Amid “Toxic and Unkind Spirit,” Sun-Times Lays Off Photo Dept.
Founders Exit Grio, MSNBC Takes Over From NBC News
WorldStarHipHop Outdraws Black News, Celebrity Sites
Who Are the Great Political Reporters in Each State?
Slain Driver Was “NewsHour” Family Member, Ifill Says
Ex-Reporter Apologizes Nine Years After Gary Webb Suicide
Fired White Male Anchor Alleges Black Woman Was Favored
Men of Huffington Post Step Forward
Amid “Toxic and Unkind Spirit,” Sun-Times Lays Off Photo Dept.
“John White’s 44-year career at The Chicago Sun-Times has been rooted in faith and professionalism. It’s a career he refers to as ‘an assignment from God,’” Kenneth Irby wrote Friday for the Poynter Institute.
“Earlier this week, that career came to an end on what some photographers have called the darkest day in Sun-Times photojournalism history. The paper announced Thursday that it had laid off its entire photojournalism staff and would rely on freelance photographers and reporters instead.
“White — who has seen the paper go through many owners and changes — says he never imagined that his and his colleagues’ careers would end so abruptly.
“In a phone interview, the 1982 Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist and teacher recalled a day that he is still ‘trying to make sense of.’
“ ‘This is what I remember hearing: “As you know we are going forward into multimedia and video, and that is going to be our focus. So we are eliminating the photography department.’ Then they turned it over to HR,’ White recounted.
“White said it all began with an email alert on Wednesday evening directing the staff to attend a 9:30 am meeting on Thursday — which White said was ‘only the second meeting with the new managers.’ He called the meeting ‘intimidating’ and said ‘there was a toxic and unkind spirit in the office.’
“White said the 28 full-time photography department staffers who received the news seemed shocked: ‘It was as if they pushed a button and deleted a whole culture of photojournalism.’
“Those being laid off were asked to return company equipment, White said, and their access badges were demagnetized while they were receiving their layoff packages.
“The Sun-Times plans to rely on reporters to take photos and videos and has begun mandatory ‘iPhone photography basics.’ Its decision is just the latest example of a disconcerting trend in American media: professional photojournalism is being downsized and devalued, with news organizations increasingly turning to wire services, citizen-submitted content and independent/freelance contributions. . . .”
- Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke, New York Observer: A Sun-Times Vet on the Paper Laying Off Its Photo Department
- Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune: Chicago Sun-Times lays off all photographers
- Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune: The Idiocy of Eliminating a Photo Staff
- Cord Jefferson, Gawkier: Photojournalists Learning They’d Been Laid Off
- Lynne Marek, Crain’s Chicago Business: Chicago Sun-Times cuts entire photography staff
Founders Exit Grio, MSNBC Takes Over From NBC News
TheGrio, NBC’s news site targeting African Americans, is being moved from the bailiwick of NBC News to that of MSNBC, with co-founders David Wilson and Dan Woosley leaving to start another entrepreneurial venture, Wilson told Journal-isms on Friday.
Wilson, 36, told Journal-isms he expected theGrio, which he co-founded in 2009 and sold to NBC in 2010, to reflect more of MSNBC’s “sensibility” with the switch. While NBC News does middle-of-the-road reporting, Wilson said by telephone, “MSNBC has a more progressive lean to it.” MSNBC is by far African Americans’ favorite cable news channel.
He said his new project would be created for the “digital entertainment space for African Americans,” and would be “something that no one else is doing.” He called himself an entrepreneur at heart.
TheGrio recorded 1,413,000 visitors during April, according to the comScore research company, behind such competitors as HuffPost BlackVoices and the Root but ahead of others such as NewsOne and BlackAmericaWeb.
“theGrio will be managed by MSNBC going forward, with Yvette continuing to report to Phil. Vivian’s team at NBC News Digital will support the site’s operations and technology. Under MSNBC, theGrio will be able to further build on its existing position of strength as a community for smart and engaging dialogue, opinions and perspectives, and continue to be an incubator for great stories and ideas for the entire NBCUniversal News Group.”
WorldStarHipHop Outdraws Black News, Celebrity Sites
WorldStarHipHop, a website featuring outrageous videos captured on cell phones, records twice as many unique visitors as MediaTakeOut, another site targeting African Americans by appealing to the lowest common denominator, April rankings by comScore research company show.
WorldStarHipHop recorded 5,096,000 unique visitors, compared with MediaTakeOut’s 2,736,000. MediaTakeOut specializes in celebrity gossip and lurid headlines.
According to figures provided to Journal-isms for selected sites, the more mainstream HuffPost BlackVoices, BET Networks and the Root also registered more than 2 million unique visitors: 2,692,000 for HuffPost BlackVoices; 2,572,000 for BET Networks and 2,062,000 for the Root.
They were followed by MadamNoire.com, 1,823,000; Bossip.com, 1,662; theGrio.com, 1,413,000; Essence, 880,000; NewsOne.com, 876,000; BlackPlanet,com, 651,000; theybf.com, 613,000.
Also, hellobeautiful.com.Com, 589,000; blackenterprise.com, 346,000; EURWeb.com, 283,000; blackamericaweb.com, 279,000; clutchmagazine.com, 232,000; ebony, 178,000; and concreteloop.com, 153,000.
In a story on WorldStarHipHop Tuesday for American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” Noel King reported, “The subjects of many WorldStar videos are African-American and critics say they perpetuate the ugliest stereotypes about life in urban communities.” However, Lee “Q” O’Denat, the founder of WorldStarHipHop, argued that one can find the same videos on YouTube.
- Bryan Cain-Jackson, Huffington Post BlackVoices: A Conversation With the Founder of Media TakeOut (May 24)
Who Are the Great Political Reporters in Each State?
“In every state, there is at least one — and often many more than one — great political reporters, the one person that EVERY politico in the state reads,” Chris Cillizza wrote Thursday for the Washington Post.
“But, who is that person (or persons) in all 50 states? We wanted to know — and we asked the Fix community for help. And, you responded! After weeks of sorting and such — done by the incomparable Lindsey Cook, Rachel Weiner and Wilson Andrews — we are ready to unveil our 2013 list of the best state-based political reporters in each of the 50 states. (A reminder: These names are gathered from nominations we received via the blog, Twitter and Facebook.)
Inevitably when conducting a project like this, people get left off. This is an organic project that is MEANT to be improved on. So, let us have it — figuratively, not literally — by offering your own suggestions for who we missed in the comment section. . . .”
Political reporting is one of the least diverse fields in journalism, but the list included Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post; Philip Bailey of WFPL-FM in Louisville, Ky., and Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News.
Slain Driver Was “NewsHour” Family Member, Ifill Says
“Julian was family to you. He was to us, as well,” Gwen Ifill of “PBS NewsHour” said Friday at a funeral service for Julian Dawkins. Dawkins, a driver for the “NewsHour” since 2010, was shot and killed in Alexandria, Va., on May 22.
Craig Patterson, a 44-year-old off-duty sheriff’s deputy in Arlington, Va., was charged in the killing after family and friends protested that no one had been charged in the death.
“The two men argued, then parted ways,” Matt Zapotosky wrote Friday for the Washington Post. “But one of them, an off-duty Arlington sheriff’s deputy, came back — this time with his gun, handcuffs and badge, prosecutors said Friday.
“Deputy Craig Patterson shot Julian Dawkins, 22, in the chest, the prosecutors said. As the young man lay dying in an Alexandria yard early May 22, Patterson called 911 and said Dawkins had come at him with a knife.
“But that couldn’t have been true, according to prosecutors. Dawkins, a driver for the ‘PBS NewsHour,’ was carrying a knife, but it was folded and clipped in his pocket. . . . “
Ifill told the mourners, “I wish I could capture for you the outpouring of emotion that greeted the news of his passing. There were tears, yes. But there was also regret, and anger and fond memory. . . .”
- Editorial, Washington Post: Alexandria residents, Julian Dawkins’s family need answers
- Gwen Ifill, “Washington Week” blog: Gwen’s Take: The Chasm Close to Home
- Adrienne Washington, Washington Afro-American: Julian Dawkins: A Local “Trayvon Martin Case”
Short Takes
- “For the second time since its debut 20 months ago, ESPN’s afternoon TV show, Numbers Never Lie, is making a change. Two ESPN sources tell me the network has added Jemele Hill to the show as a co-host, effective sometime after the NBA Finals are complete, the Big Lead, edited by Jason McIntyre, reported last week. He continued, “Hill, who recently started a podcast with colleague Michael Smith, will now co-host NNL with him.”
- “Alina Machado joins CNN as an Atlanta-based correspondent. She comes from WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, where she was a reporter,” Merrill Knox reported Wednesday for MediaBistro.
- “After 13 years with KINT Univision 26 El Paso, Karla Mariscal has decided to leave the company. Her last day as co-anchor of the weekday prime time newscast Noticias 26 is June 15,” Veronica Villafane reported for her Media Moves site. 2013. Mariscal told Villafane, “Right now I don’t have any further professional plans. I’m going to take a break from my career, and devote more time to my family.”
- In St. Louis, KMOV-TV hired former KTVI sportscaster Maurice Drummond to lead its sports department, the first new St. Louis television sports director in nine years, Dan Caesar reported for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
- Public radio station WBUR-FM in Boston has hired Richard Chacón as executive director of news content, Dru Sefton reported Wednesday for current.org. “Chacón, who starts on June 10, takes a newly created position with responsibility for managing all local news content produced for radio and the web. This is his second stint at WBUR: Chacón began his career there in 1984 as an undergraduate at Boston University. He spent more than a decade at the Boston Globe in positions including ombudsman, deputy foreign desk editor, Latin America bureau chief and general assignment reporter. . . .”
- “Louis Cook, a longtime host and producer for North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y., and a mentor to Native American broadcasters, died May 13 in Pine Ridge, S.D., of complications from a car accident,” Andrew Lapin reported Wednesday for current.org. He was 66. “Cook worked for NCPR from the mid-’70s through 1992 as the host of the late-night program Jazz Waves and as producer of You Are On Indian Land, a culture and public affairs series that covered the local Native American community. . . .”
- “At once provincial and cosmopolitan, the Village Voice of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s was Jewish the way New York City was Jewish — or the way the local beatniks, hippies, radical activists and miscellaneous members of the luftmensch intelligentsia were Jewish,” J. Hoberman recalled Friday for the Jewish Daily Forward. He continued, “Later there were Latinos and Latinas (also largely local) as well as Asians. But most impressive in the 1980s and ’90s were the number of African-American writers and editors. These included Hilton Als, Carol Cooper, Stanley Crouch, Gary Dauphin, Thulani Davis, Nelson George, James Hannaham, Lisa Jones, Lisa Kennedy, Greg Tate, Colson Whitehead, Joe Wood and Ta-Nehisi Coates — a most impressive and variegated list. . . .” Hoberman said the paper’s firing of the paper’s last remaining signature writers was the end of an era.
- “Female and minority broadcasters do not appear concerned about one owner controlling newspapers, radio and TV stations in the same market, according to a study released Thursday as federal regulators review such media cross-ownership rules, Reuters reported, referring to a study from the non-profit Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. The advocacy group Free Press disagreed. Policy Director Mike Wood said, “Study after study has shown that consolidation limits opportunities for diversity on the airwaves. . . . ”
- In New York, “One Albany watcher observed that the Legislative Correspondents Association has been largely devoid of black or Hispanic journalists since the departures of Errol Cockfield (Newsday) and Erin Billups (NY1),” former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, D-Bronx, wrote for City & State. “He believes that reporters of color can often check the biases of their white colleagues. While I agree that the absence of black and Hispanic reporters is troubling, so is the absence of the Spanish-language and black-owned media in condemning minority elected officials. Too often they act as cheerleaders instead of news organizations, propping up minority officeholders who should instead be held to account. Too often, critical articles about those deserving of them only come after the mainstream media have broken a story. . . .”
- “Knowing that tech-related entrepreneurship is hot and news-related innovation is cool, 30 Detroit-area 8th graders were to pitch their information app ideas to a panel of start-up experts and news executives on Friday, the Asian American Journalists Association announced. It continued, “The Pitchfest is the culmination of a three-year digital literacy project called The Living Textbook. Launched by the Asian American Journalists Association, and supported by the McCormick and Ford Foundations, the project focuses on Arab American middle school students telling the stories of their lives in a post 9/11 world. . . .”
- Sarah Garrecht Gassen, opinion writer for the Arizona Daily Star, plugged the New York Times Student Journalism Institute program Thursday. It trained 23 students for two weeks this month in Tucson in conjunction with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “These young journalists are launching into the so-called real world, but many are already there,” she wrote. “They’ve had to figure out how to pay for college while holding a job or raising a family — or both. How to get hands-on journalism experience while not going broke at unpaid internships, how to navigate a quickly changing media world.”
- “Meteorologist Dontae Jones is joining WNCT, the CBS affiliate in Greenville, N.C. Jones will appear on the morning and noon newscasts,” Merrill Knox reported Wednesday for TVSpy. “Jones, a graduate of Ohio State University, joins WNCT from The Ohio News Network, where he was the weekend morning meteorologist. . . .”
- “The U.S. Embassy in Santiago is holding Chile’s inaugural citizen journalist competition to mark Freedom of Expression Month this May,” Ryan Johnson reported Tuesday for the Santiago Times. The contest, which runs until June 14, calls on Chileans aged 14 to 25 to film a “reality that should make the news.” The international human rights group Freedom House this month ranked Chile as “partly-free,” after dropping down from its 2011 ranking of “free,” due in part to repression of journalists at protests, controversial new security laws and concentration of media ownership.
- In Uganda, “Two Kampala-based dailies, the Daily Monitor and Red Pepper, and two radio stations – KFM Radio and Ddembe FM – that broadcast from the headquarters of the company that owns the Daily Monitor, Monitor Publications Limited (MPL), resumed operating yesterday after being closed and occupied by the police for 11 days,” Reporters Without Borders reported on Friday.
Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor
Facebook users: “Like” “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” on Facebook.