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How the industry is bracing for the next Trump presidency 

The return of Donald Trump to the White House has many in the media concerned about how the journalism industry will fare. On the Poynter podcast, Kelly McBride predicts that he will use his power to help consolidate media ownership as well as to target anonymous sources and leakers. Charlie Savage in The New York Times reports that Trump will likely kill the PRESS Act, which would provide federal protections for journalists. And in Nieman Lab, Andrew Deck writes that, in the Trump administration, Freedom of Information requests are likely to take longer and require more lawsuits to prompt disclosures. 

Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick for chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has said that he wants to hold broadcast stations “accountable,” indicating that he might follow through on Trump’s threats to revoke licenses for stations that run unflattering content, CNN reports. In an NPR interview, Marty Baron said that he expects Trump to “to go after the press in every conceivable way.” 

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that it is “vital to have a free, fair and open media,” and that he feels he has “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press.” 

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> How innovation keeps an activist Ugandan news site ahead of the government (Columbia Journalism Review) 

The Agora Center for Research in Uganda is an unapologetically activist news organization which has continued to report despite death threats and government interference. They manage to keep reporting by using social media outlets that the government cannot control and posting original source information that cannot be refuted. 

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Culture & Inclusion

>> The right-wing media voices you may hear more of soon (Columbia Journalism Review) 

Howard Polskin of TheRighting writes that well-known conservative media voices like Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh are likely to be more prominent in the second Trump term, as are more obscure names like Christian Toto and Summer Lane.  

>> How journalists can better explain why Black women vote the way they do (Forbes)

Subramaniam Vincent argues that the media needs to focus more on the intersectionality of race and gender when covering voting patterns by Black women and other women of color. 

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> The Green Line creates local news for the people turning away from “big-J journalism” (Nieman Lab)  

The Toronto-based Green Line uses four-part “action journey” packages to help its readers improve their lives. Each package contains four parts: an explainer, a feature, an event and a solutions-oriented piece. 

>> For the Texas Tribune, public events help to counteract disinformation (PEN America)

Matt Ewalt, who oversees events, says that “live journalism” is a way for newsrooms and journalists to connect directly with their community, and gives members of the public an opportunity to hold powerful officials accountable. 

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Revenue & Resilience

>> Meeting user needs pays: How reader-centric content drives revenue (Substack, Media Finance Monitor)

Ariel Zirulnick advises newsrooms to stop organizing their work based on what is convenient for the organization and instead focus on what users need when they come to the publication. “Maybe producing more journalism that meets people’s variable needs can begin to chip away at that disillusionment with media by showing people that there is value in reengaging with the information ecosystem,” she says. 

>> How these Argentinian newspapers attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers amid rising inflation (Reuters Institute)

Argentina is one of the rare countries with two newspapers that attract large paying audiences. Both papers have metered paywalls, exclusive content and perks for subscribers and a culture of experimentation. 

>> New from API: The 10 most popular Better News articles and case studies of 2024 (Better News) 

These pieces, written by and about alumni of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program, are accelerating the work of journalists and news organizations across the industry. 

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What else you need to know

👋 Comcast to spin off cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC (The New York Times)

🪧 Writers threaten strike at ‘Frontline,’ ‘NOVA’ and other PBS shows (Variety) 

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Weekend reads

+ Substack’s great, big, messy political experiment (The New York Times) 

+ Republican victory and the ambience of information (The New Yorker) 

+ Feed Me’s Emily Sundberg and her ‘studio mindset’ (Semafor) 

+ Finding Focus: How a visual storyteller gets the right image — and the right tone (ProPublica)