Should tell you all you need to know
Media statistic of the week
Publishers are always looking for ways to reach younger consumers, but it looks like the major news brands may not be doing enough to achieve that goal. New Morning Consult research shows that Gen Z adults tend to be much less aware of major news brands than the general population.
Writes Kevin Tran, “Among generational groups, Gen Z adults were the most likely to say they’ve never heard of almost any of the news brands surveyed, save for Vox and The Atlantic. The difference in awareness among U.S. adults and Gen Z adults was particularly high (a spread of at least 17 percentage points each) for The Associated Press, Bloomberg, MSNBC and The New Yorker.”
There are opportunities for news brands to close that gap, though. Tran’s piece includes recommendations for publishers to reach more younger consumers.
This past week in the media industry
Newspapers without news reporters
We start this week’s round-up on a depressing note, via Elahe Izadi at The Washington Post: They were some of the last journalists at their papers. Then came the layoffs.
Izahi writes about the recent layoffs at Gannett and the impact on local newspapers — and their communities — as companies have gutted newsrooms of their staff in recent years.
“When you’re the paper’s only reporter, you don’t consider yourself nonessential,” Kristi Garabrandt, who had been the only full-time news reporter at Ohio’s Daily Jeffersonian, told Izadi.
And now, “A two-century-old daily newspaper without a news reporter,” Mike Stucka notes.
Even more galling, “Gannett will not disclose how many journalists were laid off or which newspapers were affected,” Izadi writes. In other words, “The largest newspaper chain in the country laid off journalists and won’t say how many or which newspapers were impacted,” tweets Mark Berman.
Battles in the schools
In Grand Island, Nebraska, another community has been left without a newspaper: a local high school. As Eduardo Medina reports at The New York Times, administrators at Northwest High School shut down the school paper after it published two opinion columns focused on L.G.B.T.Q. issues.
Jessica Votipka has been covering this story at the Grand Island Independent, ‘Nurseries of democracy’: Northwest student journalism elimination a ‘Saga.’
“The more resources students have available to put into words what they are feeling, the more ready they’ll be for anything, or any person, that life throws at them,” Todd Cooper highlights from one of the editorials, and wonders, “Cd they have guessed the ppl they needed to be ready for were their own principal & school brd?”
Another relevant quote, via Chris Stanford: “A college professor once said that the worst place to teach students about American freedoms was the modern American high school.”
Meanwhile, “If you're interested in the ongoing politicization of higher ed, @PENamerica has an eye-opening resource. They're tracking bills that ban/gag certain topics,” tweets Emma Pettit, who links to the PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders and censorious legislative proposals against schools and colleges.
In slightly better news, (although it’s due to another Gannett slash-and-burn, at Muncie, Indiana’s Star Press), Deborah Fallows has a new piece for Washington Monthly on how a student newspaper in Muncie, The Ball State Daily News, has filled a local journalism gap. Check out that story, The (Student) Paper of Record.
Problems at The Post
Could cuts be on the way at The Washington Post? In a big scoop for The New York Times, Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson reported that The Post is on track to lose money this year, with digital subscriptions and digital advertising revenue stagnating.
They spoke with “[m]ore than 20 people with knowledge of The Post’s business operations” for their story, Frustrations Mount at Washington Post as Its Business Struggles, and it includes a number of scoopy details, including that The Post has held talks internally about acquiring The Economist, The Associated Press and The Guardian.
Tom Gara (along with many others) thinks “The weirdest thing here is the claim the WaPo has considered buying The Guardian or the AP, two organizations that are literally impossible to buy?”
But if somehow they could…Ryan Quinn says, “If WaPo were to buy the (nonprofit) AP, as this article mentions, & merge the brand, that would be a countrywide journalism sea change that would replace @nytimes as the uncontested paper of record.”
Meanwhile, Matt Pearce points out, “Our democracy is teetering on the brink, but the paper of record in our capitol city, which is owned by one of the richest human beings to ever exist, is talking about cutting newsroom jobs because it’s not hitting its marks. Give me a break.”
‘A sobering look’
Nieman Lab has the new issue of Mark Coddington and Seth C. Lewis’s RQ1 Newsletter, which summarizes the latest research on news and journalism. This month, they take a look at Which news audiences are underserved? “Plus: How news organizations work to repair their histories of racism, media criticism on TikTok, and what news consumers think about fact-checking.”
One of the studies they highlight, from the Journal of Communication, is a new analysis of Philadelphia-based news producers that “offers a sobering look at the state of affairs in journalism.”
Sarah Scire says, “roughest part, to me, is that the authors did this study in Philadelphia, which has a relatively ‘robust and thriving’ media system.” Adds Will Flannigan, “In short, if the findings in Philly apply across the country, communities with less education and lower incomes are not having their information needs met.”
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The j-school question
For Politico Magazine, Calder McHugh profiled Jelani Cobb about his new role and mission: ‘Are We the Problem?’ The New Dean of Columbia J-School Wrestles With Its Place in the Industry.
As McHugh puts it, “I went uptown to @columbiajourn to talk to new dean @jelani9 about America's premier j-school's place in a changing industry, what the school is now and what it can be.”
It’s an interesting read, but as Nicholas Riccardi says, it “Should tell you all you need to know about the value of a journalism school degree that Columbia’s dean never went to J-school.”
Adds Hamilton Nolan, “Common sense tells you that the only way a J school this expensive can exist is if it acts as a toll you pay to access the prestige jobs. Major structural barrier to building newsrooms that actually look like America.”
And Alexander Russo thinks “The fate of the Columbia J-School is the least of journalism's many problems. The *real* problem j-school leaders should address is how frequently journalism contributes to the toxic, highly polarized public debate.”
On the challenges of misinformation
Last week, David Ingram of NBC News reported that Google is trying out ‘pre-bunking’ in an effort to counter misinformation.
The company is adopting the approach, based on a newly published study by social scientists from Cambridge University and Google, in three European countries — Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — in order to “pre-bunk” anti-refugee sentiment around people fleeing Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Saffron Howden links to a “Fascinating in-depth look at how journalists need to be super careful when reporting science - and hold it to account - feat. the legendary @MelissaLDavey.”
That Journalist Fellow paper by Joanna McCarthy for the Reuters Institute, Hydroxychloroquine in Australia: a cautionary tale for journalists and scientists, explores the challenges of scientific misinformation, focusing on journalistic coverage of hydroxychloroquine, a drug touted as a “cure” for COVID-19.
And for the New York Times’ “Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing” newsletter, Blake Hounshell, Sheera Frenkel, Tiffany Hsu and Stuart A. Thompson took us on A Journey Into the Misinformation Fever Swamps and shared their insights into misinformation on social media.
“I’m always surprised by how much organization is happening around misinformation,” Thompson said. “It’s not just family members sharing fake news on Facebook anymore. There’s a lot of money sloshing around. “
Where Gen Z is
As news organizations struggle to reach Gen Z, “@nowthisnews is growing fast, putting news events in perspective for younger generations,” tweets Sam Whitmore, who links to Andrew Kersley’s interview with Now This president Athan Stephanopoulos for the Press Gazette, How Now This became a social media news powerhouse.
If you want to learn more about Gen Z and what matters to them, Lorenza Medley offers a few truths about her generation: It’s always online, is very well-informed and uses humor to cope with trauma. Check at her piece for The Dallas Morning News, Read this story on Gen Z trends or don’t. Either way, the intern writing this gets paid.
Medley touches on how younger generations are sharing their offline trauma with people online. “In real life, mental health care is sparse. Online, mental health tips are everywhere: TikToks with #mentalhealth in the caption have earned more than 43.9 billion views. But is it accurate, helpful information? Important story,” tweets Geoffrey Fowler, of Tatum Hunter's new piece for The Washington Post, Online creators are de facto therapists for millions. It's complicated.
Nitasha Tiku urges, “Read @Tatum_Hunter_ on people piecing together their own mental health journeys on a monetized, algorithm-influenced app.”
The business of show
“I guess Peak TV isn't dead yet as investors throw more good money after bad,” Daniel Greenfield figures. He links to the new piece by Alex Barker and Christopher Grimes of the Financial Times, Big budget blockbusters arrive amid fears of ‘peak TV.’
Even so, “I can't believe that the streaming boom has produced all these programmes and yet there is no Community movie OR a deeply ill-advised '30 years on' version of My So-Called Life,” tweets Stephen Bush.
Meanwhile, according to Lucas Shaw’s analysis for his Bloomberg newsletter of the top 10 movies from every year for the past 22 years, movie critics and fans have disagreed about blockbusters more this year than any time this century.
“So what happened? I spoke with a few critics, including @ezwrites. They had a few theories. One? Critics have grown tired of Marvel movies. The two released this year have received some of the worst reviews of any MCU movie ever.”
He also highlights, “Movies critics love: Animation, Tom Cruise, Lord of the Rings. Movie critics hate: Transformers, superhero spinoffs, Bad Boys 2?”
Last up, go ahead and splurge on the popcorn because Regal and AMC will have $3 movie tickets for National Cinema Day this Saturday. Kelly Tyko of Axios reports that the Sept. 3 discount will be available in more than 3,000 theaters and 30,000 screens.
A few more
From the Muck Rack Team
Looking to attend a PR event this year? Don't worry, it's not too late! Whether you're looking for actionable tips from industry leaders at a conference or want to celebrate the achievements of innovative PR pros, these events are the best of the best. Head over to the blog for our round-up of 10 can’t-miss events for PR pros in fall 2022.