For the Record

For Some Journalists, Twitter Recedes:

Vanity Fair Film Critic K. Austin Collins is among a "growing group of journalists" who has decided to curtail its use of Twitter, "motivated by a long-simmering sense" that the platform has distracted from emotional and physical wellness, according to Poynter's Mark Lieberman. "I'd have been much more inclined to put the things out there that I said to the reporter that didn’t make it into the article, and say my piece,” Collins said. “Rather than hashing that out on Twitter, I've been texting with the journalist, talking to friends about it. That's been healthier."

Facebook Approaches Reckoning:

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman have chronicled internal divisions within the platform, including the internal debate that prefigured the removal of a Trump campaign ad "that featured a triangle symbol used by Nazis to identify political prisoners." User experience designer Natalie Troxel said that the ad "apparently not a violation of our CS [community standards] because our CS are fundamentally broken." Troxel and content policy specialist Kaitlin Sullivan (who countered that "the triangle without any more context doesn’t clearly violate the letter there") did not respond to the reporters' requests for comment.

Levien's Leadership:

In a conversation with Ken Doctor of NiemanLab, incoming New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien discussed how has positioned the news organization as a "digital product and technology company," adding: "Engineering now is the second largest functional area at the New York Times, only behind journalism, and the largest function by far on the business side." Levien also said that "diversity, equity, inclusion will be a top priority of mine as CEO."

Immigration Crackdown Documentarians Face Threats:

Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau, the directors of "Immigration Nation," a forthcoming six-part Netflix documentary about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were faced with "legal action" as the Trump administration "sought to block parts of it from seeing the light of day," according to Caitlin Dickerson of The New York Times. Schwarz and Clusiau said that an official "pointed out that it was their 'little production company,' not the film’s $125 billion distributor, that would face consequences," forcing them to use an encrypted messaging system to contact their production team. A 2019 investigation by NBC's San Diego affiliate revealed that the "the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers" during the migrant caravan.

Seven-Figure Salaries Endure Among Newspaper Chief Executives:

Rick Edmonds of Poynter reported Thursday on the "disconnect in how newspaper companies performed financially and what CEOs and other top executives took home in their pay envelopes." At Tribune Publishing, three figures who held the post of CEO in 2019 earned salaries in excess of $1,000,000, while Lee Enterpries CEO Kevin Mowbray earned $1,842,000. Edmonds added: "Boards typically have a compensation committee that pegs the payouts to peer group CEO earnings. So if your executives earn the same as those at similar companies, it’s a self-perpetuating practice, one that boards and the executives seem to have no interest in modifying."

Young Resigns From Hearst:

Hearst Magazines President Troy Young resigned Thursday following the publication of a New York Times article that detailed "his history of lewd, sexist remarks in the workplace," according to its authors, Katie Robertson and Ben Smith. The resignation occurred about five hours after Young sent an internal email apologizing for his conduct. "I honestly never thought this day would happen and I have tears of relief and shock streaming down my face,” said Abby Gardner, a former digital director for Cosmopolitan.

Additional Layoffs at BuzzFeed, New York Post:

BuzzFeed has "laid off 67% of employees who were furloughed earlier this year in response to the financial downturn caused by the pandemic" (encompassing 50 of 74 furloughed employees and 10 BuzzFeed News staffers), according to J. Clara Chan of The Wrap. Additionally, Kerry Flynn of CNN has reported that New York Post CEO Sean Giancola "announced 5% staff reduction in an all-hands meeting" Thursday, The 25 jobs "were across several departments" and included furloughed employees.

Big Box Book Sales Increase:

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a rise in book sales at big box retail outlets like Target and Walmart, according to Elizabeth A. Harris of The New York Times. "With the shelter in place, people were looking for things to do," said  Dennis Abboud, chief executive of big box/pharmacy book distributor ReaderLink. "Workbooks, activity books and just general reading material saw a big increase." 

Print Downscaling Continues:

The Tow Center's Journalism Crisis Project has now tracked "more than 100 outlets" that have been forced to "[scale] down their print production since the beginning of the pandemic," according to Lauren Harris of the Columbia Journalism Review. This has been exemplified by the end of Monday and Tuesday print runs for the Casper Star-Tribune, which "could be the first time a U.S. state [Wyoming] will publish no newspapers on Monday mornings … ever." In 2016, the Pew Research Center found that nearly half of news consumers still depended on print editions.

New York Times Acquires Serial Productions:

The New York Times has acquired Serial Productions in a "a deal that aims to further the newspaper’s podcasting ambitions," Benjamin Mullin of The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The deal, which "could be worth as much as $50 million depending on milestones and performance metrics," also includes a "a creative and strategic alliance with This American Life, Serial Productions’ sister company, that would allow the two companies to collaborate on their content marketing and advertising sales efforts." This American Life was a recipient of the inaugural 2020 Audio Reporting Prize, while Serial Productions co-founder Sarah Koenig was a juror in the category.