Good morning. Liev Schreiber will reportedly play Marty Baron in a movie. I am tempted to end this roundup right now, but just in case you want to know more about the U.S. media landscape this morning, here are 10 more stories.
- Reporters who are covering the Michael Brown story in Ferguson, Missouri: Kristen Hare has started a list and compiled tweets from local media. (Poynter) | A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter was “slugged from behind and helped away by police officers” Sunday in an area of Ferguson where looting occurred. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) | Monday’s Post-Dispatch front page: “Day of Protests”/”Night of Frenzy” (via Newseum)
Also:
Dear national news outlets it's insulting to ask to use my photos "for credit" I'm a professional
— David Carson (@PDPJ) August 11, 2014
- Buncha moves at BuzzFeed: Concurrent with an announcement of $50 million funding from Andreessen Horowitz, the publisher will: 1) Split its news division into three groups, News, Buzz and Life (featuring a test kitchen); 2) launch BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, which will “focus on all moving images from a GIF to feature film”; 3) launch a division that will make content for platforms like Snapchat, Imgur and Vine. The new structure “allows the company to expand by incubating and acquiring new companies.” (BuzzFeed) | BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti “said BuzzFeed’s revenue for the first half of 2014 was twice as much as the first half of 2013.” (NYT) | A PLEA: Can we, as a culture, agree to stop headlining stories about BuzzFeed with “BuzzFeed-style” headlines? Seriously, it is time to find a new joke.
- Harper’s publisher Googles stuff by yelling at people: John R. MacArthur‘s opposition to most forms of Web journalism remains resolute. “On several occasions during a recent interview, he could not quite remember a fact that supported a point,” Ravi Somaiya writes. “His version of searching for it on Google was yelling to a staff member, who hurried to deliver the information.” (NYT) | Related: Nieman’s Josh Benton in February: “If you look at it today Harper’s is run by a fellow who doesn’t like the Internet very much … versus The Atlantic, which … has totally rebuilt its brand and is now being read by millions of people who never would have read it before.” Interviewer: “Honestly, I’ve never even heard of Harper’s.” (Post Status)
- Ann Arbor (Michigan) Chronicle stops publishing: The local news publisher was making money, Co-Editor Dave Askins writes, but “a sustained future would also continue to rely on two people committing not just 40, 60 or 80 hours a week, but virtually every waking moment to the enterprise.” (Ann Arbor Chronicle) | The Chronicle story begins with backyard chickens. (Michigan Daily)
- Yahoo Finance becomes a platisher: Unpaid bloggers “will write directly to Tumblr, and their posts will simultaneously appear on Yahoo Finance, with little or no oversight or editing.” (Digiday) | Related: Jonathan Glick, who invented the word “platisher,” talks about his gruesome but very useful creation. (Poynter) | AS LONG AS WE’RE TALKING ABOUT LANGUAGE: Jay Rosen mulls The New York Times’ decision to use the word “torture,” and the “production of innocence” that kept the publication from using it for so long. (PressThink)
- News crew’s van robbed: “Ironically, the burglary occurred while the crew was working on a story about an app that alerts people of ‘sketchy’ neighborhoods.” (WUSA)
- Yahoo’s Twitter account hacked: There’s no Ebola outbreak in Atlanta. (USA Today)
- NBC News’ website eases off the “mobile-fication”: “The days of people going to singular destinations are going away, so we’re investing in reaching an audience in places where people are naturally going,” Executive Editor Gregory Gittrich tells Sam Kirkland. “But we also want to do right by the audience coming directly to the homepage through desktop.” (Poynter)
- Great moments in anonymous sourcing: “‘We probably struggled over this more than any other issue,’ says a local self-made multimillionaire.” (The Washington Post; bold and italics mine) | FLASHBACK — Old blogger yells at cloud: “Apparently, being wealthy is a Dickensian fate where you constantly live in constant fear of angering your peers.” (Poynter)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Jerry Jackson will be chief meteorologist at WNCT in Greenville, North Carolina. Previously, he was chief meteorologist for WWAY in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Jerry Jackson) | Joseph Deaux will be a commodities reporter covering base metals for Bloomberg. Formerly, he was a reporter at TheStreet, where he covered “the fed, gold and politics.” (talkingbiznews) | Mary Pat Thibodeau is now a photographer for Life & Style magazine. Previously, she was a photographer for the New York Daily News. (New York Post) | Brian Palmer is now a reporter at OnEarth. Formerly, he was chief explainer at Slate. (Mediabistro) | Edmund Lee will be managing editor for Re/code. Formerly, Lee was a media reporter for Bloomberg. (@edmundlee) | Kenneth Li will be editor in chief of Re/code. Formerly, he was managing editor there. (@kenli729) | Job of the day: The Telluride Daily Planet in Colorado is looking for a reporter. Special consideration will be given to mild-mannered superheroes. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.
