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The number of local journalists in the US is dwindling rapidly, according to a new report from nonprofit organization Rebuild Local News and PR and communications software platform Muck Rack. According to the report, there were 40 journalists per 100,000 residents across the country in 2002. Now, it says that two out of three US counties have less than 10 of what the authors call “local journalist equivalents” per 100,000 residents. That translates into a drop of about three quarters. The report also finds that out of the 3,141 counties in the US, more than a third of them—over 1,000—do not have the equivalent of even one full-time journalist. And while you might except the problem to be largely limited to remote locations, counties in large urban areas are also affected. For example, the Bronx (population 1.4 million) has just 2.9 LJEs per 100,000 people and Queens (4.3 LJEs per 100,000) doesn’t do much better. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Vermont easily outpaces the other 49 states, with 27.5 LJEs per 100,000 people, with Wyoming coming in second at 19.6.
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| Joe Davidson |
Washington Post columnist Joe Davidson, who wrote its “Federal Insider” column for most of the 20 years he has been at the paper, is exiting. He cites WaPo owner Jeff Bezos and the Post's shifting editorial policies as prompting him to quit . In a piece titled “Quitting The Washington Post—or did it quit me?," he wrote that the title of "Washington Post columnist" was not worth keeping no matter the cost. "For me, the cost became too great when a Federal Insider column I wrote was killed because it was deemed too opinionated under an unwritten and inconsistently enforced policy, which I had not heard of previously," Davidson wrote July 8. “Starting before the November presidential election, Bezos’s policies and activities have projected the image of a Donald Trump supplicant. The result – fleeing journalists, plummeting morale and disappearing subscriptions.” However, Davidson notes that “Post coverage of Trump remains strong. Yet the policy against opinion in News section columns means less critical scrutiny of Trump.”
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Men's Journal is returning to print, beginning with a Summer Edition featuring Matty Matheson of FX’s The Bear. The 100-page issue hits newsstands July 11. First published in 1992, Men’s Journal was most recently in print in January 2023. The new print edition will be supported by the platform’s nearly 50 million monthly online readers and eight million social media followers. Men’s Journal is owned and operated by tech company and media platform The Arena Group, which operates such publishing brands as TheStreet, Parade and Athlon Sports “This issue strikes all the chords people know and love about Men’s Journal,” says editor-in-chief Brittany Smith. “It’s packed with utility, grit, and heart."
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
