Study Hall Digest 7/23/2018

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

The Daily News Gets Cut in Half

Roughly 50-percent of the editorial staff at the Daily News is being slashed. Editor-in-Chief Jim Rich and Managing Editor Kristen Lee are departing the paper, per an email sent to staff Monday morning, which states the remaining staff will refocus its attention on breaking news, especially “crime, civil justice and public responsibility.” Everyone being fired who is in the office will know their fate by the end of the day, according to the email.

Robert York, publisher and editor of the Pennsylvania-based Morning Call, will take on the role of Editor-in-Chief on July 30.

The email from Tronc recognizes the difficulty in the departures but is maddeningly upbeat otherwise, framing the changes as “fundamentally restructuring” the paper and insisting the cuts are taking place “to capture the opportunities ahead” as well as to tackle the paper’s financial difficulties. “We’ve gained a deeper understanding of our readership. We’ve redefined our structures. But we have not gone far enough,” it states in the opening paragraph. How far is “far enough”? I guess slashing half of the newsroom, as we now know.

Rumors of the steep cuts and of Rich’s departure began swirling last week. Study Hall reported staff feared cuts as high as 70 percent and suspected the boss would walk to avoid being party to the bloodbath.

New York’s hometown paper has been struggling under Tronc’s boot since the publishing giant acquired it last fall. Over 20 staffers were cut within months of the acquisition in November, followed by another round of layoffs in March and then again in May.

The Daily News has played a vitally important role in this city when it comes to holding power to account and shining a light on injustice, breaking news on lead-poisoning in NYCHA developments and police brutality, including leading the charge on reportage of Eric Garner’s death. It is terrible to imagine the city without it, and it is terrible to imagine it gutted beyond recognition. But as has been said, and should be said again, the News is and always has been Too Tough to Die.

Will HBO’s New Content Strategy Make it Unrecognizable?

AT&T honcho John Stankey has an expansive vision for HBO, the prestige TV tastemaker now under his purview since AT&T bought Time Warner, and some fear that vision may be fundamentally incompatible with what makes HBO…well, HBO. Stankey sees Netflix as HBO’s main competition, and as such seemingly wants to broaden HBO’s appeal to match the streaming service’s reach — as far as eyes on the screen go, “We need hours a day, not hours a week, and not hours a month,” he told HBO staffers at a meeting, audio of which was obtained by the New York Times. The problem with that approach, as Felix Salmon of Slate and other concerned critics point out, is that HBO’s unique strength is in its quality, not quantity. With the exception of True Detective Season 2 (Season 1 though!), it’s a fairly safe bet that if it’s on HBO, it’s good. The same just can’t be said of Netflix, which churns out less sophisticated fare — Fuller House, for instance — for views alongside HBO-esque originals like The Crown. The larger implication seems to be that Netflix’s vast reach and dizzying output is now the model for success in television, so much so that the network whose name is synonymous with excellence is turning its eyes toward it. Anyway, who else has been devouring Sharp Objects??

Civil Announces Sale of Cryptocurrency

Blockchain-based journalism startup Civil has announced the launch of its own form of cryptocurrency, called CVL Tokens, 34 million of which will go on sale Aug. 13 — the Wall Street Journal has more on the launch here. The tokens essentially allow those interested to buy into the Civil network of ostensibly self-sustaining, independent, ad-free journalism, potentially creating newsrooms, paying writers, and moderating the newsroom network according to the accompanying constitution. Of course, Civil is essentially one giant experiment and much remains unknown — as has been pointed out on the Study Hall Listserv, staff employees and writers alike are left wondering how the outcome of the Initial Coin Offering will impact their pay (writers in Civil newsrooms are paid partially in cash, partially in tokens). Those who already have stakes in the first fleet of Civil newsrooms are waiting to see the financial ramifications.

Chance the Rapper Announces Chicagoist Purchase in New Single

“I bought the Chicagoist just to run you racist bitches outta business,” says Chance the Rapper in new single I Might Need Security. It’s true! He did in fact buy the assets of Chicagoist, which was previously bought by WNYC along with other -ist sites in the wake of my old boss Joe Ricketts’ anti-union bloodbath. Chance, I know you’re a Chicagoan and you’re passionate about local news in your city, and that’s fantastic, but could I perhaps interest you in a little website called… DNAinfo? No? It’s cool, WNYC wasn’t into it either.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Leaves The Atlantic

Influential writer and public intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates will be leaving the Atlantic after a decade at the publication — and a decade of writing searing appraisals of the systemic racism and injustice that plague our country. Coates indicated to the Washington Post his status at the Atlantic is at least part of the reason for his departure: “I became the public face of the magazine in many ways and I don’t really want to be that. I want to be a writer,” he said. “I’m not a symbol of what The Atlantic wants to do or whatever.”

COMMENT: The Women’s Media Dilemma

In response to Refinery29’s recent trolly Money Diary, Jo Livingstone’s New Republic piece “Women’s Media Is a Scam” has triggered backlash among, well, women’s media. Critics point out that Livingstone’s assertion “women’s media has run on advertising dollars forever” places the ethical blame for ad-based media on an already burdened demographic. I say that there is nothing wrong with wanting more from women’s media. However, the piece should have gone deeper, parsing the ways in which certain spaces value women more as consumers than intellectuals. It could have delved into what the term ‘women’s media’ actually means in relation to general media, and why women’s stories and interests remain segregated in the year 2018.

How long have we been living with the insinuation that women’s media is something to graduate from? If writing is rigorous, it should be for everyone. Much like Joan Didion’s unevenly aged hot take The Women’s Movement, the truest part of Livingstone’s piece is the angst. It speaks to the weary voice inside of me that sees headlines like 10 Best Products for a Healthy Vagina and thinks this is why we can’t have nice things. The part of me that sees my personhood as a general interest rather than a niche concern. “Attention was finally being paid, and yet that attention was mired in the trivial,” Didion wrote. I love women’s media and I also resent it, because it’s out of my control — and yet, my name is on it. — Daisy Alioto

SHORT LINKS

— Long-time writer and editor Emily Nunn gets an extremely condescending rejection in response to applying for a job at the Washington Post, raising questions about age discrimination in the industry, as Nunn noted on Twitter.

— Chief Content Officer Isaac Lee resigns from Univision.

— A soul-crushing story about employees donating vacation time to a new mom is being framed as feel-good — why??

— The Daily Caller got its feelings hurt when Buzzfeed’s Editor in Chief implied perhaps they are not a legitimate news source but a dangerous nativist mouthpiece spewing racist drivel. Truth hurts!

— In good news, Conde Nast has recognized the New Yorker’s union! That didn’t take long!

— Bari Weiss has won $10,000 for her writing. Upside down smiley face emoji.