For the Record

Tiny News Collective Plans 500 Local Newsrooms in Three Years:

Founded by LION Publishers and News Catalyst with partial funding from the Google News Initiative, the Tiny News Collective aims to jumpstart local news by facilitating the creation of 10 newsrooms in the next four months and as many as 500 within the next three years, Angela Fu of Poynter reported Tuesday. Selected participants (who are not required to have journalistic experience) "will start off as a nonprofit LLC as part of the Collective" and pay a $100/month fee for using a common technology suite, with the goal of spinning off after developing a solvent business model. "A benefit of how we're setting up is that initially you will launch one way, but we're not telling you to stay in that lane," said board member André Natta. "We want to make sure that you’re given every chance to succeed, so you can experiment with what that looks like for you and for the people who you are serving."

Wintour Promoted to Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast:

Condé Nast has named Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour "its first-ever global chief content officer as part of the media company’s broader push to unify its international and U.S. operations," Lukas I. Alpert of The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The promotion "gives Wintour oversight of all Condé Nast’s brands world-wide and puts her in charge of all of Vogue’s 25 global editions." Wintour, who will continue to report to CEO Roger Lynch, has served as Condé Nast’s U.S. artistic director since 2014 and "joined a global leadership team to advise on global content opportunities" last year. The move comes after a year "punctuated by layoffs and staff unrest over diversity issues" at the company as it endeavors to return to profitability, with Wintour "[taking] responsibility for failures to elevate Black staffers" in a June memo.

Facebook Announces Artificial Intelligence Summarization Tool:

Facebook announced that it is developing TLDR, an artificial intelligence-based tool to "summarize news articles so users won’t have to read them," at an end-of-year meeting Tuesday, according to Ryan Mac of BuzzFeed News. The tool "supposedly could also provide audio narration, as well as a vocal assistant to answer." During the presentation, Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer added that the platform's data centers are "receiving 'new systems' that would make them 10 to 30 times faster and allow Facebook’s artificial intelligence to essentially train itself." Departing employees have criticized the company's recent pivot to AI-based technologies, with Nick Inzucchi, a former product manager, asserting that "AI will not save us" in his recent resignation letter. 

FTC Orders Data Review of Major Platforms:

The Federal Trade Commission is requiring nine major technology companies (including Amazon, TikTok parent company ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube) to "share information about how they collect and use data from their users," Lauren Feiner of CNBC reported Monday. The platforms, which will have up to 45 days to respond to the request, must offer information on their general collection and use policies in addition to "information about how how they determine which ads to show their users, whether algorithms or data analytics are used on personal information, how they 'measure promote, and research' engagement from users and how their data practices impact children and teens." The "broad [study]," which falls under the purview of Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, is "not connected to an enforcement action" but could inform future litigation, such as the agency's pending antitrust lawsuit against Facebook.

Freedom of the Press Foundation: Arrests of Journalists in the U.S. Grew to ~117 in 2020:

Arrests of journalists "skyrocketed by more than 1200% in comparison to 2019," according to a new Freedom of the Press Foundation report "based on the comprehensive data compiled by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker," a project of the foundation and Committee to Protect Journalists. At least 117 journalists were arrested in the United States in 2020, with the week of May 29 - June 4 encompassing more arrests than the previous three years combined. "This report shows an unprecedented press freedom crisis engulfing the United States," said Trevor Timm, the foundation's executive director. "Journalists should not have to worry about being arrested for doing their job, yet across the country police have disregarded their rights on a staggering scale."

Pearlstine Segues Into L.A. Times Advisory Role Earlier Than Expected:

Former Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine "has moved into a senior adviser role while the search for his successor continues" after initially planning to transition into the job when his successor was hired, Katie Robertson of The New York Times reported Monday. In an internal email obtained by Robertson, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the newspaper's owner and executive chairman, said that Pearlstine "would report to him in the new role and would help select the journalist who will follow him as executive editor." Two managing editors, including past Pulitzer juror Scott Kraft and Kimi Yoshino, will "take over the day-to-day running of the newsroom," reporting to Soon-Shiong and the editor of the editorial pages, fellow past Pulitzer juror Sewell Chan.

Biden WSJ Op-Ed Condemned as 'Patronizing Drivel'; Gigot Responds:

An op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal Friday "sparked backlash after it argued that [...] incoming First Lady Jill Biden should drop her 'Dr.' title because she does not hold a doctorate in medicine," Sophia Ankel of Business Insider reported Sunday. In the piece, essayist Joseph Epstein said that Biden's use of the title "sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic." A longtime community college instructor, Biden received an Ed.D. in educational leadership from the University of Delaware in 2007. The article was condemned by Biden's spokesperson, who also called for its retraction, as a "disgusting and sexist attack." In a Sunday note, former Pulitzer Prize Board member Paul Gigot, who serves as the newspaper's editorial page editor, said "the outrage is overwrought," characterizing the Biden team's response as "the left's version of Donald Trump's 'enemy of the people' tweets."

Spotify Unions Stage Walkout:

Unions representing workers from Gimlet, The Ringer and Parcast "kicked off a two-hour work stoppage" Friday "in solidarity with their collective struggles for fairer contracts and better workplace conditions," according to Edward Ongweso Jr. of Vice. Among the three organizations, only Gimlet's union has been voluntarily recognized by Spotify. The bargaining unit is seeking a contract that includes "guaranteed raises, clear guidelines surrounding promotions, the right to profit from intellectual property they help create, a greater emphasis on diversity and pay equity across the board."

Nonprofit News Ascendant in 2020:

Membership in the Institute for Nonprofit News rose by more than 25% in 2020 — "reaching a total of 300 nonprofit news organizations for the first time," according to Mark Glaser of the Knight Foundation. "Perhaps the most striking change over the past few years is that so many more people now get their news from nonprofit sources," said Sue Cross, the organization's executive director. "Our membership has just about tripled since 2016, and our distribution channels have expanded, to the point that when you add in social media, we can’t quantify how many millions of readers the INN network is reaching every day." Aggregate philanthropic, corporate and donor investment in the NewsMatch program — "which doubles and sometimes triples each donation to a nonprofit newsroom from November 1 to December 31 each year" — has increased from $2.5 million in 2016 to nearly $9 million in 2019.

Gannett Outsources Business-Side Jobs to India:

Gannett "told its business-side employees that 485 of their jobs will be outsourced to Hyderabad, India, early next year," Rick Edmonds of Poynter reported Thursday. All of the positions encompass such duties as "paying bills, invoicing customers, preparing monthly summary reports and reconciling the books." Affected employees "will be notified by Jan. 15 but can stay on until April" to assist with the transition. "Gannett is undertaking a massive company-wide transformation," the publisher said in an internal memo. "To help the company transform quickly, we must remain nimble and focused on the needs of the business, while keeping our operating costs low, our control environment tight and our processes as efficient as possible."