Maynard Institute archives

Dallas Paper Closes Community Sections

by richard0661

Returning Jan. 20, barring breaking news

Morning News Cuts 13 “neighborsgo” Jobs

Trump Boots N.Y. Times Reporter From Campaign Event

N.Y. Daily News Promotes Eric Barrow to Sports Editor

Blacks Have Greater Investment in Fighting Cancer

Media Credited With Elevating Story of Flint Water Crisis

Philly’s Al Día Reaches Beyond Spanish-Speaking Latinos

. . . New York’s El Diario/La Prensa in Steady Decline

Charleston Killings Ranked High Among Race Stories

Essence Features Three February Covers

Short Takes

Morning News Cuts 13 “neighborsgo” Jobs

The Dallas Morning News yesterday shut down its neighborsgo section covering community news and its FD magazine covering the Dallas area’s luxury market, cutting 13 neighborsgo jobs and six FD positions.

“There is no pretending that this isn’t a loss to us and to our readers,” Publisher and CEO Jim Moroney said in an email to employees, Jeff Mosier reported in the Morning News.

Among those let go were Gary Piña, who is Hispanic and a past board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Tommy Cummings, Muscogee Creek, believed to be the only Native American on the staff.

Editor Mike Wilson did not respond to a request for comment, but Mosier wrote, “The News will continue to cover communities in North Texas as part of a new team of local reporters being formed as part of a newsroom reorganization.”  Some employees could return in different roles.

The Dallas area is increasingly multicultural, and the neighborsgo section covered communities of color in South Dallas.

“Neighborsgo, which debuted in 2007, appeared Fridays in selected cities and neighborhoods for those who received The News at home,” Mosier reported. “Staffers in the seven sections covered community news from Lewisville to McKinney to southwest Dallas County. They edited reader-submitted news and photos.

“The staffers also reported on stories from the community, like the series of stories on the deadly tornadoes after Christmas. And they also created a project to measure the transparency of local governments. . . .”

One reader wrote on Facebook, “I will miss NeighborsGo. If I could, I would sit in my pajamas and read hyperlocal stories all dang day. Give me a story about some kid in my neighborhood rising to a challenge or overcoming obstacles and I’m ready to take on the world. Better than watching the presidential debates any day. . .”

Cummings messaged Journal-isms, “I was a digital editor. But I did do some reporting, mostly entertainment and sports. Yesterday, one of the Native stars from ‘The Revenant’ stopped by the office and [was] excited that another Native worked at The News. I told him, yeah, ‘I was the last of the Mohicans.’ ” The actor was Arthur Redcloud, the Pawnee who nursed Leonardo DiCaprio‘s character back to health.

Cummings added, “I believe TDMN recognizes the need for diverse coverage in those underserved areas. I truly do. We’ve made strides and I believe they’ll do everything they can to sustain that momentum. Neighborsgo and TDMN Metro were working in a unique way to accomplish this.”

Piña was a content editor/designer with neighborsgo, according to his LinkedIn profile, but he also wrote stories.

Karina Ramirez, president of Hispanic Communicators of Dallas/Fort Worth, told Journal-isms by email, “The communities of NeighborsGo did cover a couple of Latino neighborhoods. . . . I know that there are positions that still need to be filled and I hope that DMN will consider rehiring a couple of the colleagues who were laid off today. It’s been a very challenging day.” Ramirez works at Al Día, the Morning News’ Spanish-language publication.

Mosier also wrote, “The News is currently undergoing a newsroom reorganization, and some departing neighborsgo and FD staffers had applied for new positions. News Editor Mike Wilson praised the journalists and their strong work.

” ‘The Neighborsgo team covered our communities energetically and with an appreciation for what made each one special,’ he said to the News staff via email. ‘The staff’s outstanding reporting on access to public records has been entered in prize competitions this year.’

“About FD, he said that ‘some high-end magazines are little more than shopping catalogs for the Platinum card crowd, but FD had the skill and daring to go deep without sacrificing its unique voice or independence.’

“Details about the profitability of the community newspaper section and the luxury lifestyle publications were not released Friday. But Moroney mentioned the newspaper industry’s ongoing financial troubles.

” ‘It remains a challenging time for our industry,’ he said in the email. ‘We must focus on the parts of our business that can make a material financial contribution to our success. The unfortunate reality is that neighborsgo and FD have struggled financially for some time, and we have not been able to make them consistently and meaningfully profitable.’ . . .”

According to 2014 Census figures, Dallas County is 68 percent white, 39.3 percent Latino or Hispanic, 23.1 percent black or African American, 5.9 percent Asian and 1.1 percent American Indian or Alaska Native.

For the 2015 newsroom diversity census of the American Society of News Editors [PDF] the Morning News reported that it employed 16.6 percent journalists of color, including 7.5 percent Hispanic, 4.9 percent black, 3.8 percent Asian American and 0.4 percent American Indian.

Trump Boots N.Y. Times Reporter From Campaign Event

“A New York Times political reporter got the boot at a Donald Trump campaign event on Friday,” Tom Kludt reported for CNNMoney.com.

“The reporter, Trip Gabriel, said he was told by a police officer that the gathering at a Pizza Ranch in Waukee, Iowa, was a ‘private event.’

“But in a blog post on the Times website, Gabriel said that ‘about 20 other television and digital reporters continued to cover the event.’

“The episode is the latest in Trump’s volatile relationship with the press. His campaign has been criticized for threatening to ‘blacklist’ reporters who stray from the designated media ‘pens’ at rallies, while Trump has repeatedly disparaged journalists he deems unfair, and called them ‘scum’ at his rallies.

“Gabriel said in his blog post that he had been given a press pass for a Trump event earlier on Friday near Urbandale, Iowa. It is not clear why he was denied access to the event in Waukee. A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

“Gabriel noted that the Times ran an article on Wednesday on Trump’s ‘amateurish’ ground operation in Iowa. . . .”

Meanwhile, the Daily News in New York used the front page of its Friday issue to slam Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, the conservative Texas senator. Cruz had “blasted wealthy businessman and Republican front-runner Donald Trump over his so-called New York values,” Mark DeCambre reported Friday for MarketWatch.

“The paper’s cover delivers a graphic of the Statue of Liberty making an obscene gesture with one finger and this headline: ‘Drop Dead Ted.’

“The cover, a riff on the paper’s famous ‘Ford to City: Drop Dead’ headline from 1975, came after Republican contenders locked horns in a debate in South Carolina Thursday night — likely the last debate before the Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating process on Feb. 1. . . .”

N.Y. Daily News Promotes Eric Barrow to Sports Editor

The Daily News in New York Friday promoted Eric Barrow to sports editor, raising to five the number of black journalists leading sports sections of daily newspapers.

“Eric spent years in the department — most recently as Sunday Sports Editor — where he led a Sunday section that won dozens of awards. His wide-ranging talents will allow us to continue the incredible work we have always done in sports, while bolstering our digital and print efforts,” Jim Rich, editor-in-chief, wrote to News staff members on Friday.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Barrow has worked at the News since 2003. Before that, he was sports copy editor at the New York Post, sports layout editor at the Los Angeles Daily News and sports editor at the Trentonian.

In 2014, the departures of Michael Feeney, Enid Alvarez, Simone Weichselbaum and Jennifer H. Cunningham left the Daily News with an alarmingly low number of African Americans and Hispanics covering the majority-minority city. Last year, the News added Leonard Greene, a black journalist who had worked at the Boston Herald and New York Post tabloids, to its rewrite desk, and he has also written news stories and commentary.

The other African American sports editors at daily newspapers are Marcus Carmouche, sports manager at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans; Larry Graham, executive sports editor at U-T San Diego; Lisa Wilson, executive sports editor at the Buffalo News; and Jewell Walston, sports editor at the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

Leon Carter, a black journalist now at ESPN, was Daily News sports editor from 1999 to 2010. 

President Obama announces a “new national effort” to cure cancer Tuesday during his State of the Union message. (video)

Blacks Have Greater Investment in Fighting Cancer

President Obama‘s announcement of a new national effort to cure cancer should grab the attention of African Americans and the black press, as blacks suffer from the disease at a higher rate than other Americans.

“Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer,” Obama said in his State of the Union message on Tuesday. “Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources that they’ve had in over a decade.

“So tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us on so many issues over the past 40 years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the families that we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all. . . .”

Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III, the son of the vice president and former state attorney general of Delaware, died in May after battling brain cancer for several years.

According to the Office of Minority Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, “African Americans have the highest mortality rate of any racial and ethnic group for all cancers combined and for most major cancers. Death rates for all major causes of death are higher for African Americans than for whites, contributing in part to a lower life expectancy for both African American men and African American women.”

The same is not true of other people of color.

Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and American Indians/Alaska Natives generally have lower cancer rates than the non-Hispanic white population, the office says. “However, disparities still exist in certain types of cancer.”

Obama’s announcement was greeted with skepticism. Emma Court wrote Friday for MarketWatch, “Curing cancer is like winning the Powerball: great to envision but not so easy to do (as many of us found out Wednesday night).”

Court quoted Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, who called the announcement “an aspirational goal.”

Jenna Adamson wrote Thursday in USA Today, “Our current president wasn’t the first to launch a medical moon race or to promise a cure in a speech before a joint session of Congress. Those distinctions go to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.”

However, Brawley wrote for CNN, “With current knowledge, we can do so much more to prevent considerable numbers of people from suffering and dying from this disease and do it much more efficiently. The more we learn, the closer we get to controlling this dreaded disease.

“I like the moonshot analogy. We need a concerted, organized effort with a leader and a goal. . . .”

Media Credited With Elevating Story of Flint Water Crisis

As the water crisis in Flint, Mich., gains international media attention amid calls for the resignation of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), the media are being credited with playing a constructive role.

“The city’s water system has received intense media scrutiny after it has been connected to high blood lead levels found in some of the city’s youngest residents,” as Gary Ridley wrote Friday for mlive.com about the majority-black city’s decision to hire a new manager for the city’s municipal water system.

“The media helped to elevate this story and forced the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder to respond and tell what they knew and didn’t know,” Bankole Thompson, columnist for the Detroit News, messaged Journal-isms on Friday.

“What happened in Flint is wrong on so many levels and the city would require sustainable and longstanding help. Basically the state government in Michigan failed Flint and the media has been telling the story. We now need to know who were actually the people responsible for this disaster. That’s one of the questions the media need to be asking.”

MLive Media Group, parent company of the Flint Journal, editorialized urging more transparency and a federal investigation into the water issue.

Hosting Flint Journal Editor Bryn Mickle on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC on Jan. 4, Maddow said, “The local Michigan press should get credit here for being tireless and fearless and creative and clear about this story, even in the face of their state government saying ‘nothing to see here’ [video],’ relax, and by the way, you can’t have access to any documents.

“Michigan Public Radio, the Detroit Free Press, even the Michigan chapter of the ACLU had a journalist/researcher working on this. Local press in Michigan has not let this go and they are still pushing. Look at this. This is from the editors of the Flint Journal on New Year’s Eve,” Maddow said as a page from the Flint Journal appeared on the screen. “Quote, Gov. Snyder needs to do more than just apologize for Flint water crisis. Flint Journal lists steps he ought to take, very specific steps . . .”

Philly’s Al Día Reaches Beyond Spanish-Speaking Latinos

“Philadelphia has one of the country’s most vibrant Chinatowns, and as new Chinese restaurants and Chinese-owned businesses open, many have turned to the city’s Latino community for new employees,” Joseph Lichterman reported Friday for NiemanLab.

“The influx of Latinos — many of them recent immigrants — to the city highlights Philadelphia’ changing demographics. That’s a key story for the city’s news outlets to cover, but one that can be difficult for traditional English-language news organizations to report.

” ‘My employer doesn’t speak much English, and neither do I,’ restaurant worker Jose Lemos told Ana Gamboa, a reporter with Al Día, a Spanish-language publication in Philadelphia.

“Last spring, Al Día partnered with the Chinese-language newspaper Metro Chinese to report on Chinese businesses hiring Latino employees. The story was translated into Spanish and English on Al Día’s website and into Chinese on Metro Chinese’s site.

“The coverage is part of a larger effort by Al Día to reach readers outside of Philadelphia’s Spanish-speaking Latino community. In July 2014, the paper launched a responsive English-language version of its website and began publishing original stories in English and translating stories between English and Spanish.

” ‘We have a new generation preferring to read in English, but not necessarily liking what they see in English and in the rest of the media,’ Hernán Guaracao, Al Día’s CEO and founder, told me when I visited Al Día’s offices in Philadelphia’s Center City neighborhood last fall.

” ‘They may have switched their language preference, but there’s still desperation to have their stories told in the manner they feel that is representative of themselves,’ he said. . . .”

Charleston Killings Ranked High Among Race Stories

Police brutality, corruption and Black Lives Matter protests might collectively have seemed like the big racial story of 2015, but they ranked only fifth in a ranking of race and immigration topics given time on the broadcast networks’ evening news programs, according to calculations published Thursday.

The top 10 race and immigration stories on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news broadcasts, calculated by Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report, were:

1. European Union faces influx of refugees and migrants, 174 minutes.

2. AME black church massacre in Charleston, S.C., 117 minutes.

3. Confederate flag on public grounds controversy, 57 minutes.

4. College campus racism outrages, 56 minutes.

5. Police: brutality, corruption, race bias protests, 28 minutes.

6. Syrian-American immigration: seek refugee status, 25 minutes.

7. NAACP leader may be white, passing as black, 19 minutes.

8. Illegal immigration backlash, regulation, crackdown, 17 minutes.

9. Race relations, frictions between whites, blacks, 11 minutes.

10. Black churches in Missouri suffer string of fires, 10 minutes

Miguel Almaguer of NBC topped the list of “most used reporters” (excluding anchors), with 284 minutes. Others of color on the list are Jeff Pegues of CBS, 238 minutes; Nancy Cordes of CBS, 208 minutes; Gabe Gutierrez of NBC, 182 minutes; Tom Llamas of ABC, 177 minutes; and Gio Benitez of ABC, 160 minutes.

Essence Features Three February Covers

“In ESSENCE’s first-ever ‘Black Girl Magic’ February 2016 issue, the magazine presents three covers celebrating young women who embody the spark and shine that exists in every Black girl: activist Johnetta Elzie, Chi-Raq’s leading lady, Teyonah Parris, and black-ish co-star Yara Shahidi,” the magazine announced last week.

“Plus, ESSENCE’s ‘Class of 2016’ showcases even more young women from the worlds of activism, fashion, the arts, sports and tech whose dynamic actions make us all shine bright, including: Zendaya, Willow Smith, Aja Naomi King, Quvenzhané Wallis, Gabby Douglas, Bree Newsome and more. . . .”

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