,” said Harvey Mason jr., Recording Academy CEO.

This past week in the media industry?

Local reporters doing the work

Moss Brennan is the 25-year-old editor in chief of the Watauga Democrat and the executive editor of Mountain Times Publications, serving three rural counties in Western North Carolina. He’s also a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician.?

“[F]rom his newspaper’s office, on high ground in the town of Boone, in a conversation interrupted by breaks in internet service and power outages, as well as the general chaos of getting out a paper,” Brennan shared with Lauren Watson of Columbia Journalism Review his first-person account: How a small paper in Western North Carolina covered Hurricane Helene .

As Joshua Hersh says, this is a “Really cool piece from @laur_watso about @mosbren's work covering the flooding in North Carolina this week—part of @CJR's Getting the Story, on the local reporters doing the work.” Al Cross adds, “The Watauga Democrat has long been a strong weekly newspaper and it’s good to see it maintaining that tradition this week in northwestern NC.”

Sarah Honosky of the Asheville Citizen Times has the incredible story of how the team at? iHeartRadio's WWNC station has been keeping the community informed, connecting listeners with services and reuniting families —?all while trapped in their West Asheville studio: Helene trapped Asheville broadcasters in their station. They've stayed on air ever since .?

And “From sharing posts from government officials on Instagram to broadcasting live hourly updates on radio, NC student journalists continued to provide information about Hurricane Helene despite the challenges it posed.” Chatwan Mongkol links to his story at The Nutgraf, North Carolina student journalists rush to cover Hurricane Helene aftermath .

The flood of mis- and disinformation

As local reporters work to keep their communities informed about what’s going on, Misinformation Is Getting in the Way , adding a “frustrating undercurrent to the stream of important information,” write Emily Cochrane , Christopher Flavelle , Michael Shear and Tiffany Hsu of The New York Times.?

The Times piece highlights “a torrent of conspiracy theories, rumors and lies [that] threatens to undermine efforts to provide accurate information and crucial resources. Disinformation has been particularly rampant in Georgia and North Carolina, and the sheer number of falsehoods has alarmed officials and experts.”

At The Atlantic, Juliette Kayyem explains that The Fog of Disaster Is Getting Worse , thanks to “a changing media environment, worsened by intentional attempts to deceive people.”

Kayyem notes, “In past crises, emergency managers at all levels of government have relied on local media for factual information about events on the ground. But the erosion of the local-news industry—the number of newspaper journalists has shrunk by two-thirds since 2005, and local television stations face serious financial pressure —has reduced the supply of reliable reporting.”

Meanwhile, CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked six days of Trump lies and distortions about the Hurricane Helene response . The quick recap, via Keith Roysdon : “He’s lied every day about hurricane relief. Every. Day.”?

In an analysis for CNN, Brian Stelter says the false claims about the federal response to Helene are an ominous sign for the coming election , which is “sure to trigger further attacks on the truth.”

Here’s more from Rachel Leingang of The Guardian on how rightwing media has become more insulated in this bubble, ‘Every day is a new conspiracy’: behind Trump’s ironclad grip on rightwing media .

Media business headlines

Victoria Gomelsky of The New York Times reports watch fan site Hodinkee has been sold to one of the world’s largest watch retailers , the Watches of Switzerland Group.

Per Gomelsky, the British retailer said that the Hodinkee staff would remain intact and that its editorial team would remain independent of Watches of Switzerland oversight. Time will tell. Ashkan Karbasfrooshan’s prediction: “Narrator: ‘In the end, it did not stay independent.’”

Overall, Rafat Ali says, “The lesson here is same as always: even in vertical media, if you raise too much money, chances are you will trip up with overambition and overspending much like consumer media startups and suffer the same fate. Likely a mercy buy, even if decent buyer.”

Also at The New York Times, Sridhar Pappu wrote about Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman and their pandemic-born podcast, “SmartLess,” which has now turned into a $100 million media business: Will the 'SmartLess' Podcast Be the Biggest Role of Their Careers?

Daniel Thomas , James Fontanella-Khan and Ivan Levingston of the Financial Times report New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is closing in on a ￡550mn deal for the UK’s Telegraph . The deal “would end a 16-month battle for control of the conservative British national newspaper.”

For the Semafor media newsletter, Max Tani reports Substack wants to do more than just newsletters . The company has added more than a million paid subscribers over the last year but still isn’t profitable. “To avoid fizzling the way competitors like Medium have, Substack is trying to become less a journalism platform and more a payment system for creators,” Tani writes.

Ben Smith says this is a “.@maxwelltani mustread on what is going on with Substack, which seems to have won its lane — newsletters — but needs to move into others to succeed as a business and sell to ... Stripe?”?

“Interesting...” says Matt Brown , who adds, “feels like this is kind of a natural evolution for most of the companies trying to do newsletter tech?”

‘A critical self-reflection’

Last up, Journalism scholars want to make journalism better. They’re not quite sure how . In this new piece for Nieman Lab, Jacob Nelson , Andrea Wenzel and Letrell Crittenden , who have been running the Engaged Journalism Exchange, take a closer look at how academics have shifted their focus to finding ways to improve the journalism profession. The big question, “Does any of this work actually matter?”

“This one is ‘I couldn't help but wonder’ for journalism academics (and it's very good!),” Laura Hazard Owen confirms.

More notable media stories

• With The New York Times opting out of endorsing candidates in local races, a group of prominent journalists aims to fill the gap . CNN’s Brian Stelter has details on the collective, “a who’s-who of New York journalists, including political writers, editors and columnists,” tentatively called the New York Editorial Board.
• Sara Fischer of Axios reports on new data from Duke Reporters’ Lab that shows the politicization of fact-checking has contributed to a decline in the number of fact-checking sites globally .
• Reynolds Journalism Institute fellows Zoli Csernatony and Dana Amihere explore How enhanced audience engagement helps sustain newsrooms .
• According to eMarketer, Google’s share of the U.S. search ad market is expected to drop below 50% in 2025 for the first time in more than ten years. Suzanne Vranica and Miles Kruppa of The Wall Street Journal have that story, Google’s Grip on Search Slips as TikTok and AI Startup Mount Challenge .?
• Janice Min of The Ankler spoke with Shane Smith about what went wrong for Vice, Shane Smith is Ready to Talk Media. Again . Smith’s new podcast, “Shane Smith Has Questions,” launched this week.
• “Paper of Wreckage” authors and former New York Post editors Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo spill some more tea in The Hollywood Reporter about their Page Six experiences, How Page Six Became the Most Feared Gossip Column in the World .
• With a CinemaScore grade of D, the lowest grade ever for a comic book film, 'Joker: Folie a Deux' crashed to a 'Morbius'-level $40 million box office opening . As Jeremy Fuster noted at The Wrap, those were Warner Bros. numbers. By Tuesday, Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline was reporting the opening was even lower, at $37.8M this weekend , versus the $40 million reported by the studio on Monday morning.
• He’s spying on one street corner’s musical tastes. It’s all for fun . Shira Ovide of The Washington Post talked with San Francisco’s Riley Walz (no relation to the vice-presidential candidate) about his new project, Bop Spotter .

From the Muck Rack Team

With more than one third of journalists reporting layoffs or buyouts at their organizations, according to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2024, it’s no surprise that more and more journalists are exploring freelancing as a journalism career path. We checked in with three of the most popular freelance journalists on Muck Rack for their expert tips on getting started as a freelance journalist .