Thursday 25th May: What happened to journalism’s racial reckoning?

May 25, 2023

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What Happened to Journalism's Racial Reckoning? - Word In Black

After George Floyd's murder, white-owned newsrooms promised to support Black journalists. Three years later, how supported are they?

wordinblack.com/2023/05/what-happened-to-journalisms-racial-reckoning/?utm_source=pocket_saves

We’ve all seen the stats around representation (or more accurately, the lack of) in newsrooms. It’s slow progress towards true inclusion at best. So it’s fascinating to hear from the co-director of The Objective, a nonprofit newsroom examining the power structure and inequity in journalism, about the fizzling out of the racial reckoning that should have been sparked by the murder of George Floyd.

Gabe Schneider says: “I think a lot of my time is spent scraping by. It feels like the further we get away from the summer of 2020, the harder it is to raise money to do that. And to be taken seriously in the idea that criticism from Black journalists about their experiences is important.” He also points out that change cannot come solely from Black journalists, but needs to be a cause taken up by everyone.

There’s plenty more in this piece from Word In Black on what lies behind the slowness of progress, at least from the perspective of US journalism. But it’s important to point out that this isn’t an issue relegated solely to the States - the UK is also failing in this respect.

News execs fear 'end of our business model' from AI unless publishers 'get control' of their IP

Executives at The Guardian, Financial Times and Le Monde agree publishers must get acknowledgment - and payment - for their news content. So that’s that, good job everyone - except actually portioning out compensation and payment will be extremely difficult in practice and will probably only favour the biggest publishers. Again.

pressgazette.co.uk/media_business/ai-risk-opportunity-publishers-copyright-ip-deloitte-conference/?utm_source=pocket_saves

Seeing stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of consuming bad news

I hate how cynical this job has made me. When I see stories like this on Nieman Lab I don’t think “oh wow, that’s great” - I think “hmm but outlets that focus on good news rarely succeed”. So for now I’m shedding my cynicism and urging publishers to try more of this.

www.niemanlab.org/2023/05/seeing-stories-of-kindness-may-counteract-the-negative-effects-of-consuming-bad-news/?utm_source=pocket_saves

New York Magazine Tops 1 Million Email Subscribers

The publisher has used pop-up, subscriber-only newsletters to boost retention. As we rocket towards the inaugural Publisher Newsletter Awards, it’s worth noting that one of the more foolproof ways to succeed with them seems to be super-serving your audience where they want to be served.

www.adweek.com/media/new-york-magazine-email-subscribers-succession

More from Media Voices

PPA Festival Special: How publishers are future-proofing audience relationships

At the PPA Festival, we spent the day finding out how publishers are future-proofing audience relationships.

voices.media/ppa-festival-special-how-publishers-are-future-proofing-audience-relationships

Buy the Media Voices team a coffee

Last month nearly finished us off, but it was so nice to be able to catch up with many of our industry friends. If you fancy kicking us a virtual coffee, it really helps keep us going.

ko-fi.com/mediavoices

AI in media: myths and misconceptions

Is AI a magic technology that will make all our jobs obsolete? Or will it be the silver bullet that ‘saves’ publishing? Peter Houston takes a look at some of the myths, misconceptions and exaggerations around the use of AI technology in media.

voices.media/ai-in-media-myths-and-misconceptions