Obed Manuel's story on community gardens amid Dallas' convenience store and fast-food "swamps" ran above the fold Saturday in The Dallas Morning News.
Manuel, on a yearlong stint with the paper, couldn't help himself. Twenty-two years ago, his parents brought him and his brother to the United States from Monterrey, Mexico, "for a better life," he tweeted, "and we found it here in Dallas. Today, I‘m on the front page of The Dallas Morning News."
Manuel, who had worked for two smaller Dallas outlets and the alternative weekly, was among 13 people chosen out of 940 applicants for Report For America, a new nationwide program for journalistic training and help in building coverage in underreported areas. He began in June.
His first front-page story was no aberration, says assistant metro editor Dave Hiott, Manuel's supervisor at the Morning News.
"He's hit the ground running," says Hiott, who oversees the paper's coverage of immigration, education and social justice issues. Manuel knows the city and knows the Hispanic community from growing up and working there, and has provided a new batch of younger sources. "And on top of that, he's a strong writer," the veteran editor says.
Manuel (pictured below) is working on stories on the differences between first- and second-generation Americans. One is the paradox of health, and a greater life expectancy for first-generation immigrants than native-born white Americans, despite having less access to health care. Expectancy rates even out for the second generation, Manuel says, noting upward mobility, diet changes and less-physical jobs for the younger generation.
These kinds of stories, Hiott says, are of interest to both the paper's traditionally white middle-class readership and, he hopes, an emerging Hispanic middle class readership. Dallas was among 85 newsrooms that applied to host a Report For America "corps member." Eleven outlets were selected to host this year's group of reporters, says Maggie Messitt, Report for America's national director. (Applications are open through Oct. 31 for newsroom hosts for fellows beginning in June 2019, she says.)
Like other Report For America fellows, Manuel has to come up with a public service project engaging younger audiences as well. He didn't have to look far.
Skyline High School, his alma mater, had discontinued the print edition of the student paper, where Manuel had flourished as an op-ed writer before heading to the University of North Texas. The website is clunky, and Manuel is setting up a simpler WordPress system with a magazine layout the staff could use. Starting in September, he'll be helping the journalism adviser several times a month and working with students on bulking up the outlet's social media efforts. (A suggestion: Alums include champion Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson, NBA stars Larry Johnson and C.J. Miles, "Frasier" actress Peri Gilpin and the NFL's Corey Nelson.)
"Skyline is huge. More than 4,000 students," Manuel says. "The potential for them to create content and stories is huge, too."
Here's more information on Report For America, an initiative of the nonprofit Ground Truth Project.
Quick hits
TRUMP'S PERSONALIZED NEWS: On a disastrous day for the president, his social feed shielded him Tuesday, raining praise upon him and offering up distracting conspiracy theories, The Washington Post's Isaac Stanley-Becker reports.
SOFTENING THE GROUND: Tuesday's news felt epic on the coasts and inside the journalism bubble, but has Trump stirred enough antipathy toward the press and enough doubt about the facts that Americans won't buy it? That's the question Margaret Sullivan raises.
WHY SHE'S NOT ON MORNING SHOWS: Sheera Frenkel had a scoop. But it was only a 5 a.m. wakeup from her 1-year-old daughter and the luck of her mom in town that allowed The New York Times reporter to get on an MSNBC talk show for five minutes, she writes. "This is just one example of how the system isn’t set up for moms," she says. "Because I’m a mom to a (young) kiddo, I often have to watch (male) colleagues go on to discuss my work."
HOW TO KEEP DIGITAL SUBSCRIBERS: A study highlighted by Nieman Lab's Shan Wang finds a few clues among European subscribers: 1. One publisher says need-to-know content trumps nice-to-know (guides, arts, reviews) on conversion, but the latter is key for retention. 2. High local or subject value. 3. Stories that prompt readers to subscribe are the same types of stories they'll consume as subscribers.
ANATOMY OF A LIE: The first 4,229 documented variations of the truth by President Trump were termed misleading or falsehoods by The Washington Post fact-checking unit. On Wednesday reporter Glenn Kessler used the "L-word" in documenting a series of mistruths of Trump and his aides over his knowledge of payoffs before the 2016 election to a porn star and a former Playboy model who alleged he had sex with them. Tuesday's guilty plea by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen "offers indisputable evidence that Trump and his allies have been deliberately dishonest at every turn in their statements" about the payoffs, wrote Kessler. (Here's our profile from June of Kessler and his work fact-checking Trump.)
McCLATCHY LAYOFFS: The publisher of more than two dozen daily newspapers nationwide says it will be cutting expenses and laying off nearly 140 employees, CNN reports. "Most of our expense savings are in legacy areas," which would allow the company to "continue to build our future as a digital-DNA, journalism-driven media business," CEO Craig Forman said in a memo to employees.
IN RELATED NEWS: Citing print advertising declines, The Omaha World-Herald eliminated 23 jobs. The breakdown? Ten layoffs, five retirements and eight vacant positions that will remain unfilled, the AP reported.
THE JOURNALISM SHOW: Pop-Up Magazine, which puts storytellers and journalists on stage with a band and multimedia presentations, has grown readers and revenues dramatically. In 2004 it performed shows before 4,500; it hopes to play before 45,000 next year, including its first international shows, San Francisco Business News' Hannah Norman reports. The company just announced a 10-show, seven-city fall swing that features writers Rebecca Skloot, Ed Yong and Emily Dreyfuss, podcasters Hrishikesh Hirway and Yowei Shaw, producer Stephanie Foo and media entrepreneurs Andi Zeisler and Ann Friedman.
CALIFORNIA READING: Incoming Los Angeles Times Deputy Managing Editor Sewell Chan, who we wrote about Tuesday, asked friends and future colleagues what he should read about the Golden State as he prepares to start. That prompted this thread, which is an education in itself. (My suggestion: "Hunger of Memory," by Richard Rodriguez.)
On Poynter.org
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Trust in news is up, particularly in local media. By Indira Lakshmanan and Rick Edmonds.
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How The Seattle Times brought in $4 million to help with critical coverage. By Kristen Hare.
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