Antidotes to Trump overload

Editor & Publisher recently published a cartoon by Rob Tornoe depicting President Trump “delivering” the news to a reporter. He’s doing it with a firehose.

If that’s what reporters are feeling, imagine the reader’s experience. Recognizing that audiences are probably overwhelmed, some publications have taken to helping them navigate news from the White House, mostly focused on the first 100 days.

The Washington Post has a newsletter called “The 7” wherein writer Matt Clough is distilling White House news into seven concise points he says are designed to help people “stay informed but not overwhelmed.”

The New York Times’ navigational aid to Trump is an interactive, where users can click on a category (tariffs, education, etc.) and/or a type of action (bill signing, executive action, etc.) and it will produce a link to a story.

At Vox, Patrick Reis writes a newsletter called “The Logoff,” which he says is an attempt to “solve a fundamental conundrum of this new era: How do you stay informed about politics without handing over a big chunk of your brain to Donald Trump?”

As for the name? Reis says one feature of the newsletter is designed to allow readers to refocus away from Trump, “into a more productive headspace, as you log off for the day.”

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> SignalGate isn’t about Signal (Wired)

After the Trump team included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a group text about bombing plans in Yemen, some administration officials — including Trump himself — seemed to blame Signal, the app used for the messaging. But this episode can’t be pinned on the app, write Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman. “SignalGate raises plenty of security, privacy, and legal issues. But the security of Signal itself is not one of them,” they write.

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Culture & Inclusion

>> State of work-life balance in Journalism 2025 (Muck Rack)

A new report from Muck Rack, based on a survey of more than 430 journalists, found that burnout remains high in the profession, with 50% having considered quitting in the past year. The respondents said that companies could offer “mental health support, better compensation, more staff and hybrid/remote work” to address the problem.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Join us: The deadline is Monday for API’s Influencers Learning Cohort

API is looking for up to 12 dynamic and curious news organizations to join our next cohort for experimenting with influencer collaborations. Participants in the program will receive $3,000 and join learning calls, exchange ideas, solve problems with peers and provide insights to API for developing additional programming for 2025. The cohort runs through August. Learn more and apply by March 31. 

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Revenue & Resilience

>> The newspaper flourishing without a paywall (New York Magazine)

The last week of February was the U.K.-based Guardian’s second-biggest week in terms of U.S. reader revenue; the highest was the week of the 2024 presidential election, writes Charlotte Klein. It expects to bring in $44 million in reader donations from the U.S. and Canada this year, writes Klein, who interviewed Guardian editor Betsy Reed.

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What else you need to know

📰  LA Times owner defends remaking paper to Tucker Carlson (Politico)

🤖 Judge allows New York Times copyright case against OpenAI to go forward (NPR)

👀 Trump to name right-wing media critic ambassador to South Africa (The New York Times)

🎤 Voice of America director sues over the outlet’s closure (Politico)

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Weekend reads

+ Trump’s attacks on press freedom are paving the way for authoritarianism (Vanity Fair)

+ How can we reach beyond the local news choir? Spotlight PA’s founding editor has ideas (Nieman Lab)

+ What happened when a newspaper let AI take over (The Washington Post)

+ ProPublica didn’t just prove nonprofit journalism could work — it changed how investigative reporting is measured (Poynter)