Study Hall Digest 11/13/2017

Hi

There’s a new book out about the rise and fall of Rolling Stone, but it could be read as a story about the rise and fall of magazine journalism in general: In the 1960s and 70s, buoyed by the explosion in advertising, scrappy intellectuals found a business model that enabled them to produce thought-provoking, culturally relevant work through magazines. The money started pouring in; in the 1980s and 1990s ambitions became grandiose, egos got out of hand, everyone who ran these magazines became out-of-touch with culture, and then all the money disappeared. And so now we’re left with Rolling Stone, and a bunch of other magazines, that are shells of their former selves, more brands than publications, still run by the big egos who were made rich in the 1980s and 90s, and who are now unable or unwilling to innovate and save their publications from death. In short, there seems to be little hope for legacy magazines. :/

Speaking of which, yass kween Hillary Clinton will guest edit the December issue of Teen Vogue, which just laid off 80 people and will cease to exist in print soon. Seems like they have their priorities straight.

Also Teen Vogue and Elle are becoming infamous for not paying their writers.

BuzzFeed is launching a dating show on Facebook. It’ll be exactly like The Bachelor, except viewers will be able to influence the direction of the show via Facebook. The future! Just like the past! But with more things to click!

Did you know almost all of Philadelphia’s media properties are owned by one weird non-profit?

A good thread on how to make a podcast, including the advice that maybe you shouldn’t make a podcast.

Another good thread about the perils of breaking into media, with the sad conclusion that writers of color have to work insanely hard for little reward at the beginning of their careers. ;[

The Baltimore Beat, which has arisen from the ashes of the City Paper is trying a novel strategy: Hiring people who reflect the diversity of the city it operates in.

The media…is…bad.

But Unicorn Riot is amazing, and deserves a lot more credit for the work they do uncovering Nazis and the alt-right. They’re doing the investigative work mainstream publications should be doing, imho.

I mean who hasn’t been a 13-year-old girl pretending to be a 30-something married man in order to write about baseball online????

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Story of the Week: Cardi B, profiled by Allison P. Davis in New York Magazine.