For the Record

Kalamazoo Mayor Drops Charge Against Journalist:

Kalamazoo, Mich. Mayor David Anderson announced Sunday that the city would drop a charge of "impeding traffic" against MLive journalist Sam Robinson, who was was arrested Saturday "while covering a protest by the far-right group Proud Boys and counter-protesters," according to Ryan Boldrey of MLive. Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas "issued a public apology to Robinson at the press conference." In a statement, MLive Vice President of Content John Hiner added: "These situations are difficult for all involved, but media who identify themselves are not a part of the event — they are working it, just like the police."

Grist Increases Membership by 94%:

More than two decades after its founding, nonprofit climate news site Grist has seen a "51% increase in revenue and a 94% increase in the total number of members from FY18 to FY19," according to statistics shared by CEO Brady Piñero Walkinshaw with Mollie Leavitt. Walkinshaw reflected on the news organization's decision to acquire the assets of the now-defunct Pacific Standard: "A lot of the Pacific Standard site is evergreen because it’s so resonant. They did a lot of interesting work on race and racial justice, a lot of that content is still getting a lot of traffic."

Social Media and the Legacy of the Fairness Doctrine:

In a Thursday essay for the Columbia Journalism Review, Duke University media policy scholar Philip M. Napoli explored how the Federal Communications Commission's now-defunct Fairness Doctrine (which "required broadcasters to cover controversial issues of public importance — and, in so doing, provide contrasting views on those issues") could be a problematic template for social media regulation. "The differences in scale and scope for implementing a Fairness Doctrine for social media platforms are monumental," Napoli said. "This sort of uncritical, non-evaluative approach to journalism — and to online gatekeeping more broadly — simply is not the right path to cultivating an informed citizenry."

Jackson Joins Better Government Association:

Past Pulitzer juror and 1999 Public Service contributor David Jackson will join the Better Government Association as a senior investigative reporter, Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post reported Thursday. Jackson, who spent much of his career at the Chicago Tribune, spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to secure a new owner for the newspaper last winter. "After waging a campaign for a new owner — and losing — resigning and moving on just felt like the honorable thing to do," he said. "I couldn’t just go back and whistle while I worked." The Association, a nonprofit Chicago local news organization founded in 1923, was able to hire Jackson through a "new round of funding provided by the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, the Alvin Baum Family Fund and local civic leader Jim Mabie," Kelly added.

Markle Interviews Ramshaw:

In one of her "first public appearances since stepping back from the British royal family in January," Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle will interview Pulitzer Prize Board member and The 19th* CEO Emily Ramshaw as part of The 19th* Represents virtual summit Friday, according to Noëlle Lilley of CNN. "The Duchess basically said that the issues that we care about are issues that she's really interested in this moment," said Ramshaw, who co-founded the digital news organization earlier this year.

Facebook Introduces COVID-19 Warning:

In an effort to curb the spread of misinformation and dated articles, Facebook has introduced "a new notification screen that will provide more context about an article or other link" related to COVID-19, Nick Statt of The Verge reported Wednesday. Content "posted by government health authorities and recognized global health organizations, like the World Health Organization" will not be subject to the notification, which will include the date of the article and the domain registration date of the publisher.

Bennett Offers First Public Statement on USAGM Leadership:

Former Pulitzer Prize Board member and Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett gave her first public statement about the leadership changes at the U.S. Agency for Global Media to Politico's Daniel Lippman Wednesday following her resignation on the eve of current CEO Michael Pack's installation in June. "What is happening at USAGM is a microcosm of what’s happening all across the U.S. government — driving out honest, skilled, talented long-serving professional public servants on trumped up charges and replacing them with people of no qualifications whose only attribute is loyalty," she said, referring to the recent dismissals of CFO Grant Turner and General Counsel David Kligerman. "McCarthy couldn’t have done it better."

Tribune Publishing Closes Physical Newsrooms:

Tribune Publishing will close the physical newsrooms of the New York Daily News, The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. and The Orlando Sentinel after the company determined that it does not need to reopen the offices in order to maintain current operations, Marc Tracy of The New York Times reported Wednesday. Daily News employees will be "given until October 30 to collect any belongings they had left in the office," although human resources executive Toni Martinez confirmed that the space "physically closed" Wednesday.

Facebook to Fact-Check Editorials, Op-Eds:

In a statement released to the International Fact-Checking Network Monday, Keren Goldshlager and Aaron Berman of the Facebook Journalism Project said that "content presented as opinion but based on underlying false information" is now eligible for a fact-checked rating from the platform, according to Cristina Tardáguila and Harrison Mantas of Poynter. "This is an interesting move from Facebook because of course an op-ed can be written with forged data, but I suggest extra caution," said Jency Jacob of Indian news organization BOOM. "We should only fact-check opinion when data is being misused to make a false point."

Interest in Bundling 'Simmers':

The announcement of a joint subscription agreement between Bloomberg Media and The Athletic and the Local Media Consortium's Matchup service (encompassing sports content from The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer and other newspapers) has led to interest in subscription bundling, according to Max Willens of Digiday. "There are so many cool things we could do," said Lindsay Horrigan, global head of subscriptions and consumer marketing at Bloomberg Media. “[B]ut you have to be thoughtful about it." However, Willens notes that "bundles still present a host of hurdles that can be hard for smaller publishers to clear," as exemplified by the coordination of disparate business departments.