All Articles Tagged "newspapers"
‘The Washington Post’ Gets Its First African-American Managing Editor
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The revered newspaper The Washington Post has hired its first African-American managing editor. Kevin Merida will be promoted to the slot vacated last month by Liz Spayd.
“[Merida] is a journalist of remarkable accomplishment, but also a warm and caring colleague. And he has a record of proven leadership,” executive editor Martin Baron wrote in a morning memo to staff, reports the newspaper.
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Merida, 56, joined the paper in 1993 to cover Congress and after covering the 1996 presidential race, he was moved to the Style section, becoming a long-form feature writer. He was coordinating editor of the Post’s yearlong 2006 award-winning series, “Being a Black Man,” which later formed the basis for an anthology published by Public Affairs Books.
In his new position, Merida will be responsible for news and features coverage as well as the Universal News Desk.
For the past four years, Merida has been the Post’s national editor. During his tenure, several new sections were added to the paper, such as Fact Checker and a new blog, She the People, to showcase the voices of women.
Merida is also the co-author of the biography Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas and co-author of the bestselling Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs.
After graduating from Boston University in 1979 with a degree in journalism, Merida started his journalism career at The Milwaukee Journal, where he was a general assignment reporter and a rotating editor on the city desk. He joined The Dallas Morning News in 1983, where he served as a special projects reporter, local political writer, national writer, White House correspondent and assistant managing editor in charge of foreign and national news coverage.
He follows in the footsteps of Simeon Booker, who paved the way for Merida when he became the first full-time African-Amerian reporter at the Washington Post in 1952. Booker was recently recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists with their highest honor, induction into the organization’s Hall of Fame, reports EUR. Booker, according to EUR, said the experience of desegregating the Post “damned near killed me.”
The newspaper has come a long way since 1952.
Housekeeper in Strauss-Kahn Case Files Libel Suit
(AP) – The hotel maid at the center of the now-teetering sex assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn filed a libel lawsuit Tuesday against the New York Post after the tabloid reported she was a prostitute. The woman’s lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, filed the claim in Bronx state Supreme Court after the Post, relying on anonymous sources, referred to the 32-year-old as a “prostitute” and a “hooker.” The paper also reported that she “traded sex for money” and turned tricks at a Brooklyn hotel while she was being housed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. All of those statements are false, according to the lawsuit, and have subjected the woman to humiliation and ridicule.
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defamation, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, dsk, journalism, lawsuit, libel, newspapers, rape, sexual assaultReaders Rally Around Washington City Paper
(Washington City Paper) — When Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Washington City Paper in February, readers rushed to show their support — and the newspaper gave them an outlet. The City Paper set up a fund for reader donations meant to offset the litigation fees, collecting 600 donations totaling $28,000 in the first three weeks. But since the initial influx, the fund has received only 190 donations totaling just over $3,000. With donations slowing to a trickle even as the lawsuit drags on, the paper is left with a fund that matters more for what it has come to represent: tangible evidence of reader loyalty at a time when many newspapers are fighting steep readership declines.
Newspaper Giant Gannett Slashes Workforce
(AP) — The nation’s largest newspaper publisher is laying off another 700 employees to cope with an unrelenting advertising slump. Gannett, the owner of USA Today and more than 80 other daily newspapers, hoped to complete the cuts yesterday. The layoffs are occurring at most Gannett newspapers but not at USA Today.
New Editors Broaden Diversity at New York Times
(The New Civil Rights Movement) — This past week The New York Times’ announcement of the promotion of Jill Abramson as its first woman executive editor in the 160-year history of the “paper of record” was celebrated not only by women at the Times, but was given noteworthy mentions, as well as substantial editorial space from around the journalistic world by The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazineand the eminent Poynter Institute, which asked in a leading post what Abramson’s appointment could mean to women in the newspaper business at large.
Dean Baquet New Managing Editor of New York Times
(The Root) — In what’s being called a “historic and sudden shake-up” at the New York Times, Jill Abramson has been named the first female executive editor, and former Los Angeles Times Editor and Executive Vice President Dean Baquet will take over as managing editor. According to the Daily Beast, “There was a plausible rival [for the executive editor position] in the person of Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief, who moves up to managing editor. Baquet was a dynamic editor of the Los Angeles Times before resigning amid the wreckage of Tribune Co. budget cuts. He may still become the first African-American editor of The New York Times.”
Will New York Times’ Paywall Pay Off?
(Christian Science Monitor) — On Monday, The New York Times rolled out its newest plan to entice readers to pay for web-based stories. For an industry whose very existence could depend on finding ways to raise revenues from online content, the Times scheme is being watched closely by media consultants eager to see if this might be a model that providers of online content can emulate. In short, the Times will let readers access 20 articles a month for free, but further reading will require a monthly subscription. The Times has unsuccessfullytried charging user fees before, and this time, too, it could confront problems as users tussle for awhile with a multitiered approach that charges different fees depending on how you access the material, experts say. But the Times pay model, which cost $40 million to implement, might be a pivot point for the online news content industry, says Dale Carr, CEO of LeadBolt, a firm that helps online companies maximize ad revenues. He calls it one of the largest experiments in online journalism. “Many treat this as a huge gamble,” he says via e-mail. But he points out that since the Times’s last effort to charge for content, seismic changes have overtaken the digital marketplace – most notably the explosion of “apps” on mobile devices such as the iPad and Kindle.
Will New York Times’ Paywall Pay Off?
(Christian Science Monitor) — On Monday, The New York Times rolled out its newest plan to entice readers to pay for web-based stories. For an industry whose very existence could depend on finding ways to raise revenues from online content, the Times scheme is being watched closely by media consultants eager to see if this might be a model that providers of online content can emulate. In short, the Times will let readers access 20 articles a month for free, but further reading will require a monthly subscription. The Times has unsuccessfullytried charging user fees before, and this time, too, it could confront problems as users tussle for awhile with a multitiered approach that charges different fees depending on how you access the material, experts say. But the Times pay model, which cost $40 million to implement, might be a pivot point for the online news content industry, says Dale Carr, CEO of LeadBolt, a firm that helps online companies maximize ad revenues. He calls it one of the largest experiments in online journalism. “Many treat this as a huge gamble,” he says via e-mail. But he points out that since the Times’s last effort to charge for content, seismic changes have overtaken the digital marketplace – most notably the explosion of “apps” on mobile devices such as the iPad and Kindle.
African-American Newspaper a Family Affair
(Florida Courier) — In late 2004, the Cherry family was in a state of crisis. Charles W. Cherry, Sr., the family patriarch, had died. Not only was he a civil rights activist, father and grandfather, he was also the key man who operated the two newspapers, the Daytona Times and the Florida Courier, that were affiliated with the family’s media company. And there was no clear plan as to how to continue the operation. ”Glenn was knee-deep in operating nine radio stations at the time,” current Florida Courier Publisher Charles W. Cherry II explained, “and I had a foot in both operations. After Daddy died, we knew that we had to keep both newspapers going.
“At the time of his death, the Daytona Times had been published for 1,369 consecutive weeks. The Florida Courier had been going for 637 consecutive weeks. To miss a weekly issue, even when the key person running the business has died, and even if you had never missed an issue before, would be the kiss of death for a Black weekly newspaper. There are no weeks off in this business.” Cherry II recalls the family meetings that occurred after Cherry, Sr.’s death and burial. He says the same thing happens in every family-owned business after the death of a key individual. ”Everybody looks around and says, ‘What do we do now?’ There are options. You can let the business die with the person. You can operate it at a marginal level and take whatever profits you make. You can sell it. You can get a partner to run it, and hope for the best. You can walk away.
Trial Underway for Murder of Oakland Journalist
(NPR) — In 2007, journalist Chauncey Bailey was gunned down on a street in Oakland, Calif., during broad daylight. The outspoken newspaper editor had been investigating criminal activity connected to a local bakery when he was killed.
