February 13, 2024

• Paramount Global to lay off about 800 employees (Reuters) / Paramount layoffs hit 20 CBS News staffers (Variety)

• The Daily Beast’s weekly newsletter ‘The Confider’ goes on hiatus (Daily Beast) 

• ‘CNN CEO Mark Thompson foreshadowed some big shifts coming at CNN at an all-bureau meeting in London today. Thompson: "Immense change is coming, and I don’t use that lightly." ’ (Jeremy Barr)

• Messenger CEO Finkelstein says he's weighing severance options, may restore site (Axios) / Finkelstein tells how Messenger spent its way to oblivion (Axios)   

• Meet Dale R. Anglin, Press Forward’s inaugural director (Press Forward) 

• Why New York Magazine’s the Cut is expanding at a time when many media companies are cutting costs (Digiday) 

• One Utah paper is making money with a novel idea: print (Poynter)

• What the press-bashers miss in their complaints about Biden coverage (POLITICO) / Who speaks for the president? Depends on whom you ask. (New York Times) 

• China is allegedly using fake local news sites to push propaganda in other countries (Semafor) 

• How will Tom Brady do at Fox? What’s next for Greg Olsen? Five NFL media questions for 2024 (The Athletic) / S.F. Chronicle photographer was the one hurdled at Super Bowl (San Francisco Chronicle) 

• ‘I've returned to my job as a national enterprise reporter at The Washington Post! Just picked up my first few notepads and am so ready to fill them with stories from around the country!’ (Robert Samuels)

• The college solution to rural news deserts (Daily Yonder) 

• Nonpartisan group launches 'Latino Speakers Bureau' to expand Hispanic media presence (The Hill)

Press Freedom

• Al Jazeera reporter and camera operator seriously hurt in Israeli airstrike in Gaza (The Guardian) / Veteran correspondent calls on world leaders to ‘step up’ in Gaza (CNN) / Reporter's notebook: Embedded with the IDF deep inside Hamas tunnels under UNRWA HQ (Fox News) 

• Climate and environmental journalism under fire: Threats to free and independent coverage of climate change and environmental degradation (International Press Institute)

• Two years of war and the future of exiled Russian journalism (The Moscow Times) / Who is the assassin Putin wants in trade for imprisoned U.S. journalist? (Voice of America)

SEO primer for journalists

“SEO writing is largely focused on the content and keyword part of these strategies. Keyword research can start with a tool like Google Keyword Planner to find terms with high search volume and relevance. Consider what you’d enter in that little search box whenever you pull up Google and what you’re looking for. … Once the keywords are identified, they should be incorporated not only into the fresh, trustworthy, well-written content on the website, but they need to be within headings, meta descriptions, URL tags and images tags and captions.”

-- Tim Herrera, freelance writer and editor, excerpt from "What is SEO, anyway?"(Freelancing with Tim)

Join us for a conversation on separating your job from your self-worth

For many of us, journalism is not just a job; it is a calling. And the high intensity nature of the work of a journalist often means that our job becomes a central part of our identity. 

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute at noon ET on Friday, Feb. 16, for a conversation with a journalist and a psychologist on managing your career in a time of media turmoil.

Speakers:

• Dr. Janna Koretz, psychologist and the founder of Azimuth
• Kate Woodsome, journalist and filmmaker

Resources

• National Press Foundation hosts contest on mental health reporting (Application deadline: March 4)
• Revised elections guide for investigative reporters: Where to begin (Global Investigative Journalism Network) 
• What is doxing and is doxing illegal? Everything you should know (Freedom Forum) / Online violence big data case studies (International Center for Journalists)

This newsletter is written & edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Bara Vaida, and Holly Butcher Grant. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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