Articles Feature

Ebony Reportedly Lays Off Editorial Staff

by richard04277

Magazine Said to Have Problems Meeting Payroll

Reporting Environmental Abuses Can Prove Deadly

Your Chocolate Bars Could Be Result of Child Labor

Groups Want Diverse Writers Covering Hollywood

Dems Pick MSNBC, Rankling Black-Owned Outlets

Sharon Chan Takes Philanthropy Post at N.Y. Times

Matt Lauer, Ann Curry Missing From ‘Today’s’ 25th

Warner Media Names CNN’s Due to Diversity Post

Sports Editors Honor Diversity Advocate

Cheryl W. Thompson Reelected President of IRE

Short Takes

 

 

The most recent Ebony issue, with Diana Ross on the cover, is available to subscribers but apparently not on newsstand.
The most recent Ebony issue, with Diana Ross on the cover, is available to subscribers but is apparently not on newsstands.

Magazine Said to Have Problems Meeting Payroll

“Ebony and Jet magazines have been laying off their remaining editorial staff en masse after failing to make payroll last month — the latest in a long line of slights suffered by workers at the hands of the company’s private-equity owners,” media reporter Keith J. Kelly wrote Thursday for the New York Post.

“Axed employees say they are ‘rubbing pennies together’ to make ends meet. One ex-staffer even claims her company-sponsored retirement account may have been shortchanged.

“Insiders said the problems started in late May when private equity firm Clear View Group out of Austin, Texas, — which purchased the prominent African-American publications three years ago from Johnson Publishing — told staffers in Chicago that they would be suspending the print edition of 74-year-old Ebony on May 24.

“At least seven staffers were laid off, sources said. . . .”

Kelly’s story was published a day after Jay Connor reported for The Root “that the once-revered publication allegedly fired its online editorial staff without pay on June 7, according to two sources.”

Quoted in both stories was former social media director Joshua David. He messaged Journal-isms Friday that the Kelly piece “is accurate.” He said two others remain on staff.

Joshua David
Joshua David

Michael Gibson, co-founder and chairman of CVG, messaged Journal-isms on Wednesday, “We do not comment on personnel issues,” the same response Kelly wrote that he received. Gibson did not respond when asked again by Journal-isms Friday after the Kelly piece appeared.

The most recent Ebony issue, with Diana Ross on the cover, is available to subscribers but apparently is not on newsstands. There is no editor, but Shirley Henderson is listed as “contributing editorial director.” Henderson messaged Journal-isms, “I’ve put out a number of issues as a consultant since I was downsized in 2014.”

The issue is dated “Spring 2019,” covering February, March, April and May.

Kelly’s piece continued, “Jet, a once-popular digest-size magazine, was saved because it went all-digital several years earlier, when it was still owned by Johnson Publishing.

“The company held a town-hall meeting a few days later, on Tuesday, May 28, and assured remaining digital staffers that they were safe, sources said.

“But that was followed by a jarring memo on May 30 warning staffers about problems making payroll.

“ ‘As a result of a delay in receiving expected capital this week, there will be a delay in payroll this pay period on 5/31/19,’ said the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Media Ink.

“ ‘We are working diligently with our capital source to get the payroll processed as soon as possible next week,’ the firm said.

“But that never happened. . . .”


Since 2004, the Earth Journalism Network has trained more than 7,500 journalists from dozens of developing countries in a wide variety of environmental issues, including climate change, biodiversity, water, environmental health, and oceans and coastal resources. (Credit: YouTube)

Reporting Environmental Abuses Can Prove Deadly

“Thirteen journalists who were investigating damage to the environment have been killed in recent years and many more are suffering violence, harassment, intimidation and lawsuits, according to a study,” Juliette Garside and Jonathan Watts reported Monday for the Guardian.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which produced the tally, is investigating a further 16 deaths over the last decade. It says the number of murders may be as high as 29, making this field of journalism one of the most dangerous after war reporting.

“On every continent reporters have been attacked for investigating concerns about abuses related to the impact of corporate and political interests scrambling to extract wealth from the earth’s remaining natural resources.

“These resources end up in all manner of products — from mobile phones to pots and pans — with consumers largely unaware of the stories behind them.

“The study was produced for Green Blood, a reporting project whose aim is to continue the reporting of local environmental journalists who have been forced to abandon their work. . . .”

 

A steady stream of buses from Burkina Faso carry passengers and trafficked children as young as 12 to work in cocoa fields in Ivory Coast. (Credit: Salwan Georges/Washington Post)
A steady stream of buses from Burkina Faso carries passengers and trafficked children as young as 12 to work in cocoa fields in Ivory Coast. (Credit: Salwan Georges/Washington Post)

Your Chocolate Bars Could Be Result of Child Labor

“Five boys are swinging machetes on a cocoa farm, slowly advancing against a wall of brush. Their expressions are deadpan, almost vacant, and they rarely talk. The only sounds in the still air are the whoosh of blades slicing through tall grass and metallic pings when they hit something harder,” Peter Whoriskey and Rachel Siegel reported from Guiglo, Ivory Coast, June 5 for the Washington Post.

“Each of the boys crossed the border months or years ago from the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso, taking a bus away from home and parents to Ivory Coast, where hundreds of thousands of small farms have been carved out of the forest.

“These farms form the world’s most important source of cocoa and are the setting for an epidemic of child labor that the world’s largest chocolate companies promised to eradicate nearly 20 years ago.

“ ‘How old are you?’ a Washington Post reporter asks one of the older-looking boys.

“ ‘Nineteen,’ Abou Traore says in a hushed voice. Under Ivory Coast’s labor laws, that would make him legal. But as he talks, he casts nervous glances at the farmer who is overseeing his work from several steps away. When the farmer is distracted, Abou crouches and with his finger, writes a different answer in the gray sand: 15.

“Then, to make sure he is understood, he also flashes 15 with his hands. He says, eventually, that he’s been working the cocoa farms in Ivory Coast since he was 10. The other four boys say they are young, too — one says he is 15, two are 14 and another, 13.

“Abou says his back hurts, and he’s hungry.

“ ‘I came here to go to school,’ Abou says. ‘I haven’t been to school for five years now.’

“The world’s chocolate companies have missed deadlines to uproot child labor from their cocoa supply chains in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Next year, they face another target date and, industry officials indicate, they probably will miss that, too.

“As a result, the odds are substantial that a chocolate bar bought in the United States is the product of child labor. . . . ”

Oscar winner Halle Berry refused to ignore the few black reporters covering the debut last month of her movie ““John Wick 3.”

Groups Want Diverse Writers Covering Hollywood

“At a time when entertainment journalism has come under fire for its lack of diversity and inclusion, a new coalition is hoping to redefine who gets to write about Hollywood,” Ashley Lee reported Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times.

“Critics Groups for Equality in Media, the newly announced alliance, will aim to improve the conditions for women, people of color and LGBTQ journalists covering film and television.

“ ‘Unfortunately, there are a lot more headlines about inclusion and diversity than what is still reality for journalists and critics, which is still a bastion for cis, straight white men,’ John Griffiths, executive director of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, told The Times on Wednesday.

“The new coalition’s goals include pushing for better pay and inclusive representation at media outlets; strengthening relationships with studios, networks and public-relations firms; and nurturing the next generation of voices.

“In addition to GALECA, the alliance includes the African American Film Critics Assn. (AAFCA); the Features Forum of the Asian American Journalists Assn.; the Latino Entertainment Journalists Assn.; the Online Assn. of Female Film Critics; and Time’s Up Entertainment. (The latter recently launched Critical, an opt-in press database designed to support greater diversity among critics and entertainment reporters.) Others will be invited to join in the future. . . .”

 


BET Networks, in partnership with the Black Economic Alliance, hosted a presidential candidates forum last weekend in Charleston, S.C. (Credit: YouTube)

Dems Pick MSNBC, Rankling Black-Owned Outlets

“South Carolina’s Democratic leader says he granted MSNBC exclusive live rights to this weekend’s party convention because the network agreed to show 21 presidential contenders speak and it offered a strong chance to reach black voters,” Meg Kinnard and David Bauder reported Wednesday for the Associated Press.

“The coverage arrangement for the event, a stop in a key early primary state and a chance for candidates to make their case before next week’s opening debate, angered other media outlets.

“C-SPAN says it shuts them out of a previously open political event it has covered live for many years. Journalist Roland Martin, former host at TV One, said the ‘terrible’ decision hurts black-owned media outlets. Fox News Channel lodged a complaint.

“ ‘These are the events that should be open to all media,’ said Steve Scully, political editor at C-SPAN, which just spent $13,351 to give out tote bags to attendees of Saturday’s session.

“State Party Chairman Trav Robertson said Wednesday that MSNBC did not pay for the exclusive arrangement. . . .”

The previous Saturday, BET Networks, in partnership with the Black Economic Alliance, a nonpartisan group founded by black executives and business leaders, hosted a presidential candidates forum in Charleston. (video)

The forum, moderated by Soledad O’Brien, aired Sunday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas; and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., attended, P.R. Lockhart reported Sunday for vox.com.

Sharon Chan Takes Philanthropy Post at N.Y. Times

“Sharon Pian Chan is joining The New York Times newsroom as vice president of philanthropy,” the New York Times Co. reported on Thursday.

Sharon Chan
Sharon Chan

Monica Drake, an assistant managing editor, wrote to the newsroom, “In this newly created role, Sharon will develop editorial initiatives to work in partnership with nonprofits, foundations and other organizations to support our broader mission of fostering independent journalism, which is critical to our democracy.

“She will work with the newsroom leadership team to expand our fellowship and institute programs dedicated to training the next generation of journalists. She will also launch editorial startups with the support of outside partners.

“Sharon joins us from The Seattle Times, where she was vice president of Innovation, Product & Development. She led The Times’s effort to seek community funding for public-service journalism along with overseeing the product development and business intelligence teams.

“During her tenure, she spearheaded initiatives focusing on traffic, homelessness and investigative journalism. In 2018 she was named one of 50 Changemakers in Media by Digiday magazine.

“Sharon previously served as a deputy managing editor and an opinions editor at The Seattle Times, but spent most of her career as a reporter, covering beats ranging from city hall to technology. She has also served as national president of the Asian American Journalists Association. . . .”

Matt Lauer, Ann Curry Missing From ‘Today’s’ 25th

Ann Curry (Courtesy David Turnley)
Ann Curry (Courtesy David Turnley)

“On Thursday, NBC’s ‘Today’ show celebrated 25 years of their morning show at Studio 1A. To mark the anniversary, the network shared a 5-minute video celebrating ‘special moments’ over the years, starting with a shot of Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel in the ’90s, and including clips of anchors including Al Roker, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie,” Carly Mallenbaum reported Thursday for USA Today, updated Friday.

“Notably absent from the tribute? Matt Lauer, who was a face of the program for more than 20 years.

“Lauer was fired from ‘Today’ in November 2017 for inappropriate sexual behavior at work. Up until then, he had been a part of many viewers’ mornings: He was named co-anchor of NBC’s morning news program in 1997, covering everything from the Olympics to interviews with presidents. . . . ”

Mallenbaum also wrote, “Lauer wasn’t the only anchor obviously omitted from the tribute. There were several other ‘Today’ alumni who didn’t have screen time, including Ann Curry, the journalist who co-anchored with Lauer, was unceremoniously forced to exit the show in 2012, and who said later that she was ‘not surprised’ by the Lauer allegations.

“Many on Twitter called NBC out for not featuring Curry, saying it ‘looks like they only looked back that last 5 years.’ . . .”

Warner Media Names CNN’s Due to Diversity Post

Johnita Due, an attorney at CNN who had led diversity and inclusion efforts at the network, on Monday was named senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer for WarnerMedia News & Sports, CNN’s parent company.

Johnita Due
Johnita Due

However, the National Association of Black Journalists quickly pointed out Tuesday, “CNN still has not made progress in hiring blacks in day-to-day senior news management positions.”

“This is a step in the right direction and NABJ congratulates Due, a black lawyer and past recipient of the NABJ Ida B. Wells Award, on her promotion,” the NABJ statement said.

“Due received the Ida B. Wells Award in 2008 for her leadership of CNN’s Diversity Council, a team of network colleagues dedicated to ensuring that CNN’s news coverage and overall staffing reflected the rich racial and ethnic composition of the nation.

“Noticeably, since Due’s departure from the role and the introduction of Jeff Zucker, CNN’s current president, CNN has taken steps back from hiring blacks in editorial management roles.

“NABJ is hopeful that Due’s new role will influence daily operational and news responsibilities, leading to progress in the hiring of black journalists serving in key management roles critical to daily news operations. Due will join CNN President Jeff Zucker’s executive team, however, Due is not a journalist or news manager. . . .”

Due grew up in a civil rights family. Her late mother, Patricia Stephens Due, defied Jim Crow to spend 49 days in a Florida jail in 1960 for a sit-in at a Woolworth lunch counter. Her sister, Tananarive Due, is a former journalist who is now an Atlanta-based author.

Ramon Escobar
Ramon Escobar

Tananarive Due and her mother wrote a memoir in 2003, “Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.”

In its announcement, Warner Media also said, “Ramon Escobar, CNN’s Vice President for Talent Recruitment and Development, has most recently held the role since 2017.”

It quoted Zucker, “I want to thank Ramon for his tireless work these past two years. Every day you can see the huge impact he has made across our platforms in identifying and developing talent in front of and behind the camera. He will continue his work in this important area as a partner to Johnita.”

Before joining CNN in 2012, Escobar worked in management positions at Telemundo, MSNBC and Univision’s WXTV in Secaucus, N.J.

Leon Carter, co-founder of the Sports Journalism Institute, introduces Sandy Rosenbush, the other co-founder, seated, center, as she is about to receive the Red Smith Award at the Associated Press Sprts Editors. (Credit: Twittre) introd
Leon Carter, a vice president of ESPN and co-founder of the Sports Journalism Institute, introduces Sandy Rosenbush, the other co-founder, seated, center, as she is about to receive the Red Smith Award at the Associated Press Sports Editors meeting in Atlanta. (Credit: Twitter)

Sports Editors Honor Diversity Advocate

“Sandy Rosenbush wasn’t prepared for the tears,” Jenni Carlson wrote Wednesday for the Associated Press Sports Editors, who met in Atlanta for thei group’s annual meeting.

“Back in 1993, she and Leon Carter started the Sports Journalism Institute. The inaugural class of college students met for nearly three weeks of intensive training early that summer, then fanned out across the country to do internships. Rosenbush and Carter had plans and schedules and goals for the pre-internship bootcamp, but they had no idea how the experience would impact those young journalists.

‘“By the time the students left, they were in tears at the idea of moving away from this class,’ Rosenbush said. ‘Classmates would become like brothers and sisters.’

“She marveled then.

“She marvels still.

“ ‘It was one of the most inspirational moments of our lives,’ she said. ‘We didn’t realize how much the students would bond and we didn’t realize how inspired we would be, not just by their progress but by how much they wanted to have the support of not just us but one another.’

“It’s one of the reasons Rosenbush and Carter are still heading up SJI nearly three decades later.

“Because of her involvement in the program and her impact on sports journalism, Rosenbush received the Red Smith Award during a lunch banquet Tuesday during the 2019 APSE Convention. She was the 39th recipient of the award and the third woman to receive it. . . .”

Also at the conference, Lisa Wilson, managing editor/NFL for the Athletic and second vice president of APSE, moderated a panel on diversity in hiring, and outgoing president John Bednarowski, sports editor at the Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal, said diversity would be the cornerstone of a new APSE Diversity Foundation.

Bednarowski also said that Larry Graham, assistant managing editor at the Blade in Toledo, Ohio, “is in the process of taking the diversity committee to another level.”

The Sports Journalism Institute, “helping women and minorities into newsrooms since 1993,” covered the conference. The institute reported that about 100 were expected at the meeting.

Cheryl W. Thompson Reelected President of IRE

Cheryl W. Thompson of NPR was reelected president of the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors June 15 at IRE’s national conference in Houston, attended by nearly 2,000 people, a record, IRE reported.

Cheryl W. Thompson
Cheryl W. Thompson

“In addition, IRE membership reached a record high in May: 6,178 members,” IRE’s Doug Haddix wrote.

Thompson, who joined NPR as an investigative correspondent in January, became IRE’s first African American board president last year. Members reelected her to the board; the new board then reelected her president.

Also at the conference, IRE announced that CNN is contributing $5,000 to support IRE’s new Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship. The 2019 fellow is Bracey Harris of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. She is IRE’s first Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellow. Harris, an education reporter, has been at the paper since September 2015, the group said.

In the annual IRE awards, “Honoring the best in investigative journalism,” the Philadelphia Inquirer won the Gannett Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism for “Toxic City: Sick Schools.” Wendy Ruderman, Barbara Laker, Dylan Purcell, Jessica Griffin, and Garland Potts were cited.

The judges cited the effort “for its innovative data collection effort, superb storytelling and extensive impact. Reporters recruited and trained school staffers to test schools for lead in water, lead paint, mold, silica and asbestos in areas where reporters were not allowed to go.

“If accredited labs returned truly alarming test results, journalists notified the school district of the hazards, even though publication was months away. They published results in an easy-to-use web tool called School Checkup. Among the many reforms the series prompted, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf directed nearly $16 million to repairs and emergency cleanup, and the worst school is slated to be demolished.”

In the student category, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism won for “Food Plight: Cafeteria Inspections Reveal Critical Health Violations at New York City Schools,” crediting Pauliina Siniauer, Mallory Moench, Rahima Nasa, Jeremy Ibarra, Lizeth Beltran and Nicole Rothwell.

Judges said, “Great work exposing health risks to New York City public school students by compiling available data that previously had not been examined this way. The result is news-you-can-use at its best: important, nuanced, and contextualized information about school cafeteria food presented in a way that’s easy to understand and use. The online mapping and look-up tools win this an A+ for presentation.”

In the broadcast/video category, Division I, “An international team of investigative reporters revealed how top UN officials covered up crucial information about the murder of the UN experts Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” judges said of “Deceptive Diplomacy — Cover-up by the UN.”

They continued, “This investigation demonstrated a dedication to shoe-leather reporting on a project with a high degree of difficulty undertaken at great personal risk. The team took a huge institution, the UN, to task for looking the other way when murders were covered up.

“Great storytelling, undercover sources, secret documents, compelling personal profiles of the victims and stellar photography. In a time when journalists and peacekeepers are under attack around the world, this piece did so much to illustrate the reality of those risky careers and the lengths some officials will go to hide the truth.” The winners were SVT Mission Investigate, Swedish Television, Le Monde, Radio France International, Foreign Policy magazine and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Short Takes

Editor & Publisher chose this image by Eric Albrecht of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, which prompted many a double take, as its "Photo of the Month." The caption reads, Cambron, an employee of Dayton National Cemetery, working at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery on the Hilltop after vandals took off the head of the statue of a Confederate soldier."
Editor & Publisher chose this image by Eric Albrecht of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, which prompted many a double take, as its “Photo of the Month.” The caption reads, Bert Cambron, an employee of Dayton National Cemetery, working at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery on the Hilltop after vandals took off the head of the statue of a Confederate soldier.”
Filling in as anchor last week on the "CBS Evening News," Maurice DuBois of New York's WCBS-TV reported Wednesday's story of the House hearing on the proposal for a study of reparations. But instead of calling those who endured slavery "slaves," he said "enslaved people," emphasizing their humanity. "Glad you noticed. Words are everything!," DuBois messaged Journal-isms. "That’s why saying 'people of color' and not 'minorities' matters. (there’s nothing minor about the majority of the people in the world). And 'racial preferences' is a head fake to take the focus off the need to fix the horrors Black people live with. And when the Philadelphia police punish 72 officers for racist social media posts, it’s not simply 'offensive'. I could go on and on...."
Filling in as anchor last week on the “CBS Evening News,” Maurice DuBois of New York’s WCBS-TV reported the story of Wednesday’s House hearing on the proposal for a study of reparations. But instead of calling those who endured slavery “slaves,” he said “enslaved people,” emphasizing their humanity. “Glad you noticed. Words are everything!,” DuBois messaged Journal-isms. “That’s why saying ‘people of color’ and not ‘minorities’ matters. (there’s nothing minor about the majority of the people in the world). And ‘racial preferences’ is a head fake to take the focus off the need to fix the horrors Black people live with. And when the Philadelphia police punish 72 officers for racist social media posts, it’s not simply ‘offensive’. I could go on and on….”
Mary Ann Hogan
Mary Ann Hogan
  • Applications are open for the Bernhardt Prize, “an award of $500 given to an article that furthers the understanding of the history of working people. Articles focused on historical events AND articles about current issues (work, housing, organizing, health, education) that include historical context are both welcome. The work should be published — in print or online — between August 1, 2018 and August 25, 2019. The deadline for the 2018-2019 contest is August 25, 2019. . . .”
  • The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner interviewed ESPN’s Bomani Jones, who has two master’s degrees in economics, from Claremont Graduate University and the University of North Carolina. Jones said he was disappointed that despite a controversy about the use of analytics in sports, particularly basketball, and its effect on the game, hiring practices, and racial dynamics in the N.B.A., the famed M.I.T. Sloan Sports Analytics Conference had asked him instead to be on a panel about activism. “There are always people who see me as just the guy who talks about race,” Jones said. “Within the industry, nobody’s really said anything like that to my face. But I do notice that people are very specific about my expertise on talking about matters of race. . . .”
  • Members of the Public Radio News Directors Inc. voted at their annual conference June 15 to adopt the name Public Media Journalists Association, Tyler Falk reported Monday for Current.org.
  • “A 22-year-old Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising the country’s powerful military and the spy agency ISI was hacked to death by an unidentified man here, police said on Monday,” the Press Trust of India reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. “Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend when he received a phone call after which a man took him to the nearby forest on Sunday night, Dawn News quoted police as saying. The suspect used a dagger to kill him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said, adding that some people heard gunshot firing as well. . . .”

 

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