Good morning.
- Trump remains strong even after shot at McCain
Huffington Post will only cover him as “entertainment,” the Des Moines Register told him to quit the GOP race, Mother Jones labels a Tuesday speech “the most insane ever” and The New York Times declared a “turning point” in his campaign due to the McCain remarks that suggest “a shift that will probably mark the moment when Trump’s candidacy went from boom to bust.” (The New York Times) But some post-weekend, post-McCain polling suggests he’s very much still standing. (Morning Consult) So it’s Trump 1, Media 0 as his coverage appears to escalate, according to academics, Google and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight. (NBC)
- Badly wounded but returning to conflict zone
Associated Press reporter Kathy Gannon has covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for 27 years and was severely injured last year when an Afghan cop started firing away at her car inside a police compound, killing AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus in the process. “I looked down and my hand was almost severed,” she says in detailing her odyssey and plan to return during a podcast. “I just wanted to fall asleep. What a good life I’ve had, I thought.” Why is she going back? “This is who I am.” (National Press Club)
- Obama: Media ‘distracted by shiny objects’
Air Force One hauled President Obama at your expense to Manhattan for a fundraiser and a “Daily Show” taping late Tuesday where he was predictable in chiding the media. “What I’m most concerned about is not that it’s unfair or too tough on government…but that it gets distracted by shiny objects and doesn’t always focus on the big tough choices and decisions.” Seeming about two decades late to programming realities, he declared, “It’s tough for folks to do an hour-long special on urban America…tough to get everyone focused the same way.” The whole nation “operates in sound bites,” said a president whose communications team works overtime to adapt to those new realities. Oh, he just assisted on what presumably will be a gritty, long and sound bite-free Vice documentary on prisons. That probably won’t be too shiny. (Washington Examiner)
- Maybe they’ll predict the hour print newspapers vanish
Penske Media Corp., whose holdings include W.W.D (formerly Women’s Wear Daily), bought Gold Derby, a site that predicts winners at entertainment awards shows. Penske had just announced a deal to supply fashion coverage to Tribune, including for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. (L.A. Times) Maybe they can now predict best musical at the Tonys, best animated feature at the Oscars, the winner of an inaugural Imelda Marcos Largest Shoe Closet Award and the next round of newsroom layoffs in Chicago, San Diego and Baltimore. (Variety)
- Making more than $1 million covering Florida Panhandle ‘beach lifestyle’
For all you local online publishers and editors working diligently to monetize content about the mayor, county board, crime, real estate, power outages, garage sales, potholes, traffic delays, restaurant closings or neighborhood block parties, start covering margarita sales at your nearest beach. A listing of the most promising local online-native news sites suggests that just one generates more than $1 million. It’s called 30A and covers the Florida Panhandle along Highway 30-A in what the founder calls “Mayberry meets the beach.” It may not be headed to a Pulitzer but it’s “a remarkable success nonetheless, one that has expanded into podcasts, retail, online classifieds, and more” (NiemanLab)
- Harper’s metered paywall
The venerable magazine will now let you read one print article per month online, and then you pay up. Rick MacArthur, the publisher and no fan of giving away content for free online, steadfastly believes that people have to pay if high-quality journalism will be sustained. He’s right. Now, will they? (Adweek)
- The end of western civilization (cont.)
James Altucher, founder of the website design firm Reset and author of self-help books, now offers nine things “the most productive people do every day.” He claims they include “No TV. No news. No web surfing. No books about current events. No talking to people about current events. No conferences about what’s going on in the world.” He may thus be the only person in New York City who hasn’t heard about Donald Trump and Mexican immigrants, unless he steals a neighbor’s Wall Street Journal. (TechCrunch)
- In praise of ‘Deadwood’
When reporters depart beats, they may not merely wax nostalgic in a final piece but occasionally engage in farewell apple-polishing of sources. That makes Alessandra Stanley’s goodbye from the TV beat at the New York Times a relief. She’s starting a new specialty on the wealthy, which will presumably further refine the paper’s reflexive attentiveness to the American elite. Before she goes, she praises a wonderful and brutally candid HBO show that lasted just three years and never got the acclaim of “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad.” Set during the Dakota gold rush in the 1870s, “‘Deadwood’ was more than an exemplar of its era; it also served as a fitting metaphor for our time. Once the Internet took hold, TV turned almost as lawless as the Black Hills, a gold-rush medium of ruthless prospectors, few rules and infinite potential.” It’s worth a binge. (The New York Times)
- J-school training matters but don’t plan on affording a weekend place
Parents beware: a survey of English journalism students underscores that the graduate degree helps finding work but the money stinks. The kids have better employment opportunities than those with other degrees but the pay is decidedly inferior. Boy, this doesn’t sound familiar, does it? (Hold the Front Page)
- In defense of criticism
Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin can’t be surprised at his political counterparts’ doubts about Donald Trump. Trump last year derided the Pulitzer winner (“Sorry sucker, as usual you lose again”) as Kamin called Trump a “comb-over vulgarian” during a spat over giant signage (“TRUMP”) plastered over The Donald’s silvery Chicago skyscraper. (CBS) Kamin recently defended his craft before architectural historians and, while it was a good effort (Archinect), we have limited space here and prefer to simply repeat his “comb-over vulgarian” line during the vibrant Kamin-Trump Twitter Tussle.
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
C Express led with questions about “Peak Trump” on Wednesday.
(Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Kelsey Sutton is now a media reporter at Capital New York. Previously, she was an intern there. (Tom McGeveran) | Cory Haik is now executive director of emerging news products at The Washington Post. Previously, she was executive producer and senior editor of news there. (Poynter) | Leah Beckmann is now interim Editor-in-Chief of Gawker. Previously, she was deputy editor there. (@leahbeckmann) | Fawn Johnson will join Morning Consult. Previously, she covered Congress for National Journal. (Politico) | Dorothy Samuels is now a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. Previously, she was a member of The New York Times editorial board. (Email) | Job of the day: The New Republic is looking for a news editor. Get your résumés in. (The Washington Post) |
Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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