Seeking to correct digital news' fundamental problems
Vivian Schiller says she wasn’t looking for a full-time job. The digital veteran of Twitter, NBC News, NPR and The New York Times had come to enjoy the “portfolio life” of board duties and consulting.
An acquaintance at the Civil Media Company told her about a “foundation council” it was putting together. She was intrigued, met with company leaders and was presented with another notion: CEO of what would be the Civil Foundation.
She took the job on June 7 — and starts work this morning.
Schiller saw talent, vision, opportunity and ambition in this particular entrant in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space, dedicated to a global community of quality newsrooms. She did her research into the start-up, which already has launched several news sites on its platform. (The latest, The Colorado Sun, officially launching today, includes several former senior editors and reporters of the shrinking Denver Post.)
"There's much more that we don't know about what blockchain can do for journalism than what we do know,” Schiller said in an interview. “But it will be something.”
As she wrote in a Medium essay: What if digital could do over the things it hadn’t accounted for over the past 15 years? “Knowing what could go wrong, how might we have thought about governance, integrity of information, identity and legitimacy?” Schiller wrote. “How might we have thought about business models to support quality, and safeguards to protect us from bad actors?”
At Civil, she’ll develop journalistic standards and practices. She’ll also set up the Civil Foundation as an entity to make grants — and help decide what it will focus on. Schiller knows broad outlines — impact, accountability, filling news deserts, promoting newsgathering from challenging and perhaps dangerous places — but her task is to help define it.
Background: Civil wants to use cryptoeconomics and blockchain to build future news. What?
Now, on to other news stories that may be affecting your day.
Quick hits
CLOSING TIME: The long-delayed sale of the Los Angeles Times will close today, the paper reports, and most of its staff will move to a new headquarters by the end of July. New owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, in a note to readers on Sunday, said good newspapers are "the voice of the people" — and he will strengthen the Times and maintain its independent voice. He also said the previous ownership had plans to close the Washington bureau and cut the staff by 20 percent — a plan he is not following.
NEW THIS MORNING: McClatchy selected four award-winning producers and developers as six-month “storytellers in residence,” focusing on 3D augmented reality experiences on mobile. Among the four are Cassandra Herrman, co-director of the pathbreaking "After Solitary" for Frontline. “We’re exploring if we can create content for mobile AR that’s timely and relevant, at a reasonable cost to produce,” Meghan Sims, McClatchy’s director of strategic video initiatives, told me. “At the same time, we will test what engages audiences and inspires them to come back for more.” The company will use this experimentation to determine what production tools or storytelling formats could be used in its newsrooms. Sims said McClatchy might invest in a standalone AR product to reach new audiences.
NEW VENUE: Cartoonist Rob Rogers, fired on Thursday by his newspaper in Pittsburgh after criticizing President Trump, wrote and drew the following day for The New York Times in a guest op-ed. "The paper may have taken an eraser to my cartoons,” he wrote. “But I plan to be at my drawing table every day of this presidency." The story was the most-viewed and most-emailed on the NYT site for much of Saturday.
‘A COMPLETE FABRICATION’: Award-winning Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen has been suspended without pay for three months after an investigation found fabrications in interviews and a conference speech about his role in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Cullen, a two-time winner of an American Society of News Editors writing award, was suspended after an outside investigation conducted by former Associated Press executive editor Kathleen Carroll and Boston University communication school dean Tom Fiedler. Here’s the Globe statement.
TABLOID CONSOLIDATION: With new deals, a Trump ally will control most of the titles in supermarket racks.
SOLD: The Chicago Reader, an alt-weekly stalwart for 47 years, to a group led by Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the African-American Chicago Crusader. The Chicago Sun-Times, which has owned the Reader since 2012, will retain a 15 percent interest in the publication.
FROM ALABAMA TO FACEBOOK WATCH: The Alabama Media Group is revving up for a Facebook-supported video show on local journalism that's ferreting out corruption nationwide. “It was an opportunity to live at the intersection of funded work and journalism that matters,” Michelle Holmes, the group’s vice president of content, told Nieman Lab.
What we’re reading
THE BAR IS CLOSED: The government shut down a controversial study that sought to show moderate drinking is okay. The National Institutes of Health cited credibility concerns.
NO NAZIS IN THIS YEARBOOK: A Massachusetts high school has pulled its yearbook after discovering a senior quote used a quote attributed to a Nazi leader.
WANT TO START A LOCAL NEWS SITE?: First, have someone try to talk you out of it. If that doesn’t stop you, follow these useful steps by Harvard Kennedy School’s Adam Fisher and Adam B. Giorgi: a) Define your vision, what it is you want to do; b) Make sure there’s a need, do market research to determine if there’s support; c) Plan the content, products, tech and other talent you need; d) Informed by data, build an audience that can pay, contribute, donate, share, attend — all the various ways you raise money; an audience that trusts you — and shares your mission.
Also on Poynter.org
- Will The Cannabist, once a bright new thing in journalism, rise again? By Cynthia Mitchell.
- The little guy with a bowtie who changed my life forever. By Roy Peter Clark.
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Got a tip, a link, a suggestion? We’re trying to make this roundup better every day. Please email me at dbeard@poynter.org.
Thanks to Ren LaForme for editing this.
And have a good Monday.
