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Already, there’s been plenty of critique about New York Magazine’s cover package looking at the future of news by consulting media figures in positions of power. This week, both co-directors of The Objective — me and Gabe Schneider — weigh in on the redundancy of the piece. Namely, what purpose did it serve?

In this issue:

And also: Owners at two major papers nix editorial boards’ presidential endorsements, Jewish Currents condemns Israeli targeting of journalists, G/O Media shrinks further, and looking at the state of local news this year.

—James Salanga

This week, New York Magazine published a sprawling collection of anecdotes, interviews, quotes, and portraits about the “57 most powerful people in [news] media.” 

Among the incisive observations about the media business: “I don’t feel like employees understand how precarious it is at all,” said Carolyn Ryan, managing editor of the New York Times.

Which employees? The journalists who are staring down the barrel of a year with record layoffs? Reporters looking at jobs with salaries that don’t pay nearly the cost of living? The ones pushing for fair coverage of Palestinians by signing civil open letters and facing retribution? 

If anything, what’s useful to learn is what many reporters have already experienced — that some editors and leaders don’t care whether they’re entitled and entirely out of touch with their employees. (Though they care enough to request anonymity.) 

Some editors don’t respect their writers (“My biggest pet peeve is when it feels like I’m the teacher and they’re in sixth grade doing a homework assignment.”). Others reminisce on dues-paying days of old (“The whole attitude [of younger reporters] is less servile than it used to be.”).

And, unsurprisingly, people in power have little faith about bellwether progress with DEI and labor rights: “Between the years, like, 2016 and 2021, the relationship between employers and employees shifted, and it’s shifted back, basically,” says one editor-in-chief. “That was a temporary phenomenon that really strikes me as over.”

If the cover story was meant to give reporters insight into their own industry, it didn’t say anything particularly novel. The publication could have interviewed worker-led cooperatives — both local, like The 51st and Hell Gate, and national, like Defector and Flaming Hydra. It could’ve spoken to the leaders of the Movement Media Alliance who are forging a new vision for journalism. And it could have looked at writers and educators who have challenged newsrooms to do better like Lewis Raven Wallace, Steven Thrasher, or Carla Murphy. 

Instead, New York Magazine betrays how little many mainstream editors and newsroom leaders from mainstream publications have to say that’s of value. Considering the state of the industry, didn’t we already know that?

—James Salanga and Gabe Schneider

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IWW Freelance Journalists Union member James Anderson makes the case for the union’s latest campaign, which seeks to leverage collective power to improve compensation and conditions for media contract workers. Read more.

L.A. Times, Washington Post won’t endorse a presidential candidate: Times editorial editor Mariel Garza resigned over the blockage, as the paper’s editorial board had planned to endorse current vice president Kamala Harris for president before owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the analysis. After the endorsement’s blocking, the paper has lost at least 400 subscribers. The Post management’s decision not to endorse — which the paper’s editorial page editor, David Shipley, says he “owns” — marks a first since the 1980s.

⚖️ Read the stories in Semafor and in NPR.

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Jewish Currents, Committee to Protect Journalists condemn continued Israeli military targeting of journalists: They’re responding to accusations that six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza are members of Palestinian militant groups. “Given Israel’s history of targeting and killing Palestinian journalists, these claims should be read as threats to murder them,” the Jewish Currents statement reads. The newsroom decided to take an explicit stance of solidarity to deter the Israeli military from any further attacks on Palestinian journalists.

🇵🇸 Read the full statement on the Jewish Currents website and CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsburg’s remarks on X.

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G/O Media sells Jalopnik to Static Media: The sale of the car culture site brings G/O Media down to just four more publications: Quartz, The Root, The Inventory, and Kotaku. It’s not the first brand it’s sold this year: Deadspin, The Onion, and Gizmodo also went to new owners, with all of Deadspin’s staff being laid off when it sold in March. (The staff of the latter two publications was kept on during the sales.)

🚗 Read the story in Axios.

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State of Local News 2024 report shows a shrinking, consolidating newspaper industry: For the first time in two decades, newspaper employment has dropped below 100,000 positions, and the six largest newspaper chains own 20% of all U.S. papers. In the last six years, more than 95% of the top 7,500 grants given to journalism went to metro papers. But it’s not all dire: A bright spots section toward the end of the report highlights start-ups reaching sustainability and policy proposals looking to bolster local news infrastructure. 📰 Read the report on the Medill School of Journalism website.

As the pace of publishing ramps up with early voting underway, the free hotline provides a way to get another set of perspectives on last-minute questions to ensure your stories are as accurate and thoughtful as possible. You submit a query on the website, and journalists with deep experience addressing issues of race and gender will provide concrete advice for your specific situation. Phone in a question here.

For more resources like this, check out the style guide section of The Objective’s resource board. If you’re looking for a job, we have a section with job boards, too!

Thanks for reading. We appreciate you being here, and we’ll have more for you soon.

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