Mediagazer: Trauma-informed reporting, often key for crime stories, will gain relevance post-pandemic; newsrooms need to be aware of potential secondhand trauma for staff (Marissa Evans/Nieman Lab)

12:40 PM ET, December 13, 2020

Top News:

Adam Piore / Columbia Journalism Review:

A deep, historical look at opinion pieces in news outlets, and how a large quantity of hot takes has served as a cheap, powerful attraction, sometimes at a cost — The New York Times and the unending blizzard of takes — In 1961, John B. Oakes was appointed to lead the editorial page of the New York Times.

Discussion: @michaelsocolow and @borzou

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Adam Rubenstein, the NYT editorial assistant who edited Sen. Tom Cotton's infamous “Send in the Troops” column, has resigned from the newspaper

Discussion: @brithume, @thedailybeast, @rachaelbl, @conor64, @bariweiss, @bariweiss, @bariweiss, @matthewstoller, @caitlinpacific, @ggreenwald, @jerrydunleavy, @bariweiss, @stephenfhayes, @jbarro and @maxwelltani

Marissa Evans / Nieman Lab:

Trauma-informed reporting, often key for crime stories, will gain relevance post-pandemic; newsrooms need to be aware of potential secondhand trauma for staff — “Trauma is everywhere, even if the communities we serve don't always use the t-word to describe their experiences.”

Allegra Hobbs / Study Hall:

A look at the enduring popularity of advice columns, mainstays at Slate, NYT, The Cut, how they've changed since the days of Dear Abby, and their role today — Trompe l'oeil. Board Partition with Letter Rack and Music Book by Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Discussion: @katie_rayford, @spj_tweets, @thecitywanderer, @niemanlab, @niemanreports, @bfishbfish, @delia_cai and @sesmith

Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:

Atlanta's all-Black creator houses are helping to build community and reverse a gap in an industry where Black influencers are underacknowledged and underfunded — After years of being passed over by brands and management companies despite driving the internet's biggest trends …

Discussion: @jewelwickershow, @kattenbarge, @_blackmuses and @taylorlorenz

Kathryn Hopkins / WWD:

Analysis of 45 US magazines: two ceased print operations and 26 lowered print frequency this year vs. 2019, though this reduction is not permanent in all cases — WWD analyzed 45 U.S.-based titles to find out how the pandemic impacted print magazine frequency.

Discussion: @wwd, @wblau and @wwd

Lyz / Men Yell at Me:

Q&A with former reporter Allison Hantschel on how newspapers damaged themselves, inspired by a tweet lamenting that people pay for Netflix but not journalism — “Never ascribe to malice what stupidity will adequately explain.” — 3 hr ago — For a decade, Allison Hantschel worked at small newspapers in the Midwest.

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

Disney's stream of Disney+ announcements on Thursday finally delivered on ~$100B worth of acquisitions over 15 years of widely adored billion dollar franchises — Disney's big streaming event showed what Disney Plus will be — By the end of Disney's four-hour event …

Discussion: @carnage4life, Guerra do Streaming, @labuzamovies, @parismarx, @jetgirl78, @backlon, @broderick, @loudmouthjulia, CNBC, Another Land and Whys and Wherefores

Sarah Ellison / Washington Post:

Political journalists question the value of reporting anonymous concerns by Republicans who publicly support Trump as he tries to overturn the election — During his decades on the congressional beat, John Bresnahan has spent countless hours listening to the private concerns of his congressional sources.

Kara Swisher / New York Times:

Interview with Jason Kilar on the decision to release 2021 movies on HBO Max: “If we...focus on the customer, we're going to be sitting on a very big future” — Depending on who you ask, Jason Kilar is either the most hated or most beloved man in Hollywood right now.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, Context is King, @variety, @npr, Variety, Variety, @cassianelwes, @taraansley, @jakesherman, @antovolk, @nytopinion, CNN, @ljwr_, @jesabelraay, @mlcalderone, @benmullin, @nytopinion, Variety and Protocol

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

PwC: 2020 deal activity in media and telecoms was relatively stable despite the pandemic, with 612 deals, down 4% from 2019, and a combined value of $99B, up 8% — “COVID-19 forced companies to be more introspective and reconsider their core strategies,” says PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

Axios plans to launch AxiosHQ in Feb. to help companies write internal memos styled like Axios newsletters, with real-time feedback and “Smart Brevity” score — This coming February, Axios's first software-as-a-service product, AxiosHQ, will hit the market.

Discussion: @jz, @imkialikethecar, @thekendallbaker, @noahchestnut, @glennf and @bmorrissey

Washington Post:

Three NC newspapers have filed a petition with the NC Court of Appeals seeking to open a district court to media after a judge blocked them from a hearing — The judge has given no reason for the order in a county wracked by racial justice protests. That's causing concern for transparency advocates.

Discussion: @rcfp, @madeleinebaran, @seamushughes, @marshallyoum, @spj_tweets, @rcfp, @sarahellison, @deonnakelli, @amyargetsinger, @elaheizadi, @robyntomlin, @robyntomlin, Associated Press and Committee to Protect …

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:

Three Spotify unions, at Gimlet, The Ringer, and Parcast, stopped working for two hours on Friday, demanding fairer contracts and better workplace conditions — Spotify has only recognized one union, but they've all been fighting for a better contract this past year. — EO

Discussion: @vice and @bigblackjacobin