March 26, 2021 - Last week, many newspapers wrapped up coverage of Sunshine Week, a time set aside to promote government accountability through public records and public meetings. In North Carolina, the idea of sunshine has been more aspirational than reality-based. Now though, there is greater cause for celebration than we have seen in a long time, thanks to the introduction on Thursday of Senate Bill 355 — The Government Transparency Act of 2021. more

The New York-based hedge fund leveraged Tribune Publishing with two loans totaling $278 million, removed CEO Terry Jimenez and installed Alden President Heath Freeman to lead the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday. more

Fox News possesses an “outsized influence” on the American public, especially among religious viewers. more

Here’s an idea to steal and adapt: Deepen your relationship with readers and expand your news coverage of communities with a team of freelancers, creating digital hubs and newsletters to organize and promote coverage. more

In the first major news since the acquisition, Tribune Publishing CEO Terry Jimenez, who was the only member of Tribune’s board to vote against the Alden deal, has left the company. According to the Chicago Tribune’s Robert Channick , Jimenez received $1.734 million in equity compensation. His total golden parachute is believed to be more than $2.5 million. more

Madeline Westberg, who has distinguished herself in the role of associate editor of the Cambridge News & Deerfield Independent, has been promoted to managing editor of a sister APG-Southern Wisconsin newspaper in Dane County. more

May 25, 2021 - The California News Publishers Association and Column, a public benefit software startup, have announced a long-term strategic partnership designed to transform the future of public notice for the most populous state in the country. In partnership with Column, CNPA members will have access to public notice software that they can deploy to streamline internal operations and deliver a powerful new customer experience for local governments, legal services and businesses that are required to place notices. more

Ghanaian authorities must thoroughly investigate allegations that police officers beat journalist Caleb Kudah in custody; arbitrarily detained Kudah and his colleague, Zoe Abu-Baidoo Addo; and deleted photos from their phones, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. more

Many factors can limit access to critical information: geographic news deserts, undercovered communities, infrastructural or economic barriers, lack of trust, misinformation. We aren’t always adept at illustrating the complex ways in which people navigate the world beyond the news; it’s easier to report on the presence of bad information than the absence of good information, and it’s even trickier to define the ways in which the two inform one another. But even in news deserts — be they geographic, cultural, digital, or philosophical — people access information. Something always fills the void. more

The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) is issuing guidance to help newsrooms more accurately and critically cover issues related to Israel and Palestine. This undertaking is in response to requests from industry reporters, editors and producers, many of whom are AMEJA members, for resources to better understand the historical context and nuance. more

Journalists and fact-checkers have professional obligations to be as honest with the public as possible, but we do the public a disservice when we give them the feeling that we have all the answers. more

The Associated Press said Monday that it is launching a review of its social media policies after questions were raised about last week’s firing of one of its journalists who had expressed pro-Palestinian views. That announcement came hours after more than 100 AP journalists signed a letter expressing concern about how former news associate Emily Wilder was treated. more

With advertising becoming a less reliable source of revenue for the embattled journalism industry, more news outlets are turning toward sources of consumer revenue to shore up their coffers. more

As part of its new brand campaign to unify all of its products, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently released a new email marketing campaign featuring Kelly Yamanouchi, one of its business reporters. The email campaign links to the paper's subscription site and encourages readers to "support the work of our journalists." more

The Associated Press and FanDuel Group today announced an agreement that makes FanDuel the exclusive provider of sports odds across AP’s global sports report. Under the terms of the agreement, FanDuel Sportsbook odds will appear in AP’s daily sports odds fixtures, game previews and other sports stories where odds are mentioned. AP will retain editorial control of all content. more

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is expected to release updated guidance to employers soon with regard to incentive plans that are appropriate with respect to wellness programs as they relate to COVID, as well as information related to harassment, COVID immunizations and employer policies following its April 28 hearing on the Civil Rights Implications of COVID-19. more

Staff layoffs continued to pummel the beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry in 2020. A third of papers with an average Sunday circulation of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs last year, a period complicated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis which examined news articles that cited staff layoffs at these outlets. more

CNN is cutting ties with former Republican senator and current TV analyst Rick Santorum over disparaging comments he made about Native American culture. more

Vox Media has named Jennifer Cullem as head of product. Cullem will oversee all product-related activities at Vox Media, contributing to the overall vision of the modern media company from a product standpoint and ensuring a team known for innovation in media continues to effectively execute on ambitious priorities. She’ll also be responsible for cultivating and continuously evolving the culture and identity of the Vox Media Product team to ensure it’s inclusive, productive and collaborative. more

Journalists, especially news photographers, are used to going towards danger. That’s part of the job. But this time, the stakes were high. Early on, when journalists at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis didn’t know exactly how the virus was transmitted, everyone on the team was cognizant that they could become vectors of the illness, unwittingly spreading the disease as they went from assignment to assignment. The early lesson for the photo and video team was that they had to treat everyone they encountered as if they carried the virus, including themselves. more