Newsrooms are preparing for a big and messy Election Day 

With Election Day less than 40 days away, newsrooms are beginning preparations for what could be a very long night — or a very long week. Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum report for The New York Times that most major news organizations are “putting contingency plans in place to push back against a gale-force storm of misinformation and ensure that audiences trust their coverage.” This includes hiring extra reporters, setting up new fact-checking units, and developing new projection models to interpret early returns. 

In the meantime, news outlets are working on new ways to tell accurate election stories. The San Francisco Chronicle has created the Kamala Harris News Assistant, an AI-generated interactive tool to help readers get to know more about the presidential candidate. Zita Arocha at Poynter has resources to help newsrooms tell more accurate immigration stories during election season, while Denise-Marie Ordway at The Journalist’s Resource offers advice on how journalists can better understand and cover survey and polling results. 

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> An Oregon paper was repeatedly denied public records. Its fight for transparency ended in a major victory. (Poynter)

When journalists at the Malheur Enterprise in Oregon’s poorest county realized that millions in public funding for a new rail center project was disappearing, they were ultimately forced to sue for lack of access to public records. They received not only a payment, but an admission of wrongdoing by Malheur County. 

>> New from API: Plan your day-of and post-election coverage with these resources

With November fast-approaching, we are re-upping both Election Day and post-election resources that news leaders may want to use. This includes our series of webinars alongside the AP, as well as guides to help you prepare, design and steward your election coverage. 

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Culture & Inclusion

>> How The Economist is using AI to extend its global reach (Press Gazette)

The Economist is using AI to translate articles for its Espresso app after the publication’s senior AI editor said that the technology was “good enough” to deploy. The app, which offers “bite size” news stories, now features translations in French, German, Mandarin and Spanish. 

>> New from API: The research-practice gap in journalism: Why it exists and how we can address it

Academic researchers can help journalists, publishers and content producers through the massive shifts in their industry. There is, however, palpable disconnect between the academy and those within the field. We call this disconnect the research-practice gap in journalism — and it’s a gap that we argue must be bridged.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> How the Tampa Bay Times took its hurricane preparation plans to the next level (Poynter)

The Tampa Bay Times has several “go teams” who prepare yearlong to cover the area’s six-month hurricane season. Preparing for storms involves staff-wide training, a hurricane committee and an annual audience survey. 

>> Did you know violent crime is down? Not if you’re watching right-wing media (CNN)

Recent FBI data shows that violent crime has dropped in the last year, but it wasn’t covered by conservative or pro-Trump media. The only mention on Fox News falsely claimed that the report did not include big cities and was therefore inaccurate. 

>> Pressure mounts on publisher of Economist over ties to tobacco (The Guardian) 

Several health experts have pulled out of health conferences run by Economist Impact due to the company’s ties with Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco. The brand, which is separate from the Economist magazine, also creates sponsored editorial coverage, some with a pro-tobacco angle. 

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Revenue & Resilience

>> With help from Denmark’s Zetland, Finland will get a member-supported news outlet in 2025 (Nieman Lab)

A Finnish news outlet, tentatively titled Uusi Juttu (“new thing”), signed up 5,000 paying members in the first three days of its launch campaign. The publication is supported by Danish outlet Zetland, which has 40,000 paying members. 

>> Coming up next on CNN: A paywall (The New York Times) 

CNN, the most visited news website in the US, will begin experimenting with a metered paywall in October. The push is led by CNN’s chair, Mark Thompson, who pushed The New York Times’s digital business model when he was the paper’s CEO.

>> How Business Insider’s AI-based paywall strategy increased conversions by 75% (Digiday) 

After Business Insider switched from a freemium model, where only specific articles were paywalled, to a smart paywall, 60% of new conversions were on stories that wouldn’t have been paywalled before.

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What else you need to know

🫱🏽‍🫲🏿 Newsmax and Smartmatic settle 2020 election defamation case on eve of trial (CNN)

📺 Hoda Kotb, cheerful fixture of NBC’s ‘Today’ Show, says she will depart (The New York TImes)

🗞️ Virginia’s ARLnow acquires GazetteLeader (ARLnow) 

🏈 Reporter who broke Brett Favre welfare scandal could face jail time for not giving up confidential sources (Mediaite)

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Weekend reads

+ What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism? (Nieman Lab) 

+ ‘Bananas’, ‘bonkers & bullsh*t’: NPR’s David Folkenflik on Olivia Nuzzi, Ben Smith and journalism ethics (The Handbasket) 

+ How to cover the worst MLB team ever without going (too) insane (The Washington Post)