The Latest: Google’s AI news pitch; Utah’s newest nonprofit news; Hearst Magazines layoffs; The power of student journalism

July 20, 2023

■ AI, the media, and the lessons of the past (Columbia Journalism Review) / ‘The bottom line is that OpenAI will gain access to more content that it can feed into ChatGPT, which will in turn allow it to create more convincing content —some of which could then compete with the output of newsrooms like the AP and AJP’s members’ (Mathew Ingram)

■ Most Americans favor restrictions on false information , violent content online (Pew Research Center)

■ University departures put student journalists in spotlight (New York Times) / Stanford president resigns months after student newspaper’s findings of research fraud (The Wrap) / ‘So, the president of Stanford and the head football coach at Northwestern lost their jobs because of the reporting of student journalists . Great job by the students. It makes me reflect on what is lost when local news coverage — of a campus, town, city or county — disappears.’ (Alex Martin)

■ The Salt Lake Tribune will experiment with a ‘free-for-all model’ after acquiring a Utah weekly (Nieman Journalism Lab) / Moab Times-Independent donated to The Salt Lake Tribune, will become nonprofit (Salt Lake Tribune)

■ 'The return of John Harris to the top of Politico signals that the scrappiness and the ambitions of the old days may be back again —and now turbo-charged by Axel Springer’s war chest, and their own deep desire for influence.' (Puck)

■ Vox Media drops its own CMS (Axios)

■ Double-digit revenue growth for TelevisaUnivision (TV NewsCheck)

■ NPR licenses international version of Tiny Desk Concerts to LG U+ in South Korea (NPR)

■ ‘This morning, we were notified that Hearst Magazines has laid off 41 of our unit members. …’ (Hearst Magazines Media Union) / ‘A Hearst Magazines spox attributes the 41 layoffs today to “strategic decisions that position the business for long-term growth.” Has impacted pubs including Elle and Seventeen ’ (Katie Robertson)

■ World Jurist Association honors journalist for first time in its history (World Jurist Association via Editor and Publisher)

■ Larry Pryor, former Times journalist and USC professor , dies at 86 (Los Angeles Times)

■ Substack says writers have raised over $1.2M from reader pledges (Axios)

■ Youth voice, authorship, & democracy: Unpacking media literacy (KSVT)

■ ICYMI: BUC-EES billboard mishap gets newsroom hooked (kcentv.com)

Press Freedom

■ Mexico's journalists demand action after latest killings (VOA)

■ Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law poses free speech fears for journalists (Committee to Protect Journalists)

■ How China trains its journalists to report ‘correctly’ (The Economist)

■ ‘While We Watched’: New film spotlights journalist Ravish Kumar’s fight for truth in Modi’s India (Democracy Now!)

“When deciding whether to refer to someone as being ADHD or as having ADHD, as being deaf or Deaf or hard of hearing, as being autistic or being an autistic person or having autism, the resounding advice is to simply ask a person what they prefer and honor the answer . When not referring to a specific person — or when there is no clear consensus on what a particular disability community prefers — the advice is not as cut-and-dry. You might draw from communications or guidance from relevant, disability-led organizations or intermix person-first and identity-first language throughout a piece; you should still be careful not to lean on whatever language is used by ‘third parties’ like parents or doctors.”

-- Marion Renault, health and science writer, “Eradicating ableist language yields more — accurate and more — humane journalism”

“Your main job during bad times is to give people a sense of context and understanding . Most of what people need to feel semi-secure is transparency. Remember your team likely has a much blurrier picture than the one you’re looking at, because they are at least one step behind you in how much information they have. … To know how transparent you want to be, you have to know how transparent you can be. For me, this means bluntly asking if information needs to be communicated across the newsroom or if it is not for general knowledge yet. And if not, then why. Once you have a gauge of what is acceptable transparency to your peers and bosses, then you have a choice: How much risk are you willing to take?”

-- P. Kim Bui, director of product and audience innovation at the Arizona Republic, “Sincerely, Leaders of Color: You need to be a different kind of leader in the bad times”

Is your newsroom hosting interns in D.C. this fall? Lewis Scholarship applications still open

The National Press Club and the Institute are still accepting applications for the Fall 2023 Lewis Scholarship. This opportunity provides free housing and a monthly stipend to support student journalists of color who plan to intern at news media outlets in Washington, D.C.

➡️ Applications due July 24 ⬅️

The Lewis Scholarship has an estimated value of $10,000 and will be awarded to one undergraduate student journalist of color each fall, spring, and summer semester. The scholarship will provide a stipend of $1,000 per month and free housing provided through Washington Intern Student Housing for the duration of the student’s internship, usually four months.

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

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