Study Hall Digest 4/24/2017

The media rn

Could be the shrooms I took over the weekend, but things seem pretty bright and good in the media this week, at least compared to last week’s dismalness. The American Prospect, which in my opinion never really gets enough traction online, is unionizing, which is cool! That comes on the heels of DNAInfo and Gothamist unionizing. In my view, this is a sign that unionization could spread from bigger orgs like Gizmodo and Vice down to pretty much every digital media business. Do it!! Anyone on this list work at a recently-unionized shop? Can we tell people to get in touch with you if they’re interested?

Study Hall friend Peter Sterne is going to lead a new initiative to track press freedom at the Committee to Protect Journalists. Congrats Peter!

The Washington Post is staffing up and launching three newsletters. And the Boston Globe is putting its premium subscription healthcare news branch Stat into the print newspaper. Seems like more proof products that can get ad money away from Google and Facebook are the future.

Thoughts

Shrooms are good. Jk…not jk.

TBH nothing that gossipy happened this week I don’t think, but all these new newsletters and podcasts are making me think it’s time to launch some sort of publication that’s lefty-ish and fun and cool. Younger-skewing than The Outline, less male than Chapo, less try-hard than MTV. Like where are smart, hip people (like all of you) getting their news? Email the Digest Listserv, or we’ll put out a prompt.

Speaking of lack of cool media operations, Leah Finnegan on the shitshow of the New York Times opinion page (which recently advocated for the return of death-by-firing-squad???), and the lack of diversity in the media in general, is good.