The art of the farewell

In the churning world of opinion journalism, the goodbye column is almost a subgenre in itself.

One approach is on display this week from Catherine Rampell, who is joining the exodus of opinion writers from The Washington Post. She wrote her farewell as a compendium of advice to those who would follow in her pundit footsteps, including themes of humility and empathy: “Always put the shoe on the other foot,” she wrote in one of her 11 principles.

Often these pieces are heartfelt, like David Plazas’ warm and gracious farewell to Nashville when he moved from The Tennessean to Atlanta to become the Journal-Constitution’s opinion editor.

Earlier in the year, Dan Sewell wrote a parting column to his Cincinnati Enquirer readers in which he talked about the people he’s met, the challenges of column writing and the health concerns that sidelined him.

These three columnists were all saying goodbye for different reasons, but they each included authenticity and gratitude, making them a bittersweet reminder of the importance of connecting with audiences on a human level.

Not to mention the difficulty of walking away.

Wrote Sewell: “When I told my wife this is my finale, she replied: ‘Oh sure, how many times have I heard that?’”

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> Democrats cite more science than Republicans in policy documents: Study (The Journalist’s Resource) 

Democrats and Republicans in Congress and policy think tanks consistently cite different scientific sources in their work, writes Naseem S. Miller, who summarizes the findings of a study published in the journal Science in April. There is also little overlap of how often the two parties cite the same paper, the researchers found. The results, Miller writes, demonstrate that “neither party is taking a full account of scientific evidence on various issues.”

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Culture & Inclusion

>>  I teach college and report on Colorado media — there should be more professors doing the same in other states (The Conversation) 

There are very few reporters and columnists left at local news organizations who focus on their local media as a beat, writes Corey Hutchins. A journalism instructor at Colorado College, where he also manages the Journalism Institute, Hutchins also publishes a newsletter called Inside the News in Colorado. He argues that colleges and universities would be good homes for more of these kinds of state-based media newsletters.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Adopt A Station is an ingenious effort to help at-risk public radio outlets (Dan Kennedy’s Media Nation) 

For people looking to help public radio stations that are most harmed by Congress’ elimination of funding for public media, an adopt-a-station tool might be helpful. Dan Kennedy explains the tool, its origins and how it was developed by Alex Curley (who also writes the Substack newsletter semipublic). Kennedy also notes that NPR itself is cutting its budget by $8 million to help local stations most hurt by the cut. Some stations might still close despite these efforts, Kennedy writes, but perhaps the damage can be minimized in the meantime.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> Publishers race against Google Zero doomsday clock (Axios) 

Publishers are scrambling to implement ways to deal with “Google Zero” — the point when the search engine stops sending traffic to third-party websites due to its use of chatbots. “Publishers need to find new ways to make money now that one of their most reliable revenue streams is quickly evaporating,” write Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer. They cite a number of publishers trying new techniques, products and content to offset or hedge against the drop in traffic.

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What else you need to know

💔Journalists are starving in Gaza (CJR)

⚖️ Felony charges dismissed against CityBeat journalists arrested in Roebling Bridge protest (Cincinnati Enquirer)

🙌 Newmark J-School names Jean Friedman-Rudovsky as executive director of Center for Community Media (CUNY)

📨 6AM City acquires Good Daily’s network of more than 350 AI-generated local newsletters (Nieman Lab)

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Weekend reads

+ Trump’s campaign to crush the media (The Atlantic)

+ What do journalists owe their sources — and their audiences? (CJR)

+ Journalism needs a rebrand (Ross Maghielse / J+ at Newmark J-School)

+ Everything Is a ‘false flag’ now (Wired)