NIEMAN REPORTS NIEMAN fall 2012 Vol. 66 No. 3 Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism Harvard University One Francis Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Nieman To promote and elevate the standards of journalism

VOL. 66 N o Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University . 3 FALL 2012

ion Age an Fellow on How Harvard’sNi Masterem of nInnovat the Internet eed i Tutors a Succ ia Can BE BE DISRUPTORTHE Med

ALSO in this issue Lessons From Fukushima Interview with Yoichi Funabashi

The Big Chill By Dan Froomkin FOUNDATION NIEMAN THE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY e The Magician’s Daughter h By Maggie Jones

Plus Howard Berkes on Covering the Olympics Bet Hedrick Smith’s ‘Who Stole the American Dream?’ Shirley Christian on ‘The Good Girls Revolt’

Clayton M. Christensen, disruptorHarvard Business School In This Issue

Clayton M. Christensen, left, of Harvard Business School; David Skok, right, a 2012 Nieman Fellow. Cover Story: Be the Disruptor Photos by John Soares. Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation provides a framework to understand how businesses grow, become successful, and falter as nimble start-ups muscle in on their customers. It’s a familiar story, one that has played out in the steel and auto industries, among others. Now Christensen, in collaboration with 2012 Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow David Skok, has applied his analysis to the news industry. Their goal in “Breaking News” is to encourage news executives to apply the lessons of disruption to the media industry as a means of charting new paths to survival and success. (For an audio interview with the co-authors, visit http://niemanlab.org/disruptor.)

4 Finding a Way Forward A journalism career launched amid industry turmoil inspired a course of study. By David Skok

6 Breaking News Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism. By Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth Vol. 66 No. 3 Fall 2012

In Every Issue

3 From the curator By Ann Marie Lipinski

watchdog project 41 The Big Chill Challenging times for national security reporters. By Dan Froomkin

Sounding 44 The Magician’s Daughter Her childhood secrets are nothing like yours. By Maggie Jones

books 46 Defying Gravity “Who Stole the American Dream?” by Hedrick Smith. Reviewed by Dan Froomkin 48 Waving, Not Drowning “The Art of Making Magazines” Clockwise from top left: Fukushima aftermath, page 21, photo by Daisuke Tomita/The Yomiuri edited by Victor S. Navasky and Shimbun via AP; on the presidential campaign trail, page 24, photo by Paul Schutzer/Time & Life Evan Cornog. Pictures/Getty Images; Grandpa and grandson, page 34, photo by Pam Spaulding; at the Olympics, Reviewed by James Geary page 28, photo by Jae C. Hong/AP. 50 The Fighter “The Algerian Memoirs” by Henri Alleg. Reviewed by Aboubakr Jamai 52 Good Girls Don’t Features “The Good Girls Revolt” by Lynn Povich. 21 Lessons From Fukushima Reviewed by Shirley Christian Interview with Yoichi Funabashi about the nuclear disaster. By Peter Behr 54 Un-American Activities “Subversives” by Seth Rosenfeld. 24 Truth and Consequences Reviewed by Todd Gitlin Reflections on the presidential campaign trail. By Adrienne LaFrance 56 Nieman Notes 28 Inside the Rings   Highs and lows of the 2012 London Olympics. By Howard Berkes 60 Heard at lippmann house Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica 32 An Ode to Readers’ Quirks Emboldened readers sometimes cross the line of propriety. By Kate Galbraith

34 Photo Essay: Developing Notions What will endure isn’t always immediately apparent. By Pam Spaulding “There is still hope for traditional  news organizations if we can make  some courageous choices and recognize

our own flaws.”—david skok, page 4

Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University www.niemanreports.org Vol. 66 No. 3 Fall 2012

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2 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 FROM THE CURATOR

Rising to the Challenge

Journalism is an escape artist. In this special issue of Nieman Reports, we examine that For the generation raised on Watergate, that lesson landed question through the eyes and research of one of Harvard’s hard. The most powerful men in the world could not shut a preeminent scholars, business school professor Clayton M. story down. They lied and conspired, then bullied the watch- Christensen. Christensen’s groundbreaking research on inno- dogs, but the facts prevailed, coaxed into daylight by journalists. vation and disruption, documented in his book “The Innova- I doubt I was the only teenage girl to draw special inspiration tor’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms from Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who to Fail,” has influenced some of the world’s most successful endured a thuggish threat from the Nixon administration and entrepreneurs. didn’t blink. How Christensen came to focus on the news industry is a “All that crap, you’re putting it in the paper? It’s all been story that underscores the fundamental promise of a Nieman denied,” former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell told Fellowship. When Canadian journalist David Skok arrived at reporter Carl Bernstein. “Katie Graham’s gonna get her tit Harvard last year, he joined 24 other journalists from around caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published.” the world in a tradition of study dating to 1938. But the The years following Watergate did not shake my belief in tremulous business environment in which he and other fellows journalism’s inevitability, even when journalists were slow operate has brought a new urgency to the work of the Nieman off the mark or challenged by the most extreme conditions. Foundation. I thought of this anew when the 2012 Nieman Fellows chose Skok knew of Christensen’s examination of industries their winner for the annual Louis M. Lyons Award for Con- ranging from education to health care and wondered: Why not science and Integrity in Journalism, named for the late Nieman layer the lessons onto the upheaval in journalism? Christensen curator. The honor went to Mohammed “Mo” Nabbous, founder agreed and the fruits of their collaboration are documented in of Libya Alhurra TV, who succeeded in bypassing government these pages and as an e-book found on the Nieman Reports blocks on the Internet in order to stream live footage and com- website. mentary about Libyan unrest. Their conclusions, Skok writes, will not alone eliminate the While disseminating those first images of the Muammar challenges that haunt modern media companies. Nor should el-Qaddafi regime’s clashes with rebels and attacks on civilians, their consumer-centric framework be confused as a substitute Nabbous was shot and killed. His wife announced his death on for the journalism of accountability. But the clear questions the very live stream that Nabbous had created. they pose—about culture, organization, habits and risk—are Journalism is an escape artist. provocative ones that can enlighten decisions in individual Bullets and political threats are not journalism’s only preda- news organizations and the industry more broadly. tors. The avarice and ignorance of some owners have played Without a business plan, Skok says, “there is no editorial their part. So too the fabulists and cheats who would lay low independence left to root for,” a truth from which there can be their newsrooms by breaking the trust. But the collapse of the no escape. business model that long sustained the industry has come to overshadow those worries. The fundamentals are broken and alternatives are uncertain. How does journalism escape this?

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 3 Be the cover story disruptor

Finding a Way Forward A Nieman Fellow engages the Harvard Business School’s master of innovation in a mission to save the news industry.

By David Skok

I have never known a time when increased competition. on strategy and innovation, Harvard journalism was just journalism or the I’m not alone. For many of today’s Business School professor Clayton M. only profit margins journalists wor- journalists, the idea of a church-and- Christensen. His disciples include Intel’s ried about were those belonging to the state separation between the editorial ex-CEO Andy Grove, New York City’s companies we reported on. and executive teams has always been an Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the late As a journalism intern at a sports aspiration not matched by reality. We Apple CEO Steve Jobs who, according to news radio station in Toronto in 2002, I spend our days reporting the news and Walter Isaacson’s biography, was heavily experienced my first taste of the business leading newsrooms while dreading the influenced by Christensen’s book “The realities facing my craft. Just four weeks inevitable wave of cutbacks that is regu- Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Tech- into my internship, the station’s manage- larly just one staff meeting or quarterly nologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.” ment, unable to compete in a saturated earnings report away. Having already tackled disruption market, went off the air, leaving dozens Across the industry, there are shock in technology, education and health of motivated, educated and talented waves being felt as audiences and adver- care, Christensen graciously obliged journalists looking for work. tisers flock to new platforms. Media my request to help tackle disruption in Months later when I was an intern at organizations have to adapt to a struc- journalism. Over a five-month period, “ABC News Nightline,” it faced cancella- tural, systemic shift in their once healthy Christensen, Forum for Growth and tion amid rumors that David Letterman business models, and, once again, it is Innovation Fellow James Allworth, and would take our late-night slot. the journalists who are feeling the brunt I systematically applied his theories to And finally, following the 2008 finan- of these changes. journalism. The goal was to establish a cial crisis, I watched as colleagues and It is frightening, but it is not terminal. framework for understanding what is mentors were laid off and news budgets There is still hope for traditional news taking place in the industry. While this were slashed after my newsroom’s parent organizations if we can make some cou- won’t provide immediate answers to the company, Canwest Global Communica- rageous choices and recognize our own financial pressures facing incumbent tions Corp., declared bankruptcy. flaws. There has always been and will news organizations, we hope it will Time and again, I have witnessed always be reporting so important to the provide a set of questions that news once mighty news institutions tackle functioning of society that no price tag managers can ask as they make strategic revenue challenges with cost-cutting can be placed on it. This fact makes it all decisions about their newsrooms. measures. These measures, in turn, the more urgent to meet today’s revenue Studying the news industry from a have worsened the revenue challenges, challenges. clinical perspective with my colleagues putting us in a downward spiral that has During my 2011-2012 Nieman fellow- at the Harvard Business School and sped up exponentially with the advent ship I had the great privilege of work- using the tools of analysis that have of new disruptive technologies and ing with the widely recognized expert been applied to industries as diverse as

4 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

David Skok found in his studies at Harvard Business School a new way to analyze what’s happening to the news business. Photo by John Soares.

manufacturing, technology and medicine dence to recognize that without sales instead to meet them on their own turf has been a challenging but rewarding and marketing, strategy, leadership and, by articulating a strategic vision for our experience. Having been liberated from first and foremost, revenues, there is no shared sustainable future, because if we my own journalistic impulses and biases, editorial independence left to root for. can’t make the business case for journal- I have come to the realization that while In his 1958 address to the Radio and ism, nobody else will. the technological disruptions facing our Television News Directors Association The culmination of our work is industry are 50 percent of the challenge; convention, Edward R. Murrow warned now available in the pages that follow the other 50 percent is on us. We have us not be “deluded into believing that and in e-book format on the Nieman failed to foster a newsroom culture that the titular heads of the networks control Reports website. Whether you work for rewards innovation and empowers the what appears on their networks. They all a successful mainstream newspaper, younger generation, that can readily have better taste. All are responsible to national broadcaster, city-sized daily, adapt to the new media world around stockholders, and … are honorable men. or an Internet news start-up, we hope us, and that is willing to experiment with But they must schedule what they can that our work gives you a new lens with the diversified revenue streams right in sell in the public market.” which to view the dramatic changes front of us. To use the oft-quoted phrase, My own experience has confirmed taking place in journalism. Beyond that, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Our that most executives are indeed honor- our even greater hope is that it will help traditional newsroom culture taken in able men and women, but I choose not guide your newsroom with a clearer path aggregate has blinded us from moving to beg for their permission to create the forward as you position yourselves for beyond our walls of editorial indepen- journalism that we aspire to. I choose journalism’s bright future.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 5 Be the cover story disruptor

Breaking News Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism

By Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth

Old habits die hard. This has happened before. Eighty- It happened with Japanese automak- Four years after the 2008 financial nine years ago, Henry Luce started Time ers: They started with cheap subcom- crisis, traditional news organizations as a weekly magazine summarizing the pacts that were widely considered a joke. continue to see their newsrooms shrink news. All 28 pages of the black-and- Now they make Lexuses that challenge or close. Those that survive remain mired white weekly were filled with advertise- the best of what Europe can offer. in the innovator’s dilemma: A false choice ments and aggregation. This wasn’t It happened in the steel industry, between today’s revenues and tomorrow’s just rewrites of the week’s news; it was where minimills began as a cheap, digital promise. The problem is a pro- rip-and-read copy from the day’s major lower-quality alternative to established found one: A study in March by the Pew publications—The Atlantic Monthly, The integrated mills, then moved their way Research Center’s Project for Excellence Christian Science Monitor, and the New up, pushing aside the industry’s giants. in Journalism showed that newspapers York World, to name a few. In the news business, newcomers have been, on average, losing print Today Time, with its print and online are doing the same thing: delivering a advertising dollars at seven times the properties, confronts the challenges product that is faster and more personal- rate they have been growing digital ad posed by the digital age, but reaches a ized than that provided by the bigger, revenue. global audience of 25 million. more established news organizations. Journalism institutions play a vital With history as our guide, it shouldn’t The newcomers aren’t burdened by the role in the democratic process and we are be a surprise when new entrants like expensive overheads of legacy organiza- rooting for their survival. But only the The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, tions that are a function of life in the old organizations themselves can make the which began life as news aggregators, world. Instead, they’ve invested in only changes required to adapt to these new begin their march up the value network. those resources critical to survival in the realities. This search for new business They may have started by collecting cute new world. All the while, they have cre- models remains elusive for most. pictures of cats but they are now expand- ated new market demand by engaging Executives interviewed in that Pew ing into politics, transforming from new audiences. report confirmed that closing the revenue aggregators into generators of original Because new-market disruptors gap remains a struggle. “There might content, and even, in the case of The like The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed be a 90 percent chance you’ll accelerate Huffington Post, winning a Pulitzer Prize initially attract those who aren’t tradi- the decline if you gamble and a 10 for its reporting. tional consumers of a daily newspaper percent chance you might find the new They are classic disruptors. or evening newscast, incumbent orga- model,” one executive explained in the Disruption theory argues that a con- nizations feel little pain or threat. The report. “No one is willing to take that sistent pattern repeats itself from indus- incumbents stay the course on content, chance.” try to industry. New entrants to a field competing along the traditional defini- But pursue it they must, or their establish a foothold at the low end and tion of “quality.” Once established at the organizations will be deemed irrelevant move up the value network—eating away market’s low end, the disruptors—by by news consumers. New entrants are at the customer base of incumbents—by producing low-cost, personalized and, already leaving their mark on journal- using a scalable advantage and typically increasingly, original content—move ism—stealing audiences and revenues entering the market with a lower-margin into the space previously held by the away from legacy organizations. profit formula. incumbents.

6 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

Clayton M. Christensen of Harvard Business School developed the theory of disruptive innovation. Photo by John Soares.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 7 Be the cover story disruptor

It is not until the disruption is in its final stages that it truly erodes the posi- tion of the incumbents. Part One

Another classic case of the innovator’s dilemma Always Consider So how can traditional news organiza- tions sustain themselves financially while remaining relevant to their audiences in The Audience First this rapidly changing landscape? Wait- ing for online advertising to materialize Despite what some marketers furniture store chains out there, has or hoping for a return to the old way of would have you believe, we don’t go IKEA been so successful? working is futile. The time for delay has through life conforming to particular A big part of it is that rather than passed: Newsrooms should embrace this demographic segments. While audiences being organized around particular disruption head-on and look for other are almost always broken down in such a products or demographic profiles, IKEA avenues within the value network that way, nobody goes out and buys a news- is structured around a job that many are ripe for growth and innovation. paper because he is an 18- to 25-year- consumers confront quite often as they Drawing on previous research, this old white male with a college degree. establish themselves and their families in article highlights three key areas for Those attributes of a consumer may be new surroundings: “I’ve got to get those in the news business to consider: correlated with a decision to purchase this place furnished tomorrow, because n First, we’ll provide a framework to and read one particular newspaper over I have to show up at work the next day.” understand what it is that audi- another, but they don’t actually cause IKEA has made a number of strategic ences value and where opportunities one to read or buy anything. decisions in order to best fulfill this job. exist for newsrooms to take advan- The problem is that too many news- For example, IKEA stores are often tage of this. rooms’ strategies are based around built in quite distant locations. This n Second, we’ll explain the impact of exactly this assumption—that their busi- might seem counterintuitive, but it disruption on traditional newsroom nesses can best be explained in terms enables IKEA to set up huge warehouses business models and suggest ways of key demographics, price points, or so that everything a customer needs to exploit other aspects of the value distribution platforms. can be purchased in one trip. IKEA network to increase revenues and Instead, a better way of thinking about offers same-day delivery; customers drive innovation. the business you’re in is through the might not be able to fit everything they n Finally, we’ll examine the role of lens of a theory that we call jobs-to-be- need in their cars, but they don’t want to culture and capabilities in an orga- done. The basic idea is that people don’t have to make multiple trips and nization and how best to manage go around looking for products to buy. can’t afford to wait until tomorrow for them. As the landscape changes, Instead, they take life as it comes and everything to arrive. Similarly, because capabilities and culture may need to when they encounter a problem, they look having children running around the change too—or they can become a for a solution—and at that point, they’ll store might distract them from liability in the new world. hire a product or service. remembering everything they need to A cautionary note: Due to the rapidly The key insight from thinking about buy, IKEA introduced day care facilities. changing media landscape, some of the your business this way is that it is the And in case you get hungry during your examples provided in presenting these job, and not the customer or the product, shopping trip, you don’t even need to frameworks may no longer be relevant. that should be the fundamental unit of leave the premises—every IKEA store These case studies are intended to analysis. This applies to news as much as has a restaurant. bring theory to life and convey timeless it does to any other service. Everything IKEA does revolves principles. The underlying ideas don’t To illustrate the importance of around doing the job of “I need this change, even if the facts in the case do. focusing on jobs-to-be-done, let us give apartment or home furnished, and I This article is targeted toward tradi- you an example in a totally different need it done quickly and efficiently.” tional news organizations that are being industry: the furniture store IKEA. It’s Let’s look at another example of a disrupted, but the issues we’ll tackle are been incredibly successful: The Swedish job—but this time, we will use one that relevant for all media companies (start- company has been rolling out stores all the media industry is more frequently up and legacy newsrooms as well as print, over the world for the last 50 years and called upon to fulfill. broadcast and digital operations) working has global revenues in excess of $32.6 David is in line for his morning coffee. to sustain journalism in the digital era. billion. So why, when there are so many He’s probably got 10 minutes while he

8 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 disruptive innovation

In 1925, two of the nation’s leading orators, William Jennings Bryan, above, and Clarence Darrow, faced off at the landmark Scopes trial about the teaching of evolution. Hundreds of newspaper reporters converged on Dayton, Tennessee but no account could rival a Chicago-based radio station’s real-time broadcast of the drama. It was the first trial in the U.S. to be carried live. Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick had bought the station at a time when other publishers fought to squash the new medium. McCormick, mindful of the potential synergies between radio and newspapers, had changed the call letters to WGN for “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 9 Be the cover story disruptor waits to order and be served. It’s going When Metro was first introduced, Asking the right questions to be wasted time so David pulls out his it didn’t try to compete head on with As managers think about what their smartphone. He opens up Twitter and the incumbent papers. In fact, for most news organization can do to thrive in a scans through his feed for an interesting high-end consumers of newspapers, it changing world, they must ask: article. A New Yorker article catches his is vastly inferior. Yet despite this, and n What is the job audiences want eye, he clicks on it, and starts reading. while virtually every newspaper has had done? Just as he finishes it, the barista calls his its readership decline as a result of the n What kinds of employees and name; his coffee is ready. explosion of information available on the structure does the company need so What we’ve described here is actually Internet, Metro now has over 67 daily it can fulfill that job-to-be-done? a huge job in the media market—“I have editions in 22 countries. n What is the best way to deliver that 10 minutes of downtime. Help me fill it How has it done it? Well, it has tar- information to audiences? with something interesting or entertain- geted the job that has arisen in David’s One way to figure out what jobs the ing.” David chose to hire Twitter, but he life. And it just so happens that every audience wants to be done is to look could have hired a newspaper that was day, millions of people around the world at what successful competitors have lying around the coffee shop. Or he could also have this exact job. accomplished and then ask what people have hired a game off the App Store. Or It’s much easier to understand the were trying to do when they hired the perhaps he could have started replying success of Metro when you view it competitor. Craigslist, for example, is a to his e-mail. through the lens of job-to-be-done. network of websites that feature gener- Understanding the world through The job of “help me fill the time” is a ally free online classified advertisements the lens of jobs-to-be-done gives us an widespread one, but folks who are on with sections devoted to jobs, housing, incredible insight into people’s behavior. their way home from a day at work are personals, items for sale, and so on. The Next time you’re sitting in a doctor’s focused on one thing: getting home site, founded in 1995, currently covers 70 office, watch all the people with exactly from work as quickly as they can. Until countries. Craig Newmark created Craig- this job: “I’ve got 10 minutes to kill; they get on that train, their willingness slist because he intuitively understood help me fill it.” Traditionally, the office to stop for anything—including to pay audiences’ frustration with classifieds would help patients fulfill this job by for a paper—is probably pretty low. in newspapers. If a consumer wanted to leaving magazines in the waiting room. However, hand them a paper without post a classified ad in a newspaper, he Nowadays, many patients find this job asking them to pay for it, and chances had to pay (usually by the line) for a list- is better fulfilled by their smartphones are, they’ll take it from you. With ing that might be buried between dozens or iPads—allowing them to curate and that in mind, the Metro was made a of similar entries. It was frustrating for read the articles and websites that are of “freesheet”—the cost of producing it buyers and sellers to find a match. It interest to them, rather than relying on is subsidized entirely by advertising wasn’t easy to search. You’d have to put the office manager’s taste in magazines. from businesses hoping to target com- your phone number in the listing, and Before the smartphone, magazines were muters. The stories are intentionally you’d often get calls even after the sale popular because they were competing made short, punchy and easy to read. had taken place. And, in a digital world, almost entirely with non-consumption: The aim? Allow readers to complete it was slow—ads would take a day or if patients didn’t pick up the magazines, the paper (and expose them to all the more to post. Craigslist has been hugely they were left sitting there with noth- ads) within 20 minutes—which Metro successful because it does a better job ing to do. But compared to a random worked out was the average time spent than traditional news organizations of magazine, getting to read what they’re on a train commute home. With a tra- providing classifieds by making listings interested in on their portable device is a ditional newspaper, a copy left behind easily discoverable, by making it easy vastly superior choice. on a seat means the next reader gets it to hide your e-mail address, and by Similarly, the job of “I have 10 for free, depriving the paper of revenue. allowing consumers to post for free in minutes to spare. Help me fill it with In contrast, a Metro reader who picks real time. something interesting or entertaining” up a copy left behind has just saved the Another way is to simply watch arises on David’s commute home when newspaper the cost of distributing one people and get a deep understanding he’s on the subway. He finished his New more paper. By targeting the job-to-be- of how they live their lives. Both Apple Yorker article from this morning, but done, Metro has dramatically bucked co-founder Steve Jobs and Akio Morita, unfortunately, Twitter isn’t an option the trend of declining circulation. co-founder of Sony Corp., were famous now because his cell phone doesn’t work This is just one very simple example for disparaging market research. Part of underground. At this point, for millions of a job that arises multiple times in the reason is that too often, consumers of commuters all around the world, one pretty much everyone’s life every day. are unable to articulate exactly what it name pops into their heads: Metro. So how can you find these jobs? is they are looking for, their thinking

10 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

constrained by the solutions that already to arise, then you’d probably be willing cameras that used to cost five fig- exist in the market. The approach Morita to put up with it. But if an unexpected ures. These new cameras take photos took at Sony? “Our plan is to lead the opportunity for a photo arose, then that are vastly superior to a point- public with new products rather than chances are you probably didn’t have and-shoot, and they continue to get ask them what kind of products they your camera with you. cheaper, smaller and easier to carry. want. The public does not know what Given the fact that the job of captur- Usage statistics released by the photo- is possible, but we do.” This idea might ing a moment would arise in consumers’ sharing website Flickr demonstrate the seem contrary to how many large media lives whether they had their camera appeal of cameras at the low and high businesses are run—but it can be hugely with them or not, many people found ends of the market, with the point-and- valuable in generating insight for new themselves increasingly hiring the shoot losing ground. The most popular business opportunities. cameras on their phones. Manufacturers cameras for posting photos on Flickr Successful companies understand realized this, and sales of phones and are smartphone cameras. And the most the jobs that arise in people’s lives other devices that had a camera in them popular non-smartphone camera on and develop products that do the jobs exploded. This, in turn, enabled manu- Flickr isn’t a point-and-shoot, but rather perfectly. And if a company does this, facturers to significantly narrow the the Canon EOS 5D Mark II—a high-end customers will instinctively “pull” the photo quality gap between their products digital SLR. product into their lives whenever that and point-and-shoot cameras. While the middle-of-the-road point- job arises. But what has really turned the and-shoot was once the best solution screws on the point-and-shoot camera for the job given most peoples’ budgets, The jobs are consistent—it’s the is the other part of the job that consum- that is no longer true. As the technology products that change ers hire the devices for—sharing. Photos has evolved, alternatives have come to What’s very interesting about the jobs taken on smartphones and other media market that are better able to fulfill the that consumers want done is that they devices can now be instantly uploaded job of consumers. As long as the point- are consistent over time. As industries to online services such as Facebook, and-shoot manufacturers continue to are disrupted, different products emerge Instagram and Twitter. You don’t have compete against each other rather than that are better able to complete the job— but the job stays the same. The camera market is a great Successful companies understand the jobs that arise example. The success of digital point- in people’s lives and develop products that do the jobs and-shoot cameras was driven by them addressing a job that frequently occurred perfectly. And if a company does this, customers will in consumer’s lives: “I want to capture instinctively ‘pull’ the product into their lives. this moment, and share it.” Given most peoples’ budgets, digital point-and-shoot cameras fulfilled the job quite well, to go home, plug the camera in, and refocus on the job that their product particularly in comparison to their film- download the photos so you can then gets hired to do, we predict their market based forebears. upload them to share on the Internet share will continue to erode. However, competitors who are better or over e-mail. You can do it instantly, focused on the job that people hire right from the device. The eroding ‘middle ground’ cameras for are now killing the digital Now, there are still going to be those for news point-and-shoot camera. times when we know the job will arise, As with cameras, journalism’s “middle Five years ago, cameras on smart- and we’re not satisfied with the quality ground” has eroded as new products phones, music players, and other small that a phone camera will take. These have appeared at either end of the multipurpose devices were vastly inferior are the times when we would have market for news and information. At to most digital point-and-shoot cam- hired a digital point-and-shoot for the the low end, products and services like eras. However, the cameras on these job. But in this instance, the point- Metro and Twitter are serving consum- devices had one big advantage: You and-shoot camera has been squeezed ers whose need is simply “Help me fill would almost always have one of them from the other direction—by a drop this 10 minutes right now.” If you were to with you. While digital point-and-shoot in the price of digital SLR cameras look at the market only by industry seg- cameras were quite small, they were still and the emergence of mirrorless ment, you’d think that Twitter’s key com- bulky enough that you would think twice interchangeable lens cameras. Today, petitor is Facebook. However, we would about carrying one in your pocket. If you for three figures, you can purchase a argue that far from just competing with knew a moment for a photo was going camera that is more sophisticated than Facebook, Twitter is also competing with

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 11 Be the cover story disruptor news and media organizations in fulfill- ing jobs that millions of people around the world have every day. Part Two At the other end of the spectrum, for the job of “I will be in an airplane or on a train for four hours, and I want to When Times Change, be intellectually stimulated,” sites like Longreads and tools like Instapaper and Pocket (formerly Read It Later)—the latter Change Your Business of which now boasts more than 5 million users—are enabling users to find and save The disruption of the news ecosys- money from record sales collapsed longer-form storytelling for offline view- tem has exploded what was once an with the advent of Napster and later ing. These tools strip out ads, creating a integrated, closed workflow. News iTunes and Spotify, it was an unexpected visually appealing, consistent and custom- organizations used to control the gather- source—concert tours—that resulted in ized equivalent of a weekend newspaper or ing, packaging, distribution and sale of revenue growth. Live performance ticket a periodical. And they aren’t just compet- the news product. Today, journalism is a sales and merchandise were once viewed ing against other apps and websites, but disintegrated and open process. more as a marketing exercise to increase against an airline’s in-flight entertainment While these disruptions can collec- sales of albums; they are now considered system, The New Yorker, or a book. tively seem like a terrifying transition a key source of revenue. The Internet-led Ultimately, when a company gets it for incumbents, they have also created a disruption meant that value accrued in right, audiences will reward them for wealth of opportunities that are wait- a different part of the value network; as satisfying a job they have in their life. ing to be exploited by these very same album revenues declined, “360 deals,” As managers at media organizations organizations. News organizations which enable record labels to make consider instituting changes to their should challenge their own assumptions revenue not just on albums but also on business model—perhaps by charging for by looking beyond their existing business tours and merchandise, have become content that they previously freely pro- models for new ways of finding value. more common. vided online—they should ask whether To give an analogy from a totally Most traditional news organizations their organization is doing such an different industry: IBM started out as a operate a value chain that is made up outstanding job of satisfying consumers’ hardware and software company, but fac- of three distinct parts. First, there is needs that consumers will pay for their ing a continuing decline in revenue from the newsgathering; this comprises all content. This is particularly the case if its products as new competitors entered, the resources and processes required to you’re in a commoditized space where the company shifted its focus to profes- collect, write, shoot, edit, produce and other organizations are providing very sional services. Today, IBM is primarily package news and information. Second, similar content for free. In addition, it’s a solutions-based consulting company. there is the distribution of the product; critical to avoid falling into the trap of Faced with disruption, IBM completely this encompasses all the ways that news believing that you can charge for content redefined itself, moving away from its fad- organizations get their content into the just because it costs money to produce. ing traditional businesses and leveraging hands of the audience. Third, there is Instead, the content must be so the expertise of its people to capitalize on the selling of the news; this part includes compelling that users will pay for it. This a different opportunity in the market. not only sales and subscriptions but also requires targeting the right jobs. Like IBM, news organizations should advertising and marketing. Once managers establish what jobs look to shift their focus away from busi- consumers want done, a series of new ness models oriented around integrated, Gathering the news questions arises for managers: How can closed ecosystems and embrace new Before taking a closer look at where to they improve their existing products so opportunities that the disintegrated, find opportunities in newsgathering, they perform the job better than any open system has made available. News the overall state of newsgathering and other competitor? What existing prod- organizations should look for new busi- consumption needs to be assessed. Today, ucts are no longer competitively viable ness lines that leverage existing news- more news is created and consumed than in serving customers’ jobs-to-be-done room assets to satisfy jobs-to-be-done. ever before. Search engines, aggregators, and should be cut? And finally: What These assets can be found by looking blogs and social media are just some of new products could be introduced that closely at all of their operations. the avenues for audiences to consume address a different job-to-be-done for Again, to take an example from and create information. Add in satellite their audience—or perhaps a new audi- another field: When the music industry’s radio, over-the-top digital boxes, smart- ence altogether? traditional business model of making phones and tablets, and it’s apparent that

12 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

disruptive innovation

In 1980, when the three major TV networks devoted only 30 minutes to the evening news, Ted Turner bet on a much bigger appetite for current events. He launched Cable News Network (CNN), the nation’s first 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, all-news network. Its watershed moment arrived in 1991 when it provided the only live TV coverage of the start of the first Persian Gulf War. The live footage of the bombings, picked up by stations and networks around the world, was seen by one billion viewers. Today, CNN International is available in more than 200 countries. Photo by T. Michael Keza for The New York Times.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 13 Be the cover story disruptor news and information are everywhere in Jim Moroney, publisher and CEO of Newsweek (-52%), experienced in the abundance and, increasingly, free. The Dallas Morning News, calls PICA: U.S. during the same period. This information is also available Perspective, Interpretation, Context and Internet start-ups have curated across borders. No longer does an Amer- Analysis. This type of newsgathering content successfully for years. The most ican news organization hold a monopoly requires identifying the organization’s well-known example is The Huffington over international news coverage enter- main areas of focus, in particular beats Post. Launched in 2005, the site began ing the U.S. market. Author and X Prize or verticals, and then aligning more as an aggregator of content from around Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis put reporters, columnists and editors to the Web, including article summaries it succinctly when he observed that a these subject areas. from traditional news organizations. Kenyan on a smartphone has access to Bill Simmons, sports columnist for Acquired last year by AOL for $315 more information than Bill Clinton had ESPN, became a household name for million, it is now one of the most as president. In the past, people who sports fans across North America inter- popular news sites in the United wanted intensive news coverage of Egypt ested in his musings on Boston sports States, attracting 38 million unique had to subscribe to an Egyptian news- teams, basketball and pop culture. It visitors in September. paper or buy an expensive satellite dish. wasn’t the sports scores that drove audi- Along with curation, newsrooms can Today, Egyptian news is available at our ences to ESPN.com (you could get those create value by bringing into their fold fingertips. When the Arab Spring upris- anywhere); it was Simmons’s perspec- contributors who complement their own ings took place in 2011, the Qatar-based tive, interpretation, context and analysis editorial strengths in particular subjects. news network Al Jazeera reported that that made him arguably one of the most This isn’t just about publishing stories by traffic to its English-language website, popular sports bloggers in the world. subject experts, but about building net- where a live stream of its broadcast was Focusing on particular specialties also worked communities around those ideas. available, increased by 2,500 percent— frees up the editorial team to identify Take the example of Forbes magazine. with up to 60 percent of the traffic and organize relevant content from Executives at Forbes understand that coming from the United States. around the news ecosystem. Curation you cannot run a news business and The wealth of information available lowers production costs by having produce quality content in the digital almost instantaneously has lowered the newsrooms concentrate more on dis- era with a cost structure built for ana- value of the general interest news story covering, fact checking, and aggregating log times. The biweekly publication’s such that it’s often less than the cost of information. Aggregation or “linking to website has changed the traditional production. General interest and break- your competitors” may be viewed as anti- role of the editor. Editors still manage ing news reporting comprised of answer- thetical to the values of traditional news staff reporters but their working rela- ing the “who, what, when and where” has organizations, but it doesn’t have to be. tionship with freelancers has changed. become commoditized. It cannot create Some traditional news organizations Instead of giving them assignments and enough value to sustain a news organiza- have achieved great success by curating editing their stories, editors now man- tion in the long term. content from around the news ecosystem age a network of roughly 1,000 con- The value for news organizations now and presenting it in a meaningful story- tributors—authors, academics, freelance increasingly lies in providing context line. The Week, founded in the United journalists, topic experts, and business and verification—reporting the “how, Kingdom in 1995, draws from over 1,000 leaders, all focused around particular why and what it means”—and facilitat- media sources from around the world to subjects of interest—who post their own ing communities around that news and offer a balanced perspective on the issues stories and are accountable for their own information. of the week—all in a concise, readable individual metrics. According to Lewis Consider a 2011 survey by video solu- package. According to figures compiled DVorkin, chief product officer at Forbes, tions company Magnify.net that asked by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, The 25 percent of the content budget is now a group of individuals to describe how Week has seen steady growth. At a time dedicated to contributors, who wrote a they felt about their incoming informa- of tremendous upheaval in the maga- total of nearly 100,000 posts last year. tion stream when they were connected to zine industry, the weekly has expanded, With a focus on niche subjects and the Internet. Over two-thirds of respon- printing local editions in North America a network of bloggers who write posts dents (72.7 percent) described their data and Australia. Between 2003 and 2011, and curate work on these subjects from stream as “a roaring river, a flood, or a the U.S. edition of The Week enjoyed a other publications, Forbes attracts new massive tidal wave.” Most respondents circulation gain of 197 percent. That per- contributors and facilitates conversation said the information coming at them had centage increase was bigger than what across the network, driving more traf- grown by at least 50 percent from the other news-oriented weekly magazines, fic to the company’s sites. As DVorkin previous year. including The Economist (+93%), The describes it, “Talented people want to Clearly, there is a need for what New Yorker (+10%), Time (-19%), and belong to a respected network, and

14 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

that’s what we’ve built and continue to leverage this scale before they lose their cost of producing the content is already build.” This new system has resulted competitive advantage. absorbed by the core business. And to in a network effect whereby contribu- While news consumption is on the those worried about cannibalization, tors generate their own loyal followings rise, consumption patterns are changing: we would say: If a company is going to under the Forbes umbrella. In one year, instead of reading entire magazines and cannibalize your business, you’ll almost Forbes doubled the number of unique newspapers or watching nightly news always be better off if that company is visitors to its website. Referrals from broadcasts straight through to the end, your own, instead of a competitor. social networks rose from 2 percent to 15 technology is now enabling audiences to percent of the traffic to Forbes’s digital consume individual articles and news Equipment. Equipment that isn’t being properties, and search engine traffic segments à la carte. used to full capacity is a missed oppor- increased from 18 percent to 32 percent Capitalizing on these shifting con- tunity for revenue. News organizations of the total traffic. sumption habits requires thinking cre- typically have excellent large-scale pro- Every newsroom’s reporting strengths atively about new distribution models. duction capabilities, such as high-quality will be unique, and the challenge is for One way to attract a fragmenting color printing presses and multi-camera, the news manager to assess a newsroom’s audience is by experimenting with professionally lit studios. Yet as circula- unique strengths. If the strength is local innovative customer value propositions. tion and ratings have fallen, many of these facilities are sitting dormant or, in some cases, being sold or decommis- The question of how best to survive in the new world will sioned. It makes sense for news organi- not be answered by hoping for a return to the past. … zations to look outside the company for ways to generate revenue from unused And to those worried about cannibalization, we or underutilized equipment. Potential would say: If a company is going to cannibalize your customers for services include market- business, you’ll almost always be better off if that ing and client-service firms that want to company is your own, instead of a competitor. produce high-quality brochures, com- mercials, branded entertainment, and other materials. reporting, how can the newsroom derive A consumer may find it difficult to justify The Dallas Morning News invested more value from its content? How can it the purchase price for each of a num- in new technology and expanded its expand local reporting capabilities? How ber of publications, but a subscription commercial printing business, which can the newsroom develop innovative package that gives a consumer access now makes up 5 to 10 percent of its products and applications—and how can to magazines from multiple outlets is parent company’s total revenue. As more it do this while reducing the cost? a compelling and unique proposition. companies outsource printing jobs, that The recently launched Next Issue tablet figure is expected to rise. According to Distributing the news app, a collaboration between Time Inc., news industry analyst Ken Doctor, com- In stepping back to see where new value Condé Nast, and three other major mercial printing is a good business to can be created, the next area that news magazine publishers, is an interesting be in because it usually has a fairly high organizations can address is the mecha- example. For a flat fee, a subscriber gets profit margin. nisms used to deliver their products. all-you-can-read access to more than 40 Another way to increase revenue is to Managers may look to exploit the scale of magazines, including People, Fortune, make full use of distribution channels. distribution and the equipment used to Sports Illustrated, Time, Vanity Fair, and The Dallas Morning News doesn’t deliver distribute the content. Condé Nast Traveler. only the Morning News to the doorsteps This may be the right approach for of Dallas residents. As Doctor wrote in a Scale. News organizations retain a unique these companies and their audiences. Or column for the Nieman Journalism Lab, value proposition because they can still it may not be. However, the question of “You won’t find a Morning News thrower achieve an enviable scale of distribution. how best to survive in the new world will with a single paper; they toss USA Today, Even in today’s fragmented media world, not be answered by hoping for a return The Wall Street Journal, The New York a weekly magazine, evening newscast, or to the past. Instead, now is the time for Times, and a couple other titles.” a daily newspaper can still touch the lives news managers to aggressively experi- If a television station or a newspaper of hundreds of thousands of people both ment with new distribution efforts. Syn- is already paying to get their content over within their communities and, thanks dication and partnership initiatives can the airwaves or to a doorstep, managers to the Internet, around the world. It is be pursued with only a minimal increase should think about how they can leverage important for news organizations to in the costs of distribution because the distribution infrastructure such as deliv-

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 15 Be the cover story disruptor ery trucks and fiber optic lines to generate aging their employees to experiment in revenue from event sponsorships this value beyond their existing chain. with the “digital agency” concept, in year, plus attendee income. which news organizations act as online Selling the ‘news’ marketers and provide training and Long-Tail Repurposing. When news We put quotation marks around the word consulting services for local businesses. organizations think about selling their “news” here because managers need to These services can include copyediting content, they traditionally focus on think differently about what “news” is and showing a business how to set up a short-term prospects. But digital content if they are to find ways to generate new website, use social media, and produce never disappears. It can be repurposed, revenue. New opportunities can become professional advertisements. repackaged and re-sold in different apparent when managers change their This would bring news organizations formats. Whether in video and story perspective about a news organization’s closer to their communities, foster more archives, e-books or research packets for role and its standing in the community. relationships, and boost the potential academic case studies, news organiza- What can sales and marketing teams do for additional revenues in traditional tions should think about how to create to create additional value? Consulting advertising. It will, however, need to value from their content beyond the services, event marketing, and long-tail be done in a way that doesn’t erode the daily or weekly news cycle. repurposing are three possibilities. news organization’s editorial integrity. Following the arrest of Boston The agency’s operation must be kept gangster James “Whitey” Bulger after Consulting Services. There is now a separate from newsgathering. 16 years on the run, The Boston Globe market in the private sector for skilled released three of its investigative reports journalists and sales representatives who Events. News organizations are fre- about the accused murderer as e-books. can provide consulting services for retail, quently well positioned to host events The stories were pulled from its archives. social networking, and entertainment that bring diverse communities together Jeff Moriarty, the Globe’s vice president companies, among others. The Society around shared interests and ideas. of digital products told the Poynter of Digital Agencies noted this shift in its Revenue can come from admission fees Institute’s Jeff Sonderman that the only most recent annual state of the industry as well as corporate sponsorships. expense was hiring a vendor to format report. The survey of marketers and digi- The nonprofit Texas Tribune, a news and submit the books to Amazon and tal agencies showed that 66 percent plan website that focuses on statewide issues, other digital bookstores. He said the production costs were recouped within a few days through e-book sales. Managers need to think differently about what ‘news’ is if they are to find ways to generate new revenue. We have described some of the places that news organizations can look to see New opportunities can become apparent when where new value can be extracted. There managers change their perspective about a news is no one-size-fits-all model, and we do organization’s role and its standing in the community. not expect that every example will work for all organizations. However, managers should think about how they can capital- increases in spending on earned and has made events a cornerstone of its ize independently on their assets. Having owned media, such as blogs, corporate revenue plan—and the early reports look an entrepreneurial mindset is critical to websites, and social media. When asked good. As Andrew Phelps reported for the finding success in this new world. what would get increased priority in Nieman Journalism Lab, the Tribune Once managers generate ideas about 2012, for instance, 61 percent said con- began by hosting more than 60 free how the company can outperform com- tent creation like blogs, and 57 percent public events attracting leading politi- petitors in creating experiences that said mobile Web development. cians, large audiences, and hundreds of fulfill consumers’ jobs-to-be-done and According to Jay Rosen, a professor thousands of dollars in corporate spon- find new revenue within the value net- of journalism at New York University, sorships. Last fall, the Tribune hosted its work, they must face the final and most “Every company is a media company first paid event; The Texas Tribune Fes- difficult step in embracing disruption: now.” But, while technology has enabled tival was a weekend of talks and discus- implementing changes inside their orga- everyone to become a journalist or brand sions aimed at activists, policy makers, nization. Pogo, the star of the Walt Kelly marketer online, not everyone has the and others invested enough in politics comic strip, sized up this challenge when skills or tools to satisfy an audience. and current affairs to pay $125 for a he said, “We have met the enemy and it is News organizations can capitalize on ticket. Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith us.” It is no small task to get employees to this need. They might consider lever- told the Lab that he expects $900,000 change how they think and work.

16 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

ucts to push with advertisers and which to de-emphasize. In the editorial realm, Part Three they can include story selection and the assigning of newsgathering resources. At the executive tiers, they often take the Build Capabilities form of decisions to invest or not in new products, services and processes. Different companies, of course, For a New World embody different priorities. As compa- nies add features and functions to their For many years, the systems and Processes. The second factor that affects products and services to capture more processes used to gather, distribute and what a company can and cannot do is attractive customers in premium tiers of sell the news worked well. And in most its processes. By processes, we mean the their markets, they often add cost. As a respects they still do. It is a marvelous patterns of interaction, coordination, result, what once were attractive margins sight to witness a newspaper brought to communication and decision-making for the company become unattractive. If, life or a newscast on air, 24 hours a day, employees use to transform resources into for example, a company’s cost structure seven days a week. Those systems were products and services of greater value. requires it to achieve margins of 40 designed precisely for that process. But One of the management dilemmas is percent, then a priority or decision rule what was once an advantage has become that processes, by their very nature, are will have evolved that encourages middle an albatross. The disruption taking place set up so that employees perform tasks managers to kill ideas that promise in newsrooms requires a new approach in a consistent way, time after time. Pro- gross margins below 40 percent. Such built on experimentation. cesses are meant not to change or, if they an organization would be incapable How does a newsroom’s culture need must change, they do so through tightly of commercializing projects targeting to change on an organizational level? controlled procedures. When people low-margin markets—such as those And how can those newsroom capabili- use a process to perform the task it was we’ve listed in this article—even though ties be used to embrace and even initiate designed for, it is likely to be efficient. another organization’s priorities, driven disruptive change? But when the same process is used to by a very different cost structure, might tackle a very different task, it is likely facilitate the success of the same project. Understanding Capabilities to perform sub-optimally. Newsrooms For example, sales teams whose There are three factors that affect focusing on producing a television news- bonuses are based on achieving specific what an organization can and cannot cast, for example, often prove inept at goals are often more motivated to sell a do: its resources, its processes, and its developing a digital strategy because the traditional broadcast or print advertise- priorities. Each factor is clearly defined second task entails a very different way ment, where the margins are higher, below. When thinking about innovation of working, relying heavily on the written than a digital advertisement. Given the and how a newsroom might be able to word and immediate deadlines—instead priorities outlined by management, it is embrace it, managers need to assess how of verbal scripts and fixed broadcast unrealistic to expect these sales teams to each of these factors might affect their times. In fact, a process that makes it pursue digital pennies when approaching organization’s capacity to change. easy to execute a particular task often is agencies and advertisers. Yet the long- a hindrance to executing other tasks. term value of digital revenue is critical to Resources. When asking the question the sustainability of the organization, and “What can this news organization do?” Priorities. The third factor that affects failing to develop sales team capabilities the place most managers look for the what an organization can and cannot in this area will weaken the organization’s answer is in its resources—both the do is its priorities. We define an orga- competitiveness over time. tangible ones, like people, equipment, nization’s priorities as the standards technologies and budgets, and the less by which employees decide whether As successful companies mature, tangible ones, like relationships with an activity is attractive or unattract- employees gradually begin to assume third-party vendors and advertising ive—whether the activity is a story, an that the processes and priorities that agencies. Without a doubt, access audience demographic, or an idea for have worked in the past are the right to abundant, high-quality resources a new product. Prioritization decisions ones for the future. Once employees increases an organization’s chances of are made by employees at every level, operate under these assumptions rather coping with change. But the resource whether consciously or not. Among than making conscious choices, those analysis doesn’t come close to telling the salespeople, they consist of on-the-spot, processes and priorities come to consti- whole story. day-to-day decisions about which prod- tute the organization’s culture.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 17 Be the cover story disruptor

One of the most common complaints be charged with assuming personal the company should spin the project out made by newsroom executives today is responsibility for the success of his part as a new organization. the difficulty in changing the newsroom of the project. For every key element of News Corp.’s entry into the tablet culture to adapt to a digital world. When the strategy, there should be one person’s space is an example of this spin-out attempting to change an organization’s name beside it. At The New York Times, approach. Despite having many well- culture, the starting point is the task that for example, the boundaries around the known brands—including Fox News, you’re trying to do, not the process or groups within its newsroom’s digital The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, culture. This is because processes and pri- development team were historically and the New York Post—News Corp.’s orities are a response to recurring tasks. defined as serving the needs of reporters management identified the consumption and editors. When the Times decided it of news on tablets as a disruptive innova- Changing the processes and needed to focus on experimental online tion for their traditional news proper- priorities, one task at a time journalism, it created a new cross-disci- ties. As a result, News Corp. decided to Processes are not nearly as flexible or pline team to do so. create a separate unit for an iPad-only adaptable as resources are, and priori- This team inside the Times was newspaper, The Daily. To thrive in the ties are even less so. In order to instill designed to incorporate the skills of tablet market, News Corp. needed to be the processes and priorities required to software developers directly into the comfortable with lower gross margins address disruptive innovation, managers processes of producing stories. As and a smaller market than its traditional must create a new organizational space digital editor Aron Pilhofer described it newspapers commanded. The company where these tasks can be developed. in New York magazine, “The proposal needed to be patient for growth, but There are several possible ways to do was to create a newsroom: a group of impatient for profits. this, including: developers-slash-journalists, or journal- As of October 2011, the Daily had n Creating new capabilities internally ists-slash-developers, who would work 80,000 paying subscribers and an in which new processes can be on long-term, medium-term, short-term average of 120,000 readers weekly; developed; journalism [projects].” This team would these numbers stack up well against the n Spinning out an independent “cut across all the desks,” overriding digital editions of some established print organization from the existing old processes as the newsroom evolved. brands. The New Yorker, for example, organization and developing within Developers were made full members of had 26,880 iPad-only subscribers as it the new processes and priorities the news team and given responsibility of that month, according to Ad Age. If required to satisfy new tasks; or as such; they were encouraged to col- the Daily had the same cost structure n Acquiring a different organization laborate with reporters and editors, not as its traditional print counterparts, with processes and priorities that merely wait for assignments. its prospects of getting to profitability closely match the requirements of This new team is now known as would be remote indeed. But with a the new task. the Interactive Newsroom Technolo- totally different approach, the likelihood gies group, and it continues to create of it reaching profitability is far greater, Creating new capabilities internally. Old new processes so the Times can more and it continues to experiment with its organizational boundaries, established quickly develop better products around business model to reach this goal. to facilitate traditional ways of working, data journalism and innovative visual Given that a young upstart may often impede the creation of new pro- storytelling, rather than simply posting cannibalize the company’s traditional cesses. A print newsroom, where people old-world newspaper articles online. business, it is critical that such a project have habitually filed stories for one have high-level support and be inde- medium, will have a hard time changing Creating capabilities through a spin-out pendent from normal decision-making the workflow to accommodate new tasks. organization. Economic pressures make processes. Projects that are inconsistent Managers need to pull the relevant peo- it difficult for large organizations to with a company’s existing profit model ple out of the existing organization and allocate the critical financial and human will naturally be accorded the lowest draw a boundary around a new group. resources needed to build a strong posi- priority or, worse yet, face hostility from New team boundaries can facilitate new tion in small, emerging markets. And the legacy business. Having a separate patterns of working together that can it is very difficult for a company whose workspace for the spinout organization ultimately coalesce as new processes. cost structure is tailored to compete can be helpful, but what’s most impor- Teams should be entirely dedicated in high-end markets to be profitable tant is that a disruptive start-up not be to the new tasks assigned to them. The in low-end markets as well. When a placed at the mercy of the old organiza- members—whether physically located company’s priorities render it incapable tion—which might see the upstart as a together or not—should have a separate of allocating resources to an innovation competitive threat and attempt to have it structure, and each member should project because of unattractive margins, shut down or cause it to fail.

18 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 cover story

disruptive innovation

In January 2009 when a US Airways plane landed in New York’s Hudson River, Twitter users beat the mainstream media on reporting the news. Janis Krums was a passenger on one of the commuter ferries dispatched to pick up the stranded airline passengers. He took a photo of the dramatic scene and uploaded it to Twitpic. It was one of the first images of the accident broadcast to the world. It also was something of a revelation to the news industry because it demonstrated how easy technology made it for anyone to be a news provider. Photo by Janis Krums.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 19 Be the cover story disruptor

Yet this does not mean that the old vaporize the processes and priorities of by which employees make their decisions operation should be entirely abandoned the acquired firm. Once the manager have served them well in the past. The in favor of the new. In the example of of the acquired company is forced to very capabilities and culture that have News Corp., its revenues from print and adopt the buyer’s way of doing business, made news organizations effective also broadcast advertising are still strong. everything unique about the acquisition’s define their disabilities. In that regard, But when disruptive change appears on capabilities will disappear. A better strat- time spent soul-searching for honest the horizon, managers need to assemble egy is to let the business stand alone and answers to the following questions will the resources, processes and priorities to to infuse the parent company’s resources pay off handsomely: Are the processes by confront that change before it affects the into the acquisition’s processes and pri- which work habitually gets done in the mainstream business. They need to run orities. This approach truly constitutes organization appropriate for this new two businesses in tandem, with one set the acquisition of new capabilities. challenge? And will the priorities of the of processes geared toward the present If, however, the acquired company’s organization cause this new initiative to and another geared toward the future. resources were the reason for its success get high priority or to languish? This needs to be guided by top and the primary rationale for the acqui- The reason that innovation often management. In previous studies of sition, then integrating the acquisition seems to be so difficult for established disruption, very few companies suc- into the parent company can make a lot newsrooms is that, though they employ ceeded without the personal, attentive of sense. Essentially, that means plug- highly capable people, they are working oversight of the CEO. More than anyone ging the acquired people, products, tech- within organizational structures whose else, the CEO can ensure that the new nology and customers into the parent processes and priorities weren’t designed organization gets the required resources company’s processes as a way of leverag- for the task at hand. and is free to create processes and ing the parent’s existing capabilities. priorities appropriate to the new chal- Forbes magazine’s purchase of True/ Creating an innovative newsroom lenge without interference. CEOs who Slant, a digital news blogging network, environment means looking within view spin-outs as a tool to get disruptive worked well because it understood what the existing value network and beyond threats off their personal agendas, rather capabilities it was acquiring. Beginning traditional business models to discover than organizations to be nurtured and in 2008, Forbes invested in the digital new experiences for audiences, then developed, are almost certain to fail. news start-up whose market value was realigning your resources, processes and built primarily upon its expertise in priorities to embrace these disruptions. Creating capabilities through acquisitions. blogging platforms and its more efficient While there is no one panacea to After assessing its resources, processes digital, print and video content creation replace the traditional business models and priorities, the organization may models. By doing so, Forbes effectively that news organizations relied upon for determine that an innovative venture can- incubated a new disruptive start-up as a half a century, these recommendations not be initiated in-house or by creating a separate entity. When Forbes completed taken in aggregate provide a framework spin-out organization. In these instances, the purchase of True/Slant in 2010, it for an emergent strategy to take hold. companies should look to acquisitions. appointed True/Slant’s CEO, Lewis DVor- Innovation requires courageous leader- Questions about for-profit versus non- kin, as Forbes’s chief product officer, and ship, a clearly articulated vision, and the profit education aside, when The Wash- adopted a range of elements from True/ strength to stay the course. ington Post Company determined that it Slant’s business model—including provid- needed to diversify its revenue stream and ing small payments to contributors based Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. it could not create those capabilities in- on pageviews. This careful acquisition Clark Professor of Business Administra- house, it purchased Kaplan Inc. in 1984. process was a major contributor to the tion at Harvard Business School and Companies that successfully gain new success that Forbes achieved in building co-founder of Innosight Institute. capabilities through acquisitions are its community network. those that know where those capabilities Managers whose organizations are David Skok, the 2012 Martin Wise reside in the acquisition and assimilate confronting change must first determine Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow, is them—or not—accordingly. whether they have the resources required the managing editor of Globalnews.ca. If the capabilities being purchased to succeed. They then need to ask a are embedded in an acquired company’s separate question: Does the organization James Allworth, a graduate of Harvard processes and priorities, and not in the have the processes and priorities it needs Business School, is a regular contributor acquired company’s resources, then the to succeed in this new situation? Asking to Harvard Business Review. He worked worst thing the acquiring manager could this second question is not as instinctive as a Fellow at the school’s Forum for do is to integrate the acquisition into for most managers because the processes Growth and Innovation, at Apple, and at the parent organization. Integration will by which work is done and the priorities Booz & Company.

20 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 InteRview: yoichi funabashi

Lessons From FUKUSHIMA ‘More than a year after the accident, we still do not have any serious investigative reporting on [Japanese nuclear power plant owner] Tepco…’

Hospital patients who might have been exposed to radiation during the Fukushima nuclear accident are brought to a community center for testing. Photo by Daisuke Tomita/The Yomiuri Shimbun/The Associated Press.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 21 Interview: yoichi funabashi

Following the accident at the Fuku- shima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011, Japan faced a crisis of confidence of epic proportions: How could an advanced nation suffer such a nuclear disaster? How had an entire nation been lulled into believing the “myth of [nuclear power’s] absolute safety”? Why hadn’t journalists asked tougher ques- tions and probed more deeply? Yoichi Funabashi, who retired in 2010 as editor in chief of The Asahi Shimbun, saw the need for an indepen- dent investigation into the causes and consequences of the disaster. He joined with colleagues to form the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, funded by private individuals and companies, including Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and the Lawson Inc. retail chain. The foundation’s 420-page analysis disclosed that Japan’s government had Yoichi Funabashi was instrumental in the mounting of an independent analysis of the Fukushima prepared a secret report during the acci- nuclear disaster in Japan. Photo by Franck Robichon/European Pressphoto Agency/Corbis. dent describing a worst-case scenario— a massive radioactive release that, if carried toward Tokyo, might have people, including former Prime Minister In what ways did your report differ from warranted the evacuation of 30 million Naoto Kan and other top government the government’s initial report? residents. The report also concluded officials and regulators, as well as police We tried to dig deeper into the historic that Japan’s government and plant and self-defense forces. We were not able and structural factors behind the acci- owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) to interview the five top Tepco officers dent. For instance, in the relationship were “astonishingly unprepared” for an and managers. We tried very hard. We between the regulator and regulated earthquake or tsunami. were refused. However, we were able to [company], the regulated had the Funabashi, a 1976 Nieman Fellow, interview several Tepco employees and upper hand due to their political was interviewed by Nieman classmate former top managers. clout, and so, in a way, the regulator Peter Behr about lessons for the media. was held captive. Behr, who retired from The Washington What were the most important findings? And we put that in a historic perspec- Post where he covered energy, reports for We are very confident of our determina- tive: why Japan, which had experienced EnergyWire, an online news service of tion that the Kan government had drawn a nuclear bomb in 1945, and whose E&E News. He covered the Fukushima up a report sketching out a worst-case people had developed such an intense Daiichi accident and its aftermath for scenario. That shows how very dire the allergy to nuclear power, came to depend E&E News. Edited excerpts of their prime minister and colleagues perceived on nuclear energy to a great extent. conversation follow: the situation to be, even though they And how what we called the “myth of tried to calm the public and downplay absolute safety” evolved over the past 30 Peter Behr: Who conducted the investi- the gravity of the disaster. to 40 years. gation and who did they interview? Also, they were extremely concerned At the same time, we also focused on Yoichi Funabashi: We had a working about the structural integrity of the how vulnerable people were in the face group of 30 investigators that included spent fuel pools, because if that structure of radiation, particularly the weak and lawyers and scholars. We were also collapsed completely, a massive amount infirm. The evacuation of one hospital greatly helped by three journalists— of radiation would have been released. took a long time because most of the who work at major media companies in Fortunately, it did not happen that way, patients were very ill, and, in the process, Japan—whose names are not public. We but it was a keen reminder of how criti- 50 people died. We actually were the first managed to interview more than 300 cal the situation was. to focus on that.

22 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 What were the major shortcomings in gation commission. We received news media—particularly traditional Japanese press coverage of the nuclear dozens of tips from Tepco subcontractors. media—should reach out to bloggers and power industry and the associated public To be honest, we did not get any whistle- tweeters and get a much greater diversity safety issues before the Fukushima blower information from Tepco employ- of information. disaster? ees. Tepco is so close-knit and so difficult There is a lot of noise, of course, I think the Japanese media did a very to penetrate. Even after Tepco has among those bloggers, tweeters and poor job of covering the multiple stake- been de facto nationalized, it still insists others, but in the Fukushima case, it holders on nuclear energy. They certainly that most of its video conferences— turned out that some blogs and tweets covered the regulator, operators and the conversations between headquarters were diamonds: they were clear signals policymakers but they did not cover in Tokyo and Fukushima Daiichi—be among all the noise. ordinary citizens or municipalities and kept secret. I think the critical role for reporters their stakes in the issue. I really wish that professional and editors during a time of crisis is to The first responders—firefighters, journalists had penetrated Tepco man- differentiate the signal from the noise police, for example, or medical doctors agement. More than a year after the and determine which signal is the most in the hospitals near the area—they accident, we still do not have any serious crucial one. That requires a great deal are the ones who suffer most if nuclear investigative reporting on Tepco: how of professionalism, and, particularly accidents should happen. It was really a Tepco’s top management responded to in technical matters, a high level of rude awakening to all of us how impor- the crisis; what kind of views did they expertise. It is a crucial role that tradi- tant it is to cover those stakeholders. have and what kind of decisions did they tional media can and should play. I think The media—particularly Tokyo-based make. It’s still so murky. the U.S. media is much farther ahead media—did not reach out to people on in this regard. the ground before the crisis. That is a What did you think of the U.S. coverage serious problem. of the Fukushima disaster? Some other nations joining the “nuclear The U.S. media covered Fukushima club” now do not have a strong press Your investigation noted that studies pretty well. The New York Times did a or politically independent regulators. had identified a risk of large tsunamis at superb job. They were very attuned to Does the Fukushima accident hold les- Fukushima, but those risks were dis- the serious consequences of the accident sons for them? missed because addressing them would from the early days on, and they focused I am very concerned about that. In challenge what you call the “myth of on people in a very vivid way. those countries, you cannot count on governmental oversight. They need an independent media as a watchdog, par- Perhaps Japan has been too complacent. We are very ticularly on public safety issues regarding proud of our image as a ‘safe country,’ but we failed to nuclear energy. I think that the media should keep ask critical questions. At the same time, we have to asking critical questions. That is one of remember how difficult it is for reporters to penetrate the lessons we learned: Japan’s media the inner workings of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not try hard enough to identify the risks of nuclear power. In some cases, exposing those risks absolutely safety” surrounding Japan’s Some U.S. media were sensational, would provoke public anxiety so you nuclear industry. Was this also a failure particularly in the very early stages, have to be very careful in presenting of oversight by Japan’s media? without, I suspect, solid evidence. information, but at the same time you Some scholars strongly argued for Ironically, I think the sensational reports have to ask the right questions: how beefing up the sea wall and taking other proved to be right, because the situation much risk, what kind of risks. That steps. Perhaps we have been too com- was so serious. must come first. placent. We are very proud of our image I really hope that in those countries— as a “safe country,” but we failed to ask Do you see lessons learned for the U.S. Vietnam, China, India, Turkey, critical questions. At the same time, we press? the United Arab Emirates, and many have to remember how difficult it is for In the early stages, I think it’s very other countries that will follow in reporters to penetrate the inner work- important for the media to ask the 10 years or 20 years—independent ings of Tepco. critical questions, not pretend they know media and journalism will exist. We opened a whistle-blowing Web the answers. Otherwise, I think it will be extremely channel when we established our investi- Perhaps a second lesson is that the dangerous.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 23 f eature: On the campaign trail

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES Reflecting on presidential campaign coverage before and after ‘The Boys on the Bus’ Bi y Adr enne LaFrance

“What goes on up there on the decision not to wear a tie, his workout HOPPING THE TRAIN platform isn’t really what’s happening.” regimen, or the number of gray hairs on Before the boys were on the bus, they So said the late Newsweek reporter his head. were on trains. (And this was before John J. Lindsay, quoted 40 years ago in Identities are meticulously shaped many, if any, women were part of Timothy Crouse’s “The Boys on the Bus,” by campaigns. That’s long been the case. campaign coverage.) That’s where which tracked a boozy, foul-mouthed, But the distance between reporter and newspaperman Jules Witcover got his sleep-deprived group of reporters on the candidate—and in turn between can- start. Already considered one of the campaign trail in 1972. Four decades didate and the public—is yawning. At heavies in political reporting in 1972 later, Lindsay’s observation still nags worst, reporters write based on what’s when he was with the Los Angeles at reporters: For all of the time on the given to them, much of which has been Times, Witcover had covered his first trail, for all of the speeches and rallies exactingly calculated by campaigns. presidential campaign more than a and gaffes and photo ops, there is that (Worse still: When news organizations decade and a half before that. He was sinking—no, infuriating—feeling that give campaigns quote approval.) in his 20s, working for the “large but we don’t really know the candidate. Long gone are the days of casual con- cheap” chain of Newhouse Newspapers, We know a version of the candidate. versation between reporters and presi- and his boss let him hop on the One that’s pieced together from stump dential hopefuls. (Harry Truman even Eisenhower campaign train from speeches, press releases, tweets, slick played poker with reporters—and won— Washington to Philadelphia. websites, brief visits to the back of on the trail.) Of all of the superlatives In those days, reporters—maybe the campaign plane, the same the press repeats every four years—that in the dozens—traipsed behind the milquetoast joke told again and again, this year’s is the most toxic campaign, candidate. (This year, about 15,000 hands grasped and babies kissed on that campaign reporting has never been credentials went out to news organiza- the rope line, and the rare exclusive so frivolous, that this election is the tions for each of the conventions, accord- interview. Reporters construct the most important in a generation—the ing to the convention organizers.) It was candidate we know not just from recurring complaint about access, that an era when Western Union workers his political record but in details like it has never been more elusive, may would walk through the train cars the pulled pork he had for lunch, his actually hold weight. calling for copy—“just like a copy boy

24 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 feature: On the campaign trail

bodies who are there to get in your way, lower blinds, separate you from candi- dates. There’s a much greater barrier now to getting close to the candidates and developing a relationship with them so they will trust you enough to tell you things you are trying to find out.”

AN ILLUSORY PRESENCE Candidates may appear to be every- where—they give speeches in towns across the country, they’re active on Twitter and Facebook, they’re e-mailing supporters for donations multiple times a week—but in ways that are often one-sided. Campaigns are able to get out messages while skirting the press. President Barack Obama’s first news conference of the year didn’t happen until March. He didn’t hold another one until June 29. After that, he waited until late August to subject himself to press questions. Romney’s campaign has routinely tried to keep the press at bay, including trying to ban reporters from covering events and reprimanding them for calling out questions. (Nieman Reports, hoping to spend a few days on the bus for this story, requested credentials from the Romney Photographers covering John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. Photo by Paul Schutzer/ and Obama campaigns. Both campaigns Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. turned us down. Romney’s campaign said seats were only for “those that are would in a newsroom,” Witcover what they will tell you,” Witcover said. reporting on Governor Romney,” and remembers—then hop off at the next “Politicians have become almost reclu- Obama’s team said that only members of stop to transmit stories. sive. They’re out in public but they’re not the White House Correspondents’ Asso- “It was a thrill to me because I was on accessible. Reporters can’t get to them ciation were eligible for credentials.) the train with some of the then-famous and that hurts both ways. It hurts the Back in 1966, one of Witcover’s White House reporters like Merriman ability of the press to get the story but it attempts to get face time with political Smith,” said Witcover, now 85. “I was just really hurts the politicians because they newsmakers was through the creation of one of the young kids on that train and I lose an opportunity to let people know the facetiously named Political Writers kept my ears open and my eyes open.” who they are. Look at Mitt Romney— for a Democratic Society, an elite group Four years later, Witcover returned to nominated, and the question is still, of reporters who would regularly get the campaign trail. He went on to cover ‘Who is Mitt Romney? What’s he like? together for drinks and dinner (then every presidential campaign through What kind of guy is he?’ Reporters who more drinks) with the people they 2004. (He made a couple of campaign cover the campaign, they can’t get next covered. Witcover says President George stops in 2008, and still writes a syndicat- to him. They certainly don’t ride in a car H.W. Bush showed up to one such ed column three times a week.) But Wit- with him, and [candidates are] not in gathering while he was in office. cover has been complaining for decades situations when they let their hair down “The access we got—you could cash about shrinking access to candidates. and talk to reporters. They also built up in by having someone come to one of “There’s been a huge difference in the a whole army of protectors, handlers for these dinners, you knew who he was access to presidential candidates and to candidates, not just strategists but just and what made him tick—but the road

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 25 f eature: On the campaign trail

is blocked now,” Witcover said. “And teristics of a carnival, a frantic crusade, a that’s cold and analytical. It involves that’s the problem. It’s blocked in both portable Chautauqua. In little more than human beings and how they react under directions. It’s blocked for the reporter a month, it had taken Clinton on a jour- pressure. How quick they think on their and it’s blocked for the politician who’s ney from the cover of Time magazine to feet. How quickly they can recover from trying to get himself known in the way the tawdry scandal sheets sold at super- a blunder. Those were the stories that I he wants to be known to reporters.” market checkout stands, keelhauled him always enjoyed doing.” These days, a presidential candi- through a controversy that renewed the Observing a candidate from the trail date is overly protected “by either his pain of Vietnam, and plunged him into a is better than nothing, and there is handlers or his own attitude,” Witcover free fall in popularity.” much to be learned about a candidate says. He sees two big reasons that access Dogged by claims of infidelity and from how a campaign is run. But quoting contracted in the late 1960s and into the in the face of a draft-dodging scandal, a stump speech isn’t ultimately much dif- 1970s: “[President Lyndon B.] Johnson’s lies of Vietnam and [President Richard] Nixon’s lies about Watergate” and the Observing a candidate from the trail is better than increasingly adversarial press-politician nothing, and there is much to be learned about a relationship that resulted. But it also may have been that how reporters candidate from how a campaign is run. covered politics changed dramatically in the mid-20th century. After the success of Theodore H. White’s book, “The Mak- Clinton relied on what Wilkie calls ferent from quoting a press release. ing of the President, 1960,” newsrooms his “tenacity, his relentless optimism, As long as real access is restricted, there became more interested in conveying the and his inner reserves” to beat the will be a gap between candidate and human drama of a campaign. odds and survive a month that could human being. The paradox: The more reporters have have killed his presidential aspirations. “Writing about the character of candi- tried to get at who the person running for Remembering that campaign now dates,” Wilkie said, “I think that’s terribly office is, the harder it has become. still astonishes Wilkie. “Just the crazy important. People don’t give a shit about drama that was Clinton in 1992,” Wilkie issues, basically. How many people you THE CLINTON DRAMA recalled. “He should never have gotten think are going to read a 2,000-word One of the cub reporters on the trail in out of New Hampshire. He was so damn take on the health care program? Not 1972 was Curtis Wilkie, now 72, who resilient. Climbing out of one scandal many. I don’t mean to belittle it. Its good says he was so young and unknown in and into another.” that we do it, and people do do it. Every those days that he “didn’t have a whole Clinton was easy to talk to but paper tries to cover issues. But it’s a lot lot of telephone calls returned.” He was Wilkie, whose words still drip with the more fun covering people.” covering the George McGovern cam- slow warmth of a Mississippi drawl, Wilkie says he remembers sitting on paign for The News Journal in Wilming- was uniquely positioned to take his mea- a campaign plane more than a decade ton, Delaware and would go on to cover sure. Not only are both men Southerners ago, having a drink and talking baseball eight straight presidential campaigns, but Wilkie was a reporter and editor with Robert Novak, the columnist who seven of them for The Boston Globe. for The Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Regis- died in 2009. Wilkie didn’t care much about breaking ter for nearly seven years at the height “We looked around, and virtually campaign news. He preferred reporting of the civil rights movement. Racial everyone else on the plane had ear- and writing the kinds of stories that got segregation in the Arkansas of Clinton’s phones on and was transcribing the at the heart of who a candidate was. youth was one of the subjects the two same speech they had transcribed 12 The story he’s most proud of in all covered as they rode in a car during the times before,” Wilkie said. “Novak says, those years was published in The Boston campaign and spent time together one ‘Look at this. We are surrounded by a Globe Magazine in July 1992. “33 Days on one. Wilkie’s proud of the profile he bunch of goddamn CPAs.’ ” That Defined a Candidate”—based on wrote for The Boston Globe Magazine observations from the campaign trail the summer before the election. Adrienne LaFrance is a reporter for and his conversations with Bill and Hill- “It wasn’t news but I think you would Digital First’s Project Thunderdome in ary Clinton—is about the month leading come away with a pretty damn good idea New York City. She previously was a staff up to the New Hampshire primary. of who he was,” Wilkie said. “Covering writer for the Nieman Journalism Lab Here’s how Wilkie set the scene: “… politics—politics are very human. It’s a and a reporter in the Washington bureau the campaign had acquired the charac- very human exercise. It’s not something of Honolulu Civil Beat.

26 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 Barack Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential win, as reported in, from left, O Povo (Fortaleza, Brazil), Apple Daily (Tai- pei, Taiwan), Maariv (Tel Aviv, Israel), and Die Tageszeitung (Berlin, Germany). All images courtesy the Newseum. onhe t OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Twelve years ago BBC correspondent Philippa Thomas was literally circus—and therefore they get a huge following [in Finland], be picked up and put in her place during the U.S. presidential campaign it 1992 or 2012,” said 2004 Nieman Fellow Pekka Mykkanen, who season. covered the 2004 and 2008 campaigns for Helsingin Sanomat, “Armed only with a portable radio recorder and mic, I got myself Finland’s leading daily. through a scrum surrounding [2000 Democratic hopeful Bill] Brad- In 2008, Mykkanen’s stories about the U.S. election were con- ley,” Thomas recalled in an e-mail. “Then my feet left the ground as sistently among his paper’s most popular articles online. Not only I was physically lifted up and back from the candidate by a minder was Obama’s candidacy historic but, Mykkanen observed, “It had who had already told me ‘No.’ become clear—more than most of the time—that U.S. behavior “As my colleagues would tell you, I’m small but hardly shy. But I affects everyone’s lives from war and peace issues to people’s was so surprised I was speechless. That was, thank goodness, a one- economic well-being.” off. But an extreme example of the attitude: ‘Why should we? Your Of course, readers in Finland or anywhere with Internet access listeners don’t vote.’ ” can always get to U.S.-based media like The New York Times or CNN Thomas, a 2011 Nieman Fellow in the throes of covering her for coverage, but many still rely on correspondents for their U.S. fourth U.S. presidential campaign for the BBC, is used to pleading news. “Foreign correspondents are needed, just as the U.S. regional her case with campaigns. “The BBC News website has massive papers still need their reporters in Washington,” he adds. American readership and a lot of what it publishes is shared on Mykkanen has also covered elections in China, Greece and Facebook and Twitter,” Thomas wrote. “A lot of the politicians know Liberia, as well as the independence referendum in East Timor. “I it: I reckon my challenge covering current U.S. campaigns is to always find elections a great way to explain foreign countries to persuade the gatekeepers that the BBC is seen, heard and read by the readers,” he wrote. “Elections are like a train and your readers enough key voters to get us on their lists.” are passengers traveling through that society’s landscape.” With the Mitt Romney and Barack Obama campaigns intensely What’s unique about the U.S. presidential campaign is “the focused on reaching voters, foreign media outlets have little or no speed, the madness, the randomness.” chance of gaining access. All the same, international audiences have “In the U.S., there are countless mini scandals that end up in a deep interest in the election. the news cycle whereas some big topics—such as wars, health In fact, more than 2,000 reporters from foreign news organiza- care and fiscal health—get ignored,” he continued. “Every tions covered the 2012 Republican and Democratic national country goes more or less crazy during elections, but America goes conventions. They were among the 15,000 with press credentials. the craziest.” “American elections are considered great fun—a fantastic —Jonathan Seitz

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 27 f eature: covering the Olympics

Inside the Rings ‘The first rule of Olympic journalism is that no one should ever feel sorry for anyone assigned to cover the games.’

Bay How rd Berkes

I lost count of the hours after “No, scotch,” he said, as he opened his dismal MPC food, the daunting logistics, four all-nighters and 10 20-hour days. fist and made a wrapping motion around the endless demands from editors back But I knew it was the last of 23 consecu- the two broken ends of his tattered home, and the challenge of being part of tive workdays and the final 30-minute leather belt. “Scotch. For my belt. Too the planet’s most concentrated pack of double-decker bus ride from the Main many times I take off at security.” desperate reporters. Press Centre (MPC) at the London My final official act on the grounds Press credentials are doled out to Olympic Park to my University of Lon- of the 2012 Olympics was to pull a roll more than 6,000 print and Web report- don dorm. Despite lingering grogginess of packaging tape out of my backpack, ers and editors, and broadcasters from from just four hours of sleep, I was buoy- wrap it around the torn ends of this poor radio and TV networks who failed to pay ant. No more MPC. No more daily “mag fellow’s belt, and then watch him smile gazillions of dollars for exclusive Olympic and bag” security lines. Just one more broadly, his pants now snug around rights. This latter group wears Olympic stomach-churning bus ride. his waist. “Thank you,” he said, as he credentials marked “ENR,” which is The final “to-do” list was short: An grasped both my hands and shook them, Olympic-ese for “non-rights-holding interview at the BBC, two phone inter- as if I’d just placed a gold medal around broadcaster.” They are the untouchables views with NPR affiliates, pack, and set his neck. “I am Russian journalist. Come of the Olympic press corps and they the alarm for 5 a.m. for the long journey to Sochi (site of the 2014 Winter Games) are barred from high-demand events home. and I will help you.” (including swimming, opening and clos- One other journalist stood at the curb “Sochi,” I thought, as my new best ing ceremonies, and basketball finals). waiting for the media bus. Tall and thin friend grabbed my box and carried it That still leaves the bulk of competi- with a thick Borat mustache, he had the onto the bus for me. “Sochi is only 18 tion for the scarlet-lettered ENRs but top front of his trousers bunched in the months away!” they can’t enter Olympic venues with tight grip of a fist and he pointed at the recorders, microphones or video cam- boxed printer at my feet. THE UNTOUCHABLES eras. They can’t record in “mixed zones” “You have scotch?” he asked in a thick The first rule of Olympic journalism is where reporters encounter sweating or accent. that no one should ever feel sorry for dripping athletes as soon as the Olympi- “Geez,” I thought. “This guy is ready anyone assigned to cover the games. And ans walk off the track, the pool deck, the to party.” no journalist with an Olympic credential beach volleyball sand, or the competition “Scotch?” I asked, puzzled as he should ever feel self-pity. I’ve covered arena. And they can’t record medal-win- continued to point at the box. “It’s just a eight Olympics and it was a plum assign- ning athletes and coaches at their victory printer.” ment every time, despite the hours, the news conferences at Olympic venues.

28 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 feature: covering the Olympics

More than 24,000 press credentials were handed out for the 2012 London Olympics so coverage was almost always a team effort. Britain’s Jessica Ennis, top, celebrates her gold medal victory. Kobe Bryant, bottom, of the U.S. men’s basketball team, comments during a practice. Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters (top); Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press (bottom).

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 29 f eature: Covering the Olympics

If ENRs are lucky, Olympic officials away from the athletes to hear what was cast rights-holder NBC. The network from their home countries will drag the said. We’re all in this together, after all. has its own sitting member on the athletes back to the MPC—where ENRs The crush is very real. Beneath IOC—Alex Gilady, the IOC delegate can record—for one more news confer- Wembley Stadium the night the women from Israel. Gilady is a longtime vice ence with the untouchables. American of the U.S. Olympic soccer team dra- president of NBC and has been part of ENRs are very lucky because the United matically defeated Japan for the gold the Radio and Television Commission States Olympic Committee works very medal, the knot of reporters was so that has oversight over broadcasters hard to do just that. deep and tight, the barrier protecting covering the games. The ENR restrictions are part of the the athletes began to crack and collapse. In June of last year, NBC was again exclusivity rights-holding broadcasters, A volunteer rushed over to brace it with awarded exclusive American rights to such as NBC in the United States, his body as American star Abby Wam- Olympic broadcast coverage. The $4.38 spend so much money to secure. The bach faced dozens of outstretched arms billion deal that extends through the rights-holders and the host broadcast pointing palm-sized recorders. 2020 games assures the network of an operation that serves them get another unbroken string of 11 winter and sum- 18,000 credentials. That’s right: 18,000. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST mer Olympics. These folks are based in the Interna- A relatively small group of reporters CBS, Fox and ABC/ESPN also bid but tional Broadcast Centre (IBC) which regularly cover the Olympics, Olympic none had their own IOC vice president. is adjacent to the MPC but strictly politics, and Olympic sports in the years IOC spokesman Mark Adams told NPR off-limits to anyone who hasn’t paid big between the games. Some are invited that Gilady played no role in the decision bucks to be there. to carry the Olympic flame during the to stick with NBC. “He has had no part IBC Brahmins speak smugly of fabu- torch relays that precede the Olympics, whatsoever in the negotiations, either lous catered food. I have heard uncon- dumping the detachment journalists formal or informal,” Adams said. firmed rumors for years that Olympic are supposed to maintain for one of the But Gilady’s biography at the IBCs even have their own Starbucks. most emotional Olympic experiences International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame But I’m not complaining. It’s a available to selected non-Olympians. is unblinking about his role in getting privilege being inside the rings, with the And some become part of the Olympic and retaining NBC’s Olympic rights in endless mix of amazing and disappoint- establishment, serving on the Interna- the past. “In 1984, Gilady was promoted to network Vice-President for Liaison to the IOC Radio-Television Commission; Even in the sweaty and smelly crush of the pack, and later, senior Vice-President of Global Operations,” the Hall of Fame great moments emerge, and it doesn’t take much waving bio reads. “He played a major role in of a notebook or microphone to find exclusive angles the network’s acquisition of broadcast and details. rights to the summer and winter Olympic Games of 1988, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.” ing athletes, unbelievable achievement tional Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Press and heart-wrenching failure, stoic Commission, which helps set policy THE JOURNALIST CHEERLEADERS determination and shameless cheating, for Olympic news coverage and press There’s more worth scrutinizing at the persistent and lonely struggles to push logistics. Olympics than the athletes and the the limits of human endurance and bold The IOC Press Commission serves a competition. Many Olympic regulars money-chasing hucksterism. useful advisory purpose and the journal- are tough reporters who don’t hesitate Even with more than 24,000 cre- ists among its members advocate for the to question, challenge and expose. Some dentialed and competing journalists needs of Olympic reporters. The group have written about Olympic ticketing, and technicians, the stories flow. Even includes at least one representative which enriches the few lucky agencies in the sweaty and smelly crush of the from a rights-holding broadcaster (even who get exclusive distribution deals, but pack, great moments emerge, and it though there’s another IOC commission leaves desperate fans spending hours doesn’t take much waving of a notebook for rights-holders) but does not include on the Web or in line trying to buy and or microphone to find exclusive angles any lowly ENRs. retrieve expensive tickets. Many in Lon- and details. And don’t tell the editors, There are many conflicts of interest don complained they couldn’t get tickets but collegial reporters at the front of the that are part of the Olympic world. The despite hundreds of empty seats at some pack in a mixed zone freely share quotes most blatant among journalists may be Olympic events. with those at the back who are too far the one that involves American broad- A ticketing scandal attracted some

30 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 attention before the London games and countries in Asia. Eight players had been questioned the effort to assist a repres- complaints about empty seats and a frus- ejected from the competition because sive regime that had exiled and jailed trating ticketing system were reported they deliberately tried to lose prelimi- journalists, including Nieman Fellows. during the Olympics. But at the IOC’s nary matches so that they might have Three years later at the Beijing closing news conference, some report- more favorable matchups later. games, Chinese authorities blocked ers felt the need to praise IOC president The BWF’s recent switch from a Western reporters’ access to websites Jacques Rogge and chief London Olym- single-elimination tournament to for NPR, BBC, Amnesty International, pics organizer Sebastian Coe before round-robin play seemed to encourage and others. One official explained at asking their questions. the strategic match-fixing. Kang said a news conference that the Internet “Many congratulations to both of the BWF would consider that issue restrictions were designed to protect you,” one gushed. “I think it’s really been in November. But when asked about Chinese youngsters from harmful con- amazing here.” scrutiny of coaches and team officials tent, including pornography. At another The very next questioner joined in. “I who might also have been involved, BWF news conference, a Beijing official, try- would like to congratulate you both for chief operating officer Thomas Lund said ing to spin the oppressive pollution that the big contributions you made and it the group wanted to look forward, not had some athletes wearing protective was a successful event,” he said. backward. masks, referred to it as a “mist.” There were tough questions, as well, The single clapping of hands at the about doping, the excessive costs of stag- end of the news conference didn’t last In the early morning hours after the ing the games, and the ticketing mess. long when no one else joined the appre- London closing ceremonies, a packed “We are definitely going to review the ciative reporter. double-decker bus pulled up to the stop ticketing policy of the games,” Rogge said The truth about the Olympics is that in central London where media dorms in response to my question. “And we are the constant move from city to city every and hotels were concentrated. As some going to see whether this system will con- two years means there’s always a fresh of us got up to leave, we noticed one tinue to work and how we can improve it.” crop of eager and grateful reporters reporter hunched over, sound asleep. Rogge seemed to be finished with his who get all goofy and weak-kneed about We tried to nudge him awake but he response and the audience microphone being at the games. During my appear- didn’t move. “Is he dead?” someone was already headed to another reporter ance at the BBC on my final day in Lon- whispered. Finally, a cheerful Olympic when the IOC president suddenly added, don, the presenter repeatedly showered volunteer climbed aboard. “The venues were full and that’s the most listeners with superlatives about the “We see this all the time,” he said. “We important thing.” hometown Olympics. “Euphoric” was a know how to handle this.” The volunteer “Not all of them,” I shouted, but either favorite. It was left to the veteran Olym- shouted and shook the poor guy until Rogge didn’t hear my unamplified voice pic killjoys on an assembled panel to add he opened his eyes, looked around, or he chose to ignore me. None of the a bit of sober reality. wiped the slobber from the corner of his other reporters addressed the subject. Even my beloved Nieman Founda- mouth, and walked off the bus and into Some reporters from Asia actually tion fell under the magical Olympic the darkness, grateful perhaps, that his clapped at news conferences. “It’s a cul- spell before the 2008 Beijing games. Olympic marathon had ended. tural thing,” I was told. They clapped for A well-intentioned initiative had Chi- athletes. They clapped for coaches. They nese Olympic handlers set to travel to Howard Berkes, a 1998 clapped for Olympic officials. Harvard for a Nieman “educational Nieman Fellow, covered One journalist clapped at the final program” designed to help prepare them his first Olympics for Olympic news conference held by the to work with foreign Olympic journalists NPR in Los Angeles in leaders of the Badminton World Federa- from free countries. 1984 and has covered tion (BWF) at Wembley Arena, even after At the 2005 Nieman reunion in seven Olympics since. other reporters forced the officials to Cambridge, I questioned the wisdom of His reporting helped focus attention on depart from their rosy description of the the program, given the reality of media influence-peddling involving Salt Lake Olympic competition. It was an “amazing handling at the Olympics. Host countries City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. spectacle,” noted BWF president Kang and organizing committees are out to Berkes, Nieman classmate and senior Young-Joong, without apparent irony. It mine Olympic reporters for positive editor Uri Berliner, correspondent and was “badminton at its best,” he added. stories and manipulate coverage. Repres- 2003 Nieman Fellow Frank Langfitt, But I and other reporters asked about sive countries do it and free countries and other NPR reporters shared an the embarrassing scandal that might be do it. The Nieman Foundation backed Edward R. Murrow Award for Sports the lingering memory for most people, out of the plan after vigorous protest Reporting for their coverage of the 2008 especially those outside badminton-crazy from fellows attending the reunion, who Beijing Olympics.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 31 f eature: Essay

An Ode to Readers’ Quirks Being one click away from anyone who wants to weigh in on your looks or any number of subjects has its ups and downs. By Kate Galbraith

In August 2009, about a year after I Aren’t readers the best? Just when blance to this or that Galbraith. Another began working at The New York Times, you are having a lousy or boring day, piece of reader mail opened with: “Kate, the following piece of reader mail something weird comes along to keep are you a Dunlap? While reading nyt. popped into my inbox: you entertained. com yesterday I saw your name, and I showed Darcy’s e-mail around the then your photo. I sent your photo to my READER’S NAME: Times newsroom, and my colleagues sister Sarah, and she thinks you look like Darcy collapsed in laughter. There was instant a Dunlap, too.” (Astonished, I forwarded READER’S MESSAGE: speculation—was Darcy a man or a the note to my mother, whose maiden Hi Kate, I think highly of you and I woman? Would I take him/her up on it? name was in fact Dunlap, and she con- wanted to simply suggest something. I What about bangs, anyway? As to what firmed that the writer had attended her think you could be more beautiful with a I should write back, someone suggested, wedding reception.) different haircut and just a tad bit of eye- “Dear Darcy, I bet Frank Rich could use In my current work at The Texas liner and mascara. Please don’t get upset, a makeover, too.” Tribune, I keep a special folder in my I haven’t the slightest idea how to write Readers’ imaginations know no inbox. It’s called “Weird Stuff.” Mostly, this, but I think you could dazzle with bounds, and with the Internet, they’re the e-mails in it are from public relations just a little effort. I was thinking bangs just a click away from sharing it. people peddling concepts like “motor- and perhaps a shorter cut? Anyway, Darcy’s note shot right to the top of my ized window treatments.” The National you’re welcome to toss this, but I’ve done strangest-comments-from-readers list. Audubon Society made the cut, with a lots of make overs and think just 5 mins But just having my photograph up on press release entitled “Audubon releases in the morning would do the dazzle the Times website triggered a message virtual birds all over the Internet.” The thing. Sorry if I’ve offended—totally not roughly every few months from someone folder also contains an e-mail from a intended. who felt free to remark on my resem- copy editor—not at The Texas Tribune,

32 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 feature: Essay

to be sure—who asked if he could add a I’d count myself lucky to get a letter me I should be retroactively aborted middle initial to the name of one of the every month or so. Almost always it for writing such garbage. (Much later I people I quoted in a draft article. (Sure, would begin “Dear Sir.” “I AM NOT A unthinkingly told this anecdote to my be my guest.) SIR!” I have screamed silently many a mother, who blanched.) Other e-mails are from readers. One time, in mock frustration. (That’s how Most reader mail, however, is far wrote, “I love the sound of your voice on The Economist prints reader letters, of more benign—like Darcy’s. I never actu- the radio.” Whatever. I have one from course.) ally replied to him/her; I kept intending someone who addressed me as Karen and A small minority of the reader feed- to, perhaps with the Frank Rich line, but wanted me to answer questions for his back, of course, is awful—personal and the days slipped away in the usual blur student paper. I told him I was happy to hateful. Some people who write about of work and it just never happened. My help but that he needed to correct that hot-button issues are probably exposed photo came off the Times website after I and other spelling mistakes before asking to this every day. I had just a little taste got laid off, and I’m happy to report that for my time. And there are phone mes- during my year and a half at the Times. my Texas Tribune photo has drawn only sages, too. One person, upon seeing that I wrote a post for the “Green Inc.” blog one comment—a mild compliment from my mini-biography on The Texas Tribune (now simply called Green) about a study my sister. website included a degree from the by statisticians at Oregon State Uni- And I still don’t have bangs. London School of Economics, rambled versity that attempted to quantify the on about Queen Boudicca’s destruction of carbon footprint of having children. Kate Galbraith, a 2008 Londinium (London) in the year 60 A.D. All I did was report the story. You can Nieman Fellow, reports All of this is a far cry from when I imagine what happened: The messenger on energy and the envi- worked at The Economist a decade ago. was shot. One e-mail, which I quickly ronment for The Texas There, because the articles are unsigned, deleted so I can’t quote it directly, told Tribune.

Illustration by Amanda Duffy Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 33 phos to es ay: pam spaulding

Developing Notions Chronicling a family’s life for 35 years holds many lessons about what does and does not change over time. By Pam Spaulding

In 1976 I searched for first-time State Oratory Contest. At age 9, he won parents with the intent of photographing his age group. The next year he entered their first year of adjusting to a new baby. again and I opted not to go. That time, A Lamaze instructor gave me a list of he beat 18-year-olds to win the state names. After several couples turned me championship. down, John and Judy McGarvey agreed I didn’t guess that his speaking to a month-by-month trial run. It’s been talents, intellect and ability to stand 35 years and I’m now photographing a out in a crowd would lead to a career fourth generation of the McGarvey family. in politics. This past spring he clinched The difficulty of a project that lasts the Democratic nomination in the state decades is photographing now what Senate primary. He’s virtually assured of will be important in the future. Like the taking office because he faces no opposi- letters in a game of Scrabble, the best of tion in the fall election. my pictures are connected to each other Morgan was named after his grand- in many different directions. And that father, Elmer Everett Morgan. In the means I’ve photographed many situa- beginning, I wasn’t interested in the tions that turned into dead ends. grandparents. Now I wish I had photo- In his youth, the McGarvey’s second graphed the first time Morgan’s grandpa child, Morgan, was an excellent baseball held him. Several years passed before I player and I thought he might go far in realized how close they were. that sport. However, as time went on it There were seven other grandchil- was obvious that he was too short and dren and Mr. Morgan loved them all, wasn’t good enough to play pro ball. but Morgan and his grandpa had the Morgan also was a “Top Gun” kind of same personality, sense of humor, and kid. When he was in college, I thought outlook on life. They were best friends. he would be a Navy pilot. I was even Morgan’s grandpa was present at all the planning how I could get pictures of him small and big moments in his life and landing his first plane on an aircraft car- Morgan was there for his grandpa dur- rier. But over time it became clear that ing his final years. Morgan always found his allergies would prevent him from time to play cards with him or take him becoming a pilot. out for a beer. And when he visited the I have a picture that I really like 91-year-old in the hospital, Morgan of him and his girlfriend selecting an held his hands, looked into his eyes, and engagement ring. She broke up with him implored, “Grandpa, I’m not ready for before he could propose to her so that the adventure to end.” picture is worthless because it connects to nothing in his future. Pam Spaulding, a 1985 Nieman Fellow, E lmer Everett Morgan and grandson And then there are the events I didn’t has been a photojournalist for The (Lou- Morgan McGarvey, August 1986. photograph, like the 4-H Kentucky isville, Ky.) Courier-Journal since 1972. Photo by Pam Spaulding.

34 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 35 phos to es ay: pam spaulding

Gone fishing, May 2000.

36 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 The day Morgan was sworn in as an attorney, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, October 2007. Photos by Pam Spaulding.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 37 photo essay: pam spaulding

In the hospital, July 2010.

38 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 Morgan, holding one of his twins, at his grandpa’s grave, November 2011. Photos by Pam Spaulding.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 39 phos to es ay: pam spaulding

On the way to vote with wife, Chris, and twins Clara and Wilson, May 2012. Photo by Pam Spaulding

40 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 W atchdog Project

Beginning with this issue, Nieman Reports is now the home for Nieman Watchdog Project articles examining the successes and failures of watchdog journalism. Here, Dan Froomkin probes the challenges facing national security reporters at a time when the nature of combat is quietly undergoing a revolution.

The Big Chill The Obama administration is operating amid unprecedented secrecy—while attacking journalists trying to tell the public what they need to know. B y Dan FrOOMKIn

It’s a particularly challenging time promised, so the executive branch’s most bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill— for American national security reporting, controversial methods of violence and not to conduct hearings into what had with the press and public increasingly in control remain solely in the hands of the been revealed, but to demand criminal the dark about important defense, intel- president—possibly about to be passed investigations into the leaking. ligence and counterterrorism issues. along to a leader with less restraint. That’s how Congress has been ever The post-post-9/11 period finds the More than a decade after it started, since the terrorist attacks 11 years ago. U.S. aggressively experimenting with we still have no clue how much the gov- “We never got our post 9/11 Church two new highly disruptive forms of com- ernment is listening in on us or reading Committee,” said Steven Aftergood, bat—drone strikes and cyberattacks—for our e-mail, despite the obvious Fourth director of the Federation of American which our leaders appear to be making Amendment issues. Scientists’s Project on Government up the rules, in secret, as they go along. And the government’s response to this Secrecy, referring to a special investiga- Troubling legal and moral issues left unprecedented secrecy is a war on leaks. tive Senate committee that held hear- behind by the previous administration ings on widespread intelligence abuses remain unresolved. Far from reversing NO HELP FROM HIGH PLACES after the Watergate scandal. “What the Bush-Cheney executive power grab, After past periods of executive excess, the we’ve got instead is the intelligence President Barack Obama is taking it to Fourth Estate was certainly more robust oversight committee drafting legislation new extremes by unilaterally approving and arguably more persistent, but it also to penalize leaks.” indefinite detention of foreign prisoners found natural allies in the other branches In the interim, the White House has and covert targeted killings of terror of government—particularly Congress. been plenty busy using the draconian suspects, even when they are American By contrast, over the summer of 2012, Espionage Act of 1917 to pursue leakers. citizens. the publication of a minimal amount Despite his talk about openness, Obama There is little to none of the judicial of new information regarding drones, has taken the unprecedented step of and legislative oversight Obama had cyberwarfare and targeted killings incited filing espionage charges against six

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 41 watchdog project

officials accused of leaking information Abramson warned that “the chilling security reporting during the Bush era— to journalists—more than all previous effect of leak prosecutions threatens to particularly in his 2006 book “The One administrations combined. rob the public of vital information,” as Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s And James R. Clapper, Jr., the director sources fear legal retribution and report- Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11”—argues of national intelligence, recently directed ers fear being subpoenaed and possibly that the government’s strategies to pre- that employees under his command be even prosecuted themselves. vent leaking have suddenly become much hooked up to lie detectors and questioned “Several reporters who have covered more aggressive and effective. “It’s making about their contacts with journalists and national security in Washington for it more difficult to get that information about unauthorized leaks to the media. decades tell me that the environment the public truly needs to know,” he said. Whatever restraint existed inside the has never been tougher or information The increased dependence on e-mail executive branch seems to have been harder to dislodge,” Abramson said. “One and the government’s enhanced surveil- overwhelmed by a national security Times reporter told me the environment lance abilities are also a factor, Suskind apparatus that has swollen to enormous in Washington has never been more said. “In the old days, you could call proportions since 9/11. “There has been hostile to reporting.” someone up on their kitchen phone. You no similar strengthening of bureaucracy were pretty much OK unless [FBI direc- protecting civil liberties and transpar- THE DRAKE EFFECT tor J. Edgar] Hoover knew which line to ency,” noted New Yorker writer Jane One of the Obama administration’s early tap. Now you have to be extra careful.” Mayer. “When the national security attempts to prosecute whistleblowers for And Suskind said that the fear of get- community is militating for leak inves- espionage ended in defeat and disgrace. ting caught is now heightened because so tigations, there is much less pushback Prosecutors had filed 10 felony charges many intelligence officials are counting than pre-9/11.” against Thomas Drake, a National Secu- on entering the hugely lucrative world of rity Agency (NSA) whistleblower who intelligence contracting once they leave ABRAMSON’S CONCERN allegedly provided classified information public service. Mainstream media leaders are critical about mismanagement at the NSA to a Before 9/11, the private intelligence/ of the government’s aggressive posture, Baltimore Sun reporter. But days before national security complex just “didn’t which they see as threatening First the trial was to start, the government have that kind of money,” Suskind said. Amendment rights. At the annual dropped the charges and settled for But now, it provides “the soft cushion conference of Investigative Reporters Drake pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. that awaits almost every official inside and Editors in June, New York Times The judge called Drake’s four-year government with a security clearance.” executive editor Jill Abramson made the persecution by the government “uncon- case that the very leaks that seemed to scionable” and said that it goes against THE government view inflame officials the most were also the “the very root of what this country was Justice Department spokesman Dean most essential. founded on against general warrants of Boyd rejected the media narrative of a “Cyberwarfare is a new battlefield, the British.” government assault on the press. “The where there are no agreements regulating But Aftergood said the Drake case media obviously is an interested party— the use of malware viruses,” she said. “So had a profound effect on the intelligence or a biased party—in these matters,” he doesn’t the public need the information to community nonetheless. “I think there’s a said. evaluate this new kind of battle, especially new level of paranoia within government “Whenever the Justice Department when it’s waged in its name? Furthermore, about unauthorized contacts with the conducts an investigation relating to when the existence of drone and cyber press,” he said. “In every significant sense, leaks of classified information to the attacks are widely known but officially the government won, because it demon- media, it seeks to strike the proper classified, informed public discussion of strated the price of nonconformity.” balance between the important function critical questions is really stifled.” Drake agreed. “It was very clear that of the press and law enforcement and There are in fact so many obvious, they wanted to send the most chilling of national security imperatives,” Boyd said. unanswered questions about both of these messages, and that chilling message has But, he insisted: “When classified new weapons of warfare, most notably: been received,” he said. Among former information is improperly disclosed What happens when other people use colleagues, Drake said, “there are those to the media by a person who has no them on us, saying we set the precedent who will not talk to reporters—and we’re authority to disclose it, that’s illegal.” for their use? In the case of drones, does not even talking leaking, we’re just talk- Boyd also denied that whistleblow- their use require a declaration of war or at ing talking.” ers are being targeted. “On some of least an authorization of the use of force? Ron Suskind, one of a handful of the cases, it’s clear that the officials And how many civilians are they killing? journalists who did exceptional national that we’ve accused are not blowing the

42 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 watchdog project

from the vice president’s office regularly spread consequential and misleading national security information, through the conduit of devoted reporters. After vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice related to the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a covert CIA operative, Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at George Washington University, told the New York Times that the journalists involved were “not fearless advocates … but supplicants, willing and even eager to be manipulated.” Suskind said he thinks there need to be more reporters on the national security beat. “We are having trouble mustering the muscle, the bodies, to get the goods,” he said. And they need to be tougher. Walter Pincus, the veteran national security reporter at The Washington Post, said modern news organizations are so eager to be seen as evenhanded that crusad- ing journalism is frowned upon. “The industry has been mau-maued,” Pincus concluded. “We’ve been neutered.” In the Spring 2008 issue of Nieman Reports, investigative reporter Ted Gup suggested that news organizations dedicate a beat to secrecy. Now, in order to create a cycle of repeated disclosures and sustained public interest in drones Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency executive, is one of six people the Obama ad- and cyberwarfare, perhaps reporters ministration charged under the Espionage Act. Photo by Timothy Jacobsen/The Associated Press. should be put on that beat full time. Suskind said there would be a payoff whistle on anything,” he said. The New York Times; Stephen Kim, a from major national security revelations The six people the Obama adminis- former U.S. State Department foreign beyond the obvious public service. “The tration has charged under the Espionage policy analyst charged with disclosing big disclosures still drive the global news Act are Drake, who was definitely a information about North Korea’s nuclear cycle,” he said. And if news organiza- whistleblower; Bradley Manning, the program to a Fox News reporter; and tions are trying to differentiate them- U.S. Army private accused of leaking Shamai Leibowitz, a former FBI linguist selves in the new media climate, well, thousands of documents to the website convicted in May 2010 of disclosing “this is the way they get to prove their WikiLeaks; John Kiriakou, a former CIA wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Wash- case that they’re still valuable … that officer who spoke out about torture and ington to a blogger. they’re indispensable.” is charged with allegedly disclosing the names of CIA officers and their role in fighting secrecy Dan Froomkin, who previously was interrogations to reporters; Jeffrey Ster- What’s as dangerous as the dearth of deputy editor for NiemanWatchdog.org, ling, a former CIA officer charged with “unauthorized” leaks is the prevalence of writes about watchdog journalism for leaking information about a botched the “authorized” kind. During the Bush Nieman Reports. He is senior Washington plot against the Iranian government to years in particular, highly selective leaks correspondent for The Huffington Post.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 43 Sounding

Larry Jones levitates his wife, Deede Baquié Jones. Joining them on stage in the basement of their home are sons Mark (in the drum) and Lawrence, and daughter Valle, sawed in half. Photo by Stern J. Bramson/University of Louisville Photographic Archives.

The Magician’s Daughter Her childhood secrets are nothing like yours. Bgiy Mag e Jones

When I was a child, storytelling Nearby, Thurston vanished cars and The basement’s centerpiece, though, took place in the basement, in the only levitated women, sending one into the was the stage. That’s where our family room in my house that was ever locked. sky in a glass elevator. performances took place throughout the Inside, the air felt several degrees cooler Across the room stood a bookcase, 1960s and ’70s. Behind blue curtains sat and it smelled of talcum powder and which, if I pushed on it just right, a large cabinet from which my brothers stale cigarettes. From floor to ceiling, opened to a dark storage area. Inside, would appear and then, with a few words posters of magicians—most from the the shelves were lined with shoeboxes from my father, would disappear. Across turn of the last century—lined the walls. filled with fake thumbs, cigarettes, decks the stage, my father would vanish from a The illusionist Alexander wore a feath- of cards. A black hat and white gloves velvet chair and then enter through the ered turban and glared at me as he held sat on one shelf. Other shelves held basement door a few minutes later. a crystal ball, with the caption “The scarves that turned into canes, cham- The most mesmerizing trick, though, Man Who Knows.” Next to him, the pagne bottles that opened into cigarette featured my mother. As the curtains magician Kassner stirred a cauldron dispensers, silver balls that transformed opened, my mother, dressed in a gold with a witch’s head floating in steam. into bouquets of flowers. brocade gown and black flats, lay on a

44 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 divan. Her eyes were closed; her hands major TV show or at a New York City later, he opened the top of the trunk crossed at her chest. My father told the nightclub within a year. again and pulled out his “jewels”—my audience that he had put her into a It was 1959, the era of black-tie brother and me, dressed in footed PJs— trance. Then, slowly, my mother’s body magic. Under the stage name Baron to the applause of the adults. rose off the couch and into the air until, LaValle and with an act he called “Smoke Several years later, I graduated at the command of my father’s hands, Dreams,” my father appeared on “The Ed to a role I had coveted. I liked that it she stopped. In silence, my mother Sullivan Show.” In a tux and black dress required more skill and timing on my hovered over the stage. hat, he smoked cigarettes and pulled part. And I relished that the trick was cards out of the air. He made live gold- mine and my father’s alone. The prop As a child I relished books that fish appear out of his puffs of cigarette was a large empty glass casket on wheels transported me from my suburban smoke. He produced doves from his in the middle of the room. The story had world: “The Lion, the Witch and the white-gloved hand. a fairy-book quality: A king’s daughter, Wardrobe,” “The Secret Garden,” “From Next my father performed on “Cap- the princess, was lost. The king offered the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. tain Kangaroo” and his manager offered all of his gold to anyone who could find Frankweiler.” But, many of the most him a national tour. But he had a wife, her. At that point in the performance, powerful stories came from my father three kids, and three more to come in the my father covered the empty casket in a who wove magic’s tales into our family next several years. My father returned gold cloth to symbolize the king’s wealth. life. Each magic poster—they hung in home and magic was reserved for the As my father wheeled the casket around our den as well as in the basement—had basement—and for our family. the room, he told of the king’s anguish its own narrative, such as “The Modern Over the next two decades, the magic and of a young prince’s determination Priestess of Delphi,” which depicted a act was the intermission to my parents’ to scour the countryside to find the girl. witch whispering secrets to a long-haired parties. On summer evenings, our house Then, with a flick of his wrist, my father woman who read people’s minds. We filled with smoke from the Marlboros pulled off the cloth. There I was. Reclin- heard about magic’s tragedies, like when that my mother placed in silver boxes ing in the glass casket: an adolescent the illusionist Chung Ling Soo died after and the sound of adult laughter loosened princess, barefoot, long hair barely his bullet-catching trick went awry. by gin and tonics. It was around 11 p.m. combed, in cut-off jean shorts and an Best of all, my father invited his chil- when my mother, smelling of Jean Patou Indian-print T-shirt. dren into magic’s secrets. Not long after perfume and bourbon, long earrings At that age, I often stayed to watch we learned to walk, we knew how to sparkling against her black hair, nudged the rest of the show. I had seen it all sidestep the trap door in the stage floor. us awake. “It’s time, angel.” before. But now I watched it through a By elementary school, I understood how My brother Stephen was 3 and I was different lens than when I was younger. most of my father’s illusions worked. I 5, too young to be relied on for impecca- For my entire childhood, my father never told a soul. As a journalist I have ble performance timing. Still, we tiptoed descended into the basement after joked that being a magician’s daughter downstairs, following my mother past dinner and on Saturday afternoons, taught me to protect sources at a young the women in the living room in their rehearsing his acts for hours upon hours. age. But more importantly, by watch- cocktail dresses and frosted pink lipstick On occasion, he asked me to be his critic ing my father practice and perform, I and men in sports jackets and loafers, as he tested a trick. I knew up close how learned that knowing the “trick” is only around the corner to the basement much he relied on timing, on suspense, the first step in seducing your audience where my father had set up the show. on the dance of his skilled hands to take into the narrative. Stephen and I climbed into our secret his audience’s attention where he wanted spot and listened as the guests, laughing it to go. By the time of the performances, My father spent much of his youth too loudly, flirting, their cocktail glasses he made it seem so seamless, so simple. at vaudeville shows and Tannen’s Magic still clinking with ice, filled the seats. But, early on, I had learned that beauti- store on 42nd Street, where he bought I no longer remember the details of ful narratives rarely come that easily. tricks and picked up tips from the the story that went with my brother’s profession’s elders. Then, when he was in and my trick, except that it entailed Maggie Jones, a 2012 his 30s, after years of practicing magic missing jewels from a large leather Nieman Fellow, is a on the side, my father took a sabbatical trunk. My father tilted the trunk toward contributing writer for from his law firm. He bet a fellow lawyer the audience, knocking on all four sides The New York Times $100 that he would land a spot on a to show that it was empty. Moments Magazine.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 45 Books

An Occupy Oakland march in California last year took aim at the unequal distribution of wealth. Photo by Paul Sakuma/The Associated Press.

Defying Gravity

A gripping history of the 40 years since wealth started falling up By Dan Froomkin

Who Stole the American Dream? In his sweeping, authoritative exami- writes, corporate America threw off any By Hedrick Smith nation of the last four decades of the sense of restraint or social obligation Random House. 557 pages. American economic experience, Smith and instead unstintingly leveraged its describes the long, relentless decline of money and political power to pursue the middle class—a decline that was not its own interests. Who stole the American Dream? The by accident, but by design. The result was nothing less than short answer to the question in the title He dates it back to a private memo— a shift in gravity. Starting in the early of Hedrick Smith’s new book is: The U.S. in effect, a political call to arms—issued 1970s, every major economic trend— Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart. to the nation’s business leaders in 1971 increased productivity, globalization, tax But the longer answer is one heck of a by Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a corporate attor- law overhauls, and the phasing out of story, told by one of the great journalists ney soon to become a Supreme Court pensions in favor of 401(k)s—produced of our time. justice. From that point forward, Smith the same result: The benefits fell upward.

46 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 Smith, a 1970 Nieman Fellow, is at his currently enjoys as much wealth as the Smith’s extraordinary clarity in very best as he examines, one by one, the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. popula- describing this sometimes obscured key economic shifts of the last 40 years tion, or 120 million people. narrative arc evidently emerges from and shows that in each case the money The familiar story of the decline of his sense of journalistic outrage. He sees flowed to the very richest Americans, guaranteed pensions and the rise of a country splitting into two, divided by particularly those on Wall Street, while retirement accounts nevertheless carries a vast wealth gap. He sees the social impoverishing the middle class. a new emotional wallop in Smith’s tell- fabric of the nation tearing. He wants Nowhere was that more blatantly the ing. Get ready for waves of retirees who to make it better. case than in the housing sector. We are run out of money long before they die But the hopeful chapters at the end all well aware of how the bursting of the not just because they didn’t put enough of books like this are always jarring, and housing bubble has left many middle- money into their 401(k)s but because none more so than here. After showing class Americans without the nest egg of the huge bite taken by mutual fund so effectively how the rich have every- they were counting on for their retire- managers, whose fees and transaction thing rigged in their favor, Smith nev- ment. But Smith describes how the banks costs average 2 percent a year. ertheless calls for average Americans to had been sucking the home equity out of At 5 percent a year, $1 over 40 years rise up and make themselves heard. the middle class for years before that. becomes $7.04—but at 3 percent, it “Changing America’s direction will “Instead of enabling ordinary Ameri- only comes to $3.26. Smith quotes Jack not be easy,” he writes. “It will happen cans to achieve The Dream, they fash- Bogle, founder and CEO of the Vanguard only if there is a populist surge demand- ioned stratagems that stole the dream,” Group, explaining that “you the investor ing it, a peaceful political revolution at Smith writes, describing what he calls put up 100 percent of the capital. You the grass roots, like the mass movements the “New Mortgage Game.” The sales take 100 percent of the risk. And you of the 1960s and 1970s.” He puts forth a pitch “was that homeowners should capture about 46 percent of the return. succinct and attractive 10-point plan to think of their houses not as nests … but Wall Street puts up none of the capital, fix the country that closely mirrors the as ATM machines,” Smith writes. The takes none of the risk, and takes out 54 typical progressive wish list. He calls on goal was “perpetual hock”—and corre- percent of the return.” American business leaders to change spondingly high fees. There’s so much more in the book: their mindset and share. The banks “seduced millions of How bankruptcy laws have served as a He cites the Occupy movement as a middle-class families into draining the means of transferring money from the positive indicator, but the fact remains precious equity that they had painstak- middle class to the banks. How poor that Occupy never rose to the level of ingly built up in their homes” and the credit-card users have come to subsidize mass movement, and didn’t really return result was “a monumental transfer of rich credit-card users. How stock options after winter. the absolute core of middle-class wealth are “the primary vehicle for the corpo- Mass movements do happen, of from homeowners to banks. Trillions rate super-rich.” course. Smith actually covered the ones of dollars in accumulated middle-class And there is the complete lock that in the ’60s and ’70s—along with just wealth were shifted from average Ameri- the super-rich—most ably represented about every other major story of the last cans to the big banks, their CEOs, and by the Chamber of Commerce, the Busi- half-century. their main stockholders.” ness Roundtable, and the like—seem to But to turn things around—again, have on tax policy. In 2010, for instance, now—would seem to require leverage America’s Aristocracy a majority of the public supported and power that the middle class, by Again and again, Smith exposes the ending the Bush tax breaks for the top Smith’s own accounting, no longer pos- same relentless pull. He examines the 2 percent of Americans. The argument sesses. Forty years ago, corporate Amer- merciless toll on the American worker that tax cuts were necessary to free up ica managed to get the money and power of globalization, fueled in no small job-creating capital was not credible, to flow from the bottom to the top. Now part by the relentless outsourcing given that corporate America was sitting it’s collected there, and congealed, and championed by Wal-Mart, which one on well over a trillion dollars in idle it’s hard to see how to get it to flow back. of Smith’s sources describes as being capital it just didn’t want to spend. But essentially engaged in a joint venture when corporate CEOs issued a demand Dan Froomkin writes about watchdog with China. that all the tax cuts be extended, Senate journalism for Nieman Reports. He is Who benefits? Well, the Walton fam- Republicans took their side, and no one also senior Washington correspondent ily, for one, which as Smith points out could stop them. for The Huffington Post.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 47 books

Waving, Not Drowning

Thoughts on the future of the magazine bey Jam s Geary

The Art of Making Magazines: it well when she described her task on Though he didn’t use the term, On Being an Editor and Other Views first taking over the iconic food title: former Atlantic editor Michael Kelly From the Industry “What I am supposed to do is change this was talking about something akin to Edited by Victor S. Navasky magazine so that the renewals go back up conceptual scoops when he said: “Reality and Evan Cornog again. And change it so that the advertis- has two salient qualities. The first is that Columbia University Press. 179 pages. ers like the magazine and feel that it’s had it’s real. The second is that it’s a mess a new infusion of life and interest, but not … Journalism has two related salient change it so much that the 750,000 exist- qualities. It’s not real—it is artificial, Reading “The Art of Making ing subscribers notice that it’s changed. I like all storytelling. And it’s orderly. It is Magazines” is like watching “Titanic”: didn’t know it then, but there is nothing designed, in fact, to take the daily wreck, However compelling the love story, you more difficult in the entire world than to the chaos and the mess out there, and already know the ship is going down do this little sleight-of-hand thing, which impose upon it a false order. … all maga- and only a few will survive. Most of the is to change it but not change it.” Sounds zines exist to shape the chaotic world in Columbia University Graduate School like the job description of every magazine an artificial, organized way.” of Journalism lectures collected here editor working today. What is more in need of shaping than were delivered well before the Internet/ And yet there are reasons to be the shapeless world we live in today? recession iceberg punched a gaping hole cheerful about the future of magazines. And what better way to shape it than in magazine business models. The pas- In fact, there are reasons to believe the through the periodic presentation of sion of lecturers like Felix Dennis, Tina magazine is the format best fitted for the conceptual scoops that is a magazine? Brown, and the late Michael Kelly for 21st century. “You are buying an organizing their craft is vivid and convincing. But it My favorite kind of article is what we principle” when you buy a magazine, feels a lot different to be reading about it at Time used to call a “conceptual scoop.” Kelly said. (Kelly was also speaking of while clinging to the wreckage. A conceptual scoop is not a breaking newspapers in his talk, but I am focus- “The time to change is not when you’re news story but a breaking ideas story. ing on magazines.) Indeed, the maga- doing badly, but when you’re doing well, It involves surveying a wide terrain of zines currently doing best—in terms as it’s a moment to take risks.” That’s a lesson Elle editor in chief Roberta Myers learned from one of her former CEOs. Unfortunately, it’s a lesson most of the One of the ironies of journalism today is that as formats magazine industry learned too late. The are becoming shorter, narrower and less complex, the time to change has arrived and—notable issues journalists need to address are becoming longer, exceptions like The Atlantic, The Econo- broader and more complex. In journalism, we need the mist, and The Week notwithstanding— we’re doing pretty badly. Which makes long form to form the long view. this book oddly relevant because, though it barely glances at the current challenges to magazine making, it celebrates much information and finding an important but of having a lively digital presence and/ of what should not change: fact checking previously unobserved pattern in it. Take, or enviable circulation—also have the (Peter Canby of The New Yorker), copy- say, the latest financial headlines, com- clearest, most well-defined organizing editing (The Atlantic’s Barbara Wallraff) bine them with some recent behavioral principles: The Economist with its free and the art of editing itself (Ruth Reichl, economics studies, add in some insights market evangelism, The Atlantic with former editor in chief of Gourmet). from cognitive science, and, suddenly, its liberal thought leadership, The Week Reichl, who held that post from 1999 you’ve got a conceptual scoop, a fresh way with its bite-sized digest of world news, until the magazine closed in 2009, put of looking at the causes of the recession. a format pioneered by Time.

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What is a magazine, anyway? It’s there; we need to figure out how to nur- to store ammunition. Even today, maga- not, or at least not anymore, a printed ture and pay for it, because the consistent zines still give you the biggest bang for product that arrives once a week or presentation of conceptual scoops takes your buck. once a month with a thud at your door. time and isn’t cheap. The Titanic may A magazine is, always has been, and have gone down for good, but there are James Geary, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, is always will be what the word originally plenty of smaller, nimbler ships already the former editor of the European edition means—from the Arabic mahzan—a zipping up and down the coast. of Time and the author of “I Is an Other: “storehouse.” A magazine is a storehouse The word “magazine” entered English The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It of organized insights, insights that have in the 16th century to describe a place Shapes the Way We See the World.” been carefully culled and curated from the shapeless sea of information in which we swim. One of the ironies of journal- ism today is that as formats are becom- ing shorter, narrower and less complex, the issues journalists need to address are becoming longer, broader and more complex. In journalism, we need the long form to form the long view. Magazines are evolving and innovat- ing to provide exactly that. What are sites like TED and PopTech but maga- zines? They are magazines organized around the spoken rather than the written word, but they are magazines nonetheless. TED has also started releasing nonfiction e-books, pieces published every two weeks that are about the length of—you guessed it— a long magazine article. Enterprises like The Atavist and Byliner are peri- odicals, too, publishing long-form journalism on the installment plan, just like 19th-century newspapers and magazines. Radio programs like “The Moth Radio Hour” and “Radiolab” are also magazines, constructing, as Kelly put it, “a world within the larger world.” Even arch print-slayer The Huffington Post has launched a magazine, and one of the most old-fashioned kinds to boot: a weekly digital newsmagazine called Huffington. Magazines are popping up all over—including Pop-Up Maga- zine, a live periodic presentation of stories, documentary films, interviews and photography. Technology now enables magazines to embrace all these forms at once—the spoken and the written word, the still and the moving image, the “lean forward” live experience and the “lean back” thoughtful Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet for 10 years, described what she was asked to do with the Photo by Richard Drew/The Associated Press. read. Demand for the long form is out magazine as “change it but not change it.”

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The Fighter An impassioned believer in the battle for Algerian independence had a few blind spots. buay Abo b kr Jamai

The Algerian Memoirs: Days his understanding of the world. After he Question,” Alleg summoned all of his of Hope and Combat landed in Algeria in 1939 at the age of skill as a reporter to denounce the sys- By Henri Alleg 18, he furthered his education by enroll- tem of “enhanced interrogations” used by Translated by Gila Walker ing in the Algerian Communist Youth French authorities to quell the insurrec- Seagull Books. 442 pages. before ascending to the editorship of the tion that had been spreading throughout pro-Communist daily Alger Républicain Algeria since 1954. He described in (“Republican Algeria”). minute detail the ordeal of a Communist The dear price Algerians paid for Founded in 1938 by progressives to arrested and savagely tortured: himself. their independence has been amply counter the powerful press controlled by The slim volume, for which Jean-Paul documented, but Henri Alleg’s “Alge- the government and landowners, Alger Sartre wrote an introduction, had a rian Memoirs” is an incomparable, if Républicain advocated assimilation and tremendous impact on public opinion imperfect, addition to that history. The equal rights. In the paper’s early years, as well as the French intelligentsia. It French-Algerian journalist is now in his Albert Camus was one of its reporters. exposed the ugliness of French colo- 90s and we are fortunate that his mem- It was not until Alleg took over that the nialism and the moral corruption that oir, published in French in 2005, has paper became unequivocally anti-colo- infects an occupying force. finally been translated into English. nialist. Alleg joined the staff as a reporter It is not surprising that “La Ques- His book is not only a powerful in 1950 and was named editor in chief a tion” was back in the news after the reminder of the humiliations and year later. The paper never drifted from Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2004, for injustices endured by a country that its primary mission: to be the voice of Alleg, too, was subject to waterboard- was colonized by France for 132 years— the downtrodden. Alleg’s passion for this ing and other means of torture. If the one that won independence just 50 type of militant journalism almost jumps horrors into which the U.S. occupation of Iraq descended evoked the way the French army dealt with the Algerian Those interested in the challenge of managing a struggle for independence, as described in “La Question,” readers may find some newspaper will relish the many ruses and stratagems resonance between “Algerian Memoirs” editor in chief Henri Alleg and his colleagues employed and current events in the Arab world. to keep Alger Républicain alive. The fight against Western colonialism is a powerful theme in most of the region’s countries. Anti-Western sentiment is not years ago—but an intensely personal off every page devoted to Alger Répub- only the product of an ossified version story. Alleg was the scion of a Jewish licain. Those interested in the challenge of Islam or Arabism, it is also a vivid family of Russian and Polish origins of managing a newspaper will relish the impulse in “Algerian Memoirs.” who fled to London after the scourge of many ruses and stratagems Alleg and his Alleg’s memoir resonates with cur- anti-Semitism and its ugly manifesta- colleagues employed to keep the paper rent events for another reason. In the tions—the pogroms—spread in Eastern alive. Alger Républicain many times final chapters, the author shows how Europe in the late 19th and early 20th was reborn from its own ashes, thanks the newly established Algerian state centuries. Shortly after his birth, Alleg’s to the dedication and ingenuity of these reneged on the liberation movement’s parents moved to Paris. There, his newspapermen. promises to transcend ethnicity and political coming of age was informed Alleg, best known for his 1958 book religion. Algeria did not promote racist by the Popular Front and he developed “La Question,” once banned in France, or even Islamist policies but its leaders’ a passion for long trips abroad; these devotes a chapter of his memoir to this discourse was replete with pro-Arab were important for his education and defining episode in his life. For “La and pro-Islam pronouncements

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The Algerian war for independence took a deadly toll in Algiers even after France declared a ceasefire inM arch 1962. The city was home to the fervently anti-colonialist newspaper Alger Républicain, edited by French-Algerian journalist Henri Alleg. Photo by The Associated Press.

marginalizing the sizable Kabyle pro- more mindboggling to this reviewer. divorce.” When Alleg many years after portion of the Algerian people, the You don’t have to be a rabid anti- Joseph Stalin’s death dared to criticize Christians, Jews and atheists like Alleg communist to be dismayed by Alleg’s the Soviet Union, it was only to lament himself. Islam was proclaimed the fiddling with established historical facts. that a cult of personality dominated the religion of the state. Will the inaptly In fact, it wasn’t until 1956—14 months Soviet tyrant’s era. named Arab Spring engender more after the start of the armed Algerian Communist dogma aside, “The inclusive politics or fall prey to sec- struggle—that the French Communist Algerian Memoirs” tells the story of an tarianism? See the debates about the Party came around to supporting the extraordinary life of militance, ideals and Copts’ situation in Egypt or the Shiites Algerian independence movement. disappointments. It is a worthy read. in Bahrain. Alleg presents Maurice Thorez, the Alleg’s fight for Algerian indepen- leader of the French Communist Party Aboubakr Jamai, a 2007 Nieman dence is admirable, and he paid a high from 1930 until his death in 1964, as Fellow, has founded a number of inde- price for his political engagement. a paragon of anti-colonial rule. Yet he pendent publications in Morocco, Because the author’s unwavering attach- fails to mention that Thorez, toeing the most recently the online news service ment to the most respectable humanistic line for Moscow back in 1937, declared lakome.com. In 2003, his work was values comes across so clearly in what that Algerian independence was off the recognized by the Committee to Protect he writes about Algeria, his dogmatic table with this statement: “The right to Journalists with an International Press adherence to communism is all the divorce does not mean the obligation to Freedom Award.

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In March 1970, women employees of Newsweek, angered at being barred from reporting and writing jobs, sued the magazine for sex discrimination. It was the week the women’s movement was the cover story. Eleanor Holmes Norton, second from right, was their attorney. Photo © Bettman/Corbis.

Good Girls Don’t After suing Newsweek for sex discrimination, some women ran up against their own timidity. b y Shirley Christian

The Good Girls Revolt: How the of The New York Times. As we ate, a opportunities for women in the relatively Women of Newsweek Sued Their television correspondent asked Abe short time since 1970, when women at Bosses and Changed the Workplace how our experiences in Central America Newsweek sued to stop sex discrimina- By Lynn Povich compared with his covering the war tion at the newsmagazine. Their battle PublicAffairs. 249 pages. in breakaway Katanga province in the was not about slogging along muddy Congo two decades earlier. roads and pursuing recalcitrant army “The most obvious difference,” Abe officers but about gathering the cour- During its civil war, tiny El Salva- responded, “is that here I am surrounded age to say, “Enough!” to the mainly Ivy dor was a place where correspondents by women.” League gentlemen with whom they could go out to rural battle sites and While that may have been a slight worked side by side. They shared food, guerrilla camps during the day and exaggeration, there were women at drink, good times, late nights at the return to the capital in time for dinner in the table representing the Times, The office when the magazine closed, and, a good restaurant. On one such evening Washington Post, Newsweek, The Miami yes, beds—but not the titles, glory, in 1982, about a dozen of us enjoyed a Herald, and probably others. promotions and raises. roast-pig feast and fine wine as guests of Looking back, I can see that an Lynn Povich, who began her career the late Abe Rosenthal, executive editor incredible change had occurred in at Newsweek as a secretary and news

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aide in the Paris bureau after graduat- Trish Reilly, one of the women who reflection of the rapidly changing times, ing from Vassar in 1965, recounts all of sued, later found herself too conflicted and perhaps the suits by the Newsweek this in “The Good Girls Revolt: How the about her life and ambitions to accept and Times women and others, things Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses a transfer to the Los Angeles bureau, began to change almost as soon as our and Changed the Workplace.” It’s not a a step toward advancement. She told complaint was filed in October 1973. The sweeping book about women’s rights on Povich: “I just didn’t think girls should executive ranks of the AP went through the job or even about women and jour- behave like that—take a man’s job. I a generational change; those who had nalism, but a sort of genteel tell-all and found it a little improper.” covered D-Day retired. intimate description of how one group of Indeed, many of the Newsweek By the time we settled in 1983, women women faced the expanding horizon that women probably found inspiration in had increased to 22 percent of the the 1960s brought. Some were deter- the path taken by a reporter in the arts domestic news staff, up from 7 percent in mined; some were reluctant. It’s a highly section, who went to interview lyricist 1973, and those in foreign assignments readable account laden with names most Alan Jay Lerner and wound up as the had grown proportionately. All of the of us recognize, often in unflattering fifth of his eight wives. “For many of us, named plaintiffs had departed for other circumstances. Newsweek was just a way to earn pin jobs, and I had been graciously congratu- However, as the product of the land money before getting hitched,” Povich lated in a New York courtroom by one of of Amelia Earhart and Carrie Nation acknowledges. the AP’s mega-priced attorneys for win- and of state universities where I never ning the Pulitzer Prize for International feared to raise my hand, I can’t help but CHANGE AT THE AP Reporting for The Miami Herald. see the Newsweek women as timid and Three years after the Newsweek women Still, ours was a settlement of breath- quaint, even for their time. It was my filed their suit, I put my name at the top taking scope that covered both women time, too. By the ’60s, doors were open- of a class action complaint against The and blacks, including $2 million for back ing for women (and minorities), and Associated Press. I was a correspondent pay and various training and incen- women who wanted real journalism jobs in the AP’s United Nations bureau and tive programs. More importantly, it set didn’t go into a female ghetto called the had worked as an editor and writer on ambitious goals for continuing growth in research department at Newsweek. The the foreign and world desks at AP head- female and minority hiring and promo- late Nora Ephron, who left Newsweek quarters in Rockefeller Center. Those tion. Today, I see the results every time for the grittier world of the New York desks were traditional paths to foreign I open the quarterly AP house organ Post, told Povich years later: “I knew assignments for the overwhelmingly filled with articles about hiring, promo- I was going to be a writer, and if they male AP news staff. tions, news coverage, and the people at weren’t going to make me one, I was When I arrived in New York at the the very top. going to a place that would.” end of 1968 after a year of post-graduate All of us who were involved in these Povich herself, even though she went research in Chile, the foreign editor battles had to overcome our individual on to a successful career both in and declared that a woman would go abroad fears and hesitations, but the times out of Newsweek, wonders “why the rest over his dead or retired body. During the called for us to do just that. Eleanor of us didn’t get it, why we just didn’t coming five years I sat by as my male con- Holmes Norton, the first attorney for the leave and try our luck elsewhere. Maybe temporaries, after a year or two on one of Newsweek women, explained: “I grew up because we were simply happy to have the desks, were dispatched into the wide black and female at the moment in time jobs in a comfortable, civilized workplace world. Many of them were sympathetic in America when barriers would fall if that dealt with the important issues of to my dreams and saw the unfairness in you’d push them. I pushed … and then the day.” my regularly being passed over. Several just walked on through.” This book is revealing of the sense of wondered why I didn’t sue; one offered to Some of the Newsweek women had entitlement and anointment felt by these set up a meeting with a lawyer friend. trouble walking through the doors once women who came mostly from elite Unlike Newsweek, the AP did not opened, but all of them deserve praise women’s schools—where they “could have a female ghetto; it simply had very for daring to push. be the first to raise their hands”—and few women. I felt alone and certain of thought it was their right to stay in the immediate reprisal if I mounted a legal Shirley Christian, a 1974 Nieman cozy white-shoe world surrounded by challenge. Then the Wire Service Guild Fellow, is the author most recently of men from similar backgrounds. Most stepped forward to organize a group of “Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of of them seemed to be grappling with lead plaintiffs and to underwrite expenses. the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty that whether to give up their pillboxes and Ours was a long and winding road Ruled America’s Frontier,” published by the rest of the Jackie Kennedy mystique. to settlement 10 years later, but in a Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2004.

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Four years later, Seth Rosenfeld, then a Daily Cal reporter, reviewed the 9,000 pages the FBI had finally released and wrote a few stories. Struck by how many files were missing or blacked out (“I wondered whether the bureau was America’s biggest consumer of Magic Markers,” Rosenfeld writes), he filed an additional request for “any and all” records on former UC-Berkeley president Clark Kerr, former Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio, and more than a hundred other individuals, organizations and events. Five lawsuits, many more Magic Markers, and 30 years later, he had succeeded in forcing the release of more than 300,000 pages of records, a federal judge having ruled that the FBI had no legitimate law enforcement purpose in keeping them secret. Rosen- feld, who had a distinguished career as an investigative reporter for San Fran- cisco’s Examiner and Chronicle, supple- mented the FBI archive with more than 150 interviews. “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power,” the resulting book, is not only about campus surveillance and illicit espionage by America’s top cops but about political causation. Much of it concerns the backstage maneuvers of a right-wing electoral-administrative Mario Savio addresses a campus demonstration in Berkeley, California in 1964. Photo by Steven conspiracy (an accurate word, for once) Marcus. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. to subvert First Amendment guaran- tees of freedom of speech, press and assembly. To clarify: Officials not only collected information, true and false, but they illegally laid hands on history—in Un-American Activities particular, assisting the political rise of ‘The record of the FBI’s obsession [with student radicals] Ronald Reagan. Rosenfeld has produced a scrupulous and meddling is overwhelming …’ bdy Tod Gitlin chronicle and analysis of America’s deep politics, the likes of which exists nowhere else. This writer has long Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student In 1977, The Daily Californian, the surmised that some of what Rosenfeld Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power University of California-Berkeley’s stu- reports might be true, but wondered if By Seth Rosenfeld dent paper, filed a Freedom of Informa- paranoia was getting the better of him. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 734 pages. tion Act request for documents bearing It was not. The record of the FBI’s obses- on FBI surveillance in Berkeley during sion and meddling is overwhelming and, the ’60s and early ’70s. across the abyss of time, still shocking.

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(I should disclose that I read the galley intelligence about student protests was its own phenomenon and not a front to write a blurb several months ago, but and help him drive the insufficiently for Communists? even on second reading, I’m bowled over punitive Clark Kerr out of the If we are interested in buried truth, by what Rosenfeld has found.) university presidency. Hoover also it is a matter of urgency to get busy. To What he uncovered is, to use a word helped disqualify Kerr for a cabinet put it bluntly, those who were surveilled, of that era, dynamite. Among the (so to appointment by Lyndon B. Johnson. infiltrated and manipulated are begin- speak) greatest hits are these: ning to pass away. So are those who There is, as they say, much more. But conducted the surveillance, infiltration n In 1961, long before a mass student the story Rosenfeld tells so lucidly and and manipulation. To make matters movement erupted at Berkeley, the at such necessary length should not be worse, the newspapers that fed Rosen- campus vice chancellor for student considered ancient history, interesting feld during his years of dogged industry affairs was in touch with FBI agents merely as a quarry for the antiquarian have been cut to the bone. about the campus activist group delectation of specialists and veterans. Is this “ancient history”? Events of SLATE. Furthermore, he assured It points to something even more vast those years still cloud American politics. them of his belief that “recognition and unexplored: presumed troves (See: Ayers, Bill.) Conventional wisdom should be denied to any organiza- of evidence concerning the surveil- about the past is alive—one may say tion which may have as its motive, lance—unrelated to any legitimate law festering—in the present. Rosenfeld open or secret, the discrediting of enforcement purposes and sequestered convincingly demonstrates that a picture the university, the Federal Govern- ment or any other well-established American ideals”—as if the right to ‘Subversives’ is not only about campus surveillance and political activity were not a well- illicit espionage by America’s top cops but about political established American ideal. n In 1965, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover causation. … Officials not only collected information, agreed to help the bureau’s “close true and false, but they illegally laid hands on history—in and trusted friend” Lewis F. Powell, particular assisting the political rise of Ronald Reagan. Jr., who was preparing a talk about the Free Speech Movement. The report the bureau prepared for from public view for decades—of untold of the student left from those years that him emphasized the movement’s numbers of American citizens by govern- fails to take government operations into “subversive element.” Powell, ment agencies. account is askew. I write this as one who who in his speech to lawyers In particular, Rosenfeld’s account has long doubted that so-called intel- denounced campus radicals, was raises the question of what else the ligence operations can, by themselves, later appointed by Richard Nixon FBI, the CIA, and military intelligence explain America’s political fortunes or to the Supreme Court. knew about who was doing what in even the demise of the New Left. I still n An FBI informer, who had cut his the ’60s and ’70s, when they knew it, doubt it. But this is one reason why espionage teeth infiltrating the and who else they told. No journalist we need journalists and historians: to Communist Party and Socialist or historian, to my knowledge, has yet unearth what is buried; to doubt our Workers Party in Berkeley, procured mined the FBI archives on Students for doubt. It’s past time for an onslaught firearms for the budding Black a Democratic Society (SDS) and vari- of pro bono legal and journalistic work. Panther Party. ous other antiwar organizations. None Rosenfeld points the way. n Sharing a political agenda—to root have tried to piece together from the out Communists—the FBI and individual files of former SDS members Todd Gitlin, professor of journalism Ronald Reagan scratched each oth- (my own are absurdly redacted and and sociology and chairman of the er’s back for decades, beginning with backhandedly informative) a coherent doctoral program in communications Reagan’s days in Hollywood. Among account of what the secret police were at Columbia University, is the author other things, the FBI snooped on doing during those years. What did of “The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of his daughter at his behest, helped Hoover and his band of monomaniacs Rage” and most recently “Occupy protect one of his sons from scandal, in the FBI and other agencies not know? Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the and not least, during his first Can it be true that, as archives suggest, Promise of Occupy Wall Street.” He was month as governor of California, the FBI was so clueless as not to have the third president of Students for a met secretly with him to spill understood until 1968 that the New Left Democratic Society.

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 55 N ieman Notes

1946 year in the Army before joining R obert Manning, an influential the United Press in Washington editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and New York. In 1949 he was died of lymphoma at a hospital hired by Time magazine. He in Boston on September 28th. served as London bureau chief He was 92. before he left in 1961 to become Manning was editor in chief Sunday editor of The New York of the magazine, now called Herald Tribune. The Atlantic, from 1966 to He also served as assistant 1980, a period during which its secretary of state for public circulation grew from 200,000 affairs in President John F. Ken- to 335,000. He hired or helped nedy’s administration before further the careers of several becoming executive editor at Richard Dudman William French major writers, including James The Atlantic Monthly. He was Fallows, Elizabeth Drew, Ward named the 10th editor in chief in As a student at Stanford commentary, during a formative Just, Ross Terrill, Tracy Kidder, 1966. After leaving the magazine University, he worked on the time for Canadian literature. and Dan Wakefield. in 1980, he became part owner campus newspaper during the “He was the go-to guy in “Bob Manning was a very of the Boston Publishing Com- school year and for the Oroville criticism in Canada,” said former graceful writer and a talented pany, overseeing its successful (Calif.) Mercury Register, where Globe and Mail editor Edwin editor, a proud and witty man, 25-volume series “The Vietnam his uncle was the editor and O’Dacre in the paper’s obituary. a gregarious and devoted and Experience.” publisher, during summers. After “He was the only legitimate big-hearted friend,” Fallows His first wife,M argaret, died serving in the Naval Reserve voice. He was looked up to, and wrote in a remembrance on The in 1984. He is survived by his (now the Navy Reserve) during he had the presence that would Atlantic’s website. “During his second wife, Theresa, two sons, World War II, he spent four years allow you to look up to him.” nearly 15 years as The Atlantic’s and four grandchildren. Another working for The Denver Post During his tenure, he intro- editor, he brought the magazine son died in 2004. before moving to the Dispatch duced a number of new voices into the center of covering the in 1949, where he remained to Canadian readers, including big events of that time, notably 1954 on staff until 1981. Dudman Sandra Birdsell, Nino Ricci, and the Vietnam war, civil rights Richard Dudman retired from continued to write for the paper Neil Bissoondath, and he helped progress … and much else.” the Bangor Daily News in June, on special occasions, includ- bolster the careers of writers Manning’s tenure ended in ending his career in newspapers. ing his 1993 trip to Vietnam to such as Alice Munro, Margaret controversy after real estate Dudman is best known for interview the general who had Atwood, Robertson Davies, and developer Mortimer Zucker- his decades at the St. Louis Post- captured him in Cambodia. Michael Ondaatje. man bought the magazine at Dispatch during which he served For the past 12 years he was “He knew he had the best Manning’s urging. Zuckerman as Washington correspondent senior contributing editor at the job at the paper,” Paul French went behind Manning’s back, and bureau chief and reported Bangor Daily News. said of his father. “It was all he “bounding about like a wallaby from Vietnam, Cambodia and ever wanted to do.” in heat in search of a new editor other countries. During the U.S. 1955 At the time that French was in chief,” as Manning put it in his incursion into Cambodia in 1970, William French, who for 30 literary editor, reviews played 1992 memoir, “The Swamp Root Dudman and two other report- years was one of Canada’s most an important role in a book’s Chronicle: Adventures in the ers were ambushed while travel- prominent literary critics, died in success. “His review was very Word Trade.” Manning resigned ing to Phnom Penh and held Toronto on July 24th. He was 86. important,” said former Penguin at the end of 1980. captive for more than a month French spent his entire Canada publisher Cynthia Good. Born and raised in Bingham- by guerrillas. He wrote about 42-year career at The Globe and “It was the review of record.” ton, New York, Manning worked the ordeal in his book “40 Days Mail in Toronto, where he was He received the National at the Binghamton Press while With the Enemy,” published in hired out of college in 1948. In Newspaper Award in 1971 and in high school and was quickly 1971, making good on the pep 1960, he was appointed literary 1978 for his columns opposing promoted to reporter. He later talk he gave his fellow captives: editor and began writing three censorship. worked in The Associated Press’s “If we get out of this alive, we’ll columns a week, along with French enjoyed a quiet life in Buffalo bureau, then spent a have one hell of a story.” features, reviews and other the suburbs of Toronto with his

56 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 wife of 61 years, Jean. According The series not only led to to their son Paul, the house they a book contract but it also had lived in since 1956 contained inspired a Hollywood film of about 8,000 books, and French the same name. Set to be was known to read everywhere, released by Warner Bros. in including the bathtub. January 2013, it stars Josh French, who retired in 1990, Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean was The Globe and Mail’s last Penn, Nick Nolte, and Emma full-time book critic. “They Stone. retired his number,” Paul told In the Winter 2011 issue of the paper. Nieman Reports, Lieberman In addition to his wife and wrote about the process of son Paul, he is survived by bringing the newspaper story another son, two daughters, and to the screen before bringing four grandchildren. his 11-year tenure as curator of moments when the commu- it to the shelf: “I’ve been the Nieman Foundation, nity teetered on the edge of gratified by how many of the 1964 especially his outreach efforts mob violence that ended well actors and crew ask, ‘Did this Clarence Jones self-published a with the Nieman Journalism because of courageous civic really happen?’ ‘What was he memoir, “They’re Gonna Murder Lab, Nieman Watchdog Project, leadership and wise hearts of really like?’ ‘Did they ever …?’ You: War Stories From My Life at and the various narrative black and white leaders. The I’ve grown hoarse answering the News Front,” in August. programs, as well as his role as narrative has outsized figures but there’s a moral to all those The book’s title refers to publisher of Nieman Reports. from U.S. Attorney General questions: That’s why you Jones’s career-long habit of The selection committee Robert Kennedy to George write the book.” investigating mobsters, crooked included previous Yankee Wallace and includes probing Lieberman is a former cops, corrupt politicians, and Quill winners and members insights into the Alabama gov- reporter and editor for the Los other powerful people known of New England journalism ernor as he evolved over time.” Angeles Times and The Atlanta for retaliation. At The Miami organizations. The chapter about Ayers’s Journal-Constitution. Herald, he worked on a major Nieman year is called “Escape investigation of the sheriff’s 1968 From the South.” 1982 office. Later, as a TV reporter in H. Brandt Ayers’s memoir “In Steve Oney received a 2011 Peter Louisville, Kentucky, he went Love With Defeat: The Making 1980 Lisagor Award from the Chicago undercover to investigate illegal of a Southern Liberal” is being Paul Lieberman’s new book, Headline Club for best sports gambling, using hidden cameras published this fall by NewSouth “Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, story in a non-daily publication. and microphones. His work has Books. the Mob, and the Battle for Los “The Fighter,” published earned him four Emmys and Ayers, the publisher of The Angeles,” was published by St. in the December 2011 issue of three DuPont awards. Anniston (Ala.) Star and chair- Martin’s in August. Playboy, is about the 50-year-old Jones, who runs the media man of Consolidated Publishing It expands on a seven-part Herschel Walker’s improbable relations firm Winning News Co., got his start as a reporter series that Lieberman wrote emergence in mixed martial Media, Inc., is also the author of in North Carolina and Washing- for the Los Angeles Times in arts, a sport dominated by ath- “Winning With the News Media.” ton, D.C. during the early days 2008 about a secretive police letes half his age. But the ex-NFL of the civil rights movement. unit that fought organized star’s success as a fighter—with 1966 He later had an up-close view crime in Los Angeles after bouts shown live on Showtime Bob Giles will receive a 2012 of the birth of the New South World War II. The book focuses and seven-figure offers for Yankee Quill Award from the as editor of the Star, his family’s on two detectives—the the future—required him to Academy of New England paper. upstanding Sergeant Jack overcome not only the physi- Journalists at the annual Summing up his own career O’Mara and the cynical Ser- cal effects of aging, but also to meeting of the New England and the narrative of the memoir, geant Jerry Wooters—and their come to terms with his own Society of Newspaper Editors in Ayers writes: “The journey was not-always-legal efforts to stop mental state. A few years after November. one of controversy, danger, a Mickey Cohen, the city’s most retiring from football in 1998, Giles is being recognized for racist nightrider murder, taut notorious gangster. Walker was diagnosed with

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 57 niem an notes

what once was called multiple man Fellows for the 1987 Louis tion’s Alumni Hall of Fame in illustrating took two years, and personality disorder. M. Lyons Award for Conscience October. King, who received a they were nearing completion A frequent contributor to and Integrity in Journalism for bachelor of arts degree from when the Occupy Wall Street Playboy and The Wall Street giving black South Africans a the school in 1983, is currently protests began in September Journal, Oney has a book deal voice during apartheid. senior product manager for 2011. In response, they added a with Simon & Schuster to write Following Nelson Mandela’s portal and partnerships for final chapter about the move- a narrative history of NPR. release from prison in 1990, MSN UK in London, where ment. Hedges writes in the Sisulu served as communica- she has lived since 2008. She introduction: “This revolt rooted 1985 tions liaison on his world tour. also has a degree in Spanish our conclusion in the real rather Zwelakhe Sisulu, a South African In 1993, the African National language and literature from than the speculative. It permit- opposition newspaper editor Congress hired Sisulu to trans- the University of Washington. ted us to finish with a look at a and anti-apartheid activist who form the South African Broad- King had previously been a Latin rebellion that was as concrete was jailed several times in the casting Corporation (SABC) from America correspondent and an as the destruction that led to it. 1970s and ’80s for speaking a tool of apartheid into a true editor for Reuters. And it permitted us to end our out against black oppression, public broadcaster. He served as work with the capacity for hope.” died October 4th at the age of group CEO of SABC from 1994 to 1999 Hedges, a columnist at 61. He had been suffering from 1997. Later in life, Sisulu was an Chris Hedges is the writer of Truthdig and senior fellow at complications of diabetes. active businessman. “Days of Destruction, Days of The Nation Institute, spent South Africa’s President He is survived by his wife, Revolt,” published by Nation nearly two decades as a foreign Jacob Zuma expressed his Zodwa, one daughter, two sons, Books in June. correspondent for The New condolences to Sisulu’s family, and one granddaughter. A collaboration with cartoon- York Times, NPR and other saying, “He has left an indelible ist Joe Sacco, the book is an organizations. mark in both the struggle for 1986 account of what the pair saw liberation and the reconstruc- Buzz Bissinger wrote the text for and heard when they visited 2001 tion of our country after 1994. “The Classic Mantle,” published four “sacrifice zones, those areas J.R. Moehringer’s first novel, He leaves a legacy of selfless by Abrams in October. in the country that have been “Sutton,” was released in Sep- service, humility, patriotism and The book tells the story of offered up for exploitation in tember by Hyperion. dedication to this country and Mickey Mantle’s 18-year career in the name of profit, progress, and A work of historical fiction, its people.” baseball, all with the New York technological advancement”— the book aims to fill the gaps Sisulu was founding editor Yankees, during which he won the poor neighborhoods of Cam- in the life of bank robber Willie of the New Nation newspaper three MVP awards, seven World den, New Jersey; the coal-mining “The Actor” Sutton. Through and worked for several other Series titles, and was a perennial town of Welch, West Virginia; the a narrative that shifts in news outlets including the Rand All Star. Bissinger’s narrative is Indian reservation in Pine Ridge, time—taking off from an actual Daily Mail and the Sowetan. He coupled with 50 photographs by North Dakota; and migrant labor Christmas Day interview Sutton was founding president of the Marvin E. Newman. camps in Immokalee, Florida—to did following his release from country’s black journalists trade look at the reality of income prison in 1969 and moving to his union. 1994 inequality in the U.S. earlier years as a criminal and Sisulu was selected by Nie- K atie King was elected to the The reporting, writing and convict—Moehringer explores University of Washington Department of Communica-

Zwelakhe Sisulu K atie King

58 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 another four years reporting managing editor for interna- from South Africa. tional news. “It’s exciting to be back in Since 2003, Mason had Africa covering all the news— been based in Hanoi, Vietnam, the good, the bad, the funny running the AP’s Asia-Pacific and the tragic, and everything in medical beat, which she will between,” Meldrum wrote in an continue to lead from her new e-mail. “In particular, it is fasci- post in Jakarta. In addition, she’ll nating to see how South Africa’s cover terrorism, environmental political situation develops, with issues, and economic stories. Jacob Zuma running for re-elec- In an e-mail, she wrote, “I tion while many blacks complain plan to report and write from Jeffrey Fleishman Andrew Meldrum that their living conditions have many places across the country, not improved since the end of but I will also supervise other the deeper motivations and 2004 apartheid.” reporters as well as overseeing inspirations of one of America’s Ju-Don Marshall Roberts was “I am still barred from the daily report from Indonesia.” most successful bank robbers. promoted to general manager re-entering Zimbabwe,” he In an interview with Publish- and senior vice president of added, “but when the situation 2010 ers Weekly, Moehringer said, EverydayHealth.com in June. improves in Zimbabwe I intend Audra Ang’s memoir “To the “I only became a journalist Roberts joined the network to press a court case to have People, Food Is Heaven” was because I couldn’t figure out of health and wellness websites that ban lifted.” published in October by how to become a novelist. A in 2011 as vice president and Lyons Press. historical novel seemed a good editor in chief of news and 2009 In it, Ang draws on seven gateway to fiction—fiction with audience development. The new K ael Alford received the New years of reporting across training wheels.” position has her overseeing the Orleans Photo Alliance’s 2012 China for The Associated Press, A former national correspon- editorial operations as well as Michael P. Smith Fund for Docu- examining the lives and diets dent for the Los Angeles Times web, mobile, social, video and mentary Photography grant for of ordinary people in a country and winner of the 2000 Pulitzer product strategies for Every- her project “Bottom of da Boot: where many struggle to keep Prize for Feature Writing, dayHealth.com. Losing the Coast of Louisiana.” their families fed. Through food, Moehringer is also the author She spent 17 years at The Her photos, commissioned she delves into major stories of “The Tender Bar,” a memoir. Washington Post Company, by the High Museum of Art in such as earthquakes and mili- most recently as managing edi- Atlanta, look at the effects of tary crackdowns in Tibet. 2002 tor of washingtonpost.com. erosion on the culture and land- Ang spent 15 years as a Jeffrey Fleishman’s second novel, scape of coastal Louisiana. The reporter and editor for the AP in “Shadow Man,” was published 2008 fund awards $5,000 annually Seattle, New York, and Beijing. in August by Steerforth Press. Andrew Meldrum became the to a Gulf Coast photographer She is currently a senior develop- James Ryan is a 52-year-old assistant Africa editor for The “whose work combines artistic ment writer at Duke University former foreign correspondent Associated Press in August. excellence and a sustained com- in Durham, North Carolina. with early-onset Alzheimer’s Based out of the AP’s mitment to a long-term cultural disease. He only remembers regional headquarters in documentary project,” according the summer after his mother Johannesburg, he is responsible the alliance’s website. died, when he was 15, and a for commissioning and editing mysterious woman arrived. A stories from correspondents Margie Mason has been named review in Publishers Weekly said, across the continent. Indonesia bureau chief for The “Vibrant prose and masterful Meldrum, who had most Associated Press. shifts in narrative temporalities recently been the deputy “Indonesia is one of Asia’s make this psychological-noir a managing editor of GlobalPost, and the world’s most important must-read.” spent 23 years reporting in countries, and Mason is an Fleishman, Cairo bureau Zimbabwe for The Guardian, The exacting journalist with deep chief for the Los Angeles Economist, and other outlets. He interest in the issues facing its Times, is a longtime foreign was arrested and expelled from 240 million people,” said John correspondent. the country in 2003 and spent Daniszewski, the AP’s senior Audra Ang

Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 59 heard at lippmann house

Public Works ProPublica’s Stephen Engelberg on what makes his year and the perils of philanthropy

In the four years since ProPublica started publishing, the Stephen Engelberg, an 18-year veteran of The New York nonprofit investigative reporting outlet has broken new ground Times who founded the paper’s investigative unit, has been on a number of fronts. It has gained a wide audience through ProPublica’s managing editor since 2008. In January, he will partnerships with The New York Times, the public radio succeed Paul Steiger as editor in chief, overseeing a newsroom program “This American Life,” and the “Frontline” public staff of 34. television series. By sharing its “Dollars for Docs” database, Engelberg visited the Nieman Foundation in September after it has helped more than 125 news outlets across the country attending a discussion at Harvard Business School about the report on local doctors who were paid by drug companies to economics of ProPublica. give speeches. For its reporting on post-Katrina life-or-death In conversation with Nieman Foundation curator Ann decisions and the 2008 financial meltdown, it earned two Marie Lipinski, NF ’90, Engelberg discussed the nonprofit’s Pulitzer prizes. strategy and future. What follows is an edited excerpt:

One thing we’ve discovered at ProPublica is that as the I don’t see, at the moment, a clear revenue path. A paywall for technology and the field move, if you’re nimble enough, you ProPublica, given the size of our traffic, would produce a little actually get a chance to erase all of your mistakes and start money and probably drive a lot of people away. again. We weren’t great at Facebook. But we have been quite successful in using Twitter as a way to get stories out. Sadly, I am insane about financial jargon. I will not allow it on Pro- I’m sure at some point they’ll Etch A Sketch that away and Publica. Every now and again somebody will say, “I read your there will be something else we’ll have to figure out. story on CDOs [collateralized debt obligations], and I actually understood it.” And I think, “Wow, that’s it, my year is made.” Our entire purpose in life is to do journalism that brings change. So the point of having traffic is to get stories to I won’t lie to you: It’s tricky. We people so they’ll read them and become outraged and had a reporter, in the last year, force change, or that a person who could change things write a sentence about a will read them. person who he thought was not such a great The first thing I decided when I got to build my own guy, and maybe he was organization was that the people who did the Internet and maybe he wasn’t, and wrote code and did digital stuff would sit in the middle but he’d just promised of the newsroom, would attend every news meeting, and to give us a bunch of would be treated exactly like everybody else. They would be money. So December part of every meeting, every conversation about reporting, 31 will come and we’ll because I wanted them to be completely integral to the see how aggravated this operation. And that has been a very successful strategy. guy was. But it wasn’t This “Dollars for Docs” thing resulted from a hallway a nice sentence. I was conversation between one of the code writers and one of fortunate enough to the reporters. And the next thing you know we’re writing have no idea that some complicated piece of code that’s scraping 14 different this guy was giving drug company websites. us money.

60 Nieman Reports | Fall 2012 Photo by Lars Klove.

“There really isn’t a core reader for investigative reporting. It’s a technique; it’s not a subject.”

—e st phen engelberg

NIEMAN REPORTS NIEMAN fall 2012 Vol. 66 No. 3 Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism Harvard University One Francis Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Nieman To promote and elevate the standards of journalism

VOL. 66 N o Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University . 3 FALL 2012

Age Harvard’s Master of Innovation Tutors a Nieman Fellow on How

BE BE DISRUPTORTHE Media Can Succeed in the Internet

ALSO in this issue Lessons From Fukushima Interview with Yoichi Funabashi

The Big Chill By Dan Froomkin FOUNDATION NIEMAN THE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY e The Magician’s Daughter By Maggie Jones

Plus Howard Berkes on Covering the Olympics Beth Hedrick Smith’s ‘Who Stole the American Dream?’ Shirley Christian on ‘The Good Girls Revolt’

Clayton M. Christensen, disruptorHarvard Business School