CQR Digital Journalism

Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. www.cqresearcher.com Digital Journalism Is news quality better or worse online?

ore and more people in the United States and around the world are getting their news online instead of in print or via radio or television — M the so-called legacy media. Digital news sites allow news to be continually updated, with few if any of the space or other constraints that apply to print publications or radio and television newscasts. With lower upfront costs, journalism ent repreneurs can start businesses more readily than in the past: Electronic tablets and other digital devices are increasingly being used to access news, rather than Witness the new digital-only news sites just started by high-profile print publications or television and radio. But some observers say that new digital sites are more partisan journalists who left prestigious traditional newspaper companies. than traditional news media, and less carefully edited. Yet some observers complain about the increased partisanship seen in digital publications and the increased risk of error with less careful editing than in traditional news media. And the business plans for the new digital sites are works in progress, with uncertain long-term prospects. Meanwhile, traditional news organizations are I reinventing themselves to remain relevant and profitable in the THIS REPORT N digital age. THE ISSUES ...... 459 S BACKGROUND ...... 465 I CHRONOLOGY ...... 467 D CURRENT SITUATION ...... 472 E CQ Researcher • May 30, 2014 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 473 Volume 24, Number 20 • Pages 457-480 OUTLOOK ...... 475 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 478 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 479 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

May 30, 2014 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 24, Number 20 Most Americans Get News MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • Do digital-only publications [email protected] 459 benefit readers? 460 Online • Do digital-only publications More than 80 percent of ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: Maryann have drawbacks for readers? Americans sometimes get Haggerty, [email protected], Kathy Koch , [email protected] • Will the new digital news their news from a computer. sites succeed financially? SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Digital Sites Debut Thomas J. Colin 461 To Mixed Reviews [email protected] New online news sites gen - BACKGROUND CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, erated high expectations but Marcia Clemmitt, Sarah Glazer, Kenneth Jost, mixed reviews for design. Changing Technologies Reed Karaim, Peter Katel , Robert Kiener, 465 Digitization is the latest in a Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks Magazine Industry Tries series of news industry 462 SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis innovations. To Adjust to Digital Age Going all-digital is “like life EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Ethan McLeod support — before we pull Exploiting the Web the plug.” FACT CHECKERS: Eva P. Dasher, 466 The World Wide Web has Michelle Harris, Nancie Majkowski diverted ad revenue and readers’ time and attention Newspaper Ad Revenue INTERN: Kaya Yurieff 464 Plummeted from traditional media. Newspaper print and online advertising revenue fell 57 per - Gaining Respect 470 Digital publications slowly cent from 2004 to 2013. proved their editorial and Chronology financial worth. 467 Key events since 1990. An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, Hyperlocal News Sites HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: CURRENT SITUATION 468 Cover What Others Don’t Michele Sordi “Mark every death. Remember Starting Up every victim.” EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND 472 Details are scarce about how REFERENCE PUBLISHING: Todd Baldwin online journalism sites are At Issue: doing. 473 Are print publications adapting Copyright © 2014 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - to online journalism? lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other Going Mobile 474 rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. Legacy media are making No part of this publication may be reproduced their websites mobile friendly. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH electronically or otherwise, without prior written permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis- UTLOOK For More Information sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of O 477 Organizations to contact. federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. 475 “Golden Age”? Bibliography CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Some experts think most 478 Selected sources used. Quarterly Inc. online journalism sites will fail while others say this is a CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- The Next Step free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 4) golden age for media experi - 479 Additional articles . mentation. (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - 479 Citing CQ Researcher tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Sample bibliography formats. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Cover: CQ Press/Olu Davis Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

458 CQ Researcher Digital Journalism BY KENNETH JOST

self as a data-crunching po - THE ISSUES litical handicapper at The New York Times ’ blog any news junkies FiveThirtyEight , and veteran who logged onto technology reporters Walt M their computers Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Sunday night, April 6, went who founded the closely straight to a site with a full- watched tech blog AllThingsD screen image of the U.S. Capi - at Dow Jones, publisher of tol under ominously gray The Wall Street Journal. Silver clouds. A headline superim - left The Times last year and posed over the scene de - launched a data-journalism clared: “How politics makes site, also called FiveThirtyEight , us stupid.” on March 17 under sponsor - The foreboding tableau ship of the sports network marked the eagerly awaited ESPN. Mossberg and Swish - launch of the newest of a er launched their technology growing number of digital- news site Re/code on Jan. 2 only news sites: Vox , the brain - with financial backing from g

child of journalistic wunder kind n NBCUniversal and the in - o

Ezra Klein, who turned 30 on W vestment operation of former

x e

May 9. For the debut, Klein l Yahoo chief executive Terry A

wrote a 4,000-word essay built / Semel. s e

around research suggesting g In another high-profile start- a m

that political partisanship I up, Glenn Greenwald is edi -

y t makes people impervious to t tor of The Intercept , launched e

new information contradictory G on Feb. 2 and funded by to their views . 1 Former Washington Post star reporter Ezra Klein is one Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire of several top journalists who have jumped from Klein had launched Vox traditional print publications to explore new frontiers in founder of eBay, the Internet after a storied, five-year run digital journalism. Klein, who launched the Post ’s auction site. Greenwald, who at The Washington Post as the popular site Wonkblog , started Vox — “a general news previously worked with the founder and main writer for site for the 21st century” — with the main goal of U.S. website of the British news - the newspaper’s political site, explaining the news. paper The Guardian , made in - Wonkblog. After The Post re - ternational headlines over the fused Klein’s request for a multimillion- they attract attention and traffic for past year with Pulitzer Prize-winning dis - dollar expansion of the must-read site, their content and their role as ex - closures of U.S. and British global sur - he left in January to practice what he periments in how to present news veillance based on documents leaked calls a new kind of journalism. Its mis - and run a successful news business by former National Security Agency (NSA) sion would be “to explain the news” today. They join other digital-only contractor Edward Snowden. and to move readers “from curiosity general news sites that over the past “It seems like not a week goes by to understanding.” decade have been luring news con - without an announcement of a new pro - In years past, would-be Clark Kents sumers onto the Web. ject online headed by a prominent jour - and Lois Lanes aspired to work at na - “The vast majority of Americans now nalist,” says Jim Romenesko, a veteran tionally recognized newspapers such get news in some digital format,” the newspaperman who tracks media on the as The Washington Post or The New Pew Research Center’s Journalism Pro - eponymous website jimromenesko.com . York Times. Today, however, newspaper s ject notes in its most recent report “A lot of legacy journalists want to try are often dismissed as “legacy media,” “State of the News Media 2014.” 2 (See something new, something that’s maybe and stars such as Klein are jumping chart, p. 460. ) a little bit edgy and experimental.” ship to explore new frontiers in digi - Others, who like Klein are making Among the best known of the older tal journalism. Their sites are drawing closely watched transitions, include so-called digital natives, The Huffing - mixed reviews for design, even as Nate Silver, who built a name for him - ton Post mimics conventional news -

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 459 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

ism Institute, in his new book Beyond Most Americans Get Their News Online News. 7 Percentage who say they get their news sometimes or often from a Technology has been “a boon for digital source. news,” Stephens explains in his book. Despite the job losses, he writes, tech - 100% nology has allowed fewer hands to gath - 82% 80 Desktop or laptop er more information on “an extraordi - 60 54% Mobile device narily wide variety of events” from “an (phone or tablet) 40 35% 21% extraordinarily wide variety of sources” 20 and to disseminate the information “in 0 Sometimes Often a wide variety of formats fast and far.” Others agree. “Digital has made it Source: Kenneth Olmstead, “5 key findings about digital news audiences,” Pew possible for people to do different things Research Center, March 17, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lr7tqb9. that they were not able to do before,” says Pablo Boczkowski, director of the papers in format and tone, while the Phoenix. “There is no choice,” he ex - Program in Media, Technology and So - virally popular BuzzFeed traffics in ir - plains. “It’s the set of tools we have today. ciety at Northwestern University in reverent entertainment even while We didn’t keep driving horses and bug - Evanston, Ill. Among other changes, adding serious journalism. Other pop - gies when cars came along.” Boczkowski notes that people can now ular sites include what are known as The digital revolution has changed access news around the clock — at news aggregators — sites that repub - the economics of the newspaper, mag - work, at home or on the go — and lish stories from other news media. azine and television industries. Classified can comment on articles without being Two of the most widely viewed are advertising in print newspapers has filtered by editors. Digital “has broad - maintained by the established Internet shriveled, while retail and national ad - ened the possibility of public engage - search engine companies, Google News vertising have shrunk as well, though ment,” he says. and Yahoo News. By contrast, two newer less dramatically. Newspapers and other At the same time, some experts and aggregators — Mashable and Flipboard media have shed thousands of jobs, but critics say the new digital-only news — are the built-from-scratch creations the losses have not been offset by em - sites have some less attractive features of entrepreneurially minded techies, ployment at digital publications. — in particular, a higher degree of both tied to the explosion in social The developments have prompted political partisanship. Mark Jurkowitz, media. Mashable says it “covers top alarmed hand-wringing. The total num - associate director of the Pew Research social media news,” meaning both news ber of newspaper reporters, editors Center’s Journalism Project and a for - about social media and news popular and other journalists fell to 38,000 in mer ombudsman for The Boston Globe , on social media; Flipboard self-identifies 2012 — down nearly one-third from complains of the “proliferation of ar - as “Your social magazine for iPad, a peak of 56,400 in 2000, according gumentative ideological media” in the iPhone and Android.” 3 to the American Society of News Ed - digital world. Meanwhile, traditional print and itors’ annual census. 5 Nearly 60 per - For instance, The Huffington Post is broadcast media are putting more en - cent of journalists surveyed recently widely seen as having a left-liberal tilt, ergy, effort and resources into their by Indiana University’s School of Jour - although founder Arianna Huffington websites amid declining news reader - nalism say journalism is headed in the minimizes the importance of any po - ship and viewership. 4 “There’s no wrong direction. Slightly more than litical slant. 8 Other sites, however, are stopping the migration from print to 60 percent say their newsrooms have overtly partisan, such as the progres - digital,” says Tom Rosenstiel, executive shrunk in the past few years. Those sive Think Progress Memo or its con - director of the newspaper industry- interviewed worked for online media servative counterpart Red State. affiliated American Press Institute and as well as traditional print, television, McGuire agrees on the increase in a former reporter with the Los Angeles radio and news services. 6 partisanship, but sees market demand Times and Newsweek. Some journalism experts see a bright as driving the trend. “You’ve got peo - These trends amount to “a virtual dig - side even while acknowledging the ple seeking affirmation, not informa - ital revolution,” according to Tim McGuire, wrenching changes. “News for the most tion,” he says. a longtime newspaperman and now a part is in fine shape,” writes Mitchell As traditional news organizations professor at Arizona State University’s Stephens, a professor at New York still strive to find their place in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in University’s Arthur L. Carter Journal - new digital world, some of the older

460 CQ Researcher digital-only publications have shown signs of health. The Huffington Post Digital Sites Debut to Mixed Reviews was acquired by the Internet service New digital-only news sites include several launched by prominent provider AOL in February 2011 in a journalists that debuted with great fanfare and high expectations for $315 million deal. AOL chief execu - their content. But the sites drew mixed reviews from design experts tive Tim Armstrong has said the pub - surveyed by Digiday , a site for digital media, marketing and adver - lication may be profitable in 2014, taking into account the conferences tising professionals. it organizes and other associated busi - Name Founder(s) Review of Design nesses. 9 BuzzFeed has expanded its editorial staff to 170 since hiring the Vox Ezra Klein “Accessible;” “best job” of creating rising journalistic star Ben Smith as brand identity editor late in 2011. Jurkowitz says he FiveThirtyEight Nate Silver “Straightforward” look, but “a lot of asked Smith in a telephone interview scrolling” required to explain the phenomenal growth. The Intercept Glenn Greenwald “Looks . . . like a bare-bones blog” Smith’s answer: “The business staff has overperformed.” Re/code Walt Mossberg, “Hard to read,” but good The newer sites — Vox , FiveThirtyEight Kara Swisher information and others — are works in progress Source: Lucia Moses, “Which new digital news publisher designed it best?” Digiday , at this point. Experts differ on their fi - April 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/om2r5ms. nancial prospects. “Some will win, and some will lose,” Arizona State’s McGuire Mashable ’s “community” — as news consumers to do a much says. In the meantime, however, news Roberts termed the site’s users — are deeper dive into news content than and information consumers are able to greeted daily by a kaleidoscopic dis - they could in traditional platforms. choose from among an ever-expanding play of changing headlines and im - You can click on links that can take number of news sources. “The more, the ages on stories both weighty and light. you to original documents, links to merrier,” says media tracker Romenesko. The home page sorts stories under everything that’s been written about As the news industry continues to conventional headings such as U.S. & on that subject for the last three to adapt to change, here are some of the World, Tech, Business and Entertain - four years, links to related issues or questions being debated: ment and newer usages such as Must timelines.” Reads and Water Cooler. Other veterans of print media also Do digital-only publications ben - The home pages of other digital wax ecstatic. “Digital news is richer, efit readers? sites offer users similarly wide arrays more convenient,” says Rosenstiel at The digital media site Mashable of options. The Huffington Post divides the American Press Institute. “It’s in scored a coup of sorts last fall by hir - topics into 44 general news and nine my pocket when I want it. It’s not ing Jim Roberts, a longtime editor at local categories, or “verticals” — to confined to one medium.” The New York Times , as executive ed - use the current news jargon. Users At the same time, the wealth of news, itor and chief content officer. Roberts who click on “Sports,” for example, information and commentary threatens announced his arrival in an open let - find not just daily scores, standings overload, according to Jurkowitz. “It’s ter posted on Mashable on Oct. 30 and highlights, but also a wealth of obviously more difficult to be a news that extolled the benefits of digital tech - features, commentaries and the like — consumer in this digital age because nology in reporting news faster, com - many with reader comments num - there are so many choices,” he explains. bining text and video and allowing bering into the hundreds or beyond. “There are so many outlets now, the site’s users to help tell and spread In contrast to print newspapers or mag - so many information gatherers and stories via interactions with the site azines, digital readers can never real - distributors,” says Jane McDonnell, ex - and social media. ly “finish” exploring a site because ecutive director of the Online News “In other words,” Roberts wrote, “as there is always more to read, view, Association, an organization for online disruptive as certain technologies have link to or share. journalists founded in 1999. “How do been to the news business, they have “There are obviously some real you know where your accurate jour - created much greater benefits for those advantages to producing content in nalism is coming from?” of us who make a living as commu - the digital space, which is infinite,” The change reduces the agenda- nicators — and for our audience.” 10 says Pew’s Jurkowitz. “It allows setting and educational roles that news

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 461 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Magazine Industry Tries to Adjust to Digital Age Going all-digital is “like life support — before we pull the plug.”

or millions of African-Americans, Jet has been essential es and closures as publishers feel out the changing environ - reading for the past six decades — a weekly chronicle ment. F of events and issues that were barely covered, if at all, Overall industry figures show that magazine circulation revenue in the nation’s predominantly white news media. Starting in peaked at $10.5 billion in 2005 and declined to $8.3 billion in July, however, Jet will no longer be delivered in the mail or 2011. 3 Total ad pages have fallen for the past two years, ac - available at newsstands and grocery store checkout lines. cording to an MPA press release, but the decline slowed in Instead, Jet will switch from print to an all-digital format. In 2013 to 4 percent from an 8 percent drop in 2012. Print ad announcing the move on May 7, Johnson Publishing Co., which revenue overall rose 1 percent, to $19.7 billion — presumably also publishes the black-oriented magazine Ebony , called the step thanks to rate increases. But the trade association called 2013 a “proactive decision to adapt to the changing needs of its read - a “growth year,” primarily because of a 16 percent increase in ers” as they increasingly want information quickly and easily. 1 tablet advertising revenue. 4 Jet , launched in 1951, was an invaluable source of informa -

tion for black Americans during the most tumultuous decades . o C of the civil rights revolution. The pocket-sized magazine was a g n weekly until it cut back to every three weeks last year. i h s i Jet ’s move is evidence that the magazine industry, like the l b newspaper industry, is trying to adjust to the digital age. The u P

magazine industry’s trade association changed its name in 2010 n o s

to recognize the change: the Magazine Publishers Association n h o

became instead MPA — the Association of Magazine Media. J

y

“The industry can no longer by judged by print alone,” says s e t Meredith Wagner, the association’s executive vice president for r u o

communications. “Magazine media is an evolving industry that C is not tied to any one single format or medium.” The pocket-size print version of Jet was once a staple for Jet ’s move does not sit as well, however, with one expert millions of African-American readers, but starting in July on the industry. “It’s very bad news,” says Samir Husni, direc - the magazine will switch from print to an all-digital format. tor of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mis - sissippi in Oxford and a consultant to magazine companies. “Instead of investing in the magazine, they say, ‘We are going Despite economic uncertainties, Husni says the magazine in - to be cutting the magazine.’ ” dustry overall has a positive future, but only if it takes care of its For Husni, print remains an essential part of what he calls print legacy. “The future of digital begins with print,” he says. “The the “total experience” of subscribing to a magazine, even as rumors of our demise,” he adds, “have been greatly exaggerated.” readers also want immediate access to continually updated con - tent online. The digital-only route, he says, “has been like life — Kenneth Jost support — before we pull the plug.” Like newspapers, magazines have been in a challenging en - 1 “Johnson Publishing Company Announces Transition of JET Magazine to vironment for decades. The weekly editions of such general- Digital Magazine,” press release, Johnson Publishing, May 7, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/q2xtuwb; and Rem Reider, “ ‘Jet’ comes in for a digital interest magazines as Saturday Evening Post and Life are dis - landing,” USA Today , May 8, 2014, p. 2B, http://tinyurl.com/nqgweh2. tant memories from the 1960s and ’70s. Time is a shrunken 2 Leslie Kaufman, “Newsweek to Restart Printing Process,” The New York Times , relic of its former self; Newsweek , which once had a circula - March 3, 2014, p. B1, http://tinyurl.com/k6y28up. tion of 3.3 million, dropped its print edition at the end of 2012, 3 “Top Statistics about Magazine Industry in the U.S. — Statista Dossier 2013,” Statista , http://tinyurl.com/ms9f978. only to return in March with a limited print run of only about 4 “2013 a Growth Year for Magazine Media Across Platforms,” MPA — 70,000 copies. 2 Monthly titles have also churned, with launch - The Association of Magazine Media, Jan. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/q737v3v. media have played for decades. “Peo - bates the gap between what the pub - the kind of mass publications that you ple consume more of what they’re in - lic wants to know and what the media and I are familiar with,” he says. “The terested in and less of what they’re considers they should know about.” idea of mass has largely evaporated.” not interested in,” says Northwestern McGuire, the Arizona State professor, Social media tools contribute to the professor Boczkowski. “That exacer - agrees. “You are no longer talking about phenomenon. Computer-generated al -

462 CQ Researcher gorithms funnel stories on particular of the “listicle” — numbered combina - publications, “there’s a built-in error subjects or from particular viewpoints tions of images and text such as “43 rate,” he says. to users based on profiles developed Things That Will Make You Feel Old.” McDonnell, with the Online News from stories they followed in the past. But even as BuzzFeed has increased its Association, acknowledges the in - Increasingly, people are referred to news editorial staff and moved into serious creased risk of errors in digital jour - via their friends on Facebook, Twitter, reporting and analysis, editor-in-chief nalism’s emphasis on speed. But she Instagram or other services rather than Smith makes no apologies for relying notes that some of the mistakes are seeking out news sites on their own. 11 on the whimsical to draw traffic. spread online by nonjournalists. “It’s a “Another question looming over devel - “The fabric of politics has always journalist’s job to figure out what’s real opments in social media,” the Pew re - been gossip and jokes and crazy per - and what’s not,” she says. Digital also port says, “is whether the self-selective sonality stuff and memes,” Smith, who has an offsetting advantage: the pos - process combined with algorithmic feeds came to BuzzFeed from the hyperpo - sibility of instantaneous corrections, un - are narrowing the kinds of information litical website Politico , snapped at a like in print publications or scheduled Americans are exposed to.” 12 New York Times interviewer in Febru - radio or television newscasts. Roberts voiced none of these con - ary 2013. “Political coverage that wants Jurkowitz also complains about what cerns, however, as he assumed his to be solely high-minded,” he contin - he calls “the hybrid mix of fact and new post at Mashable , where news is ued, “is missing huge chunks of the opinion” found in some digital sites. inextricably linked to social media. In actual interplay of personality and power “You get a lot of ideology in digital his vision, the site’s users are an es - that is what actually drives things.” 13 news,” he says. News sites on both sential part of newsgathering and re - The approach produces mixed re - sides of the ideological spectrum “play porting in the 21st century. actions from media watchers. “Cat loose with the facts because they are “[T]he Mashable community is not videos don’t do anything for me,” in service to a particular idea.” just a bunch of passive consumers, but Pew’s Jurkowitz remarks, referring to Stephens, the NYU professor, also are also active and thoughtful partic - another common BuzzFeed feature. sees more ideology in digital journal - ipants in the conversation, creators But he adds that traditional newspa - ism, but views the trend more favor - and contributors of unique content, pers also offered less-than-serious fare, ably. “There’s great opinionated analy - and an essential part of the distribu - including comics, crossword puzzles sis that appears all over in this news tion chain,” Roberts wrote. “The mem - and horoscopes. “There’s always been ecology,” he says. In his book, Stephens bers of Mashable ’s community are smart part of American media that’s been argues that journalism in the 20th cen - and voracious; they like to share, and trivial and light,” he says. “There’s tury became too wedded to “the reli - it’s Mashable ’s mission to create smart enough substantive content out there.” gion of objectivity.” He calls instead for material for them to do so.” Arizona State’s McGuire agrees. “wisdom journalism” — journalism that “BuzzFeed does some things that “includes and even emphasizes informed, Do digital-only publications have make journalistic traditionalists squint interpretive, explanatory, even opinion - drawbacks for readers? a lot, but they are talking about doing ated takes on current events. ” 14 Visitors to BuzzFeed are greeted on more serious journalism,” he says. “Us Stephens is also untroubled by the the home page’s left side by such con - [sic] grand pooh-bahs have worried cat videos and the like. “Newsstands ventional section headings as “News,” about the trivialization of the news for were and are still filled with a lot of “Entertainment” and “Life.” On the right the past 30 years,” he adds. “With very dumb magazines which are most - side, however, are headings such as every tool you can do bad things.” ly concerned with celebrities and other “cute,” “trashy” and “fail.” Others are Media watchers raise concerns about trivialities,” he says. “Obviously, we’re acronyms — “OMG” (for “Oh, my God”), more serious downsides of digital jour - going to get a lot of that on line.” “LOL” (for “laughing out loud”) and nalism — most notably, inaccuracies For his part, BuzzFeed ’s Smith be - “WTF,” which uses a common ob - and ideological biases. As Jurkowitz notes, lieves that humor, done well, is one scenity to express surprise and disap - digital journalism’s emphasis on speed of the keys to the success of digital pointment. increases the possibility that some in - journalism. To reach people these The headings hark to BuzzFeed ’s birth formation will prove inaccurate. days, he wrote in an essay in Play - in 2006 as a social media site special - “The newspaper newsroom, the tele - boy , “you have to write an article so izing in creating posts that would go vision newsroom — editors had time funny, so revelatory or so trenchant viral and leave “buzz” in their wake. to think about what they had, what that they will actively share it with BuzzFeed ’s most distinctive contribution they didn’t have, what they needed to their friends. To go viral, you have to to 21st-century journalism is the creation fill holes,” Jurkowitz says. With digital do something excellent.” 15

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 463 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Fellow media watcher Romenesko, Newspaper Ad Revenue Plummeted for one, dismisses Wolff’s forecast. “I Revenue for newspaper print and online advertising fell 57 percent think he’s a kind of negative Nancy,” from 2004 to 2013. Romenesko says. “They’re smart peo - ple. I don’t think they’re going to throw Newspaper Advertising Revenue buckets of money out the window.” The new sites follow in the steps Total revenue (in $ millions) of older publications that have made $48,244 $50 money with digital journalism. “ Buzz says they’re profitable now,” Rome - 40 Feed nesko notes. “The secret is to stay lean 30 $20,720 and be cautious.” 20 Boczkowski, the Northwestern pro - 10 fessor, also emphasizes the need to be 0 cautious and keep expectations low. 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 “Sure, there is a way to make money — the question is how much money,” Source: Newspaper Association of America, “Archived Print revenue he says. “Making money involves hav - Advertising & Circulation Revenue Data,” undated, Digital revenue http://tinyurl.com/d83po24; 2013 figures from “Business ing costs less than the income. The Model Evolving, Circulation Revenue Rising,” Newspaper Association of America, question is how to keep the costs low April 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kljkoj7. and how to get revenue.” Vox , FiveThirtyEight , Re/code and Will the new digital news sites to be different organizations a year The Intercept are all starting out as free succeed financially? from now than we are today.” 17 sites seeking revenue from advertising Swisher and Mossberg created a The four most buzz-producing new and other sources. An exception to money-making business under Dow sites — Vox , FiveThirtyEight , Re/code and that pattern is The Information , a tech Jones’s auspices with their “All Things the Intercept — all start with solid fi - industry news site launched in De - Digital” technology conferences, nancial backing, but most media watch - cember by former Wall Street Journal which began in 2003 and gave birth ers are hesitating to make specific fore - reporter Jessica Lessin, with an annu - to the AllThingsD blog four years later. casts about their long-term viability. “Some al subscription cost of $399. “Instead Now that they have gone out on their will win, some will lose,” says McGuire, of chasing the highest number of eye - own with a digital tech news site, the Arizona State professor. “You’re at a balls,” Lessin explained in a blog post, Re/code , Swisher acknowledges that high stage of experimentation.” “we will chase and deliver the most the financial prospects are uncertain. Among those more skeptical is media valuable news.” 19 In every year they were with Dow watcher Michael Wolff, who writes for, Digital advertising revenue could Jones, “ AllThingsD was profitable,” among other publications, GQ. In a prove disappointing for digital sites, as Swisher told an interviewer with San chat with Hearst Magazines president it has so far for legacy media. A re - Francisco magazine in April. “We’ll David Carey in early April just as Vox cent survey notes that companies are probably lose money this year, and was being launched, Wolff was open - spending a relatively small portion of that will be upsetting. I’m focused on ly contemptuous of the likely fortunes their digital marketing budgets — only getting to a place where we can of journalists-turned-entrepreneurs such 12.5 percent — on digital advertising. A prove that journalism can make good as Klein and others. much bigger portion — around 40 per - money on the web. So we’ll see “There is not a chance in the world,” cent — was spent on social networks, about that.” 16 said Wolff, who wrote a 1998 book, email marketing, mobile marketing and Klein was similarly reluctant to make Burn Rate , about the failure of his own company websites and blogs. 20 financial predictions one week after the Internet media company. “It’s just pre - Romenesko notes, however, that dig - launch of his brainchild Vox. “You’ve posterous. I don’t know what they’re ital sites do not need to rely solely on gotta give this stuff some time to play thinking, what they’re smoking. No - advertising. “The conference business out,” he told an interviewer for New body knows anything about selling an is very lucrative for them, too,” he York magazine. “People are just con - ad, nobody knows anything about ag - notes, citing All Things Digital as an stantly pronouncing on business strate - gregating an audience. So I think this example. “They’re finding ways to get gies or content strategies. We’re all going is, to put it kindly, a bubble.” 18 revenue beyond advertising.”

464 CQ Researcher The new sites are not alone in try - ing to figure out the new economics of the journalism business, according to the experts. “All of these startups — have they figured out some kind of business model?” Jurkowitz asks rhetorically. “Frankly, the consensus is no. They have not figured out what the legacy organizations haven’t figured out either.” BACKGROUND

Changing Technologies

he technology now transforming T journalism may seem revolution - d

ary, but it is only the latest in a suc - r a n cession of innovations since the in - r a B vention of the printing press that have n o

helped disseminate news ever faster s l i and ever wider. Newspapers became e N / a daily, household commodity in the s e g

United States by the turn of the 20th a m I century thanks to the steam-powered y t t cylindrical press. Radio brought the e G sound of history into the living room Kara Swisher is among the print journalists making closely watched transitions to by the 1920s and ’30s; television added digital news. Along with Walt Mossberg, also a veteran technology reporter at pictures in the 1940s and ’50s. And The Wall Street Journal , she founded the much-heralded tech blog AllThingsD at with the launch of the World Wide Dow Jones, publisher of The Journal. Swisher and Mossberg left Dow Jones to Web in 1990, people around the world start tech news site Re/code. gained a tool for nearly instantaneous The 19th-century invention of the graph, for news accounts written by access to the events of the day. 21 steam-driven cylindrical press made far-flung reporters and published not The German blacksmith Johannes newspapers widely accessible and the after months, weeks or even days, but Gutenberg made handwritten manu - newspaper business reliably profitable, the very next day. scripts and woodblock prints obsolete according to NYU professor Stephens. In the 20th century, radio and then when, sometime around 1439, he Printer Benjamin Day, in 1835, was television erased even that delay. Amer - combined the essential elements of first in the United States to use a icans listened in their living rooms to what was once “modern” printing: steam-driven press to mass-produce his President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fire - movable type, oil-based inks and a newspaper, the New York Sun , and sell side chats delivered from the White screw-driven press. The printers of copies for a penny each. The great House in the 1930s. Beginning with 18th- century colonial America, such as turn-of-the-century publishers — Harry S. Truman in 1949, Americans Benjamin Franklin and John Peter William Randolph Hearst and Joseph grew accustomed to watching their Zenger, used much the same tech - Pulitzer, among others — showed that president take the oath of office via nology to print the often highly par - the so-called penny press could bring live television — first in black and tisan newspapers that played an im - news to the masses at a healthy prof - white and then, in the 1960s, in “liv - portant part in unifying colonists around it. Those newspapers depended on an - ing color.” In 1969, millions around the cause of independence. other 19th-century advance, the tele - the world viewed the first man to step

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 465 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

onto the moon via televised images independent contractor at the Euro - delayed only by the time required for pean Organization for Nuclear Research, Exploiting the Web radio waves to travel 240,000 miles known as CERN, Berners-Lee devel - across space. oped the now-familiar hypertext trans - ithin a few years of its launch, Newspapers and the news divi - fer protocol (HTTP), hypertext markup W the World Wide Web was sions of what were then the three language (HTML) and Web browser to drawing interest from a growing commercial TV networks built prof - facilitate communication among the cen - array of companies, organizations and itable businesses by selling news writ - ter’s dispersed facilities. The first site computer-savvy individuals. Over time, ten and edited for mass audiences. outside CERN was brought online in the number of websites worldwide Americans had more information about January 1991. 22 grew into the hundreds of millions and the number of users to more than 2 billion by 2010. 24 The growing pop - ularity of the Web hurt other media, especially newspapers, by diverting both advertising revenue and readers’ time and attention. The economic impact of Web ad - vertising on newspapers began to ma - r

e terialize early in the 21st century. Print g a

N retail advertising peaked at $22.2 bil -

t t

a lion in 2005 and fell by nearly half by M

/ 2011, according to the Newspaper As - g r

e sociation of America, while print na - b m

o tional advertising crested at $8.1 billion o l

B in 2004 and fell by more than half by / s

e 2011. Classified ad revenue was si - g

a phoned off by Web innovations such m I

y as Craigslist, a free online marketplace, t t

e and the Web auction site eBay. Print G Traditional newspapers, such as The Dallas Morning News , above, have seen their revenue from classifieds, which peaked popularity dwindle as digital media have become increasingly popular. “There’s at $19.6 billion in 2000, had plum - no stopping the migration from print to digital,” says Tom Rosenstiel, executive meted by more than 70 percent by director of the American Press Institute. As a result, so-called “legacy media” 2011. Online ad revenue gains offset are putting more effort and resources into developing their websites. less than 10 percent of the print rev - enue losses. 25 At the same time, to events of the day than ever before, The “handful” of newspapers pub - attract as many viewers as possible to but Stephens rues what was missing. lishing on the Web before 1995 grew those ads, almost all sites offered their “They’re mostly recounting the facts,” to 175 that year and more than news content for free. he says of mid- and late 20th-century quadrupled to 702 by mid-1997, ac - The rapidly multiplying number of U.S. journalists. “They didn’t provide cording to Northwestern professor websites also contributed to the con - anywhere near the ability to under - Boczkowski. 23 USA Today boasted 2.5 tinuing decline in newspaper circula - stand the facts.” million Web visitors in December 1998 tion and readership, which had begun The World Wide Web, which allo ws — pitifully small in comparison to the in the 1970s. Free Web-based news users to link easily to information via newspaper’s current figure of 35 mil - aggregators — such as Yahoo News , the global network of computer sys - lion unique visitors a month. And the launched in 2001, and Google News , tems, created new opportunities for “online newspapers” of the period dif - launched in 2002 — gave audiences journalists to disseminate news farther fered little from the print editions. continually updated access to multiple and faster. The transformation now so “They had not really figured out news sources with no need for print apparent materialized only slowly. Credit what was native to the digital space,” copies. Government websites provid - for inventing the Web goes to the Pew’s Jurkowitz recalls. “They weren’t ed official information at the federal, British computer scientist Tim Berners- doing any special thinking about the state and local levels. Professional sports Lee, now Sir Timothy. Working as an digital world.” Continued on p. 468

466 CQ Researcher Chronology

2005 2012 Early 1990s Huffington Post launches as digital- Upworthy launches as website for The World Wide Web is invent - only, national news source (May 9). viral content (March). . . . Huffing - ed; online news publications . . . Mashable is founded as social ton Post ’s military correspondent are born. media news aggregator (July). David Wood wins Pulitzer Prize for national reporting (April 16). . . . 1990-1991 2006 Newsweek announces plan to end British computer scientist Tim BuzzFeed launches as site to print edition at end of year (Oct. 18). Berners-Lee develops World Wide chronicle events, trends “on the rise Web so his colleagues can collabo - and worth your time” (Nov. 17). 2013 rate; first site outside his institution Gadfly journalist Glenn Greenwald comes online January 1991. 2007 breaks news of U.S., U.K. global Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher surveillance with leaked docu - Mid-1990s launch AllThingsD blog at The ments from National Security Newspapers with online editions Wall Street Journal (April 18). Agency contractor Edward Snow - grow from 175 in 1995 to more den (June 5). . . . Silver’s plan to than 700 by mid-1997. . . . Profes - 2008 leave The New York Times be - sional sports leagues establish The Wall Street Journal adds reader comes public (July 19). . . . eBay websites for fans. comment section; The New York founder Pierre Omidyar announces Times allows users to share stories plans to bankroll Greenwald, others 1999 from site (September). in new online publication, eventu - Online News Association is founded. ally named The Intercept (Oct. 17). 2009 . . . Veteran newspaperman Jim • Ezra Klein hired as economics and Roberts hired as Mashable executive domestic policy blogger at The editor (Oct. 31). . . . Mossberg, Washington Post (June); develops Swisher leave Dow Jones (Dec. 31). 2000s More news goes Wonkblog. . . . Kaiser Family online. . . . Classified ad rev - Foundation launches online health 2014 enue for print newspapers news website. Mossberg and Swisher launch reaches peak and then declines Re/code (Jan. 2). . . . Klein’s de - by more than 70 percent over • parture from The Washington Post the decade. is announced (Jan. 21). . . . Greenwald’s team launches The 2001 2010s Star journalists Intercept (Feb. 10). . . . Newsweek Yahoo launches Yahoo News as launch online news sites. announces plan to resume print news aggregator. . . . Annual clas - edition, with limited run (March 3) . sified ad revenue for print news - 2010 . . . Silver lau nches FiveThirtyEight papers peaks at $19.6 billion and Nate Silver moves political fore - (March 17). . . . Study finds vast begins to decline; retail, national casting blog FiveThirtyEight.com to majority of news consumers get advertising begin less drastic de - The New York Times under three- news in digital format “sometimes,” clines in 2004, 2005. year licensing agreement (June 3). roughly one-third “often” (March 26) . . . . Flipboard debuts as news . . . Klein launches Vox.com 2002 aggregator app for iPad (July 21). (March 9). . . . Newspaper indus - Google launches Google News as try group releases figures showing news aggregator. . . . How Appealing 2011 revenue losses are slowing, digital- and SCOTUSblog launched as legal AOL acquires Huffington Post for only s ubscription revenue is up news websites. $315 million (Feb. 7). . . . Sports - (April 18). . . . Poll by Indiana writer Bill Simmons launches sports University finds 60 percent of jour - 2003 website Grantland (June 8). . . . nalists say profession is headed “in Gawker.com launches as Manhattan- BuzzFeed hires political reporter wrong direction” (May 5). . . . Jet bas ed celebrity gossip site (January). Ben Smith as editor; news staff magazine announces it will end begins expansion (Dec. 11). print edition (May 7).

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 467 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Hyperlocal News Sites Cover What Others Don’t “Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case.”

aura Amico broke into journalism in her home state of munity activists and others who follow local government. “Many California and put in two years on the crime beat at the of them are covering statehouses, city halls or local neighbor - L Santa Rosa Press Democrat. But when she moved to hoods at a very granular level, compensating for the decline Washington, D.C., in 2009 with her husband, Chris, for his new in reporting from legacy media,” says Mark Jurkowitz, associ - job at PBS’s “NewsHour,” she could not find a journalism po - ate director of the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. sition that she wanted. Columbia Journalism Review ’s Guide to Online News Star - Five years later, however, Amico is founder and publisher tups lists around 60 “hyperlocal” sites from ARLNow.com (Ar - of an award-winning local digital news site that covers every lington, Va.) to West Seattle Blog. That number does not count homicide in the District of Columbia from the killing through Homicide Watch and affiliated sites in Chicago and Trenton, the end of legal proceedings. Homicide Watch D.C. greets vis - N.J., which are listed in other categories, as are most of the itors with a promise of unremitting thoroughness: “Mark every numerous sites devoted to local high school sports. 3 death. Remember every victim. Follow every case.” 1 Two dozen of the hyperlocal listings are state entries for The combined effects of electronic commerce and online Patch , described in Feb. 24, 2012, postings as “AOL’s fast- journalism have been hard on coverage of local news. Adver - growing hyperlocal network.” AOL sold the financially troubled tisers and readers alike have been drawn away from local news - operation in January to Hale Global, an investment firm that papers that previously were the principal source for coverage specializes in turning around ailing businesses. Hundreds of of local news, whether it be crime and justice, business and Patch employees were laid off, but those who remained were real estate or local government. 2 told that all 900 Patch sites would be continued. 4 At the same time, however, technology reduces the barriers Community newspapers have long provided some of the to entry for start-up local news operations, like the one Amico hyperlocal coverage of neighborhoods, schools, zoning boards and her web-developer husband began in 2010 and relaunched and the like that metropolitan dailies do not cover. But most in 2011. The site provides coverage and a searchable database of the community papers are weekly and have limited space, of D.C. homicides based on original reporting, court documents at least in their print editions. Digital sites offer the advantage and social media. of continual updating and unlimited space. Start-up operations practicing what has come to be called The Amicos had been financing Homicide Watch themselves, “hyperlocal journalism” are an antidote to the long-term de - but they raised $47,450 in 2012 through a Kickstarter online cline in local reporting that has concerned journalists, com - crowd-funding campaign, allowing the site to hire student in -

Continued from p. 466 Gawker was founded in 2003 as tend to the print editions that yield - leagues created websites — such as a Manhattan-oriented celebrity gossip ed roughly 80 percent of their reve nue. NFL.com and MLB.com — as early as site; Gawker Media developed seven In the clearest head-to-head matchup, the mid-1990s for fans to follow games other blogs, including the sports site the author and syndicated columnist in real time and keep track of stand - Deadspin. Another popular sports site Arianna Huffington launched The Huff - ings, scores, statistics and much more is Grantland , created by sports jour - ington Post in May 2005 with finan - than any sports section could provide. nalist Bill Simmons in 2011 and named cial backing from venture capitalist Special-interest blogs became es - in honor of one of the great sports - Kenneth Lehrer. The site’s design sential reading for specific audiences. writers of the print era, Grantland Rice, mimicked to some extent the various For example, two legal blogs launched whose daily column was syndicated sections of print newspapers. The site in 2002 — SCOTUSblog on the Supreme across the country. For business audi - grew to become a 24/7 operation, Court and How Appealing on appel - ences, the Business Insider is now a with local and international editions, late litigation — provide news and popular site with some original con - before the legacy Internet service analysis that judges, lawyers and legal tent after having been launched in provider AOL bought it in 2011 for affairs journalists depend upon today. 2009 as a blog and financial and tech $315 million. 26 For health policy news, the Kaiser Fam - news aggregator. Within a year after HuffPost ’s debut, ily Foundation launched a free health- Newspapers were challenged more two more of today’s most popular news site in 2009 that is similarly in - directly by new digital-only general sites were launched, both more as valuable for people in and around the news publications even as they tried social media than the general news nation’s largest industry sector. to innovate online and simultaneously sites that they were to become. Mash -

468 CQ Researcher terns to take over some of the reporting. 5 Amico prides her -

self on thoroughness. In a recent story on a mistrial in a homi - t o h

cide case, she noted that local news media had covered the s n

killing but only Homicide Watch reported on the no-verdict trial. e e r

The site’s home page also makes an unmistakable allusion c S /

to the widespread feeling in Washington’s African-American and s s e

Latino communities that the District’s major news media devote r P more time, attention and space to homicides in predominantly Q

white neighborhoods than in their communities. “If we are to C understand violent crime in our community, the losses of every The hyperlocal news site Homicide Watch D.C. covers every homicide in the city from the killing through family, in every neighborhood must be recognized,” the intro - the end of legal proceedings. ductory statement reads. Digital technology is what makes the operation work, as Laura and Chris Amico explained to an interviewer in 2013. 6 reporter with a database robust and agile enough to do that,” “Having the platform speeds up my workflow by creating a she said. pattern out of my work,” Laura Amico said. By checking the database regularly, she continued, she is able to fill in holes — Kenneth Jost as new information becomes available. “Some of what makes the site work is really fundamental 1 Homicide Watch D.C. , http://homicidewatch.org. to the web,” Chris Amico added. The site allows links to pro - 2 Some background drawn from Paul Farhi, “Is local reporting in a death file pages, he explained, eliminating the need to include back - spiral?” The Washington Post , March 27, 2014, p. C1, http://tinyurl.com/mmx8zcg. 3 “CJR’s Guide to Online News Startups,” accessed May 2014, http://tinyurl. ground in each story. He also built a database application that com/7oebz3d. creates maps showing where each homicide occurred. 4 Leslie Kaufman, “New Owner of Patch Lays Off Hundreds,” The New York Laura Amico saw a concrete advantage to that database re - Times , Jan. 30, 2014, p. B7, http://tinyurl.com/mqpywdb. cently when the District recorded three homicides in one night. 5 “A One-Year Student Reporting Lab within Homicide Watch DC,” Kick - starter, http://tinyurl.com/kg72l6q . With a quick check, she determined that it had been the dead - 6 Erin Kissane, “Homicide Watch: An Interview,” Contents , Issue 4 (2013), liest week of the year for Washington. “I haven’t seen any other http://tinyurl.com/kbpcqem.

able was the brainchild of Pete Cash - items being posted and shared — cre - released first for Apple’s iPad in 2010 more, a college dropout in Aberdeen, ating “buzz,” that is. He left The Huff - and then for iPhone late in 2011. The Scotland. Three months shy of his ington Post after the AOL purchase in New York Times marked the iPhone 20th birthday, Cashmore launched 2011 to devote full time to BuzzFeed. debut of the app with a headline de - Mashable in July 2005 as a tool for His decision to hire political journal - scribing it as useful “for killing time collecting news about social media ist Smith as editor in December 2011 standing in line.” 30 and about what users were sharing. marked the site’s evolution into a se - Yet another entrant in the attention- By 2009, The Huffington Post hailed rious news site with its buzz-creating grabbing competition was born in Cashmore as one of the globe’s “top features still intact. 28 2012: Upworthy , launched by Eli game changers,” crediting him with Flipboard came along in 2010, de - Pariser, a liberal political activist, and taking social media mainstream and signed by creators Mike McCue and Peter Koechley, former managing edi - “translating geek-speak for the curious Evan Doll to bring magazine-like graph - tor of the satirical newspaper The and converted.” 27 ics to a social media aggregator, which Onion. With financial backing from BuzzFeed debuted in November pulls together feeds from a user’s var - one of Facebook’s founders, Chris 2006, created as “the Internet popu - ious social networks. 29 McCue had Hughes, the site announced its mis - larity contest” by Jonah Peretti, a grad - been head of a voice-recognition com - sion of becoming “the place to find uate of the MIT Media Lab and co- pany, Tell Me, which was acquired by awesome, meaningful, visual things founder of The Huffington Post along Microsoft in 2007; Doll was an Apple to share.” By deft use of virally ap - with Huffington and Lehrer. Peretti de - iPhone engineer McCue met after leav - pealing headlines, it grew with phe - veloped technologies for searching out ing Microsoft in 2009. Their app was nomenal speed. 31

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 469 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Gaining Respect

igital publications such as The D Huffington Post and BuzzFeed slowly gained respect and proved their worth, editorially and financially, as the 21st century moved into its sec - ond decade. Meanwhile, major news - papers discovered that they could in - crease their audience by expanding their digital products, including some digital-only content. Meanwhile, some journalists who had become stars on the newspapers’ platforms outgrew their employers and decided to venture into the digital world on their own. In their early years, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed were held in low regard by some in the traditional media. In retrospective pieces, leading media writers have recalled The Huffington Post in its early days as “a viral ag - gregation factory and unpaid-blogger’s paradise” and BuzzFeed as “something like The Huffington Post without the pretension of producing news and commentary. ” 32 Not long after BuzzFeed got a new editor and a $15.5 million infusion of new capital late in 2011, it turned heads in the world of political journalism )

l with a good scoop: Arizona Republi - l A (

can Sen. John McCain’s endorsement s t

o of Mitt Romney for the GOP presi - h s

n dential nomination. A few months e e

r later, The Huffington Post gained new c S

/ stature when its senior military corre - s s

e spondent David Wood won the Pulitzer r P Prize — the first ever for work by a Q

C for-profit, digital-only publication. The Digital Newcomers prize, for national reporting, was for a 10-part series on the plight of New digital news sites such as Re/code , Vox and FiveThirtyEight were wounded veterans from the Afghanistan launched by high-profile print reporters with high expectations for their and Iraq wars. content, but they have drawn mixed reviews from design experts. FiveThirtyEight is the brainchild of Nate Silver, who built a name for himself as a data- In the meantime, major U.S. news - crunching political handicapper at The New York Times. The Washington papers were expanding their digital Post ’s Ezra Klein started Vox when The Post refused his request to invest presence, adding some features and more in Wonkblog , his Post digital site. Wall Street Journal tech reporters content that appeared only online and Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg started Re/code on Jan. 2 with backing not in their print editions. At Dow from NBCUniversal and the investment operation of former Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel. How they will do financially remains to be seen. Jones, Mossberg and Swisher launched the AllThingsD blog on April 18, 2007,

470 CQ Researcher as an extension of the tech confer - ences that they had begun hosting in 2003. 33 Klein, who had blogged for the liberal magazine The American Prospect , came on board at The Wash - ington Post in 2009. He was intro - duced to The Post ’s readers in June as writing a blog about domestic and economic policy. 34 A year later, The New York Times announced plans to host the political blog that statistician Silver had created in 2008, FiveThirty Eight.com . The Times announcement on June 3, 2010, noted that under a three-year licensing agreement, Silver n o

will retain all rights to the blog and t r will run it himself. 35 u B

Greenwald, a political gadfly blog - w e r ger and columnist for the British-based d n A newspaper The Guardian , made / s e worldwide headlines beginning in June g a m

2013 with sensational disclosures about I

y t

U.S. and British global surveillance. t e

Greenwald and his colleague docu - G mentary filmaker Laura Poitras were One of the newest entrants into the digital news field is Glenn Greenwald, an investigative reporter for The Guardian who won a Pulitzer Prize for his recipients — along with The Wash - disclosures of U.S. and British global surveillance, based on documents ington Post ’s Barton Gellman — of leaked by former National Security Agency consultant Edward Snowden. classified documents leaked by Snow - Greenwald, here with colleague Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker, den, the whistle- blowing onetime NSA launched The Intercept on Feb. 2. The national security publication contractor. Four months after the first was funded by the billionaire founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar. of the stories was published, eBay founder Omidyar announced that he would bankroll Greenwald and oth - Dec . 31, they took credit for writing editors and its new owner, Amazon.com ers, to the tune of $250 million, in a more than 40,000 posts, testing “hun - founder Jeffrey Bezos, a plan for an new digital-only venture into serious dreds” of new products and services expanded Wonkblog that he would journalism. 36 and drawing “millions” of readers. But run as a stand-alone site still with The Silver’s plan to leave The Times they closed — “taking a page from the Post. Instead, Klein started his new leaked on July 19, 2013, in the form industry we cover” — by saying, “It’s policy-oriented site under the aegis of of a post by its then-media reporter once again time to refresh, reimagine, Vox Media, parent of digital-only Brian Stelter on another of the news - remake and reinvent.” They launched sports site SB Nation and tech site paper’s branded blogs, Media Decoder. 37 Re/code on Jan. 2, as principal own - The Verge. 40 Stelter, who later left the newspaper ers of the newly formed company “We are just at the beginning of for CNN, noted that Silver’s affiliation Revere Digital, and took all of the how journalism should be done on with ESPN would allow him to return AllThingsD staff along with them. 38 the web,” Klein told New York Times to sports and statistics, the area where Klein’s departure from The Post was media writer David Carr. “We really he had first gained prominence, and confirmed on Jan. 21, 2014, in a memo wanted to build something from the to cover politics in election years for distributed to the newspaper’s staff ground up that helps people under - ABC. ESPN and ABC are both owned and reported in The New York Times stand the news better. We are not just by the Disney Company. and elsewhere. 39 Klein was quoted trying to scale Wonkblog , we want to Mossberg and Swisher left Dow as expressing gratitude to The Post , but improve the technology of news, and Jones at the end of the year. In a final it was later disclosed that he had un - Vox has a vision of how to solve some jointly bylined post on AllThingsD on successfully pitched to the newspaper’s of that.” 41

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 471 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

itorial staff of roughly 20 reporters cal analysis” but also in “data visuali za - who write stories or conduct inter - tion, computer programming and data- CURRENT views that could just as easily appear literate reporting.” Silver said the site in a conventional newspaper or news would apply data-journalism techniques SITUATION website. 42 But in the interest of what to five areas: politics, economics, science, he calls “persistent explanatory jour - life and sports. 44 nalism,” Klein has created two dis - In the two months since, FiveThirty Starting Up tinctive features: numbered yellow “card Eight has explored such issues as stacks” that explain a subject step-by- whether white Republicans are more he new stars of digital news are step, in primer-like terms; and Vox - racist than white Democrats (yes, but T filling their sites with lots of con - Explains videos, such as a two-minute only a little); whether children born tent, but keeping mum on how much piece on income inequality narrated to older fathers are at greater risk of traffic they are getting and generally by Klein. attention deficit disorder (unclear); and steering clear of broad pronouncements One week after launch, Klein told whether cheerleading is unsafe com - about how they are doing. an interviewer he was “really, really pared with other high school and col - Of the high-profile sites that launched happy with week one,” but hoped that lege sports (in the middle). 45 this year — Re/code , The Intercept , week two would be better and week Mossberg says he and Swisher named their new product Re/code to combine an abstract word with tech connota - tions and the importance of “reinven - tion,” which he says characterizes the tech and media industries the site cov - ers. “We’re off to an excellent start,” Mossberg says four-and-a-half months s i r

r after launch. Mossberg and Swisher have o M

majority control of the new company, l u

a Revere Digital, but financing from NBC P

d

i and Semel’s company, Windsor Media, v a

D has allowed an expanded editorial staff. / g

r Reporters cover such beats as Wash - e

b ington tech policy and tech and soci - m o

o ety. The total staff count, including Web l B

/ developers, is 30. s e

g Along with Re/code , Revere will be a

m sponsoring what Mossberg says will I

y t

t be “lucrative” conferences about tech e

G issues. The first is being held at the Nate Silver, 36, who ran his political data blog FiveThirtyEight at The New York end of May in Rancho Palos Verdes, Times , left the paper to relaunch the site in March under the same name Calif. “The conference sold out in hours,” at the sports network ESPN. Mossberg says. Advertising, however, is slow so far. “We haven’t built out FiveThirtyEight and Vox.com — none three better still. 43 Most of the stories the business staff,” he explains. responded to requests for figures on are on serious, policy-oriented sub - At The Intercept , Greenwald and his visitors to the sites. Mossberg, co- jects, but Vox ’s readers are not nec - co-founders — documentary filmmak - founder of Re/code , was the only one essarily wedded to the high-brow. One er Poitras and investigative reporter Je - of the principals to agree to an inter - afternoon early in May, the top three remy Scahill — have assembled a team view to discuss the post-launch out - “most read” stories dealt with sex, beer of 13 others to carry on what the trio put and impact. And media watchers and the NFL draft. described at launch as a “central mis - appear to be slow so far in offering At FiveThirtyEight , Silver used a sion . . . to hold the most powerful detailed reviews of the sites. launch-day “manifesto” to announce governmental and corporate factions At Vox.com , the most recent of the the hiring of more than 20 people de - accountable.” Two months after the four to launch, Klein oversees an ed - scribed as skilled not only in “statisti - Continued on p. 474

472 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Areyes print publications adapting to online journalism?

CAROLINE LITTLE MITCHELL STEPHENS PRESIDENT AND CEO, N EWSPAPER AUTHOR , BEYOND NEWS : T HE FUTURE OF ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA JOURNALISM ; JOURNALISM PROFESSOR AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MAY 2014 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MAY 2014

hen I joined the Newspaper Association of America ewspapers and magazines have two problems as they in 2011, I said that newspapers were going to trans - attempt to survive in a world where information can w form. As we survey the industry in 2014, it is clear n move fast and far digitally. that this transformation has taken place, and the numbers bear The first and least interesting is practical. These publications this out. are going to have to complete their “migration,” to use the jar - According to comScore, a company that measures Internet gon, to the new “platform.” It is hard to imagine much justifi - use, digital newspaper content was accessed by 161 million cation for continuing to go to the expense and trouble of Americans in March 2014. That is an increase of 19 percent printing on and schlepping around paper, when it is possible from April 2013. It shows that print publications have put an to distribute equally attractive publications more or less for emphasis on digital content, and that emphasis is being re - free, more or less instantly, online. warded with growing audiences. As the printing press was first being used in Europe, there When you look at newspaper financials, you see that circu - were those who insisted that there would always be a place lation revenue has increased the past two years and that this in libraries for handwritten books. They were wrong. Those was driven largely by digital subscriptions. This is another ex - who — succumbing to a similar nostalgia — think there will ample of priynt publicationse adapting tos a changing landscape always be a plnace for journalism o in print are similarly wrong. and how it is paying off. The more interesting question is how journalism originally Our members are no longer looking at their newspapers as designed for print will change as it completes this inevitable “print publications,” because that is now just one part of the journey into a new form. Here the issue is mindset, not tech - larger business model. That is why I like to discuss “newspaper nology. And mindsets usually change more slowly than tech - media” instead of simply “newspapers” because a successful nologies. newspaper media company will focus on both print and digital, For a century after the arrival of the printing press in Europe, which includes the website, social media channels and mobile books were still being printed with typefaces that imitated the capability. thick, black letters of handwritten manuscripts and with illumi - The younger generation remains engaged with newspaper nations that were hand painted on each page. Online journal - content; they are simply doing so in a different way. We see ism sites are similarly stuck. Their “pages,” story formats and that a majority of young adults, ages 18 to 24, access news - “headlines” haven’t changed much — even in magazines, where paper content exclusively through mobile devices. This is ob - more creativity might be expected. They make little use of the viously a drastic change from how content was accessed even fluidity of the Web. The content of their articles has stayed five years ago, when it was all on the desktop. mostly true to the print model, too. There are now more than 450 newspapers that offer digital Newspapers today, even online, still announce the day’s subscriptions, and that number is increasing every day. We are events as if there weren’t numerous other places — Twitter, seeing that readers will pay for good, trusted content, which Facebook, blogs, dozens of other easily available websites — is exactly what newspapers deliver. that are announcing those events at the same time. They per - Additionally, digital platforms have provided newspapers a sist in the assumption that they are selling news, although in better way to tell stories. When I look at the future of journal - a world where information is available fast and free that is ism, I see journalists who have an eye for telling stories in about as good a business as selling encyclopedias. They are the best possible manner. That can be a written article and a figuring out only slowly that they need to sell something else video. Or it can be in a long-form package with accompanying — interpretations of the news, what I call “wisdom journalism.” infographics. At the Newspaper Association of America, our New forms — the novel, the newspaper — were eventually members no longer focus solely on print. To continue our re - invented to take best advantage of the printing press, but it cent success, print publications must continue to balance be - took a century and a half. New approaches to journalism will tween print, digital and mobile. So far, so good — and I ex - have to be invented to take best advantage of digital commu - nication. That process is just getting started. pect envo en more good things in the future.

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 473 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Continued from p. 472 reporting an increase in digital revenue in circulation revenue. That increase launch, however, the newly appoint - that is helping to slow the bottom-line came mostly from digital-only sub - ed editor-in-chief John Cook ac - slide of the past decade. scriptions as more newspapers institut - knowledged the site had been slow The Los Angeles Times is touting a ed so-called “paywall plans” that require to gear up and so far had published website redesign announced on May users to pay for access to websites . 48 only more material from Snowden’s 6 that promises to be user-friendly on Instead of bemoaning the demise of leaked documents. 46 all devices: desktop, tablet or smart - print, industry spokesman Jim Conaghan Cook, former Gawker editor in chief, phone. Meanwhile, top editors at The touts the revenue potential from digi - acknowledged organizational start-up New York Times are studying a spe - tal and the benefits to newspapers’ au - problems in his message, published cially commissioned internal report that diences. “We are really a multiplatform the same day the liberal blog Daily sets out a five-step plan to what the business,” says Conaghan, the News - Kos suggested the site was “stalled.” 47 report’s authors call a “digital-first tran - paper Association of America’s vice pres - The site had published three dozen sition” — a report that surfaced only ident for industry research and analy - sis. “The distribution system has gotten much wider for newspaper media com - panies, which certainly is an advantage to the public.” Digital-only advertising for the in - dustry — that is, ads that are not sold in combination with print advertising — now accounts for about one-fourth of digital advertising. Conaghan ac - knowledges that digital advertising growth has been “slower than we would e

n like. ” A new challenge, he says, is “how a e

K to monetize the growing mobile audi -

s i

r ence.” The statistics show a growing re - h

C liance on mobile devices to read news - / s

e paper content: Among online readers g a

m age 34 or younger, the number who I

y

t rely exclusively on mobile devices more t

e 49

G than doubled over the past year. Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson makes the The Los Angeles Times , the fourth- commencement address at Wake Forest University on May 19, 2014, in largest U.S. newspaper by circulation, Winston-Salem, N.C. Days earlier, Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger fired Abramson, the paper’s first female executive editor, and replaced her with had the mobile device readership in Dean Baquet, who became the first African-American to hold the post. mind as it redesigned its website. Visi - Sulzberger attributed the firing to “newsroom management issues,” tors touring the site are greeted by the but one source of friction between Abramson and Baquet slogan, “designed to fit your life > as was said to be Abramson’s attempt to recruit a new managing editor it happens,” and later are promised that for digital content who would have equal standing with Baquet. the website is “smart enough for all your devices.” A laptop, tablet and stories as of mid-April and also cached days before the tumultuous firing of smart phone are used to illustrate. The a trove of national security-related doc - executive editor Jill Abramson and the site tour shows that users can “share uments. A month later, only three new appointment of her deputy, Dean Baquet, effortlessly,” “explore further,” “join the stories had appeared. to succeed her. conversation” and “find news near The latest figures from the News - you.” The result is described as “a com - paper Association of America show a pletely reinvented latimes.com.” Going Mobile 2.6 percent decrease in total revenue The redesign draws warm praise in 2013 — the smallest decrease since from Mario Garcìa, a renowned news - ajor newspapers are redesigning 2006. Even though advertising fell by paper designer who is president of a M their websites to tailor them for 6.5 percent, the decrease was offset Tampa-based media consulting com - mobile devices, just as the industry is somewhat by a 3.7 percent increase pany, as “clean” and “easy to navigate.”

474 CQ Researcher Newspapers need to “stop regretting Only a few days later, however, pub - fact disadvantaged by consolidation in print,” he says, and instead “learn to lisher Sulzberger summarily fired Abram - the newspaper industry — the fading cope with storytelling.” 50 son, the newspaper’s first female exec - away of the two-newspaper town — Closer to home, however, a writer for utive editor, and replaced her with and by the limited number of radio L.A. Weekly was less impressed with the Baquet, who became the first African- and television outlets until the rise of redesign. Denis Romero complained of American to hold the post. Sulzberger cable in the 1980s and ’90s. what he called the residue of “print attributed the dismissal to a “newsroom In the digital age, however, the barri - DNA,” pointing to the list of newspaper- management issue,” but news accounts ers to entry have come down. A digital style sections on the left side of the desk - said that one source of friction between news organization needs no printing top version of the home page. He called Abramson and Baquet was the attempted press, warehouse or fleet of delivery the redesign “formulaic.” 51 recruitment of a new managing editor trucks, only a computer infrastructure The Los Angeles newspaper’s on - for digital content, who was to have and a team of good Web developers line redesign comes about 20 months equal standing with Baquet. 55 to work with so-called content pro - after a similar revamping by USA Today , ducers. “The news ecosystem has in - another of the nation’s biggest news - creased,” says the Pew Center’s Jurkowitz. papers. In announcing the change on “There are a lot of new players.” Sept. 18, publisher Larry Kramer said OUTLOOK “The largest legacy media have the the “bold redesign” amounted to “an advantage of having a brand,” says evolution” of the newspaper’s brand Boczkowski, the Northwestern profes - “in print and across all our digital plat - sor. “They have the disadvantage of forms.” 52 Today, the newspaper says “Golden Age”? being associated with traditional ideas it has reclaimed its status as the na - and the disadvantage of having very tion’s largest-circulation newspaper, any baby boomer journalists are high fixed costs.” based on a new industry standard of M known to recall their days as With lower fixed costs, The Huff - including digital-only readers in sub - youngsters delivering newspapers by ington Post has eclipsed The New York scription figures. 53 saying that they “started out in circu - Times in total readership “in just a few The New York Times , third-largest in lation.” Today, millions of newspaper years,” according to The Times inno - circulation after USA Today and The readers still pick up a print edition. But vation study completed in April. The Wall Street Journal , needs to do more the vast majority also read the news report warns that all of The Times ’ to transition to the digital world, ac - sometimes on screens: laptop, tablet or competitors — traditional newspaper cording to the 11-page internal report smartphone. And a growing number rivals, social media such as Facebook submitted by a team of editors and of younger news readers are “mobile- and LinkedIn and start-ups such as reporters in early May. The task force exclusive” — weaned completely off Vox and First Look Media — are be - was headed by Arthur Gregg Sulzberg - print and accustomed to news and in - coming more “digitally sophisticated.” er, a metro reporter and son of pub - formation in their pockets. The impact on legacy media of the lisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. 54 Print-era veterans acknowledge or newest digital-only news sites — Vox , The report recalls that The Times print even embrace the change. “I’ve pretty FiveThirtyEight , Re/code and The Inter - and digital news staffs were once much abandoned print,” says media cept — has yet to be seen. Nate Silver’s housed in separate buildings but have watcher Romenesko. At NYU, Stephens prediction in March that Republicans since been partly consolidated. But it says, “I teach journalism students. I’ve were favorites to gain control of the calls for a more complete transition and stopped asking them whether they read Senate in the November elections — a determined focus on spreading its the print version of The New York Times. ” a reversal of his previous forecast — journalistic content through social media Stephens professes not to be dis - created instantaneous waves among politi - with the creation of, among others, a couraged. “There’s tremendous hope cians and political junkies. 56 Other wise, “newsroom audience development team.” for journalism,” he says. Another print however, none of the four new sites In a jointly signed memo to the veteran agrees that news is faring well appears to have launched a story yet staff, executive editor Abramson and in the digital age. “People are con - that went on to become a major item managing editor Baquet said the re - suming news differently,” says the Amer - of water-cooler conversations or pub - port represented “another milestone in ican Press Institute’s Rosenstiel, “but lic policy debate. our digital transformation. They indi - consuming more.” “All of these things are young and cated changes were likely, but set no For much of the second half of the still in experimental form,” says Stephens. timetable. 20th century, news audiences were in “It’s going to take a while.”

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 475 DIGITAL JOURNALISM

With the digital age barely in its Pew Research Center Journalism Project, March 16 Ellen Cushing, “I Think Google’s Pretty third decade, news organizations that 28, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kk2opwy . Dangerous and Thuggish. I’ve Always Said invested time, energy and resources in 3 For background, see Marcia Clemmitt, “Social That,” San Francisco (magazine), April 29, 2014, websites are already being forced to Media Explosion,” CQ Researcher , Jan. 25, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/kbua2g9 . 17 adapt to the new formatting require - pp. 81-104. Joe Coscarelli, “Ezra Klein on Vox’s Launch, 4 For background, see these CQ Researcher ments of mobile devices. “Certainly Media Condescension, and Competing With reports: Peter Katel, “Future of TV,” April 18, Wikipedia,” Daily Intelligencer , New York mag - mobile is going to present a whole 2014, pp. 313-336; Tom Price, “Future of Jour - azine, April 11, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/onw8plt . new set of challenges,” says McGuire, nalism,” March 27, 2009, pp. 273-296; Kenneth 18 Lucia Moses, “Michael Wolff: ‘Online jour - the Arizona State professor. “With that Jost, “The Future of Newspapers,” Jan. 20, 2006, nalism can’t pay for itself,’ ” Digiday , April 7, smaller screen, there is so much going pp. 49-72. 2014, http://tinyurl.com/nh2nfpp . Wolff’s ap - on. We need to develop mobile-only 5 Rick Edmonds, “ASNE census finds 2,600 pearance with Carey was part of Hearst’s Mas - designs that communicate with audi - newsroom jobs were lost in 2012,” Poynter.org, ter Class series; others who have recently ap - ences more effectively.” And Conaghan, June 25, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/pymo9fx . peared include Arianna Huffington of The of the newspaper industry association, 6 Lars Willnat and David H. Weaver, “The Huffington Post and Jonah Peretti of BuzzFeed. acknowledges that advertisers are yet American Journalist in the Digital Age,” Indi - 19 Jessica Lessin, “Introducing The Information!” to be persuaded that mobile is such ana University School of Journalism, May 5, Dec. 4, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/qyluqxq ; and 2014, http://tinyurl.com/q5fjk85 . a great venue for their messages. Jenna Wortham, “A Missing Revenue Stream 7 Mitchell Stephens, Beyond News: The Fu - From Mobile Apps,” The New York Times , Dec. Of the new ventures, Boczkowski ture of Journalism (2014), p. xii. 15, 2013, p. BU3, http://tinyurl.com/nn7ksm7 . thinks most will fail — just as most 8 Dana Milbank, “Arianna Huffington’s ideo - 20 “Key Findings From U.S. Digital Marketing business startups do. Jurkowitz, too, logical transformation,” The Washington Post , Survey 2013,” Gartner for Marketing Leaders, thinks the odds of survival for any Feb. 9, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/p2wjtg7 . March 6, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/d4tqjfd . particular one are not necessarily high. 9 See Joe Pompeo, “The Huffington Post, nine 21 Background drawn in part from Stephens, “There’s going to be churn,” he says. years on,” Capital , May 8, 2014, http://tinyurl. A History of News (3d. ed.), 2007; Pablo J. For his part, though, McGuire shies com/n7spoh6 . Boczkowski, Digitizing the News: Innovation away from a bearish forecast. “People 10 “Jim Roberts Is Mashable’s Executive Editor in Online Newspapers (2004). are trying new things,” he says. and Chief Content Officer,” Mashable , Oct. 31, 22 Tim Berners-Lee, “Frequently asked ques - “It’s a golden age of media exper - 2013, http://tinyurl.com/qxc63xl . tions,” undated, http://tinyurl.com/b4zy79 (ac - 11 Derek Thompson, “The Facebook Effect imentation,” McGuire concludes. “I think cessed May 2014). See also Tim Berners-Lee, on News,” The Atlantic , Feb. 12, 2014, http:// Weaving the Web: The Original Design and that’s cool.” tinyurl.com/o7ev4jv . Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web (2000). 12 “State of the News Media 2014,” op. cit. 23 Boczkowski, op. cit. , p. 8. 13 Douglas Quenqua, “The Boy Wonder of 24 Estimate by the International Telecommu - Notes BuzzFeed,” The New York Times , Feb. 17, nications Union, a United Nations agency, 2013, p. ST1, http://tinyurl.com/bhprs3c . quoted by Jonathan Lynn, “Internet users ex - 14 Stephens, op. cit. , p. xxvi. pected to exceed 2 billion this year,” Reuters, 1 Ezra Klein, “How politics makes us stupid,” 15 Ben Smith, “Tweet Victory: How Twitter and Oct. 19, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/o37q7dz . , April 6, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ocdwzru. Vox Facebook will save journalism (mostly),” Play - 25 “State of the News Media 2012,” Pew Re - 2 Amy Mitchell, “State of the News Media 2014,” boy , January 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oxmxpah . search Center Project for Excellence in Jour - nalism, http://tinyurl.com/6rjxylx . 26 David Carr and Jeremy W. Peters, “Big Per - About the Author sonality and Behind-the-Scenes Executive Prove a Top Media Team,” The New York Times , Feb. Kenneth Jost has written more than 160 reports for CQ 8, 2011, p. B1, http://tinyurl.com/oxmq9rm . Researcher since 1991 on topics ranging from legal affairs 27 Arianna Huffington, “HuffPost Game Chang - and social policy to national security and international relations. ers: Your Picks for the Ultimate 10,” The Huff - He is the author of The Supreme Court Yearbook and Supreme ington Post , Nov. 19, 2009, http://tinyurl.com/ Court From A to Z (both CQ Press). He is an honors grad - ndx6on9 . 28 uate of Harvard College and Georgetown Law School, where David Carr, “Significant and Silly at Buz - he teaches media law as an adjunct professor. He also writes zFeed,” The New York Times, Feb. 6, 2012, p. B1, http://tinyurl.com/7utu8pb. the blog Jost on Justice (http://jostonjustice.blogspot.com). 29 Michael Liedtke, “New iPad app mines His previous reports include “Blog Explosion” and “Future of Web links for ‘social magazine,’ ” The Asso - Newspapers” (both 2006). ciated Press, July 21, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/ nu922ma . See also Richard McManus, “How

476 CQ Researcher Flipboard Was Created and its Plans beyond iPad,” readwrite , Oct. 6, 2010, http://tinyurl. com/nocht4l . FOR MORE INFORMATION 30 Claire Cain Miller, “Flipboard Introduces American Press Institute , 4401 Wilson Blvd., Suite 900, Arlington, VA 22203 ; an iPhone App for Killing Time Standing in 571-366-1200 ; www.americanpressinstitute.org . Journalism research and training or - Line,” Bits ( New York Times blog), Dec. 7, 2011, ganization founded in 1946 and affiliated with Newspaper Association of America http://tinyurl.com/ph8wgo8 . since 2012. 31 Ed Pilkington, “New media gurus launch Upworthy — their ‘super basic’ internet start - Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute , New York University, 20 Cooper Square, up,” The Guardian , March 26, 2012, http:// 6th floor, New York, NY 10003 ; 212-998-7980 ; www.journalism.nyu.edu . Graduate tinyurl.com/o3pzylx . program in journalism. 32 Pompeo, op. cit. ; Carr, “Significant and Silly MPA — The Association of Magazine Media , 757 Third Ave., 11th Floor, New at Buzzfeed,” op. cit. 33 York, NY 10017 ; 212-872-3700 ; www.magazine.org . Trade association for the mag - Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, “You Say azine industry, formerly known as Magazine Publishers Association. Goodbye and We Say Hello,” AllThingsD.com , Dec. 31, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/lxbpd4a . Newspaper Association of America , 4401 Wilson Blvd., Suite 900, Arlington, VA 34 “Economy Department with Ezra Klein,” 22203 ; 571-366-1000 ; www.newspapers.org . Trade association for the newspaper The Washington Post , June 11, 2009, http:// industry. tinyurl.com/medwqn . 35 Brian Stelter, “Times to Host Blog on Politics Online News Association ; http://journalists.org . Membership organization for and Polls,” The New York Times , June 4, 2010, digital journalists. p. B2, http://tinyurl.com/oqhcbjl . 36 Pew Research Center Journalism Project , 1615 L St., N.W., Suite 700, Wash - Noam Cohen and Quentin Hardy, “Snowden ington, DC 20036 ; 202-419-4300 ; www.journalism.org . Publishes annual reports — Journalist’s New Venture to Be Bankrolled by “State of the News Media.” eBay Founder,” The New York Times , Oct. 17, 2013, p. B1, http://tinyurl.com/q9etmuw . Tow Center for Digital Journalism , Columbia University Graduate School of 37 Brian Stelter, “Blogger for Times Is to Join Journalism, Pulitzer Hall, 6th floor, 116th St. and Broadway, New York, NY 10027 ; ESPN Staff,” The New York Times , July 20, 2013, 212-854-1945 ; www.towcenter.org . Institute established in 2012 to foster develop - p. B6, http://tinyurl.com/nympltn . ment of digital journalism. 38 Mossberg and Swisher, op. cit. ; and Brian Stelter, “Re/code: new site launched by All April 24, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k9m8exp ; website: innovative, inspiring,” Garcìa Media, ThingsD founders,” CNNMoney, Jan. 2, 2014, and Walt Hickey, “Where Cheerleading Ranks May 7, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/qfjam6w . http://tinyurl.com/lakbw9d . in Safety Among High School Sports,” Five 51 Dennis Romero, “Los Angeles Times Web - 39 Ravi Somaiya, “Top Wonkblog Columnist ThirtyEight.com , May 11, 2014, http://tinyurl. site Redesign Is Meh,” L.A. Weekly , May 6, 2014, to Leave Washington Post,” The New York Times , com/kjg7bxp . http://tinyurl.com/qcvm7xx . Jan. 22, 2014, p. B6, http://tinyurl.com/plhq4ar . 46 Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy 52 “Welcome to USA Today — again,” USA 40 David Carr, “A Big Hire Signals Web News Scahill, “Welcome to The Intercept,” The Inter - Today , Sept. 14, 2012, p. 1A. Is Thriving,” The New York Times , Jan. 27, 2014, cept , Feb. 10, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/m9bt2u5 ; 53 “USA Today regains national circulation lead,” p. B1, http://tinyurl.com/k58kx3k . and John Cook, “Passover Greetings from the USA Today , Oct. 21, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/ 41 Ibid. Editor,” The Intercept , April 14, 2014, http:// qzd5cj5 . 42 Leslie Kaufman, “Vox Takes Melding of tinyurl.com/puykfzf . 54 Joe Pompeo, “New York Times Completes Journalism and Technology to New Level,” 47 Richard Lyon, “First Look Media/The Inter - ‘Innovation Report’ by Sulzberger Scion,” The New York Times , April 7, 2014, p. B1, cept Appears to Be Stalled,” dailykos , April 14, Capital , May 8, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l2z5bds . http://tinyurl.com/ms97rhe . 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ntnehxo . Pompeo’s story includes this link to the re - 43 Joe Coscarelli, “Ezra Klein on Vox’s Launch, 48 “Business Model Evolving, Circulation Rev - port itself: http://tinyurl.com/q39y9wz (“Inno - Media Condescension, and Competing With enue Rising,” Newspaper Association of Amer - vation Study”). Wikipedia,” NewYork Magazine , http://tinyurl. ica, April 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kljkoj7 ; 55 David Carr, “Abramson’s Exit at The Times com/onw8plt . and Rick Edmonds, “Newspaper industry nar - Puts Tensions on Display,” The New York Times , 44 Nate Silver, “What the Fox Knows,” Five rowed revenue loss in 2013 as paywall plans May 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/odc557x . ThirtyEight.com , March 17, 2014, http://tiny increased,” Poynter, April 18, 2014, http://tinyurl. 56 Nate Silver, “FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecast: url.com/q6cduqb . com/mtj7vnv . GOP Is Slight Favorite in Race for Senate Con - 45 Nate Silver, “Are White Republicans More 49 Jim Conaghan, “Mobile-Exclusive Surges trol,” FiveThirtyEight.com , March 23, 2014 , http:// Racist Than White Democrats?” FiveThirty Among Young Adults,” Newspaper Associa - tinyurl.com/lskyb92 ; and Catalina Camia, “Sen - Eight.com , April 24, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ tion of America, April 28, 2014, http://tinyurl. ate Democrats Debunk Nate Silver’s GOP- k35qs6a ; Emily Oster, “Are Older Men’s com/o3t5w23 . favored Forecast,” On Politics (USA Today ), Sperm Really Any Worse?” FiveThirtyEight.com , 50 Mario R. Garcìa, “New Los Angeles Times March 24, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ommef5s .

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 477 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism , updated March 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/kd5gnun . Boczkowski , Pablo , Digitizing the News: Innovation in This comprehensive tutorial on digital journalism covers Online Newspapers , MIT Press , 2004 . major digital tools and trends; it includes embedded links to A professor and director of the Program in Media, Tech - a vast number of resources from a variety of research or - nology and Society at Northwestern University examines the ganizations, news media and scholars and experts. early days of electronic newspaper publishing. Includes de - tailed notes, bibliography. Packer , George , “Telling Stories About the Future of Journalism,” The New Yorker , Jan. 28, 2014 , http://tiny Boler , Megan , ed., Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics url.com/lqy682c . in Hard Times , MIT Press , 2008 . The article discusses Ezra Klein’s plan to launch a new digital A professor of the history and philosophy of education at the news site, Vox.com. University of Toronto examines, via essays by scholars, jour - nalists and activists, the role of digital media in creating new Scott , Ben , “A Contemporary History of Digital Journalism,” avenues for exploring truth and practicing media activism. Television and New Media , February 2005 , pp. 89-126 . The article traces the history of online journalism from its Palfrey , John , and Urs Gasser , Born Digital: Under - birth in the mid-1990s to a period of relative stabilization standing the First Generation of Digital Natives , Basic early in the 21st century. Books , 2008 . The authors explore philosophical and practical issues about Reports and Studies “digital natives,” children born into and raised in a digital world. Palfrey, head of school at Phillips Academy in An - “State of the News Media 2014,” Pew Research Jour - dover, Mass., was formerly executive director of Harvard Uni - nalism Project , March 26, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ versity’s Beekman Center on Internet and Society; Gasser is kk2opwy . a professor at Harvard Law School and current executive di - The annual report by the Washington-based research cen - rector of the Beekman Center. ter examines the growth and growing importance of digital news media. Stephens , Mitchell , Beyond News: The Future of Jour - nalism , Columbia University Press , 2014 . Grueskin , Bill , Ava Seaves , and Lucas Graves , “The Story A professor at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter In - So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital stitute argues that in the digital age there is a need for what Journalism,” Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Colum - he calls “wisdom journalism” – providing analysis and opin - bia University Graduate School of Journalism , May 2011 , ion along with fact-based reporting. Stephens also wrote A http://tinyurl.com/6aumlu3 . History of News (3d. ed., Oxford University Press, 2007). The 140-page comprehensive report examines the economics of digital journalism at for-profit news organizations. Usher , Nikki , Making News at The New York Times , University of Michigan Press , 2014 . Stencel , Mark , Bill Adair , and Prashanth Kamalakanthan , An assistant professor at George Washington University’s “The Goat Must Be Fed: Why digital tools are missing in School of Media and Public Affairs examines the inner work - most newsrooms: A report of the Duke Reporters’ Lab,” ings of The New York Times , including the tension between May 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/o8qkwd7 . print and digital content, based on unique access to the The 21-page report finds that newsrooms are slow in using Times’ newsroom from January to June 2010. digital tools to find and sift government information, analyze social media and crunch data. Articles On the Web Gapper , John , “Silicon Valley gets excited about a small story,” Financial Times , April 9, 2014 , http://tinyurl. “CJR’s Guide to Online News Startups,” Columbia com/l9uval8 . Journalism Review , http://tinyurl.com/l8b3xg7 (ac - Columnist Gapper questions the potential profitability of cessed May 2014 ). digital start-ups Vox.com and FiveThirtyEight.com. The site features a continually updated database of dig - ital news outlets across the country. Grabowicz , Paul , “The Transition to Digital Journalism,” Knight Digital Media Center, University of California-

478 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Going Mobile Blodget , Henry , “If Newspapers And Magazines Think Life Is Tough Now, They Won’t Want To See What Happens Banks , Tom , “LA Times looks to tell stories in a different Next. . .,” Business Insider , May 4, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/ way with new website,” Design Week (U.K.), May 8, 2014 , larjjfj . http://tinyurl.com/ktd9sp6 . A technology stock analyst-turned-journalist says the print The Los Angeles Times has launched a new mobile-first site media’s collapse in advertising and slashed budgets are just that offers features more suitable to a mobile screen, such the tip of the digital revolution iceberg. as geographically targeted local news, multidirectional nav - igation and browsing based on images instead of headlines. Doctor , Ken , “The newsonomics of newspapers’ slipping digital performance,” Neiman Journalism Lab , April 24, Hollahan , Terry , “Editor’s letter: Digital age brings new 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/om7cmud . focus for MBJ,” The Memphis Business Journal , May 13, For the first time, digital advertising revenue has surpassed 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/p7nupg4 . TV ad revenue, but digital advertising growth is slowing and The newspaper’s managing editor says the publication is becoming even more of a challenge for newspapers. going mobile to reach a larger audience and to adapt to a larger transition occurring in journalism. News & Social Media

Oppegaard , Brett , “How mobile devices are creating hyper - Peterson , Andrea , “Three charts that explain how U.S. local opportunities,” Poynter , May 14, 2014 , http://tiny journalists use social media,” The Washington Post , May 6, url.com/k3whzrd . 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/m2gxeko . A communication professor says mobile devices are creating Journalists are using social media to gather information, check opportunities for news outlets to cater to people in specific for breaking news, stay on top of recent developments in sto - locations, such as the website and phone app EveryBlock. ries, promote their work and check on what the competition is reporting, among other things, according to a report from Magazines the Indiana University school of journalism.

Kaufman , Leslie , “Jet Magazine to Shift to Digital Pub - Somaiya , Ravi , and Leslie Kaufman , “If a Story Is Viral, lishing Next Month,” The New York Times , May 7, 2014 , Truth May Be Taking a Beating,” The New York Times , http://tinyurl.com/lb79pcd . Dec. 9, 2013 , http://tinyurl.com/nq6qc5z . Jet is joining a number of other magazines, such as Ladies’ To gain more audience views, digital news sites are in - Home Journal and New York , that have recently reduced or creasingly reporting viral social media stories without fact- stopped print publication. checking them first.

Spence , Ewan , “Can The Future Of Digital Magazines Be Found In The History Of Podcasting?” Forbes , March 5, CITING CQ RESEARCHER 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/my6dpgf . Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography A technology writer and podcaster describes the difficul - ties magazines face when going digital. include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Yu , Roger , “Time Inc. spins off from Time Warner on June 6,” USA Today , May 9, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/mj2abr7 . MLA STYLE The Time Warner media company, which owns several Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. popular magazines, plans to spin off its magazine division 2011: 701-732. Time Inc. to protect the parent company from the falloff in print advertising. APA S TYLE Media Finances Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - searcher, 9 , 701-732. Benkoil , Dorian , “8 Lessons from the Financial Times’ HICAGO TYLE Digital Success,” PBS , May 6, 2014 , http://tinyurl.com/oz37r9a . C S A journalist says the Financial Times in London earns about Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , Sep - 35 percent of revenues from digital content and advertising, tember 2, 2011, 701-732. in comparison to 20 percent at The New York Times .

www.cqresearcher.com May 30, 2014 479 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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