For the Record

Gannett Launches Diversity Initiative, Releases Demographic Abstract:

Gannett "announced a broad initiative Thursday to make its workforce as diverse as the country by 2025 and to expand the number of journalists focused on covering issues related to race and identity, social justice and equality," according to Nathan Bomey of USA Today. The news company also "disclosed demographic figures for the entire company" and said that it is "adding or reassigning journalists to 60 newly created beats in a concerted effort to enhance coverage of topics such as criminal justice, educational inequity, the roots of racism, environmental justice, fairness in housing and employment, and LGBTQ issues." (USA Today Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.)

Tech Companies Reach Milestone:

Following a Tuesday rally in technology stocks, the stocks of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook "now constitute 20% of the stock market’s total worth, a level not seen from a single industry in at least 70 years," according to Peter Eavis and Steve Lohr of The New York Times. Additionally, Apple's value "reached $2 trillion on Wednesday — double what it was just 21 weeks ago" and placing it at the top of the group. "Covid was the perfect positive storm for these guys,” said New York University economist Thomas Philippon.

Abernathy on Local News:

In a Q&A with Lauren Harris Columbia Journalism Review, UNC Hussman School of Journalism Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy shared her perspective on the local news crisis. "I think over the last two years, there has been a real awakening in the industry, among community activists, and among certain politicians as to what is at stake if we lose the local newspaper, in whatever form it is delivered," Abernathy said. "It is encouraging to me that after years of indifference, there is suddenly a move at the state and the national level to try to think of policies that address the short term issues—primarily because the peril is so great right now." 

Fornite Lawsuit May Have Repercussions for News Publishers:

A lawsuit disputing online video game Fortnite's removal from Apple and Google's app stores after publisher Epic Games attempted to circumvent the substantial cuts taken by the companies' in-app publishing systems may affect the future of journalism, according to Joshua Benton of NiemanLab. "Publishers — news publishers, I mean, not just game publishers — should be paying close attention, because Apple’s tax on digital content impacts them in profound ways," Benton said. "if someone subscribes to a newspaper or magazine through Apple’s system, the publisher has to lop 30% right off the top of its revenue."

Journalists Adjust to Digital Conventions:

Vanity Fair's Joe Pompeo spoke to Washington Post National Political Correspondent David Weigel, who is "one of just two journalists on the ground in Milwaukee" for the newspaper's coverage of live components of the Democratic National Convention. The event is primarily virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's totally unrecognizable from what it usually is," Weigel said. "There's just not stuff that reporters can go to. There's not even media badges to pick up." He added: "I thought it would be interesting to see how little is happening, which normally isn’t how a story is framed. It’s interesting, but I do feel bad for the organizers."

Vox Media Settles SB Nation Labor Suit:

Vox Media will pay $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in legal fees "to settle collective action lawsuits that cover more than 450 workers who managed or wrote for SB Nation," the media company's sports news site, according to Laura Wagner of Vice. For much of its history, SB Nation "comprised a national site, staffed mostly by full-time employees, and hundreds of team sites, staffed mostly by lowly paid and unpaid workers" who ultimately filed the lawsuit.

ViacomCBS in Talks to Sell CNET:

ViacomCBS "is in talks to sell technology news and reviews site CNET to digital-media holding company Red Ventures LLC, according to people familiar with the matter," Benjamin Mullin and Sahil Patel of The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The proposed $500 million sale is consonant with ViacomCBS' decision to sell "noncore assets and focus on video streaming." Based in Fort Mill, S.C., Red Ventures "owns a portfolio of digital-media businesses and generates revenue by selling ads and connecting readers to products owned by its marketing partners."

Digital Revenue Trumps Print at Time:

In an internal email that was released to the public, Time President Keith A. Grossman announced Monday that the magazine's digital revenues "grew +58% YoY in Q2 and they exceeded print revenues" for the first time in the publication's history. Grossman said the magazine will continue to pursue a multimedia-driven strategy this fall, including the development of a new app and "exploring incremental opportunities in film and TV."

International Reporting Adjusts to COVID-19:

With budgets drying up and travel restrictions commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, freelance journalists specializing in international reporting have been forced to adjust to "heightened expenses" (including supplying their own personal protective equipment) and covering stories from relatively safe vantages, according to Megan Janetsky of Poynter. "There have been a whole lot of conversations about risk versus reward," said Vladimir Hernandez, the editor of BBC’s Africa bureau. "Most risky stories we'd be doing would be conflict zones before, the level of reward had to be greater than the risk you’d be taking [...] In this case, it’s incredibly much more complicated."

Advertisers Adapt to COVID-19, Social Justice, Digital Media:

According to Brian Steinberg of Variety, the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice protests and the increasing dominance of digital publishers have upended longstanding relationships between advertisers, marketing professionals and the media. "It has never been easier for like-minded consumers to gather together online to create movements in celebration of ideas they like and to pillory the ones they don’t like. This is not a new development. It is, however, being exacerbated by political divisiveness and social anxiety caused by the pandemic," said Brian Sheehan, a professor of advertising at Syracuse University. "[Advertisers] know they have to be very purposeful in what they choose to say, but during the current time, they know that they need to be extra careful not to get it wrong."