Media Nation

The Texas Tribune, once a model of stability, loses another big name as Sonal Shah will step down as CEO

Texas Tribune CEO Sonal Shah at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin last September.

Instability in the top ranks of The Texas Tribune continues, as Sonal Shah has announced that she’ll step down as CEO of the nonprofit in December. My What Works partner Ellen Clegg, who profiled the Tribune in our book, “What Works in Community News,” has all the details, writing:

Her impending departure marks yet another jolting transition for a news outlet that launched in November 2009 with a sweeping ambition: to prop up democracy by transforming news coverage throughout the Lone Star State. But nonprofit news sites, which are usually supported by a mix of revenue streams, are not immune to challenging market forces and workplace issues like layoffs and union drives.

The Tribune is among the largest and most respected digital nonprofits to be founded in the second wave of such projects, following such pioneers as Voice of San Diego, MinnPost and the New Haven Independent several years earlier. The site was launched by venture capitalist John Thornton and veteran journalist Evan Smith, and it appeared to be a rock of stability in a rather tumultuous environment.

But Smith moved on from the CEO’s position, and now Shah, citing family reasons, has announced her departure after less than three years. (Shah was a guest on our podcast last November.) Editor-in-chief Sewell Chan cycled through before taking the top job at the Columbia Journalism Review; he was replaced by Matthew Watkins, who’s been at the Tribune in 2015.

Thornton himself had moved on to co-found the American Journalism Project, which seeks to fund local news organizations across the country; he died late last month.

The turmoil at the Tribune could just be one of those things. Here’s hoping that the project can settle down, fix its business challenges and continue providing the Lone Star State with top-notch journalism. Its work is vitally important.

Chuck Todd says he wants to invest in local news — and Ben Smith asks, Why not Nextdoor?

Chuck Todd. Photo (cc) 2015 by Gage Skidmore.

Former NBC News journalist Chuck Todd may be moving into local news. In a recent interview with Benjamin Mullin of The New York Times (gift link), Todd said he was “eager to find a business solution to a problem that had vexed investors for decades: the collapse of local news.”

So what would that look like? Mullin continued:

Mr. Todd’s business plan calls for a constellation of local sites owned by their communities — like his beloved Green Bay Packers — and anchored by coverage of local youth sports. The growing popularity of athletics and their importance to families who view them as a gateway to college make them an ideal subject to build around. No matter your politics, Mr. Todd said, you care about local coverage of your child’s latest game.

So far, so good. But then Mullin writes that Todd is prepared to invest up to $2 billion, though he didn’t identify any backers or say what company they were looking to buy other than ruling out major newspaper groups.

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I wish Mullin had pressed Todd on what he meant by “sites owned by their communities,” because a $2 billion investment sure doesn’t sound like local control. Meanwhile, at Semafor, Ben Smith offers a guess: Nextdoor, the network of local sites known, at best, for updates on missing cats and at worst for posts warning about suspicious-looking people in the neighborhood. (Our local Nextdoor happens to be the news source of record for helicopter sightings.)

Well, that sure doesn’t sound like local control, either, but I suppose it makes sense. Smith notes that Semafor media reporter Max Tani wrote nearly a year ago that Nextdoor co-founder CEO Nirav Tolia, was looking to reposition the site, with Tolia admitting it “hasn’t had a great product in the last couple of years.”

Smith says that Todd wouldn’t comment on his guesswork. Of course, it would be much better if Todd and his investors were to help fund truly local news organizations. After all, $2 billion is four times the initial pot assembled by Press Forward, a philanthropic collaborative aimed at reviving community journalism.

On the other hand, we really do need some new ideas in for-profit local news. If Todd can contribute to that effort, it would be a real contribution. But if he’s thinking about reviving Nextdoor, or creating any sort of centralized “economies of scale” monstrosity, then he’s likely to learn what so many others have before him: Local doesn’t scale.

A local access operation sues town officials in Stoughton, Mass., over alleged abusive behavior

If you page through the Facebook feed of the Stoughton Media Access Corp., you’ll find the sort of fare that is typical of local access — a guide to Boston’s best museums, the town election, Town-Wide Cleanup Day and the like.

What you won’t find is any sign of a lawsuit the access group has filed against the town and three of its officials charging them with civil-rights violations and defamation, among other things. You can read all the gory details at Universal Hub, where Adam Gaffin has a thorough report. Essentially, though, SMAC, as the access operation is known, is charging that the officials threatened the operation and demanded that it stop carrying any content in opposition to a proposal to build a new elementary school. Gaffin writes:

In its suit, filed in Boston federal court, the Stoughton Media Access Corp. charges the town manager and the two select-board members have tried to block the channel from televising meetings related to the school project, demanded it run only content that supports the proposal, yelled at volunteer camerapeople, tried to get authority over the hiring and firing of the non-profit’s board members and attempted to block its funding, which comes from fees paid by the two cable companies that serve the town.

The officials named in the suit are Town Manager Thomas Calter and Select Board members Joseph Mokrisky and Stephen Cavey.

In addition to the school controversy, the suit alleges that Mokrisky went ballistic over a video that failed to give him credit for the development of a new park. “The SMAC videographer denied Mokrisky’s accusation that the video was edited to be unfavorable to Mokrisky,” according to the suit. “The SMAC videographer was brought to tears as a result of Mokrisky’s verbal assault.”

Local access is a vital part of the news ecosystem in most communities, providing live feeds of public meetings as well as a platform for residents to produce their own programs. Stoughton does not have an independent news organization, although it is served by a Patch and by The Enterprise, a Gannett-owned daily in nearby Brockton. Neither outlet has reported on SMAC’s lawsuit.

Tracing the correlation between Trump support and the local news crisis in Fall River, Mass.

I want to call your attention to an outstanding deep dive into the news ecosystem of Fall River, Massachusetts. It was written for my Ethics and Diversity in the News Media class by Alexa Coultoff, a Northeastern junior who’s majoring in journalism and criminal justice. We’ve published it today at What Works, our website about the future of local news.

Research shows that communities lacking reliable local news were more likely to vote for Donald Trump last fall — not because they’re uninformed, but because the sort of blue-collar cities and rural areas that swung toward Trump are also more likely to be without a strong local news source. It’s correlation, not causation. But as Alexa writes, a stronger local news presence could help overcome the polarization that afflicts Fall River and, for that matter, the entire country.

Judge in AP case stands up for the First Amendment; plus, protest coverage, and news you can’t use

By ruling in favor of The Associated Press in its lawsuit to overturn a ban imposed by the Trump White House, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden applied the First Amendment in a straightforward, entirely predictable manner. The Trump administration may appeal, but it would be shocking and deeply disturbing if McFadden’s decision isn’t upheld.

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First, McFadden ruled that though the White House can exercise broad discretion in terms of which news organizations are allowed access to the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and other venues, it must do so in a neutral manner. The White House, by explicitly stating that the AP was being banned for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its proper name rather than the “Gulf of America,” was engaging in unconstitutional “viewpoint discrimination,” McFadden wrote. He continued:

The analysis is straightforward. The AP made an editorial decision to continue using “Gulf of Mexico” in its Stylebook. The Government responded publicly with displeasure and explicitly announced it was curtailing the AP’s access to the Oval Office, press pool events, and East Room activities. If there is a benign explanation for the Government’s decision, it has not been presented here.

The judge also rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the AP was seeking special privileges. First Amendment precedent holds that a news organization has no right to demand, say, an interview with a public official, or to be called on at a news conference. The White House claimed that’s what the AP was seeking.

Continue reading “Judge in AP case stands up for the First Amendment; plus, protest coverage, and news you can’t use”

Six Northeastern professors urge colleges and universities to spurn ‘appeasement’

I want to share with you an important op-ed piece written by six Northeastern University professors about the challenges facing higher education. One of those professors is my School of Journalism colleague Rahul Bhargava. Their essay appears in our independent student newspaper, The Huntington News. I urge you to read it in full, but here’s an excerpt:

Many university leaders nationwide believe that we can survive by complying to reduce the impact of cuts or by staying silent to avoid becoming a priority target. This blatantly ignores the immigrant and transgender students who are afraid for their safety, worrying their university will not protect them. This ignores the faculty whose research has already been made impossible merely because it mentions a now-banned phrase. It ignores the irreparable loss of reputation when our universities sacrifice fundamentally American values like freedom of speech. We must work together to ensure this doesn’t happen here at Northeastern.

Northeastern is among several colleges and universities where students and recent graduates have had their visas revoked. And on and on it goes.

Nonprofit experts tell us what board members and funders in local news need to know

What ethical minefields do the leaders of nonprofit news organizations need to watch for? What guidelines should board members and donors be aware of? Where are the bright lines — and where are the gray areas?

Three experts weighed in on those issues last Thursday evening at our What Works webinar on “The Ethics of Nonprofit News: What Board Members and Donors Need to Know.” What Works is part of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and is affiliated with the Center for Transformative Media.

More than 50 people logged on to the event, which I moderated. Questions from the audience were fielded by Ellen Clegg, a faculty associate and the co-founder of Brookline.News. Ellen and I are the co-leaders of What Works, a project about the future of local news.

Continue reading “Nonprofit experts tell us what board members and funders in local news need to know”

Mississippi Today will not have to turn over confidential documents as a judge dismisses ex-governor’s libel suit

Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. Photo (cc) 2019 via Wikimedia Commons.

The nonprofit news organization Mississippi Today will not have to turn over confidential internal documents, as a judge has dismissed a libel suit brought by former Gov. Phil Bryant, Grant McLaughlin reports in The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi.

County Judge Bradley Mills’ ruling means that Mississippi’s shield protections for journalists, regarded as among the weakest in the country, will not be put to the test. Mississippi Today said in a message to its readers:

For the past 22 months, we’ve vigorously defended our Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting and our characterizations of Bryant’s role in the Mississippi welfare scandal. We are grateful today that the court, after careful deliberation, dismissed the case.

The reporting speaks for itself. The truth speaks for itself.

Bryant sued after Today, led by reporter Anna Wolfe, reported that he had been involved in a state welfare scandal that also implicated former NFL quarter Brett Favre. Wolfe won a Pulitzer Prize, but Bryant claimed that Today’s publisher, Mary Margaret White, falsely suggested at a speaking event that Bryant had broken the law. White apologized and said she had misspoken. The news outlet itself has not retracted any of its reporting.

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Bryant sought access to internal communications in an attempt to show that Wolfe and her colleagues had committed “actual malice” — that is, that they knowingly or recklessly reported untrue facts about Bryant.

Despite last week’s good news, Mississippi Today may not be out of the woods yet. Ashton Pittman reports in the Mississippi Free Press, another nonprofit news organization, that Bryant’s lawyer plans to appeal and that he expects the case will eventually end up before the state supreme court.

“Gov. Bryant remains confident in the legal basis and righteousness of this case,” attorney Billy Quin told Pittman.

Under the First Amendment, reporters do not have a constitutional right to protect their anonymous sources or confidential documents. States are free to enact shield protections, and 49 states have done so; Wyoming is the lone exception.

But Mississippi — and, for that matter, Massachusetts — is on the weak end of those shield protections. Both states’ protections are based on state court precedents rather than a clearly defined shield law. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press regards Mississippi and Massachusetts as being among the eight worst states, following Wyoming, with regard to a journalist’s privilege.

That lack of strong protection came into play in Massachusetts recently when Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone ruled Boston magazine reporter Gretchen Voss would be required to turn over off-the-record notes from an interview she conducted with high-profile murder suspect Karen Read. Cannone later reversed herself.

Thus in both Mississippi and Massachusetts the courts have declined to issue a ruling that would force a definitive decision as to whether reporters in those states have shield protections or not.

Neil Brown of the Poynter Institute tells us why he’s optimistic about the future of journalism

Poynter Institute president Neil Brown interviews Robin Roberts, co-anchor of ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” at Poynter’s 2024 Bowtie Ball last November. Roberts received the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen Clegg and I talk with Neil Brown, a longtime journalist who is the president of the Poynter Institute. For listeners who might not know, Poynter is a nonprofit based in St. Petersburg, Florida, that is devoted to teaching best practices in journalism. It is named for Nelson Poynter, the bow-tie-wearing legend who led the St. Petersburg Times to national recognition. The paper is now known as the Tampa Bay Times.

Poynter is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Last September, Poynter issued a report called “OnPoynt,” which attempted to place journalism’s ongoing economic crisis in context and give some hope for optimism. The goal was to offer “a forward-minded look at the state of journalism and the news industry that propels the story by considering trends related to creative product ideas, audience growth strategies and traction around revenue, artificial intelligence and innovation.” We talked with Neil about that report along with other topics.

Later on in the podcast, I’ve got a Quick Take on President Trump’s bouncing tariffs. They’re on, they’re off, they’re on, they’re off. But his gyrations are having real consequences. In central New York State, Trump’s threats have killed a daily newspaper — and not just any paper. The Cortland Standard, one of the oldest family-owned papers in the country, folded in mid-March, as Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on Canadian newsprint proved to be the last straw.

(Since we recorded this podcast, Trump has imposed tariffs that were far deeper and more damaging than many observers had expected. Newsprint, though, remains exempt.)

Ellen’s Quick Take comes from a tip from Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times who is now a distinguished professor of the practice here at Northeastern.

Jeff Morrison, a journalist who is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, has compiled an incredible timeline of the decline of newspapers in Iowa. A highlight: The Storm Lake Times Pilot, a twice-weekly print paper featured in our book, “What Works in Community News,” is dropping a print edition and going weekly.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

Northeastern’s independent student newspaper stands up for free speech on campus

I want to call your attention to this strong, eloquent editorial about free speech on campus that was published by The Huntington News, Northeastern’s independent student newspaper. It is, the piece says, the first time that the News’ editorial board has weighed in on an issue in six years. The editorial says in part:

While the Trump administration has yet to single out Northeastern University as it has Columbia University, Georgetown University or the University of Pennsylvania, we believe it is only a matter of time before our institution is targeted by the administration. The moment will come when the views expressed by one of our professors are denounced as “dangerous” or when the president brands the actions of a protesting student as “illicit,” making no legal effort to justify such an accusation.

In the words of Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun, the university’s mission “does not change with the times.” Neither does a student’s fundamental right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Northeastern’s mission is only as strong as our commitment to defending it. If we waver, hesitate or stall in standing up for our values, then Northeastern’s mission was never as ironclad as our administration would have us believe.

Our university must not preemptively submit to an atmosphere of fear.

The editorial board — reconstituted only within the past few days, according to editor-in-chief Sonel Cutler — also calls on the university administration to do more in speaking out against the current atmosphere of repression and to be more transparent about efforts it is reportedly taking in collaboration with other colleges and universities in Greater Boston.

Overall, the editorial is even-handed, well-written and passionate in its defense of democracy and the First Amendment.