Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Editor’s note: The Front Page is a biweekly newsletter from The Objective, a publication that offers reporting, first-person commentary, and reported essays on how journalism has misrepresented or excluded specific communities in coverage, as well as how newsrooms have treated staff from those communities. We happily share each issue with Nieman Lab readers.
We’ve seen this one before: Media person tweets that unpaid internships are good, Twitter erupts, discourse ensues, repeat. This time it came from NFL Network reporter Jane Slater, who wrote, “there is a reason not everyone makes it in this business,” implying that early-career journalists should take unpaid or underpaid opportunities. She later issued a statement, acknowledging she comes from familial wealth, and adding she doesn’t think people should work for free.
One other layer…for future journalists…your first few years feel unpaid. I made 16.5k my first two years and worked harder than I’ve ever worked. There is a reason not everyone makes it in this business. I don’t have time for those of you who don’t understand grind ✌🏼 https://t.co/c4iWwPQ1bs
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) March 1, 2021
making your internship unpaid DOES NOT ensure that your interns will:
– work more
– hustle harder
– learn to “grind”it DOES, however, ensure that your field will remain inaccessible to:
– low-income students
– people of color
– those without a financial safety net— hannah chinn (@hannahlchinn) March 1, 2021
Twitter didn’t respond kindly to the initial sentiment. Many journalists pointed out that they had to work multiple jobs to afford unpaid opportunities or were completely shut out from them.
Unpaid internships are exploitative and elitist, rewarding students who can afford to take them them and leaving behind students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Three weeks after it formally acquired HuffPost from Verizon Media, BuzzFeed is laying off 47 U.S. HuffPost employees and shuttering HuffPost Canada, for a total of 70 jobs lost.
BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti had said he “believe[d] in the future of HuffPost and the potential it has to continue to define the media landscape for years to come.” Evidently, dozens of journalists who were laid off earlier this week will not be part of that future.
Reportedly, several of the laid-off staffers were international employees who relied on their work to maintain visa status. The already dwindling international coverage from the frankensteined BuzzHuffFeedPost will become even sparser with the impending shutdown of HuffPost Canada — just two weeks after employees unionized with CWA Canada. (The HuffPost Canada Union was told the decision wasn’t related to organizing.)
Defector reported on how the layoffs went down:
According to a recording of the all-hands call obtained by Defector, Peretti told staffers that if they “don’t receive an email” by 1:00 p.m. EDT then their jobs are safe. The HuffPost staff received an email at 10:00 a.m. EDT announcing the meeting. According to an attendee, the password to join the meeting was “spr!ngisH3r3.”
If you have a few bucks, you can support those journalists here. You can also share available openings that will be added to an internal spreadsheet.
At 3:00 AM this morning, members of Gimlet Union secured their first contract.
Among other items, the unionhas prioritized clear pathways to promotion with salary minimums, the right to derivative works, across-the-board raises, and “initiatives to address anti-oppression, diversity and inclusion.”
Former Gimlet staffers who are Black have written recently about the poor treatment and exploitation they faced at the company. Codified additions to organization’s employee manual would be a welcome development.
Through all this, my hope is still that the Union gets what they are asking for. Their requests are reasonable, fair, and would go a long way to combating the inequity that people experience while trying to do their jobs at Spotify. https://t.co/GqgWINtk4b
— Eric Eddings (@eeddings) March 11, 2021
This is a powerful read. Uncivil did more to educate me about US history than anything in my formal ed. “The Sentence” has helped me stand against white supremacist talking points. I won’t stop recommending it, but now I know who to thank and how much they suffered for it https://t.co/SbIffoiBU9
— Monster is anonymous sheep (she/her) (@RochelleJennin7) March 8, 2021
This part of James T. Green’s essay on his time working at Gimlet Media so perfectly encapsulates the experience of attempting to tell stories in these media spaces as a Black person. https://t.co/lJpRbkrSNF pic.twitter.com/ds5dw5WsZQ
— justice (@justiceaudre) March 9, 2021
Ringer Union also bargained for its first contract, putting an emphasis on talent retention. In past bargaining sessions, members reached tentative agreements for parental leave, an anti-harassment policy, and a 40-hour work week. With a contract, these bargaining successes would be granted a significant level of protection.
Likewise, members of Parcast Union are presenting their newest counterproposals, which push for non-discrimination, pay equity, and health and safety regulations.
Lawsuit alleges university violated First Amendment rights. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has filed a lawsuit against Haskell Indian Nations University on behalf of campus newspaper The Indian Leader and its editor-in-chief, Jared Nally. In October 2020, University president Ronald Graham sent a directive to Nally instructing him to stop reporting on stories deemed unfavorable by Graham. FIRE also alleges that the “federally-operated tribal university in Kansas shorted funding for [The Indian Leader] by over $10,000 without any explanation and ignored emails for months.”
Iowa journalist acquitted of all charges. Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was found not guilty by a jury on Tuesday. Last May, Sahouri was pepper-sprayed and arrested while covering a Black Lives Matters protest. Sahouri, a Palestinian American, told Axios that race played a “huge part” in her arrest; Katie Akin, a white former Register reporter, was with Sahouri but did not get arrested.
Ebony and Jet will find a home in Atlanta. New company executives say Ebony, which relaunched digitally on March 1, will be based in Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reports that Jet will return in June and that three previous employees are included in the new hires. The company that had owned Ebony and Jet forced into involuntary bankruptcy last year; former NBA player Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman acquired both publications for $14 million in December.
Teen Vogue staffers reject McCammond’s statements. Last week, Alexi McCammond was named editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, prompting Diana Tsui, editorial director of recommendations at restaurant recommendation site The Infatuation, to create an Instagram post calling attention to racist and homophobic tweets McCammond posted in 2011. Since then, a group of over 20 Teen Vogue staffers said they reject McCammond’s statements and wrote a letter to Condé Nast about the hiring decision. McCammond responded on Wednesday, writing that she was “sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language.”
Native American Journalists Association member survey. The Native American Journalists Association is considering updating its name to the Indigenous Journalists Association and expanding to allow for international partnerships. NAJA members are invited to take a survey that will help the organization determine its path forward.
What Marty Baron’s send-offs miss. The Washington Post’s top editor eased into retirement at the end of the February, making room for retrospectives from his former paper and its competitors. Wesley Lowery, formerly a national correspondent at the Post, wrote about what’s missing from those retrospectives — acknowledgment of Baron’s behavior during last year’s “racial reckoning.”
Racial tension at WaPo was an “unexpected” leadership challenge last summer? That will be news to the dozens of black WaPo staffers who met w/Marty in 2015 to specifically request these issues be addressed. He said that he was too busy “saving” the paper to worry about diversity
— Wesley (@WesleyLowery) February 28, 2021
Baron’s claims that racial tension was unexpected are “absolutely nonsensical and ahistorical,” Lowery said.
A.H. Belo Corporation seeks a new name. The company, which publishes The Dallas Morning News and Al Día, will ask shareholders to approve that change to “DallasNews Corporation” in May. The corporation’s founder, A.H. Belo, was a Confederate officer, a fact which “is the source of discomfort, even pain, for many of our fellow citizens,” said Robert Decherd, who serves the company as CEO, chairman, and president.
$$$ denotes a paid event.
This issue of The Front Page is by Holly Piepenburg and Chelsea Cirruzzo with editing by Curtis Yee.
