ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13 People & Places Media Hiaasen quits Miami Herald Search is on for new leaders in journalism NEW YORK, Feb 1, (AP): The “help wanted” list for top management jobs in journalism is suddenly get- ting very long. Searches for new leaders at brand names like The Washington Post, ABC News and the Los Angeles Times are coming at a time of rapid change in the news industry and increased attention paid to diversity in decision-making roles. The two latest openings came this week when Marty Baron, the executive editor who transformed the Post over the past eight years, and ABC News President James Goldston both said they will step down over the next two months. The Los Angeles Times is further along in its search for a successor to Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine. The Reuters news agency is looking to replace its editor-in-chief, Stephen Adler, who is retiring on April 1. HuffPost and Vox Media need leaders, too. Dean Baquet, executive edi- tor of The New York Times, is the subject of speculation, both because his job is the golden ring of journalism and he’s 64 years old. By tradition, the Jones Times’ top editor steps down before reaching 66. CNN chief Jeff Zucker, whose name was frequently invoked by former President Donald Trump during his administration’s battles with the media, is expected to announce soon whether or not he will move on. Both Baron and Goldston cited the end of an in- tense election cycle and its exhaustive pace of news as a natural time to turn the page. “It’s burnout on steroids,” said Joel Kaplan, associ- ate dean for professional graduate studies at Syracuse This image released by the Sundance Institute shows a scene from ‘My Name is Pauli Murray’ an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2021 Sundance University’s Newhouse School of Public Communi- Film Festival. (AP) — See Page 12 cations. The moves offer news organizations a chance to anoint a new generation of leaders at a time the busi- nesses need to be nimble and, following a reckoning Books brought on partly by society’s reaction to George Floyd’s death last spring, mindful of having a staff and stories that refl ect their communities. “What we’re going to have to do is really look at a lot of people who aren’t the usual suspects,” said Jill Wright’s ‘The Plague Year’ to release in June Geisler, an expert on media leadership at Loyola Uni- versity of Chicago’s communication school. Diversity ‘New Possible’ seen from 2020’s tumult Diversity issues have roiled several news organiza- tions in the past year. The Los Angeles Times publicly SAN RAMON, Calif., Feb 1, (AP): tempting to hate the players rather the essays began, Clayton believes the came to terms with both how the paper historically fed In pop culture, 2020 has been under- than look at the game and realize it’s sequence of events that bookended the into the city’s racism with its coverage, and how it still standably reviled as the “hell year.” It the problem,” Rosenstein said. “We Nov. 3 election have turned “The New lacked minority writers and managers. tormented us with a lethal pandemic have new technology that can enable Possible” into a Kairos book, referring The Washington Post named Krissah Thompson spiraling out of control, thousands of us to harness our collective intel- to the ancient Greek word for an op- the newspaper’s fi rst managing editor for diversity shuttered businesses, violent protests ligence in ways that has never been portune time in history. and inclusion. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s top editor over racial injustice, raging wildfi res possible before.” “This is the one of the few moments resigned after many staff members were angered by a and political extremism and lies that The book is backed by One Project, in life,” Clayton said, “when the world headline over a story about post-Floyd unrest. underpinned January’s harrowing a nonprofi t group Rosenstein started as points to you and says, ‘Are you going This past week, CBS put two executives on admin- This undated image provided by coup attempt at the US Capitol. part of his effort to improve the way to make that inner change or are you istrative leave to investigate charges of intolerance to Wipf and Stock Publishers shows the But what if all that tumult actually we live and work. He also was a pro- not going to transform?’” laid the foundation for societal re- tagonist in “The Social Dilemma,” a minorities and women at some of its local news op- book cover of ‘The New Possible’. Also: erations. A blemish on Goldston’s record was the dis- ‘The New Possible,’ is a collection of vival? That’s the premise offered by Netfl ix documentary about the dark missal of an ABC talent relations executive who made thought-provoking essays exploring an eclectic group of writers, academ- side of social media released four NEW YORK: One of the fi rst book- racially insensitive remarks. how society can seize upon the re- ics, scientists, environmentalists, months before the Jan. 6 insurrection length inside accounts of the corona- With that backdrop, “one of these companies might cent upheaval to reshape technology, and technology engineers in “The at the Capitol. virus pandemic will be coming out in want to make a statement,” said Richard Prince, who the economy, the environment, the New Possible,” a collection of essays Another “Social Dilemma” stand- June. blogs about minority issues in the news industry. food supply, government and commu- that explore what and how the world out, former Google engineer Tristan Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague One was already made in December when longtime nity so we can eventually look back at might rebuild from the rubble of the Harris, founded the Center for Humane Year,” which builds on a New Yorker 2020 as a reawakening instead of a past year. Technology in 2018r to nudge the in- story that ran earlier this month, will MSNBC President Phil Griffi n stepped down and was death rattle. (AP) replaced by Rashida Jones, a Black woman who has The group behind the book doesn’t dustry away from building services be published by Alfred A. Knopf on moved up the ranks at NBC News. lack for ambition. People from science and devices designed to attract and June 8. Wright told The Associated Kevin Merida, a senior vice president at ESPN and fi ction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson hold onto our attention. His considers Press that he interviewed more than former Washington Post editor, is a name on many to Buddhist monk Jack Kornfi eld sug- his essay a kind of sequel to the Netf- 100 people for the story, including lists as a potential hire. gest ways to reshape technology, the lix documentary and its warning about such top government health offi cials as There’s been quiet progress at smaller news outlets. economy, the environment, the food how Facebook and Twitter can tear Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Just this month, Manny Garcia was named editor of supply, government and community in people apart instead of bringing them Birx. the Austin American-Statesman and David Ng head hopes that people can eventually look together. “The Plague Year” will document back at 2020 as a reawakening and not what he calls “the shocking failure” of of the Providence Journal newsroom. Culminated The news organizations looking for leaders are far a death rattle. the US to contain the virus, which has more complex than they used to be. Baron’s Post has “People can tell our systems are bro- “We have been screaming at the top killed more than 400,000 people across nearly double the employees it had when he started ken, and not just in a subtle way, not of our lungs about this train running the country. eight years ago, with a robust video unit and data just like we need to tweak a few things off the cliff for a long time and then it “America was supposed to be the or throw a few bad apples out,” said culminated in Jan. 6,” Harris told the best positioned country in the world to journalism. Goldston’s successor won’t just super- Burdon Valentine vise “World News Tonight,” but “The View” and the Justin Rosenstein, a former Google AP, referring to the insurrection at the handle the pandemic,” he said. FiveThirtyEight blog, too. and Facebook engineer who contribut- US Capitol incited by former President Knopf, which announced the book Three issues that created unwelcome headlines for ed an essay on building a “democratic Donald Trump. “We have trapped the Wednesday, is calling it an “an all- Baquet within the past two months were ones few of Variety economy.” “The rules of the system entire global psyche inside this Vegas- encompassing account” covering eve- his predecessors could have conceived of. are rigged against us. They are not de- style dopamine machine that has be- rything from the virus’ origins to the The Times had to admit it couldn’t vouch for the signed to serve the interests of human- come the host of our democratic con- development of vaccines and nature of central character in an award-winning podcast that LONDON: Hilton Valentine, the found- ity, they are not designed to serve the versations.” the disease itself. its audio unit produced, said it disciplined a reporter ing guitarist of the English rock and roll interests of nature.” “The New Possible” aims to spur Wright won the Pulitzer Prize in for using a racial slur at a Times-sponsored meeting band The Animals who is credited with Rosenstein was one of the driving change through 28 essays divided into 2007 for “The Looming Tower: Al- for students and ended the contract of an editor who coming up with one of the most famous forces behind the book, which was 10 categories - Earth, Us, Change, Qaeda and The Road to 9-11” and tweeted she had “chills” seeing Joe Biden’s plane opening riffs of the 1960s, has died.