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. He released last week. Some critics may Wealth, Work, Food, Education, Love, wrote a novel, “The End of October,” land. was 77. see him as part of the problem, given Community and Tomorrow. The con- that was completed before the pan- “Is it any wonder some of these editors would want The band’s label ABKCO Music that he invented the Facebook “Like” tributors the gamut from best-selling demic and in many ways anticipated it. to throw up their hands and say it’s time to retire?” confi rmed that Valentine died on Friday, button that helped propel the success author Michael Pollan to high school He is still working on his new book, Kaplan said. saying it was told of his death by his of a social network that has become teen activist Anisa Nanavati. which he expects will end with the The news industry’s fi nancial troubles over the past wife, Germaine Valentine. The cause of a massive funnel of misinformation The contributors quickly embraced incoming administration of President death was not given. two decades has thinned the usual pipeline of leaders, that has become a source of conster- idea last spring, said Philip Clayton, Joe Biden. He noted that Biden’s inau- “Valentine was a pioneering guitar nation and regret for him and other one of the book’s editors and president guration on Jan. 20 was one year since Geisler said. The best new ones may be found in unu- player infl uencing the sound of rock and sual places, or not have high profi les because they’ve one-time Facebook backers like in- of the Institute for Ecological Civiliza- the fi rst COVID-19 case was reported roll for decades to come,” the label said vestor Roger McNamee. “It is very tion. In the eight months since work on in the US. been keeping their heads down and working. in a statement. Demonstrate Valentine took up the guitar at 13 in his hometown of North Shields in New leaders will have to demonstrate they are sen- northeast England, subsequently getting for four years and is also heard on other nated Scottish disc jockey, producer and Saturday morning. sitive to inclusion goals, responsive to their staffs and involved in the skiffl e craze - a kind of classics by the band including “Don’t Let recording artist who had worked with the “Tragically, our beautiful Sophie able to inspire those who work for them to produce fusion of American folk, country, jazz Me Be Misunderstood,” “We Gotta Get likes of Madonna and Charli XCX, has passed away this morning after a terrible great journalism, she said. and blues — that was sweeping the UK Out of This Place” and “Don’t Bring Me died following an accident in the Greek accident,” the statement said. “True to “You are going to want to have employees having His skiffl e band The Heppers evolved Down.” (AP) capital of Athens. She was 34. her spirituality she had climbed up to a greater say than ever before in these decisions,” she into The Wildcats, a rock and roll band ❑ ❑ ❑ In a statement, UK label Transgressive watch the full moon and accidentally said. “The leaders are going to be vetted, almost like that became popular across the north of said the musician, whose full name was slipped and fell.” crowd-sourcing.” England, partly because of Valentine’s LONDON: Sophie, the Grammy-nomi- Sophie Xeon, died in the early hours of A police spokesperson in Athens It’s a time, she said, that demands creativity. habit of rolling on the ground while play- confi rmed that Sophie slipped and fell ing his guitar. from the balcony of an apartment where Also: Having learned his craft, Valentine she was staying and no foul play was formed The Animals in 1963 alongside suspected in her death. The person spoke MIAMI: Writer Carl Hiaasen is retiring from the Mi- singer Eric Burdon, bassist Chas Chan- to The Associated Press on condition of ami Herald after composing newspaper columns for dler, organist Alan Price and drummer anonymity because the investigation is the past 35 years, the newspaper says. John Steel. still ongoing. The Herald published a story this week saying that The band’s most famous hit came in Sophie, who was born in Glasgow, be- Hiaasen would be done after his last column on March 1964, when their rock-infused take of gan releasing music in 2013 and was best 14. The 67-year-old Hiaasen said he no longer wants the folk song “The House of the Rising known in the early part of her career for the pressure of a weekly deadline. Sun” topped the charts in both the UK being one of the writers of Madonna’s “I’ve been thinking about easing off as the years and the US. 2015 single “Bitch I’m Madonna.” went by,” Hiaasen told the Herald. “I was 23 when I The song, whose opening riff has been She fi rst used her own image and started working there. I feel like I almost grew up in a rite of passage for budding guitarists vocals for the October 2017 single “It’s the newsroom. I also feel at this stage it’s a good time around the world ever since, had such Okay To Cry.” The recording paved the to step away.” resonance in the US that many people way for Sophie’s debut album, “Oil of That’s not to say that Hiaasen will stop writing. were surprised to hear that the band came Every Pearl’s Un-Insides.” Released in He said he plans to continue his book projects, which from the industrial heartland of England. June 2018, it received a Grammy nomi- have ranged from comic novels such as “Tourist Sea- Burdon paid tribute to Valentine on nation for best dance/electronic album. son” and “Double Whammy” to children’s titles such Instagram, writing: “The opening opus French singer/songwriter Christine and of Rising Sun will never sound the the Queens described Sophie as a “stellar as “Hoot.” same!... You didn’t just play it, you lived producer, a visionary, a reference,” who His latest book is “Squeeze Me,” about the era of it! Heartbroken by the sudden news of This image released by the Sundance Institute shows Rita Moreno in a scene rebelled against “the narrow, normative former President Donald Trump. Hilton’s passing.” from ‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It,’ an official selection society by being an absolute triumph, Valentine remained with the band of the US Documentary Competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. (AP) both as an artist and as a woman.” (AP)