For the Record

Martin Bernheimer (1936-2019):

1982 Criticism winner and frequent juror Martin Bernheimer died from complications of sarcoma in New York on September 29. He was 83. The chief music critic of the Los Angeles Times from 1965 to 1996, Bernheimer specialized in the classical repertoire and held degrees in music from Brown University and New York University. A two-time recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism, he also taught at several institutions, including California State University, Northridge and San Diego State University. Following his retirement, he continued to contribute opera and classical criticism to the Financial Times. He is survived by four children and his wife, frequent Drama Prize juror Linda Winer.

Facebook News Negotiations Continue: 

According to reporting by Lukas I. Alpert and Sahil Patel of the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is planning to pay about a quarter of publishers whose headlines will be featured in its news tab at launch. Negotiations with prospective partners ⁠— including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, HuffPost and the Philadelphia Inquirer ⁠— have centered on the amount of available content, with several organizations preferring to excerpt articles instead of licensing full pieces. The platform intends to offer three-year licensing agreements ranging from several hundred thousand dollars for regional publications to as much as $3 million for national news organizations.

Apple News+ Expands to UK:

Apple News+ is now available in the United Kingdom, the company announced Monday. The service encompasses 150 newspapers, magazines and digital news organizations at a monthly fee of £9.99 ($12.29). Participating organizations include News Corp’s The Times and Sunday Times and a variety of Hearst UK titles, such as Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire. In an accompanying statement, News Corp CEO Robert Thompson lauded the new partnership: "Apple has acted positively, honorably and decisively to change the digital landscape, while other gatekeepers, such as Google, prefer hype and hypocrisy."

German Newspaper Embraces Print Analytics:

German publishing analytics firm Lesewert, a sister company of Dresden's Sächsische Zeitung newspaper, has begun to track readership of print publications by asking members of 100-person focus groups to highlight the last line of text in each completed article with a digital pen. The data is then transmitted and compiled into a Chartbeat-style dashboard. "[A]lmost half the readers of our papers are approaching their 80s or 90s," said Uwe Vetterick, Sächsische Zeitung's editor-in-chief. "The average age of those newly subscribing [to print] is 64. This is our situation." 

Nelson Promoted to McClatchy Opinion Editor:

According to Rick Edmonds of Poynter, McClatchy has asked Kansas City Star Editorial Page Editor and 2010 Editorial Writing winner Colleen Nelson to expand the company's editorial and opinion offerings as the company's opinion editor. In her new capacity, Nelson, who will continue in her original position at the Star, intends to focus on reported columns. "In one-person shops at our smallest papers, we have them spend much of their time on reported columns," she said. "In Wichita (Kansas) and Lexington (Kentucky), we have promoted someone from the newsroom, and we have seen success there."

George Lardner Jr. (1934-2019):

1993 Feature Writing winner George Lardner Jr. died on September 21 at a hospice in Aldie, Va. following a series of strokes. He was 85. Lardner's Prize-winning work, "The Stalking of Kristin," chronicled the murder-suicide of his daughter, a 21-year-old student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, by a former boyfriend with a history of violent behavior and was published in the Washington Post. Lardner also was known for his 1984 report detailing Sen. Gary Hart's (D-Colo.) efforts to alter his personal history before entering public life.

Register Fires Reporter for Racist Tweets:

The Des Moines Register has fired reporter Aaron Calvin following the discovery of two tweets in which he used the N-word. Calvin previously had reported on two offensive tweets by Carson King, a local figure who used his viral celebrity to raise more than $1 million for the University of Iowa's Stead Family Children's Hospital, that dated from when King was a teenager. "I want to be as transparent as possible about what we did and why, answer the questions you've raised and tell you what we’ve learned so far, and what we'll try to do better," said Carol Hunter, the newspaper's executive editor. "For one, we’re revising our policies and practices, including those that did not uncover our own reporter’s past inappropriate social media postings."

Baquet Defends Publishing Whistleblower Details:

The New York Times defended its decision to publish details about the whistleblower whose complaint against President Trump prompted this week's impeachment inquiry. "We decided to publish limited information about the whistleblower — including the fact that he works for a nonpolitical agency and that his complaint is based on an intimate knowledge and understanding of the White House — because we wanted to provide information to readers that allows them to make their own judgments about whether or not he is credible," said Executive Editor Dean Baquet. Following additional reporting in the evening, Baquet updated his statement to indicate that "the White House already knew he was a C.I.A. officer."

Reactions to Vox-New York Merger:

New York magazine's union has issued a statement objecting to "disrespectful manner" in which employees were informed of the news organization's $105 million all-stock acquisition by Vox Media. According to the statement, CEO Pam Wasserstein did not send an internal memo to the staff until "after [a] New York Times story was published and after the press release was issued." An unnamed source who spoke to Vanity Fair's Joe Pompeo took a contrasting view: "The overall feeling seems to be that something was bound to happen, and this may be the least-bad outcome. I think [Vox CEO Jim] Bankoff came across as charming and, more importantly, into the mission of journalism, which is the thing people care most about."

J-School Relaunches Sulzberger Program:

The Columbia Journalism School has relaunched its Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program, an advanced management training program for executives in news organizations, under the leadership of faculty member Raju Narisetti and venture capitalist Corey Ford, who also serves as managing director of media startup accelerator Matter. "We're excited to welcome Corey to lead this renewed effort for the school’s leading executive training program," said Dean Steve Coll. "Those enrolled in the program will benefit from having an instructor and coach who brings a wealth of expertise on how to design, test and launch products and business strategies quickly." Alumni of the program include Pulitzer Prize Board member John Daniszewski and former journalism juror Marc Lacey.