Study Hall Digest 8/28/2017

Hi

The tragic death of Kim Wall has raised a lot of issues about safety in journalism, especially women in freelance journalism. Risks are inherent for all journalists, but women are, as Sruthi Gottipati writes, encouraged to downplay the risks they face in order to keep getting work. I’ve heard many stories of war reporters and others who travel to far-flung locations essentially being told by the publications they write for that they’re on their own, and can’t expect any institutional support. It’s a conundrum freelancers deal with constantly: how do you do the important but often dangerous work you want to do, and get the support you need to do it?

In a similar vein, Jezebel has a good look at the inherent inequality of reporting on white supremacists. Journalists of color face higher risks than white journalists do when they’re interviewing or embedding with dangerous, racist groups, and in some cases cannot, or at least do not get assigned, stories because of their danger.

Pivoting to video sound great, Mic, but, uh, no one watches your videos, unless they’re about food.

The editor of the Wall Street Journal has told his reporters to go easier on Trump, because that guy has it really hard.

Facbook hired Liz Spayd, NYT’s former public editor, as a consultant to help the company become more transparent. No matter who Facebook hires for this position, the move comes off more as a PR ploy than a serious effort to increase trust. But given that Spayd was almost universally disliked in her role at the Times, I think we can bet she won’t actually be doing much at Facebook.

The Village Voice ended its print edition. Here’s Study Hall friend and former VV editor Zoë Berry on the shitshow there. Please don’t share this beyond the SH Listserv 🙂

If for some reason you’ve been watching the depressing saga of the Voice following multibillionaire apparel magnate Peter Barbey’s purchase of the paper in late 2015 to Make It Great Again, you’ll recall that last August he announced,”we’ve engaged Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, to spearhead a redesign of the newsprint weekly.” (Please note that the words “stepped down” in the linked article’s headline are to be read, “unceremoniously and abruptly fired, leaving the staff without an EIC for two issues.”) But the redesign never launched, and now the paper is being scuttled, which leaves me wondering why Barbey was willing to flush hundreds of thousands of dollars down the toilet of his $26 million West Village condo for a failed cosmetic project, but wouldn’t let us hire the ~5 staffers for whom we plead for months. By now most of the spectacular staff I worked with have left, and the few remaining are in a tenacious fight to save the 40-year-old union from an aggressive effort to destroy it. Turns out that billionaires bailing out journalism is maybe not the future we were hoping for? Anyway, working at the Voice from February-August 2016 was probably the best job I will ever have, and it’s depressing to see the place that taught me how to be a writer/editor resume its inexorable trudge toward being sold off for scrap. Rich people: still terrible, still running too much stuff! —Zoë.