New challenges for education reporters
How should journalists cover a government entity that may be headed for elimination? The Department of Education may not be the biggest federal agency, but its reach is far and wide.
To help, Denise-Marie Ordway at Journalist’s Resource has assembled eight tips for reporters covering this multifaceted story. Local reporters may benefit in particular from her guidance on covering states’ preparedness to fill any gaps left if the federal department closes.
Reporters around the country, meanwhile, are looking at the implications of a Trump administration decision to revoke a policy that barred immigration arrests at schools and churches. The action reverses previous restrictions on enforcement in sensitive locations, the Associated Press reports.
Chalkbeat Chicago provides a coverage example with its piece on five things people need to know about how immigration policy affects local schools. Another example comes from The Bergen Record’s Mary Ann Koruth, who explores what immigration officers can and can’t do.
News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.
Civic Discourse & Democracy
>> Deserted by fact-checking (Medill Local News Initiative)
The decision by Facebook owner Meta to eliminate fact-checking from its platforms may have a disproportionate impact on areas where professional journalism is scarce, writes Mark Caro. Lucas Graves, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Caro that the effect will be compounded by Facebook’s decision to increase political content on its platform, meaning “people will be exposed to a lot of misleading headlines.”
>> A university steps in with a new model for preserving local news (Poynter)
Arizona State University has started a local news initiative called Newswell to help local editors and publishers with operational support and audience and business strategies, writes Nicole Carroll, the former USAToday editor who’s heading up the project. It’s starting with three sites: Stocktonia, the Times of San Diego and the Santa Barbara News-Press, which will be rebuilt under the program.
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Culture & Inclusion
>> As immigration stories evolve, so does the language we use to talk about them (NPR)
NPR is changing how its journalists talk about immigration, the network reports. “Undocumented” will no longer be used because many immigrants do have documents, just not the right ones, explained Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor of standards and practices. He said the intent is to use language that is as exact as possible and “doesn’t dehumanize.” NPR also doesn’t use “illegal” to describe these immigrants, he said.
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Community Engagement & Trust
>> Listening to innovate: A conversation with Sarah Alvarez (Substack, Second Rough Draft)
Journalists too often focus on conveying that they “know better than their audiences” about what matters rather than listening to people about what they think is important, Sarah Alvarez told Dick Tofel. The Outlier founder, who was recently named the James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication, cites climate change as an example, saying that people care about safety as opposed to what she calls “agenda-setting” journalism.
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Revenue & Resilience
>> New from API: Access actionable, accessible newsroom data with Metrics for News
API’s Metrics for News program can help to validate — or refute — newsroom hunches about what will resonate with audiences. That is one takeaway from a webinar API held with two newsroom partners who use the tool. Elizabeth Couch, director of audience engagement at Crain’s City Brands, says MFN has helped identify actionable trends and solve mysteries. Erin Lebar at the Winnipeg Free Press says it has given a sense of what audiences value, what the newsroom can stop doing and where there are opportunities for change or experimentation.
>> For some newspaper workers, the new year began with four weeks of unpaid leave (Poynter)
CNHI, owner of 77 newspapers, is instituting a mandatory four-week furlough with no pay for 46 staffers, or 3% of its workforce, Rick Edmonds reports. Bill Ketter, CNHI’s senior vice president for news, told Edmonds that the furloughs followed a “soft fourth quarter.” For the industry as a whole, Edmonds sees it as an indication of further difficulties ahead.
>> CNN plots major overhaul as it enters a new Trump era (The New York Times)
CNN is pivoting away from its reliance on television and using digital news to meet audiences where they are, CNN’s chief executive Mark Thompson told Benjamin Mullin in an interview. The network said Thursday it would be eliminating 200 jobs in its TV operations while also adding roughly the same number to focus on digital.
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What else you need to know
📰Boston Globe Media acquires Boston Magazine (Boston.com)
✂️Chicago Sun-Times owner seeks voluntary buyouts from the newsroom (WBEZ)
❎Le Monde, French newspaper of record, quits Elon Musk’s X (Politico)
👀CBS 58 weather reporter Sam Kuffel is out after criticizing Elon Musk arm gesture (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
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Weekend reads
+ Substack advertising is turning writers into part-time sales reps (WSJ)
+ The Tulsa Local News Initiative combines old and new to shore up the city’s information ecosystem (Nieman Lab)
+ Is social media more like cigarettes or junk food? (The New Yorker)
+ America is divided. It makes for tremendous content (The Atlantic)
