For the Record

"The Right Strategies":

As part of its Local Experiments Project, Google will launch The Compass Experiment, a partnership between the platform and McClatchy to launch three digital-only local news operations on multiple platforms. According to Sara Fischer of Axios, "McClatchy will maintain sole editorial control and ownership of the sites and Google will have no input or involvement in any editorial efforts or decision making." The organizations will be launched in cities with less than 500,000 inhabitants. "This allows us to move beyond some of the incrementalism that seems like it's the core of our day-in and day-out job, but can hold us back from pursuing things related to a long-term vision," said McClatchy CEO Craig Forman.

"The Remarkable Crew":

Susan Chira will succeed 1989 International Reporting winner Bill Keller as editor of The Marshall Project, the digital newsroom announced Monday. Chira spent nearly forty years at The New York Times, where she served as deputy executive editor, foreign editor and senior correspondent focusing on gender issues. "Susan is a natural leader with a demonstrated commitment to excellence, innovation and diversity," said Neil Barsky, the newsroom's founder and chairman. "The Marshall Project is based on the conviction that honest and hard-hitting journalism can be a powerful tool for social change. We are fortunate to have found Susan to carry on the tradition of excellence started by Bill Keller."

"[Supplanting] Magazines":

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company's long-speculated Apple News Plus subscription service at an event in Cupertino, Calif. Monday. The $9.99/month plan will include over 300 magazines (including The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Men’s Health and Vogue) alongside content from The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. According to a Dow Jones internal memo obtained by The Verge, the company will will provide only "a specially curated collection of general interest news from The Wall Street Journal" to the service.

"Honesty And Professional Dignity":

Bill Stowe, the CEO of Des Moines' water utility, announced that he has been diagnosed with an "aggressive form of cancer" last week. Storm Lake Times editor and 2017 Editorial Writer winner Art Cullen reflected on Stowe's legacy (which culminated in the Iowa legislature recently appropriating $16 million for water quality improvement) in The Des Moines Register: "It took courage for him to challenge the chemical cabal that controls Iowa agriculture and politics. It took savvy for him to manage his board and competing metro interests. Not everyone would have had the steel."

The Middlemen:

In his most recent column, Splinter News Senior Writer Hamilton Nolan cautioned readers to be circumspect about the profusion of "online platforms that deliver, but do not create, news, and which suck up a huge portion of the advertising revenue that used to go to media companies themselves." According to Nolan, "Legislation can be crafted that will require that the middlemen open the economic floodgates and allow more revenue to pass through to the actual creators of what people are reading. The longer that tech companies act as mere vampires, the greater the backlash will be in the end."

"Rained Terror":

Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man accused of mailing explosive devices to media outlets (most notably CNN) and politicians who have criticized the Trump administration, pleaded guility to 65 criminal counts in Manhattan Thursday. "I knew these actions were wrong. I’m extremely sorry," Sayoc said. Although none of the devices detonated, Sayoc conceded that they were intended to look like pipe bombs and may have exploded. He faces a possible life sentence in prison and will be held without bail until his sentencing on Sept. 12.

Revival:

Bustle Digital Media has named former Details editor Dan Peres as editor in chief of Gawker, the company announced Thursday. The news site, which shuttered in 2016 following a libel suit brought by professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and funded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, was acquired by Bustle CEO Bryan Goldberg at a bankruptcy auction last July. It expected to relaunch later this year. "In the later years they probably took things too far," Peres said. "There was a lot of gratuitous meanness and sort of misguided decision-making. There’s an opportunity to draw on the great things that they did and dismiss some of the not-great things that they did."

"Terrifying And Liberating":

Although industry tulmult and the FOSTA-SESTA laws hastened the demise of The Village Voice, the Baltimore City Paper and other longstanding alt-weeklies, a new generation of "alt-alt-weeklies" (including Pittsburgh Current, the Charlotte, N.C.-based Queen City Nerve and theLAnd, a quarterly magazine) have emerged over the past year. Many of these new publications eschew advertising revenue in favor of au courant funding models, including nonprofit structures and microlending programs. Nevertheless, the Queen City Nerve has managed to operate on ad revenue with modest margins and contributor fees. "We believe that print ads work, and we need to hammer that home to people," said co-founder Ryan Pitkin. "But we’re not going to act as if digital is just a stupid trend."

Persuading Publishers:

According to New York Times sources, The Wall Street Journal will join Apple's paid subscription news service, set to be unveiled by the company at an event in Cupertino, Calif. Monday. The sources also asserted that The New York Times and The Washington Post "have opted out of joining the subscription service," which has been characterized as "Netflix for news." Representatives from the three organizations declined to comment on the matter to The Times's Mike Isaac. Apple intends to take a 50 percent cut of revenue from the service, higher than the 30 percent levied from more traditional apps and subscriptions.

"This Period Of Change":

The Reading Eagle Company announced that it is filing for bankruptcy Wednesday. A family-owned business that has published the eponymous Pennsylvania newspaper for over 150 years, the company's holdings include an AM radio station, the weekly South Schuylkill News and a commercial printing subsidiary. The company intends to continue operating as it seeks a buyer for its holdings. "For more than a century you have taken us into your homes and supported us as we've told your stories and reported on the events and policies that shape your lives," the company says in a note to readers.