For the Record

BuzzFeed Launches Integrated Shopping:

BuzzFeed has launched "a standalone website called BuzzFeed Shopping that lets visitors complete purchases without going anywhere else," according to Ann-Marie Alcántara of The Wall Street Journal. Although many digital publishers have received "so-called affiliate revenue, the slice of revenue they get when they help generate a sale, by linking from product mentions to retailers that finish the transactions" since the advent of the internet, BuzzFeed's innovation "was enabled partly by the relatively recent spread of checkout functionality beyond traditional e-commerce platforms to a range of websites and apps," most notably Instagram. Additionally, Vox Media Senior Vice President of E-Commerce Camilla Cho confirmed that the publisher is "considering letting visitors buy items directly from its shopping site, The Strategist, without having to click away."

DHS Compiled 'Intelligence Reports' on Journalists:

The Department of Homeland Security's  Office of Intelligence and Analysis "has disseminated three Open Source Intelligence Reports to federal law enforcement agencies and others, summarizing tweets written by two journalists — a reporter for the New York Times and the editor in chief of the blog Lawfare — and noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations" related to Portland's social justice protests, according to Shane Harris of The Washington Post. Although Acting Secretary Chad Wolf "ordered the intelligence office to stop collecting information on journalists and announced an investigation into the matter" following the publication of Harris' story, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes said he is "not sure how [...] reporting of unclassified material constitutes any kind of homeland security threat that justifies the dissemination of intelligence reporting on a U.S. person" and is "considering [his] legal options."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Union to Approve Strike Vote:

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's union "will soon vote to go on strike following a move by management that implemented parts of a new contract without consent of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, the union representing more than 120 journalists currently on staff at the paper," according to Ryan Deto of the Pittsburgh City Paper. Post-Gazette reporter and Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Mike Fuoco said that "there is no new contract and that ownership is imposing its terms on to the guild members" after the newspaper unilaterally announced a new contract (including an 8% wage increase and a new health plan) Tuesday. According to Fuoco, the declaration of an impasse by parent company Block Communications is "unlawful" under a National Labor Relations Act statute which states that an employer can only impose terms and conditions "so long as it offered them to the union before impasse was reached."

McClatchy VP Tweets 'Black Lives Matter':

In a series of Wednesday tweets, past Pulitzer juror and McClatchy Vice President of News Kristin Roberts said: "It has come to my attention that some [McClatchy] journalists believe they will be fired if they publicly state support for Black lives. So, I’ll start: Black lives matter. Now, if anyone is going to be fired, I can be first. Expressing that Black lives matter is not a political statement. It is a fundamental truth. It is not a violation of social media policy to tell the world that Black lives matter." However, Roberts cautioned to Tom Jones of Poynter that tweeting "support for or opposition to issues that are contentious and debatable and are indeed political, including defunding the police" is not acceptible. Over the next few weeks, McClatchy will explore the propriety of its journalists participating in demonstrations in "discussions that will include anyone at McClatchy who wishes to participate."

Washington Post Announces Style Changes:

The Washington Post announced Wednesday that it will "uppercase the B in Black to identify the many groups that make up the African diaspora in America and elsewhere" while allowing subjects to identify as "African American [or] biracial, or something more ethnically specific, such as Afro-Latino, Ethiopian American or other national identifiers." In contrast to other stylistic conventions, the newspaper also has decided that "White should be represented with a capital W." The "uppercase version of the racial categorization Brown" will be associated with "direct quotations and [used] sparingly in other instances."

Deadspin Alumni Form Defector Media:

Eighteen of about 20 Deadspin writers and editors who resigned en masse last year "after clashing with their bosses" have founded Defector Media, according to Marc Tracy of The New York Times. The sports and culture-oriented news organization "is scheduled to start a podcast next month and roll out its website in September," with monthly subscriptions pegged at $8. Although former Bain & Company employee Jasper Wang will serve as publisher, "the company had no outside investors" and "each employee has taken a stake of roughly 5% in the venture."

Journalists, Legal Observers Cite Violations of Portland Ruling:

Journalists and legal observers have asked U.S. District Judge Michael Simon "to hold the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service in contempt of court" following alleged violations of a July 23 ruling by Simon "that blocks federal officers from arresting or using physical force against clearly marked journalists and legal observers" in Portland's social justice protests, according to Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News. Some of the attestations include video evidence. "The federal agents — and their commanders, whom the Court ordered to be notified of the TRO — are not above the law," attorneys representing the journalists and legal observers said in the filing.

Bezos Makes D.C. Appearance:

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' scheduled virtual appearance before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Wednesday "will give lawmakers a rare opportunity to grill [him] directly about Amazon’s market power and business practices, along with other hot-button issues, like its treatment of warehouse workers during the pandemic," according to Annie Palmer of CNBC. The company has relied on other executives (including Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke and former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney) "in past antitrust hearings with lawmakers, allowing Bezos to stay largely out of the fray." 

United Nations Calls on American Police to Halt Force Against Journalists:

United Nations human rights spokesperson Liz Throssell called for U.S. police to cease using force against journalists in racial justice protests, according to Richard Hall of The Independent. "[The protests] must be able to continue without those participating in them and also the people reporting on them, the journalists, risking arbitrary arrest or detention, being subject to unnecessary disproportionate or discriminatory use of force or suffering other violations of their rights," Throssell said Friday. Independent Chief U.S. Correspondent Andrew Buncombe was arrested on July 1 while covering police clearance of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in Seattle.

Local Digital Start-Ups Struggle:

Although "more than 80 community-scale digital news sites have been started" since the fall of 2018, an equal number of have closed during the same time period, according to Mark Jacob of the Northwestern University Medill School's Local News Initiative. "You’re a digital startup. You have no legacy costs. You have no overhead," said Jed Williams, chief strategy officer of the Local News Association. "But you also have no existing brand assets whatsoever, and building a brand from scratch is really hard." Institute for Nonprofit News CEO Sue Cross said: "[I]t’s never easy to do a start-up and there’s a cultural change in helping the public understand that the news isn’t out there just free and it’s not just going to always be there, but that the community needs to support it in some way, or some combination of ways. That’s a big cultural shift."