Joshua Benton founded Nieman Lab in 2008 and served as its director until 2020; he is now the Lab’s senior writer. Before spending a year at Harvard as a 2008 Nieman Fellow, he spent a decade in newspapers, mostly at The Dallas Morning News. His reports on cheating on standardized tests in the Texas public schools led to the permanent shutdown of a school district and won the Philip Meyer Journalism Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has reported from a dozen foreign countries, been a Pew Fellow in International Journalism, and three times been a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Reporting. Before Dallas, he was a reporter and occasional rock critic for The Toledo Blade. He wrote his first HTML in January 1994.
For local newspapers, print circulation has collapsed for every audience except retirees. That’s why the daily paper in The Villages, Florida (metro population 129,752) prints as many copies as the one in Atlanta (metro population 6,930,423).
Anyone who tells you they know what digital news will look like in 50 years is lying. But the Post — with an owner rich enough to allow a decades-long time horizon — says it’ll still only cost you $50 a year.
Out of every 1,000 times someone sees a post on Facebook, how many of them include a link to a news site? Four. No wonder Facebook doesn’t want to write publishers big checks anymore.
Some reporters can build a career around their own personal brands. But doing great work requires an infrastructure, including a lot of talented people who don’t get bylines. Barry Sussman — the Watergate journalist named neither “Woodward” nor “Bernstein” — was one.
At their best, they talk explicitly about reader trust — how it gets earned and lost. They lay out their standards and where they fell short. They make opaque newsroom processes transparent. And they show their work.
“In instances when content touches on sensitive topics but does not cross the threshold which would require removal under our Platform Rules, we may take steps to restrict and limit its reach.”
“Tweet less, tweet more thoughtfully, and devote more time to reporting,” says executive editor Dean Baquet. Is that a wise redirection of attention or a mistaken view of reporting circa 2022? (Both, a little.)
Benton, Joshua. "The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 7 Apr. 2022. Web. 1 Jul. 2022.
APA
Benton, J. (2022, Apr. 7). The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while). Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/04/the-new-york-times-would-really-like-its-reporters-to-stop-scrolling-and-get-off-twitter-at-least-once-in-a-while/
Chicago
Benton, Joshua. "The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified April 7, 2022. Accessed July 1, 2022. https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/04/the-new-york-times-would-really-like-its-reporters-to-stop-scrolling-and-get-off-twitter-at-least-once-in-a-while/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/04/the-new-york-times-would-really-like-its-reporters-to-stop-scrolling-and-get-off-twitter-at-least-once-in-a-while/
| title = The New York Times would really like its reporters to stop scrolling and get off Twitter (at least once in a while)
| last = Benton
| first = Joshua
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 7 April 2022
| accessdate = 1 July 2022
| ref = {{harvid|Benton|2022}}
}}