Latest from the E&P Newsroom

Indecision is not a decision: Get off the fence.

If you’re in charge, your team or organization will inevitably look to you for direction to help lead them down the correct path. And depending on the talent on your team and the type of organization, that might not take much. For example, when you have a lot of strength above and below you, it’s often much easier to make good choices and set a course you feel confident about. Other times, the next steps just aren't as straightforward.

The future of funding journalism

One of the evergreen questions Editor & Publisher ponders as we chronicle today’s business of news is: How will newsrooms — now and in the future — be funded? As we stand, one quarter into 2023, it felt timely to reach out to news publishers to hear their goals for revenue this year; how their newsrooms may benefit from philanthropic support; and if they’re counting on legislative relief to come from state or federal governments.

The Baltimore Beat. Back in business, providing local, practical news for underserved communities

The Baltimore Beat was published for about five months in 2017 before the publisher decided to stop publication. But Lisa Snowden, editor, knew there was a niche and a need in Baltimore for another Black community-focused news outlet — in addition to the Baltimore-based 130-year-old The AFRO. She began studying nonprofit news models.

More E&P "Exclusives"
The Center for Community Media at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is taking a major step forward in promoting diversity in the media industry with the launch of the Asian Media Initiative. The program, aimed at increasing the representation of Asian Americans in media and journalism, will provide opportunities for students, journalists and aspiring media professionals to gain the skills and resources necessary to succeed in the competitive field of journalism.
How can white people, which the publisher of this very publication will tell you dominate the traditional media industry channels and gatherings, do more than unwind generations of racism and exploitative coverage — instead, actively contribute to restoring justice and equity? John Heaston says he doesn’t have the answers, but hopes the points in today's column can help.
With start-up funding from a remarkably successful Kickstarter campaign, Block Club Chicago debuted in 2018 as an independent 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Today, Block Club Chicago has reporters covering a majority of the neighborhoods across the city, but there are still some “gaps” in community coverage that they hope to fill as the newsroom grows.
For local newspapers and news outlets to sustain themselves, it’s critical to understand Gen Zers’ perspective on local news and how they engage with it. Many news outlets are already initiating new strategies to connect with this youngest generation of adults and the high-school-age Gen Zers who will be adults soon.
More than 400 advertising and media industry leaders and insiders gathered at the Marriott Biscayne Bay in Miami, March 5-7, at the Borrell Miami Local Advertising Conference 2023. The theme of “Navigating Local Media's Brave New World” played out in main-stage presentations and breakout sessions over the two-day conference, offering the latest advertising and revenue-generating strategies and opportunities.
Frank Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times, says: "Our democracy and its cornerstone — the trusted local independent newspaper — are in crisis. There is no question that the revival of local, independent newspaper stewardship is critical to shoring up the wobbly legs of our democracy." Here is his list of priorities for saving local, independent newspapers and democracy.
Manchester, Vermont, is like many other charming New England villages —  steeped in centuries of history and serving as a gateway to the Green Mountains. It’s also a hotbed of news publishing innovations at the Manchester Journal, covering the small local population and the hundreds of thousands of annual tourists and visitors.
The first step in building a connection with the next generation is entering their space. Young people are deeply concerned about the world and passionate about news in politics, social justice and human rights but rarely consume legacy media. Building a connection between TikTok followers and newspapers can lead young people to look to the newspaper as a trusted information source.
More than 100 guests had gathered in the American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, Connecticut, to celebrate the launch of the Winsted Citizen for a community hungry for news. Winsted is also where Ralph Nader was born and delivered the local newspaper as a boy, and the Citizen is his gift to his hometown, which had become a news desert.
Christina and Ray Appen may not have been aware they were part of a trend when they purchased a small newspaper, The ReVue, in the equally small (at that time) Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Georgia, during 1990. Today, Appen Media is a second-generation family business, with the Appens’ two sons, Hans and Carl, as the publisher and director of content and business development, respectively. Christina and Ray are still actively involved in the business.
Antisemitism is on the rise, and it is seeping into the mainstream with public figures using their platforms to spew hate against the Jewish people. Many local reporters will be confronted with reporting on antisemitic attacks if they haven't already. Here are some critical things to keep in mind when reporting on hate against the Jewish people.
It takes a big and bright team to operate WBUR — a local National Public Radio (NPR) station in Boston — and produce the high-quality journalism for which it’s known. That team grew by two this January, courtesy of WBUR’s Newsroom Fellowship Program.
You may not know the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project by name, but you have almost certainly heard of its projects. The OCCRP has been behind the scenes of most global investigative journalism projects for more than a decade, including the Panama Papers, Laundromats, the Pandora Papers, The Daphne Project, Suisse Secrets, the Pegasus Project and the Russian Asset Tracker. OCCRP is known best in the United States for the reporting that led to former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Too many newspapers and other media, their advertising sales reps, local businesses and retailers are unaware there is a giant pile of billions of dollars they could utilize to increase everyone’s revenues. That pile of $75 billion is in the form of annual co-op advertising funds manufacturers make available to local businesses and retailers to co-promhttps://editorandpublisher.creativecirclecms.com/images/close_button_red.gifote the manufacturers’ products and services.
Copyright has become a complicated minefield for publishers to navigate. Editor & Publisher contacted an expert on the subject, Danielle Coffey, executive vice president and general counsel for the News/Media Alliance, for some context on copyright today.
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Working remotely in the COVID era has led to a host of unexpected benefits for journalists. But one of the major downsides has been spending less time with colleagues talking shop. Here are a handful of fun apps and tools that Rob Tornoe uses in his reporting. He hopes you find them useful, possibly even making an assignment or two that much easier.
Martin Alfaro’s promotion to general manager at AL DÍA­ marked the start of his new year.  “I found a unique space and a huge opportunity,” Alfaro says of his new role. That unique space is the audience AL DÍA captures, and that opportunity he mentioned is creating content that some publications lack.
There’s something palpable happening across the U.S. news media landscape. 2022 was a year when unions gained momentum and seized new leveraging power. They deployed tactics like social media campaigns, lobbying, walkouts and strikes to garner public support and implore news publishers to the bargaining table.
There were 25 organized troll campaigns targeting women reporters in the first half of 2020, according to Ms. Magazine. Additionally, the magazine cited 267 attacks and threats, with many mentioning women’s appearance and sexuality, including death and rape warnings. Here are three steps supervisors should be taking to better protect women journalists.
Gerard Ryle has turned standard practices upside-down to enable a nonprofit organization with limited resources to produce groundbreaking global projects. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists brings in trusted journalists from around the world, giving them access to information in exchange for their media organization’s resources.
Our 25 Under 35 salute showcases our future — one that’s inspired, passionate and innovative, reinvigorated by fresh ideas and talent. E&P thanks the colleagues who thoughtfully nominated this year’s deserving nominees. Cheers to E&P’s 2023 class of 25 Under 35!
Serving as a forum for personal and professional networking is a benefit of social media, but its global reach and popularity have resulted in the posting of information — often described as “news” — from less-than-transparent and unverifiable sources. To make it easier for the public to recognize trustworthy journalism, Reporters Without Borders created the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) in 2019.
Despite what many believe about printing, it is not a dying practice. The printing industry continues to experience growth in other areas, such as advertising. The Global Commercial Printing Market is projected to be worth $484.22 billion by 2027, a nearly 12% increase from 2021.
Nonprofit news collaborations deepen investigative work, amplify quality journalism and connect for-profit news organizations to new funding streams. Lisa Yanick Litwiller, director of audience at the Center for Public Integrity, said collaborations give journalists the resources for the deep work that drew many journalists to the industry in the first place.
A group of New York City journalists was growing weary of seeing their beloved alternative news outlets losing their edge as they fell into the hands of hedge funds and billionaire investors. So they took a knife to propriety and started their own worker-owned publication.