Digest 3/15/2022

In which we ask what it is we're all doing here, exactly, and also share some updates.

WHAT ARE WE ALL DOING HERE

This Digest breaks upon the horizon one day late, due to supply chain issues, and surveys a media landscape that’s at best concerning. We have once again failed as an industry to make it a full week without a mealy-mouthed woke panic piece, and remain committed to circular infighting over our brands, ourselves. (Ahem.) Book publishing is seeing a notable exodus of underpaid and overworked junior employees which promises to leave some presses without anyone on staff who knows how to rotate a PDF; journalism continues to see the same, with an unremarked upon mass of people slipping away each week to write content for CBD and fintech startups. It’s a good week, as it is most weeks, to ask ourselves what we’re all doing here.

We can’t speak for you, but at Study Hall, we’re working to make our little corner of paradise a different experience. Some updates: we’re in the midst of the interview and hiring process for the next writer of this very newsletter, who will be confirmed and make their debut to you shortly. We’ve recently added about 100 new editors to our editors database, and our evergreen pitch calls list is over 145 listings and updated weekly. We’re in the process of posting our recent community AMAs with Ilana Masad, Tuck Woodstock, Julie Kliegman and Britni de la Cretaz; we also have more coming your way soon with Rahel Aima and Rachel Simon. We’re continuing to release dispatches of our State of Freelance Survey, and will be publishing the full report soon.

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What of journalism itself? We’re re-investing in building out our how-tos and guides; we’ve got fresh new super actionable guides on topics like how to work with incarcerated sources, and we’ve reorganized our back catalog of guides on topics like how to file your freelance taxes, join a freelance media union, and freelance for US pubs from abroad.

Not to brag, but our original reporting and journalism on journalism has also been pretty high grade; here’s what we’ve published just so far this month.

The Big Idea with Anand Gopal

Anand Gopal shares in conversation with Sara Clemence how he went to Afghanistan as a physics PhD to teach English and wound up reporting on the Arab Spring for the Wall Street Journal, wrote “The Other Afghan Women” for The New Yorker, and whose book about the country was a Pulitzer finalist.

“I remember I was in Afghanistan when I’d sent an excerpt to my editor. I was out in the countryside at the time, and it takes days to get to a place where you can get internet. I was with these militiamen and they took me to a place where I could get email. The message from my editor was like, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ I would take a break for a couple of months and eventually I’d come back to it. If you have the right support from people, anyone can write a book, I guess.”

How GMG Union Workers Score a Victory Over Great Hill Partners in the First Open-Ended Digital Media Strike

Featuring insight from WGAE council member Sara David, Jezebel senior reporter and bargaining committee member Caitlin Cruz and Jezebel staff writer Kylie Cheung on what it took to bring management to the bargaining table in the first ever open-ended digital media strike, and why it worked.

“David speculates that while many media CEOs take public perception seriously, private equity firms like GHP don’t: “G/O has been immune from that because none of their private equity bosses care …I think Jim Spanfeller also kind of revels in it.” (David also confirmed rumors that Spanfeller personally sent doughnuts to the GMG picket line, in what some members suspect is a Succession reference implying he is, in this scenario, an all-seeing, omnipotent Logan Roy.)”

Press Freedom Is Under Attack in Europe — Can a European Media Freedom Act Turn the Tide in Time?

Although many like to imagine Europe as a “paragon of prosperity and stability” the reality is that indicators of press freedom have been on a marked decline, especially with respect to state control and the risk of violence against journalists reporting on corruption. Aditya Sharma looks at the example of Hungary’s last independent public-affairs radio station and its struggle to remain independent in the face of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party control of the media landscape.

“‘The elections are very close and the overwhelming majority of communication is absolutely controlled by Fidesz,’ [András Arató] says. Although Klubrádió has sought relief through the EU’s court system and argued its case at the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, Hardy explains, the long backlog at both tribunals provides little hope of redress in the next several years. Meanwhile, he says, Hungary’s government is making life ever more difficult for Klubrádió, offering its former radio frequency in an auction that ‘almost surely’ will be won by Spirit FM, a pro-government station.”

Q+A with Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour

Granados’ Happy Hour was a celebrated and necessary work on femininity and the social category of women who are “trivialized, even though I think they’re not trivial.” Managing editor Vicky Mochama’s conversation with Granados revisits those themes in a current era of discourse fixated on the figure of ~the bimbo~, and also asks some key questions about what the fuck is going on in publishing.

“And when someone pushes a certain type of narrative on to you, especially on your memories of being a young woman. Like, I just feel like it’s so dangerous. Then you are just then saying all the agency that you’ve ever had was a lie. Then, what do you want young women to do? You’re then painting them into a corner; they feel like anything they do is because of this underlying thing that men wanted them to do it or society hates them.

For me, all of my work is about women being able to live how they want and live in a way where they don’t necessarily have to be punished all the time. So much literature and narratives have been painted: Oh you were a party girl so now you have a drug addiction then you have to go to rehab and now you’re reformed. Sometimes these things of course happen, but then other times people are like, fine.”

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Not to put too fine a point on it, but your chance to use code BETTERMEDIA2022 to buy or upgrade your subscription will be gone soon. If you’re interested in getting the rest of what Study Hall has to offer, now is the time to do it; our resources are only getting better and as we continue to build out more, will also have to get more $$. Thanks for being here! See you soon.

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