"Fresh Challenges":
Former Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Ryan Schreiber announced his departure from an advisory position at the online music magazine and parent company Condé Nast Wednesday. Schreiber, who founded the publication as a recent high school graduate in 1995, intends to pursue projects focusing "on the intersection of technology and music."
"I’ve Never Been So Embarrassed In A Professional Setting":
Former employees of the Las Vegas Review-Journal have alleged that executives and managers at the publication fostered an environment of sexual harrassment and racism. Ryan Stonerock, an attorney for the publication who previously represented Hulk Hogan in his lawsuit against Gawker, said that the allegations stemmed from "disgruntled employees" who did not come forward until they were terminated.
"Defamation And Insult":
Turkish reporter and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) member Pelin Ünker has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for "reveal[ing] details of the business activities" of former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and his sons in the Panama Papers investigation. "This decision is not a surprise for us," she said in a statement. "Because the result was certain from the beginning." According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey currently "has the world’s worst record for jailing journalists, with 68 in prison" at the end of 2018. ICIJ, McClatchy and the Miami Herald received the 2017 Explanatory Reporting Prize for the investigation.
"Do This, Not That":
According to Columbia Journalism Review Editor in Chief Kyle Pope, journalists covering the 2020 presidential election should "dive into the details" ("Public policy can be dull. Your job is to make it interesting and relevant ...") and "get out of your own head." "We get the opportunity, as a nation, to reinvent ourselves, every four years," he continued. "The same holds true for our profession."
A New Life:
T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T "are selling access to their customers' location data" to firms such as Microbilt, which resells "phone geolocation services [...] to a spread of different private industries, ranging from car salesmen and property managers to bail bondsmen and bounty hunters." "Blade Runner, the iconic sci-fi movie, is set in 2019," said Thomas Rid of Johns Hopkins University. "And here we are: there's an unregulated black market where bounty-hunters can buy information about where we are, in real time, over time, and come after us."
"Narrower Margins":
In a new survey of American writers, "the Authors Guild reported that the median income from writing-related work fell to a historic low in 2017 at $6,080, down 42 percent from 2009." Writers of literary fiction have been particularly affected, with a 43 percent decline in writing-related earnings since 2009. 2010 Biography and 2016 History winner T. J. Stiles commented: "Poverty is a form of censorship. That’s because creation costs. Writing requires resources, and it imposes opportunity costs."
"This Talented Group":
Dan Goodgame has been named editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly. "I have hoped we could get Dan Goodgame to join us for a couple of years," said Paul Hobby, chairman and founding partner of Genesis Park LP, the private equity firm that owns the magazine. "The stars have now aligned, and I could not be more pleased." Goodgame previously served as Time's White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief.
"Subscriber-First":
The Dallas Morning News "laid off 43 employees in its newsroom and other parts of the company" Monday in a reduction that represents about 4 percent of the 978 employees working for the newspaper's parent company, A. H. Belo Corporation.
"Long Live Real News":
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced during the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards two $1 million grants to InsideClimate News and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance to and on behalf of journalists." "All of us at InsideClimate News are enormously grateful and honored to receive this generous support from peers in our profession, and recognition during the Golden Globe Awards," said David Sassoon, founder and publisher of InsideClimate News.
"The Untouchables":
A pending product liability lawsuit against the dating app Grindr "could reshape consumers’ relationship with software, alter speech protections and put pressure on Silicon Valley to find flaws in products before launching them. "A number of people are still hung up on that idea: Is it a product? It’s going to take some cases before people become accustomed to that idea," said Christopher Robinette, a law professor at Widener University.
