Inside The Newsroom podcast

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In our second installment of the Small Business Starter Kit series - we’re tackling a topic that’s sometimes tricky, sometimes confusing, but ever-present: taxes. Hosts Austin and Jannese have an insightful conversation with entrepreneur Isabella Rosal who started 7th Sky Ventures , an exporter and distributor of craft spirits, beer, and wine. Having lived and worked in two different countries and started a company in a heavily-regulated field, Isabella is no stranger to navigating the paperwork-laden and jargon-infused maze of properly understanding taxes for a newly formed small business. Join us as she shares her story and provides valuable insight into how to tackle your business’ taxes - so they don’t tackle you. Learn more about how QuickBooks can help you grow your business: QuickBooks.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…

Inside The Newsroom

Daniel Levitt delves inside the minds of journalists around the world
insidethenewsroom.substack.com

86 episodi

#News #Society #Inside The Newsroom

Inside The Newsroom

updated 3 anni fa

Pagina principale della serie•Feed

Daniel Levitt delves inside the minds of journalists around the world
insidethenewsroom.substack.com

86 episodi

#News #Society #Inside The Newsroom

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Inside The Newsroom

1
Podcast #90 — Glenn Greenwald 50:58

3 years fa50:58

50:58

Hello folks, welcome to the relaunch of the Inside The Newsroom podcast! It’s been a while since I got the microphone out, but I’m back and will be podcasting with a top journalist at least monthly from now on. What better way to get back on the horse than have Glenn Greenwald on the airwaves, who the New Statesman recently described as among the greatest journalists of all time . We talked about what it’s like being Glenn, the mental toll of having the U.S. and Brazilian governments after you, the corporatization of journalism, where to start when writing a New York Times bestseller, and Glenn’s best advice for today’s journalists. Say what you like about Glenn, but it’s hard to match his achievements. He believes what he believes, and will quite literally risk his life to defend his position. “You go into journalism in order to do stories like this. If you want to be universally beloved and applauded by people in power, journalism is not the profession to choose.” Earlier this month we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our subscription model. Read all about everything we’ve done so far, and everything we plan to build over the next 12 months. And be sure to check out my Q&A with Walt Hickey , senior data editor at Insider and founder of the Numlock News newsletter. Walt was incredibly candid about what it takes to build an audience and run a profitable business. And lastly, we relaunched Data Corner and Election Dissection last week! Read about how the top newsrooms covered the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan from a data viz angle, as well as the latest on the consequential recent elections in Morocco and Norway. Okay, let’s do this thing! Podcast is up top, and my post-game analysis and Job Corner are down below… Enjoy! Job Corner ✍️ We have more than 2,500 jobs and more than 300 internships listed in 1,000+ cities across the U.S., UK and Canada. Below is a preview of the openings you’ll have access to when you subscribe. If you’re a paying member, your jobs sheet link remains the same each week. Interested in a free week’s trial? Reply to this email and we’ll hook you up! Who Is Glenn Greenwald? Glenn is a journalist, former constitutional lawyer, author of four New York Times bestsellers , and co-founder of the Hope dog rescue shelter . In 1996, Glenn co-founded his own law firm in New York City, concentrating on First Amendment and civil rights. In 2005, he became bored of being a litigator and travelled to Brazil to “ figure out what I wanted to do with my life”. He immediately fell in love the country and met his now-husband: Brazilian congressman for the Socialism and Liberty party David Miranda . They currently reside in Rio de Janeiro. Around the same time, Glenn started his own blog and began writing about mass surveillance and the changes around civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2007, he was hired as a columnist by Salon , and then joined The Guardian in 2012. It was there that he, along with fellow friend of the podcast Ewen MacAskill , broke arguably the most impactful scandal of this generation: The Edward Snowden CIA leaks . From there Glenn co-founded The Intercept in 2014, but resigned in October 2020 over editorial freedom. You can read all about why Glenn did so here , as well as a rebuttal from The Intercept’s editor-in-chief, Betsy Reed. Today Glenn writes about a myriad of topics on Substack , and is always an engaging follow on Twitter . Oh, he and David currently have 26 rescue dogs too. Securing Democracy and Car Wash Scandal Glenn’s latest book, Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Brazil , was published earlier this year. It details the events that led to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro indicting Glenn for his involvement in the Operation Car Wash scandal , arguably the biggest corruption scandal in history. The scandal saw former Brazilian president and clear favorite in the 2018 presidential election Lula da Silva imprisoned, which allowed Bolsonaro to sweep to victory. In 2019, Glenn was contacted by Manuela d’Ávila, a centre-left candidate for vice-president in the election. D’Ávila had been approached by a source who had hacked a trove of phone calls between some of Brazil’s most powerful judges and prosecutors. One of those judges oversaw the Operation Car Wash anti-corruption probe that dominated Brazilian politics for the five years prior. The impact of Glenn’s reporting was explosive. Video: Glenn Greenwald on the Leaked Brazil Archive Exposing Operation Car Wash A judge ultimately dismissed the indictment against Glenn, but made clear that he would have accepted it, had it not been for an earlier Brazilian Supreme Court ruling . The ruling stated that any attempt to retaliate against Glenn for his reporting would be barred by the Brazilian constitution and the press freedom guarantee it provides. In our podcast, Glenn talked about how in 2013, Brazil’s parliament was favorable towards him after he exposed the U.S. government’s spying efforts on Brazil amid the fallout from the Snowden CIA leaks. But as Glenn’s husband poignantly pointed out, the Car Wash scandal was completely different and presented more dangers. Aside from now having a truly authoritarian president after him, this time around the folks coming after Glenn were on his doorstep. Having not one but two national governments after you is pretty terrifying, and one can only wonder about the mental toll that will have. The book is a timely reminder of the fragility of democracy . Corporatization of Journalism Glenn’s been a writer for the better part of three decades. As anyone who’s followed his work will know, he argues vehemently against the corporatization of newsrooms — the move toward an increasingly corporate ethos and structure. That’s why he co-founded The Intercept — to become an adversarial newsroom and not a subservient one — and is why he’s now completely independent on Substack . But you haven’t had to be in the game as long as Glenn to witness what he’s talking about. Large corporations have taken advantage of overall falling revenue in journalism, and have applied their ideology of cutting costs to boost profit. The Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that the total number of newspaper owners has declined by 32 percent since 2004, or at an average of 100 newspaper companies per year. More than 2,000 newspaper titles are now owned by the largest 25 companies. I have a whole newsletter worth of thoughts on this, so I’ll spin them into a separate edition in the future. As you know, I experienced this corporatization first hand through my time at the Wall Street Journal . After slaving away for years building myself a voice and trying to help the journalism community, WSJ gave me a choice: shut down Inside The Newsroom or leave. As Glenn put it, journalism isn’t a profession as much as it is a tool for anyone to fight injustice. There shouldn’t be a credential system whereby only those from the richest and most established media organizations have the privilege to cover the most important stories. And inside newsrooms, journalists’ voices shouldn’t be silenced because of hierarchy. Journalism is, and should continue to be, accessible to everyone. Glenn’s Advice For Journalists We’ll finish with some advice from Glenn for today’s journalists. I asked what his top piece of advice is to navigate today’s industry, and have paraphrased his answer below. There are a lot of easier ways to earn a living other than being a journalist, especially with the industry’s economic struggles. So make sure you’re entering journalism because of passion. Whether that’s politics, culture, sports, social movements or whatever your thing might be. But passion alone won’t necessarily bring you the success you’re looking for, and along the way you’ll inevitably have to sacrifice something. For many, that means working for an institution. That’s okay and is just something you have to do while you build your audience and pay the bills. But no matter what you do, make sure you always remember and preserve that passion that animated your choice to enter journalism. And even in those dark times of sacrifice, safeguard that passion with everything you have to keep that flame alive and to keep feeding it. Your time will come, so be passionate and prepared for when that time does come. Thanks for making it to the bottom. If you enjoyed today’s newsletter and podcast, please consider supporting what we’re building at Inside The Newsroom. 🙏 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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🎧 #89 — Olga Khazan (The Atlantic) 40:46

4 years fa40:46

40:46

Hello folks! Happy December and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom , where today’s guest is Olga Khazan ! As you might know, The Atlantic is my favourite news outlet of them all, so it was an absolute delight to speak to Olga about covering health, gender and science, what it’s like behind the scenes at one of America’s oldest publications, and we discussed her awesome new book, Weird : The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World . Be sure to check out last week’s content including our podcast with Mr. Hurricane Man Josh Morgerman , as well as Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week , where we rounded up the reactions to U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s likely last visit to the Middle East, and visited New Zealand where geologists hope to harness heat from volcanoes to fight climate change. Okay, let’s get to today’s newsletter! Job Corner More than 1,000 full-time journalism jobs and internships waiting to be applied to at the likes of the Boston Globe, BuzzFeed News, the Charlotte Observer, The Athletic, The Guardian, the Texas Tribune and the Washington Post. Keep spreading the word 🙏👇 Preview of the job board… 👇 Who is Olga Khazan? Olga has covered health, gender and science for The Atlantic since 2013, and has also written for the likes of the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Forbes . She was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was just three years old, initially living in Los Angeles before settling in Midland, Texas. On many occasions, Olga found herself on the outside, unable to fit in with her American counterparts. Her experiences fuelled much of the motivation and content for her new book Weird : The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World , which explores the social and psychological concepts behind conforming to new groups and societies. As if that wasn’t enough, Olga recently joined Substack where she posts insights from the book, as well as other smart life advice, which we’ll get onto shortly. Olga 👇 Long Live The Atlantic If you’re a frequent reader of this newsletter, you’ll be familiar with my obsession with The Atlantic and know that it’s my favourite newsroom. The way they dissect and explore the most important issues less than 24 hours after an event is unequalled and, as Olga puts it, her and her colleagues tell the “second day story on the first day”. From its humble Boston roots in 1857 , to its many journalists in multiple states in 2020, The Atlantic has blessed the world with some of its most defining articles . Whether it was W. E. B. Du Bois ’ “ The Strivings of the Negro People ” in 1897, which introduced the idea of the African American’s experience of “double consciousness” that’s still talked about today; Helen Keller’s 1932 “ Put Your Husband in the Kitchen ” where she encouraged men to do more housework way ahead her time; Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “ Letter From Birmingham Jail ” that would serve as one of the defining texts of the civil-rights movement; or modern-day great Ta-Nehisi Coates who in 2014 wrote “ The Case for Reparations ”, The Atlantic has been leading public debate for centuries. Long may it continue… Support Independent Journalism Hey there, each podcast episode and newsletter takes around 12 hours to put together. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing so we can continue delivering you the most important news from around the world 🙏 You’re Weird 🤨 No you’re weird! Shut up Daniel… Weird was released in April and is the finished product of more than five years of research and writing. The book explores the science behind being an outsider and why being culturally, socially, physically or mentally different should be a badge of honor instead of a slur. Olga isn’t alone. There’s a little weirdness in all of us, but it depends on how brave and willing we are to embrace it, which is why I’m so pleased Olga had the curiosity and courage to explore the psychological links between her upbringing as a Russian immigrant in West Texas, to her struggles and successes in later life. The book also explores why humans crave conformity, the consequences of social rejection and the hidden upsides of being “weird”. Just ask Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga who was bullied in high-school and university for being too eccentric. Or Alan Turing , who was ridiculed at school for his unconventional behaviour but went onto help save the world from Adolf Hitler. If you’re a fan of this stuff and can’t get enough, both Olga and I strongly recommend Susan Cain’s Quiet : The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking . Idiosyncrasy Credit Idiosyncrasy Credit is an old psychological concept that describes how someone’s unusual personality or ideas will be more accepted if that person is first seen as a conformist to a group’s norms. At the most basic level, most people use this technique subconsciously when trying to make new friends. But the concept can be applied to a plethora of scenarios including in the workplace. For example, when I interviewed for my job at The Guardian and most recently at The Wall Street Journal, I focused on my ability to turn new and unusual ideas into appropriate stories for their respective audiences. When I got the job, instead of heading straight for a new Google doc to brainstorm the wackiest ideas I could think of, I needed to show my colleagues that I could conform to their workflow and help improve their existing ideas. Now that I’ve shown them (I hope) that I’m capable of step one, it’s time to experiment, which means get ready for stories on tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes (only half joking). Another area where idiosyncrasy credits can be used is dating, which friend of the podcast Amy Webb outlined in her book Data, A Love Story : How I Gamed Online Dating To Meet My Match . To help her find the one, Amy scouted her competition on various dating apps by recording the profile bios of hundreds of other women looking to court the attention of men. She found that the average profile description should be between 90 and 100 words , be as common and unspecific as possible, and one that avoids controversy. Once you show these prospective men and women that you’re semi-normal, then you can start to be yourself. Related Podcasts That’s all for today, see you Wednesday for some Inside the Middle East fun! 👋 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#88 — Josh Morgerman (Hurricane Man) 52:05

4 years fa52:05

52:05

Hello folks and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is the hurricane man himself, Mr. Josh Morgerman . I had Josh and his director Caroline Menzies on the pod last year to talk about their hit TV show, Hurricane Man (highly recommended watch) which followed Josh to the world’s most remote places during the infamous 2018 cyclone season. This time around Josh’s setup was dramatically altered by Covid-19, so we caught up on this year’s hurricane season of which he spent in Mississippi. As ever be sure to check out last weeks’s coverage outside the newsroom, with Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week . And if you’re a fellow weather geek, enjoy some of my previous podcasts… Job Corner We finally did it, 1,000 journalism jobs and internships! This week’s new postings feature the likes of CNN, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Keep spreading the word! 🙏 👇 Data Corner * Cyclone Activity : Real-time data for all major ocean basins around the world, from Colorado State University Who is Josh Morgerman? Josh was born and raised in New York, studied history at Harvard and now resides in L.A. where he runs his own branding consultancy company . Yes, not the typical route to becoming one of the world’s leading storm chasers. As Josh puts it, he was born to chase, which is why Josh has spent the past few months in Bay St. Louis in Mississippi, so that he’s just a drive away from this year’s hurricane action amid international travel restrictions. In non-Covid years, Josh has travelled to some of the most remote areas in the world to capture valuable data for scientists and academics to study. Josh has been chasing storms for the best part of the past 30 years, but it was last year that shook him to his core. Chasing the most powerful hurricane on record to make landfall in North America led Josh to the Bahamas , where he intercepted Hurricane Dorian head on. When the worst of the storm had passed, not much was left standing, and there was a gut-wrenching 48-hour period when no one could reach him and he was presumed dead. While Josh didn’t study meteorology in college, he’s certainly a student of the field, so we’ll quickly run through some key terms we’ll use in today’s newsletter… Correction: I originally stated that Hurricane Dorian was the most powerful hurricane on record. It’s not. It’s the most powerful to make landfall in North America. The Hurricane Man 👇 Quick Glossary What’s the difference between a cyclone, hurricane and typhoon? A cyclone is the generic term for a rotating storm, and also the name given to large-scale rotating storms in the Southern Hemisphere. Under that generic label we have hurricanes, which are large-scale rotating storms in the North Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific, while a typhoon is the equivalent for large-scale rotating storms in the Northwest Pacific. What is Accumulated Cyclone Energy? Commonly known as ACE, it measures multiple metrics including wind speed and the number of days a storm lasts in order to give an overall impact. What are the different cyclone basins? The major ocean basins include the North Atlantic, Northeast Pacific, Northwest Pacific, North Indian, South Indian and South Pacific. What Are the Differences Between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres? Key differences between the north and south include the time of year each has its season: In the north typically between June and November, and in the south typically between December and April. Cyclones in the north rotate counterclockwise, and clockwise in the south due to the Coriolis effect . Support Independent Journalism Hey there, each podcast episode and newsletter takes around 12 hours to put together. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing so we can continue delivering you the most important news from around the world 🙏 Record Year in the Atlantic Now that we know that there are multiple ocean basins around the world, let’s take a look at this year’s activity in each so far. You may have heard that the 2020 North Atlantic season has seen a record number of named storms — a storm with winds of at least 39mph — with 30, beating the previous record of 28 set during the ominous 2005 season . What also sets 2020 apart is the fact that we’ve seen a category 4 hurricane in four consecutive months (August to November). Two more notable anomalies from this season: The last time we saw two hurricanes in November was in 2001 , which saw a category 4, and two category 1s including Olga that dipped her toe into December (also extremely rare). Fast forward to 2020 and the category 4 Hurricane Eta and category 5 Hurricane Iota both followed almost identical paths and slammed into Nicaragua, adversely affecting the likes of Honduras and El Salvador as well. While the National Hurricane Center is watching a disturbance currently trying to form, fingers crossed we can close the book on the 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season. What About the Rest of the World? While the Atlantic has seen several records broken, overall activity in the Northern Hemisphere this year has been below average. The good folks at Colorado State University track activity in all the world’s major ocean basins, and thankfully the number of storms and ACE (see glossary above) is way down in the Northeast Pacific , which experienced its highest ACE on record in 2018, and the Northwest Pacific , which saw an insane five typhoons last year in November alone. Elsewhere, the Southern Hemisphere’s cyclone season is just starting… Climate Change? It’s the elephant in the room any time there’s a major hurricane, and it would be extremely negligent not to discuss climate change any time there’s a severe weather event. But that’s where things become extremely complex and we must contextualize wherever we can. The first thing we must decipher is the difference between meteorology and climatology, which are intertwined yet fundamentally different. Meteorology is the study of weather, most often on a day-to-day or even season-by-season basis. For example, we know that there were a record number of named storms in the Atlantic this year. Climatology , on the other hand, is the study of meteorology over an extended number of years. In order to conclude whether climate change makes hurricanes worse, we must look at long-term trends, including of the individual ingredients of a hurricane, which I did for the Guardian a couple of years ago. Now, with that information, we still cannot definitively say any one hurricane (or any weather event) is directly linked to climate change, yet. But what we can conclude is that climate change is making monster storms such as Eta and Iota from this year, or Florence and Dorian from last year, much more likely. Friend of the podcast and legendary climate scientist Michael Mann has written about this very issue , as have many others . Only time will tell if the trend continues… That’s all for today! See you tomorrow for Inside The Middle East! 🌍👋 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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🎧 #86 — Dalal Mawad (Associated Press) 45:00

4 years fa45:00

45:00

Hello folks! Happy U.S. election day and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom! Best of luck to everyone voting today, I’ll be following along every step and making a whole lot of charts along the way! Before I do, I can’t wait to share my conversation with Dalal Mawad , senior producer and correspondent for the Associated Press, and perhaps the most accomplished guest at such a young age we’ve ever had on the podcast. I was also joined by Aina, my very first co-host, as we learned from Dalal what it was like living and reporting through the huge chemical explosion in August, and how the heck the country escapes its deep political and economic crises. Be sure to check out last week’s episode with New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum , who took us inside what it was like to interview the Democratic presidential candidates last year, his views on news reporting vs opinion journalism, and what policies are needed to solve the harshest income inequalities highlighted by Covid-19… 👇 I’m still figuring out next week’s guest, so until then, enjoy this week’s… 🤓 Job Corner We upped our game to add almost 200 new postings to the job board, taking our total to 900! Help us out be spreading the word! Data Corner * Refugees : Database on the world’s refugees, from the UN * Protests : Global mass protest and conflict data, from ACLED Who is Dalal Mawad? Dalal was born and raised in Lebanon and has carefully observed everything that’s happened in her country over the past 15 years. She graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from the American University of Beirut, a master’s in international political economics from the London School of Economics, and a master’s in journalism from Columbia. Oh, she also happens to be fluent in English, Arabic, French and Spanish. I’m not jealous at all… Dalal covers the entire Middle East and North Africa region, and has reported on several wars and other disasters in the past, including Syria’s civil war and Palestine’s humanitarian crisis. Before the AP, she reported for the UN , Al Jazeera , and the New York Times . She’s also the recent winner of the Samir Kassir Award , the MENA region's most prestigious journalism award, for her feature on Lebanon’s drag performers . Dalal 👇 Blast Investigation Update Tomorrow marks three months since one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history , at a warehouse in the Port of Beirut that killed more than 200 people and ripped the city to shreds. Political interference and a seriously flawed judicial system mean we still don’t have answers on who was responsible. Calls for an independent international investigation were discarded as a waste of time by President Michel Aoun , making a credible and impartial domestic investigation seemingly impossible . Two fires that broke out on September 8 and September 10 prompted allegations of evidence tampering, and as of October 13, reports say 25 people have been arrested in relation to the explosion. But the authorities have failed to publicly detail any evidence, and not a single minister has been questioned as a suspect. Meanwhile the FBI has also failed to conclude what caused the blast, and U.S. government sources have suggested the blast was an accident. The country’s economic and political woes mean there’s simply not enough money to compensate the people of Beirut, as outlined in Rania’s tweet below… Crisis No. 1: Politics Lebanon’s political and economic crises are directly linked and haven’t appeared overnight. Before we dive into where the economy stands, let’s recap a tumultuous 15 years that is the root for most of the country’s problems… 2005 : Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is killed in a car bomb, killing 21 others. Hezbollah enters government for the first time. 2006 : Hezbollah goes to war with Israel , which kills 1,200 Lebanese in five weeks. 2008 : Diplomatic relations with Syria are established for the first time since both countries gained independence in the 1940s. 2011 : The government of Saad al-Hariri , son of former PM Rafik al-Hariri, quits over the UN-backed trial that indicted four senior Hezbollah members over the killing of Rafik. Syria’s civil war erupts and Lebanon begins taking in refugees and asylum seekers. 2012 : Syria’s conflict spills into Lebanon with deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad . Syria fires rockets into Northern Lebanon. 2015 : Beirut’s main landfill site is closed without an alternate location arranged, sparking mass protests over rotting waste in the streets. The situation is perfectly summed up by chants of “You stink!” aimed at the government. 2016 : Saad al-Hariri returns as PM, but tenders his resignation a year later over ties with Saudi Arabia, and then rescinds it a month later . 2019: al-Hariri quits for real , and more protests start over a government move to tax internet calls . 2020: al-Hariri returns for a third time and has the near-impossible job of healing deep economic and political wounds, after two more prime ministers come and go. Crisis No. 2: Economics A plethora of reasons are responsible for why Lebanon’s economy has collapsed , so we’ll run through some of the top-level causes and consequences. By some measures, the country is in its worst ever economic crisis: Government debt has soared to record levels and interest payments on that debt represent around half of all state revenues, one of the highest in the world. Also separating Lebanon from most countries is its hyperinflation, which soared to 112 percent this year, meaning the country has moved into uncharted territory similar to Venezuela . The situation has been exacerbated because the U.S. dollar, of which Lebanon’s economy relies so heavily on, has appreciated against the Lebanese pound so much that Lebanon’s buying power has decreased to the point that the pound is practically worthless. Because dollars have become so scarce, banks are preventing people from withdrawing their money. International aid given to Lebanon has skyrocketed since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, which has seen Lebanon take in around 1.5 million refugees, leaving only Aruba to host more refugees per capita. And in the aftermath of August’s explosion, the bulk of pledged foreign assistance is conditional on major political reforms , which haven’t yet taken place. Credit: Amnesty International What’s Next for Lebanon? Good question and one that we can only speculate over. Lost in the economic and political woes is the pandemic, which sees Lebanon’s daily cases and deaths continue to soar. Just when you think it can get any worse, new basement levels keep on appearing. Dalal wrote for the AP on what she thinks will happen next, so I’ll let you read that, as well as what my WSJ colleagues think could happen… Credit: Worldometers That’s all for today. See you tomorrow for Inside The Middle East 👋 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#82 — Louise Story (Wall Street Journal) 49:15

4 years fa49:15

49:15

Hello! Welcome to another episode of the Inside The Newsroom podcast. It’s been a while since we hit the airwaves, but now that the paywall is up and the bulk of the world’s elections are completed, I plan to bring you a podcast every week until Christmas. Leading things off is my colleague Louise Story, The Wall Street Journal’s Chief News Strategist and Chief Product and Technology Officer. We talked about how Louise rose through the newsroom, a couple of crucial management concepts she learned at business school, and the emergence and future of strategy within journalism. We also mentioned the rise of newsroom strategy jobs, so I’ve listed below a selection of relevant postings we recently added to the job board. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Instagram, so take a read of this masterpiece by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino on The Age of Instagram Face . As ever, thank you for supporting the newsletter. You are literally the ones that make it happen. 🙏 Job Corner Full-Time * Business Insider — Editorial Subscriptions Strategist — New York * Politico — Product Manager — Arlington, VA * The Economist — SEO Manager — London/New York * The Independent — Product Manager — London * The New York Times — Product Designer — New York Internships * Business Insider — Social Media Fellow — London * Dallas Morning News — Audience Engagement Intern — Dallas * Philadelphia Magazine — Audience Development Intern — Philadelphia * Spectrum Networks — Product Intern — Colorado * The Texas Tribune — Engagement Fellow — Austin Who is Louise Story? Louise is currently The Wall Street Journal’s Chief News Strategist and Chief Product and Technology Officer. She returned to WSJ two years ago having interned there in the summer of 2004, and previously spent the bulk of her career at The New York Times in various reporting, editing and strategic positions. Before all of that, Louise put the time in to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in the classroom, gaining a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Yale, a master’s in journalism from Columbia before returning to Yale for an MBA . She now leads a team of more than 150 people at the Journal known as DXS — Digital Experience & Strategy — all working toward the goal of making WSJ more of an audience-focused newsroom. Perhaps her largest project to date was orchestrating a content review that involved reading more than 7,000 articles in two weeks to understand what type of content resonates most with readers. Like most of us, Louise didn’t get to where she is without the help of others, which is why she’s making herself available on her personal email to answer questions about her career, the future of strategy and journalism, and how to get involved with DXS at the Journal. Email her below… 👇 Louise 👇 The Rise of Strategy in the Newsroom Strategy within journalism is nothing new, at least it wasn’t for well-functioning newspapers before the advent of the internet. Without reducing newsrooms’ old strategy to a single line, it was largely “maximise reader engagement in order to maximise newspaper sales,” and that often fell to marketing and sales teams while reporters and editors concentrated on what they did best. Healthy revenues from a combination of advertising and newspaper sales likely made strategy relatively seamless. Then came the Dot-Com boom in the mid-to-late-90s, which saw most newsrooms, including The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian , launch their websites, and suddenly journalists were forced to think about reader engagement and then social media when Facebook and Twitter became mainstream around 2010. What’s different in today’s newsrooms is the pace of technological change and number of threats from technology companies — In 2000, newspapers and magazines held half of all advertising spending, but that share has since declined to less than 10 per cent, with the likes of Google and Facebook swallowing the bulk of that, according to GroupM , a WPP-owned media agency. In order to survive, newsrooms have been forced to think like these tech giants, whether it’s implementing subscription models or hiring data scientists and UX designers to study their users. What’s most exciting is the fact that this section of the newsroom is still fledgling, highlighted by Louise’s transformation of the DXS team, which wasn’t a thing just two years ago. Whether it’s at the WSJ or elsewhere, there’s probably never been a better time to enter the strategic field . Related Podcasts #74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) #70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) #67 — Sarah Nöckel (Femstreet) Are You a Book Quitter? Managing and setting goals for more than 150 people is no joke, heck, having the time to meet your own daily and weekly targets is hard enough. That’s why Louise is exceedingly aware of the sunk cost concept, the idea of accepting an amount of time or money has already been spent and cannot be reclaimed . For example, have you ever bought a book and realized within the first couple of chapters that this particular book just isn’t for you? Yeah, we all have, but are you the person to stop there and move onto another one, or is the fact that you’ve spent $10 or £10 on it enough to keep you reading even though finishing the book will offer little value? That doesn’t mean to say you should never finish anything. Our best work often takes hard work, dedication and a bloody long time to complete. But that’s where the more stories and projects you work on, the better your judgement will be in assessing which ones you should see through to the end, and which ones are just a drain on resources. I’ve found that since I started working in data journalism, which has involved a lot of coding and formulas, my decision making is a lot more like a computer algorithm, which brings us onto our next section… Thinking Like a Computer I started studying data journalism five years ago and have worked with datasets containing up to a million records. For most projects, there’s simply not enough time to manually observe what’s on each row of a spreadsheet, plus that’s just really boring. So I’ve had to learn some programming languages in order to automate the task of sorting and analyzing these large datasets. Part of that process has involved writing effective algorithms , which only work if you tell the computer exactly what to do and exactly when to do it. If you’ve worked with code before, you’ll be familiar with if/else statements . For those that haven’t, an if/else statement is simply a way to make decisions based on different conditions. For example, if tomorrow’s weather forecast is sunny, I’ll go for a walk in the park, but if tomorrow’s weather turns out to be anything else, I’ll stay home and be a lazy ass. This is a very simple yet effective way of “ computational thinking ”, and thinking like a computer has many other benefits… Perhaps most beneficial for me has been the ability to eliminate as much emotion as possible when making decisions, just like a computer. For example, I deal with breaking news a few times a week. If I let my emotions — fear of failure, imposter syndrome, hunger — drive my decision making, my work would suffer. Instead, as soon as I’m handed an assignment, I write down the first handful of things I need to do, and out of those I decide what needs to be done in which order to complete the job as quickly and to the highest quality as possible. All I’m doing is creating an algorithm. Additionally, making decisions rationally and level headed before they have to be made — for example before a big meeting with your manager — can be crucial in not letting yourself make dumb choices based on too many emotions swirling inside your brain. I’ve touched on all of the above in the past with two legendary psychologists and behavioural economists, Cass Sunstein (Harvard University) and Art Markman (University of Texas), which you can listen to below… Louise’s Predictions for the Future Louise had several thoughts on what the future for journalism might hold. One of which was the choice media brands will be forced to make between having their content distributed by third-party platforms or keeping all of it in-house on their own websites. So what does Louise mean by that? Well, we’re certainly going to continue to see the likes of WSJ and The Guardian keep the bulk, if not all, of their content hosted on their own websites. And maybe we’ll see more subscription partnerships similar to the one The Washington Post and the Financial Times launched recently. But doing so means it’s essential to know everything about your users, which is of course not an easy thing to do. The BBC found that out the hard way by spending £10 million/$13 million on rebranding its suite of podcasts and radio shows into BBC Sounds , and is now facing a review by Ofcom over complaints it has squeezed out its competition. The alternative looks something like the recent $100 million/£82 million Spotify will pay Joe Rogan to exclusively license and host all of his podcasts on its platform. While that’s obviously not possible for everyone, more platforms such as Luminary , which also pays podcasters to exclusively host their content, have sprung up. Another of Louise’s predictions is the acceleration of artificial intelligence and computational journalism in creating tools to not only make reporters’ jobs easier, but also to enhance the overall storytelling experience for readers. In fact, I had one of Louise’s former WSJ colleagues on the podcast a few months ago, Francesco Marconi , who left the Journal in February to launch his own company, Applied XL , which develops new data tools to track the health of people and places around the planet. 👇 That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed today’s podcast newsletter, consider telling a friend by sharing it or even gifting a subscription to someone you think might enjoy this type of content too. See you later in the week for roundups of elections in Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, New Caledonia, Italy, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands. 👋 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#80 — Cass Sunstein (Harvard University) 42:39

5 years fa42:39

42:39

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom , as we welcome in Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School and one of the foremost behavioural economists to have ever lived. Cass has a new book out in September called Too Much Information , which explores the theory that when information is positive, we eat it up, but when it’s negative we don’t want to even hear it. In the podcast, we dissected his 2008 book Nudge , which still has great influence more than a decade later. Before we do, I wanted to honor the passing of another legend to have walked this planet. Congressman John Lewis passed away over the weekend at the age of 80. John was an absolute icon when it came to civil rights, and carried the torch lit by Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks well into the 21st century. Rest in peace, Congressman. Sharing Is Caring Podcasts are fun. I love doing them. But they take a bloody long time to put together. I estimate a single hour podcast and newsletter takes around 12 hours to put together. So how about a cheeky share to show your appreciation? Please and thank you. 🙏 Job Corner The job board has been updated and this week’s deadlines include jobs at CTV, the Financial Times, Newsquest, Poynter, the Pulitzer Center and the City NY. Spread the word. 🤜🤛 Who is Cass Sunstein? Cass is considered one of the smartest behavioural economists and legal scholars on the planet . He’s the founder and director of the Program on Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at his alma mater, Harvard Law School, the author of dozens of books — one of which ( Nudge ) is the subject of the podcast, and was the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009 to 2012 in the Obama administration, of whom he became friends with during their time together at the University of Chicago. I’ve followed Cass’ work for a long time, so it was an absolute treat to hear him speak at the London School of Economics back in January on his then latest book How Change Happens (more on that later). Nudge Together with Richard Thaler , Cass co-authored perhaps his most influential book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness . Published in 2008, the book describes the theory that almost all decisions we make in life, whether it’s where and when to buy a house or even as small as picking what to have for lunch from a restaurant menu, are influenced by the decisions and frames, or “nudges”, made by other humans, aka “choice architects”. For example, would you go bungee jumping if the instructor told you there was a 90 percent chance nothing bad would happen? Probably. But what about if the instructor told you there was a 10 percent chance you’ll die if you jump? Probably not, right? The book was well-received among free market policy makers as a way to increase economic activity. But you can apply the theory in almost every aspect of life, such as where in a new school an architect chooses to place the bathroom will determine how often students go to the toilet. Cass and Thaler have been heavily influenced by another pair of behavioural scientists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman , whose friendship helped shape the world we live in today… The Undoing Project The friendship between Tversky and Kahneman is among the most important in recent history, and was excellently chronicled by author Michael Lewis in The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World . Lewis documents how the two Israeli psychologists identified in the late 1960s how humans tend to make decisions based on emotion over rationality — see Moneyball . Before Tversky and Kahneman, not much was known about why we make the decisions we do, and their work has since influenced most, if not all, behavioural economic theory we have today, including that of Cass and Thaler. Check out Lewis speak about the book and friendship to Malcolm Gladwell below… Related Podcasts 🎙️ #61 — Rachel Botsman (University of Oxford) on issues with trusting people and the media #58 — Art Markman (University of Texas) on knowing ourselves and the power of introversion #44 — Sebastian Junger (Tribe, The Perfect Storm) on how some humans are addicted to war because it unites them How Change Happens As mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to catch Cass speak at the LSE about his latest book on how social change happens . Why is that after around 150,000 years that we Homo Sapiens have occupied this planet, that it took until the early 19th century for women in many countries to vote? And how did the social movement that led to women in Saudi Arabia being able to vote in 2015 even start? Once we understand what’s happened in the past then we can begin to dismantle other archaic and repressive policies around the world. Check out Cass’ talk by clicking on the button below… What is Luck? So many of our decisions influenced by other people. Cass elicits that 100 percent of our decisions are controlled by choice architects, whether it’s intentional or not. It raises the question of whether luck is real or a fictional concept we’ve made up over past centuries and millennia. The answer to this question depends on the situation. According to Merriam Webster , luck is “ the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual ”. So let’s break it down with a few examples personal to me, but please apply to your own circumstances as we go along… Let’s start with how I believe I got my current job at The Wall Street Journal. Back in February, a member of the graphics team got in touch about a possible opening and told me I should apply. One might call that lucky, but said member follows this very newsletter and thus was familiar with my work. They wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t published this newsletter, so I don’t think my new job was down to luck. That’s something I indirectly controlled, i.e. the quality and quantity of my work. But there are still many things that I’ve had zero control over. The most prominent in all of our lives are things such as which country we’re born in , our sex at birth and what name our parents give us . We have absolutely no control over any of that, which means that some degree of luck is involved that’ll determine where we live, how much money we’ll earn and whether we’ll face a lifetime of racism or not, for example. In what ways has luck played a part in your lives? The Future of Behavioural Economics Tversky and Kahneman only started to theorize in the late 1960s, which makes the field of behavioural economics incredibly young. Already in the past half a century, we’ve learned so much about ourselves and how our brains are wired. As we head into the next 50 years, Cass fully expects the explosion of knowledge to continue at a rapid rate. He referenced books such as Scarcity: Why having too little means so much , which explores why people in difficult circumstances tend to make objectively bad decisions. For example, why is it that people in poverty don’t take advantage of opportunities to save when they can? Why are poor people perceived as less capable than rich people? I know a lottttt of wealthy folks that are stupid asses! Now that we have a decent understanding of how our brains work, we can continue to build from Cass’ work and apply this knowledge to improve people’s lives. Cass referenced the idea of getting rid of the ‘sludge’ — he apologized for the similar-sounding name to this book, Nudge — to make our lives far easier. Sludge is the burdens and hoops institutions make us jump through in order to complete important and sometimes trivial tasks. For example, to my knowledge Transport For London don’t tell you if you’ve crossed into a congestion charge zone — it costs at least £15 to drive in certain areas in central London — which is a form of choice architecture that has created ‘sludge’ for drivers in not knowing whether they need to pay. And in the U.S., the process of finding a healthcare provider, filling out the forms and receiving a payout is a tedious task created by humans that can be easily avoided. Now that we know sludge exists and we have a snazzy word for it, we can figure out ways to reduce it. See you later this week… 👋 This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#79 — Janelle Shane (AIWeirdness.com) 52:01

5 years fa52:01

52:01

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom ! Today’s podcast is the first in a while, so it felt great to get back on the horse and devour some knowledge. Today’s guest is Janelle Shane , research scientist in artificial intelligence, and author of the recently-published You Look Like a Thing and I Love You , a book about the weirdest artificial intelligence out there. We got into all sorts of AI questions and even had a discussion on trucks with giant testicles dangling down from the back of them, so whatever you’re into there’s something for everyone. In all seriousness, AI is crucial yet so misunderstood, so I’m hoping the podcast above and newsletter below go some way in breaking down barriers for understanding its place in this world. Enjoy 🤓 Job Corner Several deadlines coming up in the next few days, including at CBC, ITV, The Independent and The Texas Tribune. Check out almost 400 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance contracts. Please spread the word. Who is Janelle Shane? Janelle is a research scientist specializing in artificial intelligence, TED2019 speaker , and author of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You , a book on how AI works and why it’s making the world weirder. The book is an expansion of Janelle’s popular blog, aiweirdness.com , which makes fun at some of the stranger AI trends and innovations, like cockroaches being able to masquerade as giraffes to fool security . Janelle’s also written for The New York Times , Popular Science and Slate . Buy the book 👇 ❤️Like What You See?❤️ Each podcast and newsletter takes about 12 hours to put together, so please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the little heart up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. You Look Like a Thing and I Love You Janelle published her first book late last year titled You Look Like a Thing and I Love You , a book on how AI works and why it’s making the world a weirder place. Maybe it’s me and the line of work I’m in, but AI is more often than not associated with negatives, such as machines taking our jobs , racist algorithms , or fatal self-driving cars crashes . While there’s certainly cause for concern over the outcomes of machines overstepping the mark in terms of invading our privacy and threatening our security , it’s of course us humans programming AI that’s the problem. In the same vein, Janelle looks at some of the weirder AIs that humans have created, such as truck nuts… Truck nuts you ask? Yeah I did a double take too. One of the things I love about America is some people’s inability to control their testosterone, and the latest way this group of people are displaying their manliness is by dangling a pair of giant testicles from the back of their trucks. But in fine fashion, the AI from a Tesla recently recognized the oversized nuts as a traffic cone, a beautiful reminder of AI’s naivety and that we can all reduce some individuals with overflowing arousal to a traffic cone. What is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning? Pinching this next bit from my podcast with Francesco Marconi , former R&D Chief at The Wall Street Journal and now co-founder of Applied XLabs . The never ending rise of power and influence of technology companies in our lives means we hear and read about terms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning seemingly every day. AI as we know it arguably started in the first half of the 20th century, just as computers were gaining steam. While AI and ML are closely linked and overlap in many ways, they are different . Artificial intelligence is: The overarching umbrella term for the simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans and mimic our actions. Whereas machine learning is: The concept that a computer program can learn and adapt to new data without human interference. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that keeps a computer’s algorithms current regardless of external changes. For example, autocorrect or self-driving cars. Essentially, you need AI researchers to build the smart machines, and you need machine learning experts to make them super intelligent. You can’t have one without the other. Is AI Misunderstood? 🤔 This is a question that’s been rattling around my brain for months now, and is one I’m starting to understand better the more I dissect its pros and cons. Like many of you reading, I got swept up in the fear and hysteria over automation eliminating up to 800 millions jobs in the next decade, paranoid that the machines are coming to get us ! Like with most things in life, the more I learn about AI and the more experts I talk to on the podcast, the more I realize that AI can and should be a helluva lot less intimidating than it’s currently perceived. Two main factors come to mind that give AI a bad name. Firstly, as we discussed earlier, when AI does bad things, whether it’s intentional or unintentional, human decisions are behind it, such as the Chinese government’s decision to spy on its citizens and give everyone a social credit score based on trivial offences such as jaywalking. Automation has shaped economies for centuries. Whether it was the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century that sent factory production soaring, or the invention of the internet that has all but killed off the printing press , people have lost jobs due to machines for as long as we can remember. But that’s not the problem — free markets will always endeavour to find savings. Which brings us onto the second point. The problem has been dormant governments failing to react quick enough to changing industries, if at all. Across the Midwest and South, economic wastelands have sprung up over the past decade because federal and state governments failed to reinvest in these communities through teaching people necessary skills, and through a lack of incentive to keep innovative companies at home. And in the UK, jobs left empty because of Brexit will ironically be filled by robots . Until we truly understand what automation is and what it can do, the stigma around AI will only become dirtier. Credit: Axios 👇 Which Country Is Best At AI? Like with most areas of life, I love a good bloody index to show who’s better than who on a particular subject. While rankings are just rankings, they do provide a decent snapshot of which country prioritises certain issues over others. When it comes to AI, Tortoise Media’s index looks at the level of investment, innovation and actual implementation of AI by country, while Stanford University’s index looks at the vibrancy of each nation including public perception and societal considerations. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies , are number one and two on both indices. Source: Tortoise Media 👇 Delving into the U.S. deeper, researchers at Stanford concluded that while larger states with the biggest economies may not be at the top of the standings in terms of AI job growth, that’s because they’ve already had their AI surge. It’s part of the reason they’re still at the top. Oil also helps… Talking of which, oil-rich states such as North Dakota and Wyoming have seen AI jobs in their states boom of the past decade, and goes to show that you don’t need to be in California or New York to jump into AI. Related podcasts… #77 — Francesco Marconi (Newlab) on artificial intelligence and its role in the future of journalism #72 — Ryan Broderick (BuzzFeed) on the 15th anniversary of YouTube #70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) on the lack of government preparation for the coronavirus and the latest 2020 technology trends #61 — Rachel Botsman (Trust Issues) on the why people believe fake news Last week … 🇺🇸 America's Protests: We Must Now Focus on Voter Suppression Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#78 — Mark Gamba (U.S. House Candidate) 50:06

5 years fa50:06

50:06

Happy Friday folks, and welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom , where today we’ll have the latest in our series of candidates running for public office. This time it’s the turn of Mark Gamba , who’s vying to represent Oregon’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mark’s biggest test won’t be November’s general election, instead it’ll be Tuesday’s Democratic primary where he must topple 12-year incumbent Kurt Schrader , who’s one of the most senior Democrats in the country. We got into how the race has changed since going 100 percent digital amid the coronavirus lockdown, as well as how Mark’s 30-year career as a photojournalist exposed him to some of the worst effects of climate change, and how the emergency is fuelling the world’s wars and mass migration. Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, but first my picks of the week and today’s Job Corner. Enjoy! 🤓 Picks of the Week * How To Get Away With Murder — Goodbye to one of the most complex black women on TV 🥂 * Buzzfeed , Quartz — Buzzfeed announced it’s shutting its UK and Australian newsrooms, and Quartz is laying off 80 people * MoMA — Explore 139,000 artworks displayed in the Museum of Modern Art with this spectacular interactive visualization Job Corner Lots of deadlines this weekend for more than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs. Companies include the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Politico Europe and Telemundo. Spread the word far and wide! Like Me, Please Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. Who is Mark Gamba? Mark is a former photojournalist of 30 years who decided that journalism wasn’t enough, and turned to public service to make a bigger impact. He became mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon , a city of around 20,000 people in 2015, and won reelection in 2018. Having worked with the likes of National Geographic and Sports Illustrated , Mark’s work took him to all parts of the U.S. and rest of the world, exposing him to different cultures, languages and the harsh reality of climate change . It’s why he believes he’s the right person to represent Oregon’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives in November. Mark’s biggest test will be to defeat incumbent Democrat Kurt Schrader , who was first elected in 2008, in Tuesday’s primary. Schrader won 87 percent of the Democratic vote in 2018, but Mark’s challenge is the most serious Schrader’s received in years, and his centrist position could land him in trouble amid the age of growing left-wing populism in the U.S. History of Oregon Politics Oregon is a blue stalwart on paper, having voted for a Democratic president in every election since 1988 . But as we’ve discussed tirelessly in this newsletter, there are endless nuances under the hood/bonnet in each state, whether it be the weirdness of West Virginia’s state legislature , or the fact that Maine has voted for a Democratic president in every election since 1992, but hasn’t had a blue U.S. Senator since 1995. In Oregon, the intrigue stems from the fact that in 2016, voters turned out for the two main parties in their lowest percentage in 20 years , when third-party candidate Ross Perot won nine percent for his Reform Party , after he won 24 percent in 1992 . This could mean that Oregonians are tired of the same old two-party system and are ready for new leadership, meaning the five sitting U.S. Representatives , who have a combined 97 years of service, could be in trouble come November. Balancing Budgets In Milwaukie, Mark and his team have done their best to offset the immediate and future financial losses his city’s workers and businesses will suffer due to the coronavirus. But Milwaukie just isn’t big enough to have the money saved in its coffers to deal with such a crisis. The same can be said of many states, who are beginning to struggle to foot the bill of unemployment claims due to the millions of layoffs and furloughs in recent months. A report by Tax Foundation shows that several states have enough money saved to survive several months, and Wyoming’s estimated to be able to cover its people for more than six years. Meanwhile the likes of California, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts can only afford to pay out unemployment benefits for up to seven weeks. Credit: Tax Foundation Unlike the federal government, states are legally required to balance theirs budgets, which is why the likes of New York, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, West Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts and Ohio have filed for federal financial help . Additionally, the coronavirus shutdown could cost the U.S. economy half a trillion dollars, and that’s probably a conservative figure. It will likely be years before the U.S. economy recovers, if at all, and will likely take an unconventional shape economists are calling the Swoosh Recovery . States therefore face inevitable cuts on a mass scale to foot the bill. What Can We Learn From the New Deal? Amid the current financial chaos, many are calling for countries around the world to adopt a New Deal-style financial program to re-stimulate their economies and get people working again. The latest figures show that unemployment’s soaring around the world, and could rise to 25 percent in the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs . During the darkest days of the Great Depression in 1933, unemployment rocketed from 3 to 25 percent, forcing newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt to unleash a series of government-funded programs and projects not seen before. While the economy received the shot in the arm it so desperately needed and many credit FDR for shortening the duration of the Great Depression, the jury is out on what impact his actions really had, with the Dust Bowl lasting the majority of the decade. In South Korea, a ‘ Tech New Deal ’ will fund 5G networks and AI development . In the UK, GDP fell 2 percent in the first three months of the year, and significant government spending is needed to jump start the economy after more than a decade of meagre growth . And some members of the European Parliament have called for an ambitious plan centered around new green jobs. Unlike the aforementioned countries and regions, the U.S. has a forthcoming general election, which could mean a stimulus package that will actually benefit the people might not be implemented for another year, deepening the woes of people across the country. Migration and War are Fuelled by Climate Change Mark’s travels exposed him to parts of the world that many of us will never experience, which is why he’s so knowledgable about the effects of climate change. More than a million people migrated from the Middle East and parts of Africa to Europe in 2015, sparking an influx of people not seen on such a scale since records began , overwhelming many countries in the process. In 2018, a so-called “ Migrant Caravan ” of more than 7,000 Central Americans arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after months of travelling up from the likes of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Many migrants flee their home countries because of persecution, poverty and violence, but what’s often lost is that it is climate change that’s fuelling the majority of the problems such countries are facing. Credit: United Nations There are currently around 71 million displaced people around the world, a figure the UN forecasts could be anywhere between 24 million and 1 billion by 2050 . Imagine that, around one tenth of the world’s population could be a forced migrant because climate change has made parts of this planet completely inhabitable. Unfortunately we’re living in a vicious feedback loop , whereby the worse climate change becomes, the more wars it’ll spark, driving more migration until the cycle repeats itself. As climate change ramps up its next attack on the planet, we can only expect more deadly wars and migrants dying as a consequence. Related podcasts… #73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate) on running for the office for the first time and why Midwestern politics is so weird #68 — Mckayla Wilkes (U.S. House) on taking on No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer and why the U.S. needs Universal Basic Income #64 — Paula Jean Swearengin (U.S. Senate) on West Virginia’s devastating opioid crisis, and what it’s like running for the U.S. Senate This week… #77 — Francesco Marconi (Newlab) on artificial intelligence and its role in the future of journalism … Last week… #76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) from Maine on her race with Susan Collins, and a look at the history of campaign finance laws in the U.S. #75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#77 — Francesco Marconi (Applied XL) 50:19

5 years fa50:19

50:19

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom , where today’s guest is… one of the smartest people to grace this podcast’s airways, Francesco Marconi ! Francesco recently left the Wall Street Journal where he was R&D Chief to form his own company, Applied XL , in partnership with Brooklyn-based frontier technology center Newlab , which builds tools for journalists around the world using artificial intelligence. His new book, Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism , was published this year and Francesco’s giving away a handful of free copies to readers of Inside The Newsroom. So if you want a free book, email me at daniellevitt32@gmail.com and I’ll pass on the names of the first few! Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, including an updated job board. Enjoy! 🤓 Job Corner The job board was updated last night with more than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs. New companies added include Netflix, Open Democracy, Politico Europe, and Rogers. Spread the word far and wide! Who is Francesco Marconi? Francesco was a student journalist just a few years ago and is now one of the most talented and knowledgable minds on the future of journalism. After completing a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics in Portugal and Italy, respectively, Francesco moved to the U.S. to complete his master’s degree in journalism and business at the University of Missouri (MIZ!), and completed his post-graduate work at Columbia University and Harvard . He then scored a job with the Associated Press on its strategy team, before being hired by the Wall Street Journal as its Research and Development Chief. In addition to his many other positions and accolades , Francesco was recognized in 2018 among MediaShift’s top digital media innovators . Now Francesco runs his own company, Applied XL, part of New Lab , of which he is also SVP for Data and AI. Like Me, Please Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. What is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning? The never ending rise of power and influence of technology companies in our lives means we hear and read about terms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning seemingly every day. AI as we know it arguably started in the first half of the 20th century, just as computers were gaining steam. While AI and ML are closely linked and overlap in many ways, they are different . Artificial intelligence is: The overarching umbrella term for the simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans and mimic our actions. Whereas machine learning is: The concept that a computer program can learn and adapt to new data without human interference. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that keeps a computer’s algorithms current regardless of external changes. For example, autocorrect or self-driving cars. Essentially, you need AI researchers to build the smart machines, and you need machine learning experts to make them super intelligent. You can’t have one without the other. Newsmakers: What is the Future of Journalism? Francesco answers the billion dollar question in his new book, Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism Paperback , which addresses journalism’s burning need to integrate AI and ML ten fold. Having been on both sides of the coin — R&D chief at The Wall Street Journal, manager of strategy and AI at the Associated Press, and now founder and chief data officer of Applied XL — Francesco believes journalism needs to continue to reflect and integrate the views of the audience into storytelling, whether that’s mining social media or using internal data to identify what people are talking about. While that seems innocent and doable, we know it’s far easier said than done. We’ve talked plenty about The Inversion in this newsletter before — the real scenario that the majority of clicks, likes and comments on the internet are not made by humans but by click farms , where hundreds if not thousands of devices play and click on the same videos and posts, before moving onto the next one. Identifying what’s real and what’s a bot is incredibly difficult and not accessible to every news organization, which means a big part of the next decade will be the need for more collaborations between large and small news organizations, and the larger newspapers implementing M&A strategies similar to the likes of Google and Facebook. Newspapers Are Now Technology Companies Tech giants like Google and Facebook have for years bought smaller startups to integrate new technology into their platforms, and to ensure their existence and survival. According to this extremely trustworthy Wikipedia page , Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has acquired 234 companies, including the likes of YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion, Waze in 2013 for more than a billion dollars and has a pending deal for Fitbit that’s estimated to be around $2 billion. Facebook has also been extremely active, acquiring 83 companies according to its reliable Wikipedia page , including Instagram in 2012 for a bargain $1 billion, WhatsApp in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion and CrowdTangle in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. If the Google search engine or Facebook social media platform were to ever become extinct (more likely for Facebook), the two companies would still thrive because of all the pies they have fingers in. And now the same can be said of large news organizations. The New York Times most recently bought Audm in March , an app that turns longform journalism into audio, part of a growing number of acquisitions according to its sturdy Wikipedia page . And The Boston Globe, with its partnership with New Lab , is another example of a media company investing in new tools to improve the storytelling experience. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Large organizations with large amounts of money are realistically the only outlets able to acquire assets and new technology, which is why the need for them to share their new technology with smaller news organizations has never been greater. Democratizing Knowledge and Technology Perhaps never in history has there been a greater gap in knowledge and innovation between large and smaller news organizations. It’s part of the reason that 33,000 journalists were laid off between 2017 and 2018, and according to a study by Pew Research , mid-market newspapers — those with between 100,000 and 249,999 daily circulation — experienced the largest cuts. The coronavirus pandemic has only poured more oxygen onto the fire, and Poynter has gathered a list of all the newsroom layoffs, furloughs and closures caused by the outbreak that’s updated daily. So how do we plug this knowledge and innovation gap that’s widened? Part of it can be filled with more collaboration between newsrooms of different sizes. Whether it’s large-scale projects such as The Panama Papers , which was one of the largest joint journalism projects in history that exposed the corruption of the world’s biggest political leaders around the world, or the free distribution of tools such as TimelineJS , an awesome tool created by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University that allows for easily embeddable interactive timelines, there can never be too much collaboration. Here are a couple of sources to find out more about funding journalism projects. Related podcasts… #74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) on the difference between asking Barack Obama and Donald Trump questions in the White House press briefing room #70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) on the lack of government preparation for the coronavirus and the latest 2020 technology trends Last week… #76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) from Maine on her race with Susan Collins, and a look at the history of campaign finance laws in the U.S. #75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism … This week … #78 — Mark Gamba (U.S. House Candidate) from Oregon on a 30-year career in photo journalism and the history of Oregon politics … Next week # Alex Crawford (Sky News) on her career as a war correspondent #Burundi general election special 🇧🇮 Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

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#76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate ME) 49:46

5 years fa49:46

49:46

Hello! Welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom where today we welcome Betsy Sweet to the podcast! Betsy’s a veteran of Maine politics and is running for U.S. Senate, where she must defeat Sara Gideon and Bre Kidman in July’s Democratic primary , before taking on Republican incumbent Susan Collins . Our conversation centered around the ridiculous nature of U.S. elections that sees voters bombarded with political ads and door knocking for two years, before it all starts again for the next cycle. And we went deep into campaign finance laws and the history behind Citizens United, which allows corporations to fund candidates in the name of free speech. Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, but first my top stories of the week. Enjoy! ✊ Picks of the Week * Elon Musk — He’s back! The billionaire tech mogul appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast for the second time, a year after smoking a blunt live on air * Fossil Fuel Bailout — Oil prices have tanked to their lowest in 15 years , but instead of keeping to their capitalist principles, oil firms are seeking a bailout * Bibi Netanyahu — Israel’s Prime Minister is on the verge of forming a unity government delaying the country’s fourth general election in a year ❤️❤️❤️ How You Like Me Now? ❤️❤️❤️ Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Job Corner More than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs are currently listed, with no position posted before March 1. Companies include CNN, the BBC, the NBA and Telemundo. Spread the word far and wide! Who is Betsy Sweet ? There’s a saying that in order to know what a person is about, look at what they’ve done. Betsy’s been helping others for almost 40 years , whether it was writing and helping to pass the first Family Medical Leave Act in the country, getting rid of environmental toxins from building materials and children’s toys, or expanding the Human Rights Act in Maine , Betsy’s record speaks for itself. If and when Betsy wins June’s Democratic primary , she must topple Republican incumbent Susan Collins , who’s been a U.S. Senator from Maine since 1997. One of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country, Collins is against Medicare For All and the Green New Deal , and has voted with Donald Trump 67 percent of the time since he assumed office. Betsy 👇 A Brief History of Maine Politics As is often the case with many states, there’s a disconnect between Maine’s presidential and U.S. Senate voting history. Apart from Maine’s 2nd congressional district giving Donald Trump a single collegiate vote in 2016, the Pine Tree State has voted blue solidly since George H. W. Bush swept the country in 1988 . Meanwhile, Betsy’s vying to become the first Democratic senator to represent the state since George J. Mitchell did so in 1995 — current senator Angus King has a mixed history but was elected as an independent in 2012 . Credit: 270toWin This is a massive part of U.S. politics that’s all too often glossed over, with most outlets labelling Maine a blue state, or West Virginia , for example, a red state, when in reality neither is any color other than purple. That’s why Betsy is running on a platform of issues that shouldn’t be seen as left or right, but rather up and down, supporting the average voter against big-money interests of corporations and billionaires. Where Do Campaign Contributions Go Once a Campaign Ends? It’s a question I’ve always wondered , especially on the presidential level where campaigns can be left with millions of dollars after they’re suspended. The 2020 Democratic primary field raised an estimated $2 billion million between the two dozen or so candidates, including the $1 billion Michael Bloomberg and $315 million Tom Steyer dropped on their campaigns. There are many paths candidates take. If you’re Elizabeth Warren, you might use the $11 million in hand to pay the $5.9 million monthly payment it cost to run your campaign. If you’re Beto O’Rourke , you might make donations to organizations including Everytown For Gun Safety and March For Our Lives , which champion gun control and is something Beto holds close to his heart after the El Paso mass shooting that left 20 dead last year. If you’re Mini Mike Bloomberg, you might transfer a cool $18 million to the DNC , making it the largest transfer by a presidential campaign in recent history. If you’re one of the many senators or representatives, you might transfer funds from your presidential campaign to your congressional campaign, so long as they don’t surpass limits on what donors had already contributed. Which raises the next question: How much does all the ad spending benefit local economies? Ad Spend in the Local Economy We know that more than $2 billion was raised by Democratic candidates in the 2020 primary race and the majority of that will have been spent in advertising. This means that early voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina felt a real cash injection from not only the increased advertising, but also from campaigns and reporters spending money on hotels, in restaurants and on rental cars for example. Research conducted by Rebecca Lessum , an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, and Carly Urban , an associate professor of economics at Montana State University, found that increased spending in a state around a primary can increase total per capita earnings in that quarter by up to 25 percent. If you follow elections in other countries, you’ll know that the U.S. system is an anomaly in that there’s barely a break in political campaigning. As soon as the current presidential cycle ends in November, it’ll be a few short months before activity resumes toward the 2022 midterms, if not right away. Compare that to the UK’s campaigning rules, which states that the official campaign period is limited to 25 working days. It’s why Betsy is among a growing number of people calling for limits to the campaign period in the U.S., so not to desensitize voters from the onslaught of campaign material. Citizens United Inc Perhaps the main reason why U.S. presidential campaigns are so damn long is the money involved. Betsy and I discussed the need to reduce the influence money has on politicians and their policies, which in turn fuels the endless campaigning. That’s where Citizens United enters the fray, which was a landmark case in 2010 that ruled that political spending is a form of free speech protected under the First Amendment , and opened the door for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising. While the increased spending will inevitably benefit local economies, it reduces the power of each voter and allows lobbyists to buy candidates and elections. But it wasn’t always like this and doesn’t have to be this way. Between 1907 and 1970, a series of acts were passed limiting the influence of money in politics. And in 1971, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act , which strengthened the requirement for candidates to publicly report their campaign finance and put limits on the amount they could receive in one go. But then in 2010, Citizens United paved the way for the open season system the U.S. has today. A full history can be found in the below video… Last week… #75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism #74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) on the difference between asking Barack Obama and Donald Trump questions in the White House press briefing room … Next week #77 — Francesco Marconi on the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning in journalism #78 — Mark Gamaba (U.S. House Candidate OR) on his 30-year career in photo journalism and now running for national office Related podcasts… #73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate OH) on winning the Democratic nomination for Ohio’s 5th district and November’s general election #68 — Mckayla Wilkes (U.S. House Candidate MD) on America’s draconian At-Will employment laws, and the need for Universal Basic Income #64 — Paula Jean Swearingen (U.S. Senate Candidate WV) on West Virginia’s toxic history with coal mining, and the impact of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

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#75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) 45:38

5 years fa45:38

45:38

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom where today’s guest is… friend and former colleague Alex Schiffer from The Athletic! Alex and I met in 2015 at journalism school at the University of Missouri, and he’s gone onto become one of the most tireless sports reporters in the country. Our conversation detailed his journey from Columbia, Missouri to Brooklyn, New York and all of the lessons learned in between. We also discussed what may or may not happen in the NBA in terms of resuming the season, as well as what other leagues around the world are doing. Up top is the podcast, down below is a round up of what every major sport and league is doing to resume play amid the coronavirus. Hope you enjoy. 🤓 Picks of the Week * $12 Billion — the amount that could be lost from the suspension of America’s major sports leagues * Nick Rubando — Friend of the podcast won the Democratic primary in Ohio’s 5th district and will now take on Republican incumbent Bob Latta in November * Joe Biden — Some Democrats have lost their principles after giving Biden the benefit of the doubt over his alleged sexual assault of former staffer Tara Reade Job Corner More than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs are currently listed, with no position posted before March 1. Companies include CNN, Cal Matters, NPR, The Athletic and Telemundo. Spread the word far and wide! Who is Alex Schiffer? Alex has covered the Brooklyn Nets for The Athletic since October, and couldn’t have joined at a better time with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, two of the NBA’s biggest stars, joining the Nets in the offseason. Alex is no stranger to big names, having covered Michael Porter Jr and Drew Lock , two of college basketball and college football’s biggest stars respectively, for The Kansas City Star. Alex was instrumental in breaking the news that Porter Jr, the No. 1 high-school basketball recruit at the time, had uncommitted from the University of Washington and committed to his hometown Missouri Tigers, making national news at the time. Alex has also interned on the business desks at The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. Like Me, Please Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. NBA After years of unstoppable growth , the past eight months have been torrid for the NBA and its community. First came its feud with China in October, triggered by a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in which he expressed support for the people of Hong Kong protesting for freedom from mainland China. Morey deleted his tweet within hours, but the damage was done, with China’s largest TV networks, sponsors and streaming platforms cutting ties with the Rockets and the NBA, taking hundreds of millions in annual revenue with them. Then came the death of former commissioner David Stern on New Year’s Day. The man widely cited for turning the NBA into the global game it is today over the 30 years he was in charge, passed away from a brain hemorrhage. And then came the sickening news that basketball legend and icon Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash , alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gigi, and a combination of seven other players and parents from Gigi’s basketball team: Alyssa Altobelli and her parents Keri and John; Payton Chester and her month Sarah; assistant basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan. On March 11 , the NBA suspended its season indefinitely in one of the most surreal moments in sports history, involving a team doctor running onto the court just seconds before the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were about to begin a game. As it stands today, the proposal that’s received the most buzz is completing the regular season and playoffs solely in Las Vegas. But it’s not as simple as just deciding a winner in Vegas. There’s asking all players, coaches and non-playing staff to spend 1-2 months away from their families in an extremely stressful time, the endless contracts and financial issues to resolve, deciding how long players need to regain fitness, and that’s on top of figuring out how to test everyone involved and how to quarantine them accordingly, not to mention the guilt of requiring healthcare workers on site when they could be in hospitals. Some sources have said the NBA is currently discussing delaying the start of the 2020-21 season until December. Elsewhere, the league recently pushed back its date to reopen some training facilities to May 8, which will allow teams in states where it’s permissible to workout their players. Ultimately, if anyone says they know what will happen they’re probably lying. But what we can form an educated guess on, is the fact that whenever the NBA does eventually return, there’s almost zero chance of fans being allowed into the arenas to watch until a vaccine is available. MLB There might not be a league that will suffer more from the pandemic fallout than the MLB. Not only has the baseball season not yet started — MLB managed just three weeks of Spring Training — but the lockdowns currently implemented across the country may cover the entirety of the league’s regular season that stretches roughly from April to September. Put simply, the MLB could well be the only league that loses an entire season. Due to the sheer number of games each team plays — 162 during the regular season and up to 20 games in the playoffs — MLB stands to lose literally hundreds if not thousands of games, which will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in lost ticket and TV revenue. There’s been plenty of chatter in terms of starting the baseball season, but ultimately nothing has been decided, nor is anything close to being so. Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week “While I fully anticipate that baseball will resume this season, it is very difficult to predict with any accuracy the timeline for the resumption of our season.” Meanwhile we’re less than a month away from a crucial date in all of this: May 31 , when nearly every team has guaranteed baseball-operations employees payment through. After then, we could say layoffs like we’ve not seen from a sports league so far. EPL The English Premier League has been suspended since March 13, with teams having between nine and 10 games left to play. All 20 teams have said that they’re committed to completing the remaining games, but some teams including Brighton FC have disapproved a proposal to complete the remaining fixtures at up to 10 venues. The club’s chief executive Paul Barber said that his team will lose out on playing five of his team’s nine games at home, though he acknowledged his side will gain some benefit from playing the other four fixtures in a neutral venue that would have otherwise been played in an opponents stadium. The added headache that the other leagues don’t have is the fact that the Premier League must deal with the nature of promotion and relegation. The bottom three teams are relegated from the EPL each year to make way for the top three teams from England’s second tier of football, the Championship. The process is followed all the way down English football’s many leagues, so whatever the EPL decides to do will have a ripple effect affecting in the ballpark of 10 other leagues. As it stands, no immediate return to action is likely, especially with the news that the top two leagues in France won’t return this season . My unsubstantiated advice to the EPL as a devoted Watford fan would be to award Liverpool the title and cancel everything else. 😊 NFL The NFL is the only major league that hasn’t yet been affected as it pertains to its playing season. Super Bowl 54 took place on February 2, perhaps a month before the possibility of it being cancelled. Free agency went ahead on March 17 as planned, and created an earthquake as Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski teamed up once again for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And the league was able to hold its draft virtually on April 23 , meaning so far the damage has been minimal. But that’s where the good news might end. As is normal for the NFL, the league plans on ignoring science . It announced that it plans to complete its season in full in 2020, and will release the regular season schedule no later than May 9 . But the league’s own chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, is not so sure those games will be played on time. Sills has said that for there to be any chance of games being played, the league will need to administer widespread testing on players, coaches and all staff involved. There’s currently no testing being carried out around the league, and the situation across the country isn’t much better, with around two percent of the U.S. having been tested as of today . And when asked about the league’s contingency plans , NFL executive Jeff Pash said that “all of our discussions and focus have been on a normal traditional season, starting on time, playing in front of fans, in our regular stadiums." Real smart! NHL Like the NBA, the NHL faces the real prospect of not being able to crown a champion in 2020. More than seven weeks have passed since the NHL paused its season, the NHL and its Players’ Association have created a ‘Return to Play Committee’ (lol), whose aim is to safely get players back onto the ice. Unfortunately for them, the majority of the league is still in self-isolation mode with most states still with stay-at-home orders in place. There is good news for hockey fans, though, as the NHL made an aggressive pitch to teams to stage the draft in June. It seems the NFL has laid the foundation for how to hold a successful draft for other leagues to follow, and it appears the NHL is pouring heavy resources into giving fans at least something to look forward to. The Rest The Olympics were postponed until next summer, though Tokyo 2020’s chief has said the games will be scrapped altogether if they cannot take place in 2021. Formula One was forced to delay the start of its season, and recently extended its mandatory factory shutdown into June. UFC owner Dana White is ignoring all official recommendations by staging three events in eight days in May . The jury is still out whether the fights will actually take place. All cricket has ground to a halt . As has all tennis events, but that hasn’t stopped talk of the ATP and WTA tours merging reach a climax. Golf events remain postponed, though they could be the likeliest of any athletes to return due to the solitary nature of the sport. Last week… #74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) on the difference between asking Barack Obama and Donald Trump questions in the White House press briefing room #73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate) on winning the Democratic nomination for Ohio’s 5th district and November’s general election … This week … #76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) on running for U.S. Senate from Maine Related podcasts… #55 — Lindsay Gibbs (Power Plays) on gender inequality in sports and how to achieve equal pay #46 — Christine Brennan (USA Today, CNN, PBS) on the history of women in sports including Title IX #35 — Richard Deitsch (The Athletic) on how The Athletic makes money and the cost of subscriptions in today’s media landscape Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

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#74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) 50:26

5 years fa50:26

50:26

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom where today’s guest is… Major Garrett , Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News and one of the hardest working journalists in the world today. Major and I discussed everything from how nerve-wracking it is to ask questions in front of the world in the WH press briefing room, to his spats with Barack Obama to being in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. It truly was a fascinating conversation and below is a post-game of everything we talked about. But first, my picks of the week followed by some personal news… Enjoy! 🤓 Picks of the Week * Joe Biden — Pressure is building on the Democratic nominee, who so far has remained silent pertaining to an alleged sexual assault from 1993 * Louis Theroux — The greatest documentarian to have ever lived has a podcast! His first guest is Jon Ronson * Tiger King — I finally caught up to the hoopla and my god this show is fucked up. But also my god everyone must watch it Personal News Today is my last day working on the visuals desk at The Guardian. It’s been an incredible two years at the UK’s foremost news source and a dream come true working for my “hometown” paper I grew up reading. So it was incredibly tough to leave but I’m thrilled and blessed to be joining The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Here’s to the next chapter! Like Me, Please Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. Major 👇 Who is Major Garrett? Major graduated from Mizzou in 1984 with degrees in journalism and political science. He’s been CBS News’ Chief White House Correspondent since 2012, and before that made stops with multiple outlets including the Amarillo Globe-News, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Houston Post, The Washington Times, U.S. News and World Report, CNN, the National Journal and Fox News, making him truly one of the most non-partisan reporters in America. And putting him over the top giving him rockstar status, Major also appeared on the Late Show with the legendary Stephen Colbert… As you’ll discover from the podcast, there may not be a harder working political reporter today. Major is also the author of four books — Common Cents , The Enduring Revolution , The Fifteen Biggest Lies in Politics , and Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride — and host of two podcasts for CBS — The Takeout and Debriefing the Briefing . Many of you may know Major from his courage to ask presidents the toughest questions, and there’s no better place to start than with Barack Obama… Major vs Obama Major’s highest profile moment came in July 2015, when he asked then President Obama a tough question that rattled even the usually unshakable Obama. After signing off on a nuclear deal with Iran that reduced the amount of uranium — used to fuel nuclear weapons — stockpiled by Iran, Obama faced an hour of questions by reporters on the specifics of the deal and the decisions he made to get the deal over the line. One of those questions came from Major, who challenged the President on why he didn’t include the release of four American hostages held by the Iranians as a condition for the deal. Below is the encounter and Major’s take on the confrontation. But that wasn’t Major’s first run-in with Obama. In June 2009, Iran was once again the topic of contention, this time as it pertained to Obama placing his administration on the side of the grassroots protestors against the Iranian regime. Then working for Fox News, Major explained in the podcast that reporters from the wire services — the AP, Bloomberg, Reuters etc — are routinely the first to be called upon by the President, but on this day, Obama picked Major to ask the first question. Major had to begin the press conference by asking about the most important issue, so after reading back several of Obama’s statements, Major simply asked “What took you so long?”, referring to growing pressure over previous weeks for Obama to pick a side. Let’s just say Obama wasn’t too happy. Everything’s Different With President Trump Presidents and the media have had feuds since politics began in America, but I’m not breaking news by asserting that reporting in the age of Trump is different to anything journalists have experienced before. Major has covered the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and Trump, and emphatically said he’s never covered a president so combative as Trump, and that includes his two run-ins with Obama. In normal circumstances, political reporters from different networks rarely offer feedback to their peers, often keeping to themselves and concentrating on the task ahead. But the Trump administration has altered that, and we may never have seen a White House press corps proverbially stand so close together with reporters from rival outlets often supporting one another in the briefing room amid the barrage of attacks from the man at the front. What’s the Point of Political Debates? Major has moderated three major political debates in his career, most recently the Democratic South Carolina debate in February. The amount of dedication and preparation that goes into each debate is admirable, often taking weeks to research and practice every question and every scenario. If you’re like me, you’ll devour every single minute of every single one of the billion political debates the RNC and DNC hold every presidential cycle, especially if it involves Republicans screwing up walking to the stage when their names are called. God damn it gets me every time. But once the dopamine has run out, you’ll question the actual motive of having so many damn debates. Between June 2019 and March 2020, the DNC held an insane 13 debates , with at least 10 candidates on the stage at one time in the first seven. Apart from boosting ratings and the millions of dollars generated in fundraising, the debates do actually have a practical purpose. Just ask Michael Bloomberg. After weeks of sinking hundreds of millions of dollars in TV ads, Bloomberg took to the stage for the first time in Nevada. At the time, Bloomberg’s poll numbers were surging to 16 percent and he looked like a legitimate contender, but that ended exactly 14 days later thanks to Queen Elizabeth Warren, who rolled Bloomberg’s racist and sexist temperament into a ball and flicked him away like a bogey. If you look close enough, you can actually see Mini Mike’s soul leave his body. Laughs and takedowns aside, do political debates actually make a difference to voting habits? How on earth is 30 or 60 seconds, often with grown adults shouting over one another, enough time to discuss solutions to real issues? In my opinion it’s not, and the scientific evidence largely agrees that noticeable changes in polling and voting after debates are hard to identify. This Week … #73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate) on running for the office for the first time and why Midwestern politics is so weird … Last Week … #72 — Ryan Broderick (BuzzFeed) on the 15th anniversary of YouTube #71 — Andrea Jones-Rooy (Comedian, Social Scientist) shooting the s**t on coronavirus, journalism and other funny things … Next Week Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) from Maine Job Corner Sign up to the Inside The Newsroom Job Board for weekly updates to more than 500 journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs in the U.S., UK and around the world. Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish. You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

Inside The Newsroom

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#73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate) 50:19

5 years fa50:19

50:19

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom , where today’s guest is… U.S House of Representatives candidate from Ohio’s 5th district Nick Rubando . Nick must defeat two other Democrats in tomorrow’s primary in order to face Republican incumbent Bob Latta in November’s general election. Above is the podcast, below is a post-game of everything we talked about and more. Enjoy! 🤓 Nick 👇 Like Me, Please Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers. Who is Nick Rubando? Nick was born just outside of Toledo, and is running for the U.S. House of Representatives out of Ohio’s 5th district . He studied journalism at Indiana University and volunteered for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, which is the only time Indiana has voted blue since 1964 when Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater (more on him later). After a few years working for a tech startup in California, Nick moved back home and is running on a platform that includes Medicare For All , the Green New Deal and creating new jobs in his district, Ohio and the entire Midwest. Nick must defeat two fellow Democrats in tomorrow’s primary in order to face Republican incumbent Bob Latta , who has held this seat since 2007 and won in 2018 by 27 points . Latta has voted with Donald Trump 96 percent of the time including voting against providing disaster aid for Puerto Rico and voting against allowing the f ederal government to negotiate lower drug prices . Midwestern Politics is Weird Having lived in both Ohio and Indiana, Nick has a good grasp of each state’s politics, specifically why each state is so different. As previously mentioned, Indiana has voted for the Democratic Party just twice in 14 elections since 1964, while Ohio has voted blue six times and red eight times. Ohio is an out-and-out swing state and like the saying, “ As Ohio goes, so goes the nation ”, referring to the fact that Ohio has voted for every eventual president since 1964. So why is Ohio so different to its neighbour Indiana? I asked Nick this very question and he referenced the fact that Indiana has just two cities with a population of more than 250,000 people — Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. Meanwhile Ohio has four metropolitan equivalents — Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo. Granted this is a small sample size, but Nick is onto something and it’s not anything new. In their 1970 book The Real Majority , political demographers Richard Scammon and Ben Wattenberg identified the American “Middle Voter”, the person who is metropolitan “middle-aged, middle-income, middle-educated, Protestant, in a family whose working members work more likely with hands than abstractly with head.” To put it simply, Ohio has far more Middle Voters in its metropolitan hubs than Indiana. Where Even is the Midwest? Good question. When I first arrived at Mizzou for grad school, I was pretty sure Missouri was at the heart of the Midwest. But weekend trips to Chicago and Indianapolis left me incredibly confused. Turns out I’m not alone and the good folks up in Montana are even more confused. In fact, respondents of FiveThirtyEight’s survey of who’s in the Midwest named a whopping 19 states they classed as being in the Midwest. Side note: My time in Austin taught me that Texas isn’t part of the South despite its obvious geographic proximity, in the south. No, Texas is its own region altogether. The point here, together with how much Ohio and Indiana politics differ, is that each state is far different to the one next to it. That may seem a simpleton statement, but when politicians and traditional media outlets give labels such as the Midwest, the Rustbelt, or the South, they do an injustice to the viewers who miss out on all the nuances and intricacies within every single city, county and state. Coronavirus Protests What do you get when you have a nationwide lockdown, a battered economy and a depressingly divided nation? Yep, you guessed it, protests! Rightwing extremists and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones have grabbed the majority of the headlines due to their anti-science stances. But the most interesting development here is that many of these protests are taking place in states with Republican governors. Take Ohio, for example, whose governor is a Republican, and has seen protests to reopen the economy . But Mike DeWine has overall done a decent job in limiting the spread of the virus. He was the first governor to postpone the Democratic and Republican primaries on March 17 while Arizona, Florida and Illinois all went ahead with theirs, and Ohio was one of the first states to issue a stay-at-home order on March 22 , which has since been extended until at least May 1. Protests have also taken place in Texas and Maryland , whose governors Greg Abbott and Larry Hogan are also both Republican. It’ll be fascinating to see how they manoeuvre growing unrest as the months count down to November’s election. Voting in the Age of Coronavirus The coronavirus has exposed many elements of our institutions and systems that are hopelessly antiquated. One of those systems is the way we vote and hold elections. Why is it that with all the endless technology and innovation in our world that it’s taken the worst global pandemic in 100 years for postal and absentee voting to be an actual thing. In many states pre-coronavirus, you had to have damn good reason not to show up to the polls yourself to cast your vote. For a lot of voters, that meant taking time off work, arranging childcare and even travel more than 100 miles because of a lack of polling stations. Tomorrow’s primary in Ohio will eliminate most in-person voting , allowing those who didn’t vote in the original March 17 primary to vote by mail. According to analysis by The Guardian , only Colorado, Oregon and Washington allowed people to vote by mail without needing a special excuse before the pandemic. Yes, other problems have arisen due to the postal service being overrun at a time of emergency, but that’s simply not good enough. Hopefully permanent postal and absentee voting will be one small silver lining that’s here to stay once the pandemic is over. The Legacy of Barry Goldwater Despite being dead for more than 20 years , Barry Goldwater’s legacy is still felt today. Goldwater served five terms as a Republican senator from Arizona, and is most infamous for being on the wrong side of one of the largest landslides in U.S. presidential history , losing to Lyndon B. Johnson by 23 percent nationally and carrying just six states for a measly 52 collegiate votes. Like I’ve said in the past, Trump didn’t create the extreme divide we have in America today, he’s merely a symptom, and looking back to Goldwater’s rise to the top can help us figure out how more than 50 years later we got Trump . The main difference between the two was that Goldwater was a lifelong Republican who rose to the top of the party from the bottom up, while Donald Trump took over the GOP from top down. But in that difference is actually a trait of similarity between the two… Goldwater and Trump will go down in history as nonconformists who spoke their mind and weren’t afraid of calling out members of their own party. Trump infamously barraged every Republican that stood in his way in 2016, and even slammed party hero John McCain for being captured as a prisoner of war. Similarly, Goldwater led the party’s rebellion against then GOP President Richard Nixon during his impeachment scandal over Watergate. On August 6, 1974 , Goldwater told Nixon to his face that House and Senate Republicans would no longer defend him and stand in the way of his inevitable impeachment. A day later, Nixon resigned. It makes you think that if the media landscape had been as fragmented and decentralised as it is today, would Goldwater’s message have resonated more around the country, had communication not have been centralised by a handful of media outlets? I guess we’ll never know… Coming up … #74 — Major Garrett (CBS) on what it’s like being a White House correspondent in the age of Donald Trump Job Corner Sign up to the Inside The Newsroom Job Board for weekly updates to more than 500 journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs in the U.S., UK and around the world. Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish. You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

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#72 — Ryan Broderick (BuzzFeed) on YouTube's 15th Anniversary 1:09:25

5 years fa1:09:25

1:09:25

Hello! And welcome to a very special edition of Inside The Newsroom where we’ll celebrate the 15th anniversary of YouTube, and go through the ups and downs of the world’s largest video sharing platform with today’s guest Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed News . Ryan has covered technology for the past decade and has been with BuzzFeed since 2011, and has a charming newsletter called Garbage Day which features all the fun stuff on the internet from the past week. It’s hard to find the words to describe YouTube’s impact on society and how much it’s shaped our lives, but Ryan does so in a way far better than anyone, so please please please listen to the podcast up top. I’ve tried to cover everything in detail below, but there’s just so much I couldn’t include it all. Enjoy 🤓 Picks of the Week * Deepwater Horizon — The worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history happened 10 years ago this week * Earth Day — Yesterday was Earth Day and Greta Thunberg has called for a new path once the pandemic is over * Beach Erosion — A new study forecasts dramatic beach erosion along the U.S. coastline Today’s Episode Today’s episode took more than 12 hours to put together, so please consider liking this post by clicking the little heart at the very top of the page, and also sharing with your friends on social media. I’ll be eternally grateful. Ryan 👇 April 23, 2005: YouTube Is Born… At San Diego Zoo Fifteen years ago today, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to the platform that would go onto shape the world we live in. But don’t get too excited. The 19-second video taken at San Diego Zoo features Karim describing how long elephant trunks are. Yeah, not much of an improvisor, but to be fair to the bloke, he did start YouTube. If you still want to view the first video after that awesome description, have at it… Karim met fellow co-founders Chad Hurley (no not the guy behind the surfing brand ) and Steve Chen at PayPal, where each had significant roles in the design and direction of one of the world’s largest payment platforms. Now more than a billion hours of video content are watched on YouTube every day, and more than 2 billion people use the platform every month. But what most people don’t know is that YouTube was originally a dating site , where users uploaded videos of themselves to try and attract other men and women. Karim, Hurley and Chen even registered the YouTube.com domain on Valentines Day two months before. Like Mark Zuckerberg over at Facebook, or rather Facemash , the three YouTubers realized their new platform had the potential to be so much more. YouTube’s original homepage 👇😷 | Credit: Web Archive What are the Founders Doing Now? Chad Hurley served as YouTube’s first CEO and went onto launch a smartphone video editing company along with Chen called MixBit , similar to other video sharing apps such as Vine (RIP), Snapchat and TikTok. Hurley’s now a part-owner of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Football Club. Steve Chen served as YouTube’s CTO and went onto launch MixBit with Hurley, which was eventually sold to BlueJeans in 2018. Chen is currently an entrepreneur in residence at Google Ventures . Despite uploading the first video, Jawed Karim actually had the smallest role of the three. After the launch, Karim enrolled at Stanford University to obtain a master’s in computer science while also serving as an advisor to YouTube. He went onto co-found a venture fund called Youniversity Ventures (clever) that was one of Airbnb’s first investors. What Was Video Like Before YouTube? Good question. The biggest reason YouTube is what is today is because there wasn’t a central hub to seamlessly upload videos in a range of formats in 2005. Of course, videos existed on the internet before YouTube, but it was such a hassle to watch anything. I’m not sure how proud I am to tell you that I had to download the iconic peer-to-peer sharing platforms LimeWire and BitTorrent , whereby users uploaded video files to the internet for the rest of us to download with accute anxiety over whether we were breaking the law or not. From there, I waited two to three minutes for the video to load in Windows Media Player, and voila! I could watch a whole minute of video! I’m sure there were other ways, but this is what I and many others had to do to watch a single video. And I know what you’re thinking, Pornhub came in 2007 (pun intended), so this was the ritual for porn users as well. Oh, you weren’t thinking that… 🐢 November 13, 2006: YouTube Acquired By Google For $1.65 billion A year and half after Karim uploaded that video at the zoo, YouTube was the world’s fastest growing website and everyone had their eyes on Silicon Valley’s hottest startup. Even with its meteoric rise, nobody could have imagined that Google would buy YouTube for $1.65 billion — $2.1 billion (£1.75 billion) in today’s money. Google’s acquisition is a piece of history in itself and was ridiculed for paying so much. Dallas Mavericks owner and tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban called the move “ crazy ”, and even Google later acknowledged they probably paid a billion too much. But YouTube now generates $15 billion in annual revenue , and it would take no less than 12 figures for Google to let go of it. Put simply, it might be the greatest tech acquisition of all time. Google is the very reason why YouTube is so popular and profitable. The search engine giant was already gobbling up the majority of the advertising market, and its AdSense model opened YouTube up to content creators which accelerated its popularity and revenue even further. Google also redesigned YouTube’s clunky interface with its trademark clean and sleek design, making the platform perfect for travelling down multiple rabbit holes to consume even more content. Perhaps only Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion (£629 million) in 2012 can rival as the best tech buys in history. YouTubers and Their Millions YouTube wouldn’t be what it is without its thousands of content creators, many of whom use the platform to make a living. The way it works is users must enable AdSense for their YouTube account, which allows clever algorithms to generate adverts on videos automatically. The more views, the more revenue — around $8 per 1,000 views. YouTube then takes 45 percent of that revenue, leaving most creators with the remaining 55, though there are higher rates for creators with the highest views. The highest-paid Youtuber of 2019 was eight-year-old Ryan Kaji , who started out reviewing toys on camera, and has since matured to conducting science experiments. Last year Kaji earned an estimated $26 million. But don’t be fooled. The entirety of that money didn’t come from YouTube. Kaji has launched a line of more than 100 toys and clothing items , has a show on Nickelodeon , and has deals with Roku and Walmart. He’s part of the growing number of YouTube stars who are becoming less reliant on the platform, with some leaving YouTube altogether. If Google wants to stop the growing trend of its users turning to other platforms to make money, it’ll have no option other than to change its revenue rates. The Dark Side of YouTube While YouTube has been a vehicle for thousands of people to make a living and hundreds to become millionaires, there’s been several missteps that have led to the spread of extremism and fake information . Chen, Hurley and Karim could never have imagined that their innocent video sharing platform would be used to disseminate far-right hate and white supremacism, but that’s the reality of what tech entrepreneurs of today must have at the top of their priority list, above aesthetics, above share-ability, and certainly above profitability. That’s where YouTube has failed the most, to protect society from the vitriol and divisiveness that’s running through our communities’ bloodstreams. YouTube not only has not done enough, it’s among the most pervasive platforms over the past 15 years. Now, you might ask why Google executives have been so inactive in removing fake news and hate speech . You might also catch yourself feeling sympathetic toward them because of the difficulty to find and remove all hateful content. Don’t be. Don’t be fooled by the carefully constructed PR talk telling us that they’re doing everything they can to remove hateful videos that violate their rules. It’s b******t. YouTube, and several other social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter , know full well that if they were to actually adhere to the very rules they set in place that they would lose half of their users overnight. If amazing journalists like Ryan didn’t write on this issue profusely, Google would happily continue to skip along as if nothing was wrong. YouTube’s Hits and Misses So we know that YouTube has completely revolutionized the way we watch video, and how thousands of people can earn a living. But what other industries has it spawned? And what did it miss out on? Let’s start with eSports, the multi-billion dollar industry that has absolutely exploded over the past decade. Now, YouTube didn’t create eSports, but it’s fair to say that without it, the professional gaming industry would look totally different. The story arguably starts in South Korea in the late 1990s with the game StarCraft , a science fiction strategy game that allowed multiple players to compete at the same time. As YouTube became more and more popular toward the late 2000s, millions of people began to watch other people play the likes of Minecraft, World of Warcraft and any other game ending in -craft. Online gaming on YouTube is still incredibly strong, with half of the top 10 earners making their fortune from gaming. But it hasn’t been all fun and games for YouTube, and it certainly isn’t a company that whatever it touches turns to gold. Perhaps its largest failure to date, both in time and money invested, has been its premium version, YouTube Premium , formerly known as Music Key, also known as YouTube Red. YouTube launched its premium service in 2014 and required users to pay a monthly subscription to listen to music and TV shows. The problem was that Netflix had already cornered the market, switching its own service from Blockbuster-style video rentals to online streaming in 2010 . Why would users pay $12 a month on a platform they’d previously got their content for free? Simply put, YouTube was far too late and Google’s executives might never get over the billions of dollars Netflix and its streaming rivals are making today. Like with Netflix, YouTube also missed the boat on the rise and rise of video social media. While YouTube execs were investing the majority of their resources on their ad model, Facebook, Twitter , Snapchat , Instagram and now TikTok made it seamless for users to upload videos from their mobile phones, where the majority of internet users now consume content. YouTube has also lost its dominance of the ‘influencer market’, an industry Instagram has gladly made inroads into. Which leads us to our final part of our celebration of YouTube: What’s next? The Next 15… So here we are, the end of a remarkable journey over the past 15 years. Instead of being sentimental over the fact we’ll never see such an enthusiastic video about the size of elephant trunks uploaded to the internet ever again, let’s look forward to what YouTube should do in the next 15 years. I asked Ryan this very question, and his answer centered on mobile. If YouTube is to continue growing its audience, it must make it easier for its content creators to create content. How does it do that? By creating an entire equivalent version of Adobe Premiere inside its app for free. It must also create a virtual editing platform with advanced editing tools that allow users to create quality content with the few proverbial clicks of a user’s thumbs, similar to how TikTok has taken over the short form video market. And lastly, it must pivot its strategy and have mobile at the very center of it. If it doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work for the user. Cheers to that 🍻 Last week … * #70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) on the lack of government preparation for the coronavirus and the latest 2020 technology trends * South Korea Election Special * 44 Reasons Bernie Supporters Should Be Optimistic … Next week * Nick Rubando on running for the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio’s 5th district and his upcoming primary on Tuesday April 28 * Major Garrett (CBS News) on what it’s like to be in the same room with Donald Trump, and how asking him questions compares to Obama, Bush and Clinton Related podcasts… #52 — Katie Notopoulos (BuzzFeed) on the ‘techlash’ and why we can’t trust any of the big technology companies with our privacy #43 — Kashmir Hill (New York Times) on what she discovered by cutting out Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft from her life for six weeks #41 — Jessica Lessin (The Information) on starting a technology journalism startup from scratch and how to breakup Facebook Job Corner A couple of weeks ago I launched a journalism jobs and internships board. It now has almost 600 active postings, mostly based in the U.S. and the UK, but also a few dozen from other parts of the world. Sign up for weekly updates . New jobs from yesterday include… Bloomberg — Graphic Designer Indianapolis Star — Food and Dining Reporter New York Magazine — Features Writer The Athletic — Staff Editor The New York Times (London) — Business Reporter The Texas Tribune Student Fellowships The Toronto Star — Freelance Writers Needed The Wall Street Journal (London) — Editor University of Stirling — Professor in Digital Journalism Vox Media — Audio Producer YouTube — Media Specialist Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com . This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe…

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#71 — Andrea Jones-Rooy (Social Scientist, Comedian) 1:06:56

5 years fa1:06:56