Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fall2012 2
Fall2012 2
NIEMAN REPORTS
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Reports
Harvard University
One Francis Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
ov a tion
f Inn
aste r o
on How Age
’s M low net
ard Fel nter
Harv a Nieman in th e I
or s e ed
Tut an Succ
C
Media
BE THE DISRUPTOR
ALSO in this issue
e the r
B upto
Lessons From Fukushima
Interview with Yoichi Funabashi
r
The Magician’s Daughter
is
By Maggie Jones
Plus
Howard Berkes on Covering the Olympics
Hedrick Smith’s ‘Who Stole the American Dream?’
Shirley Christian on ‘The Good Girls Revolt’
Clayton M. Christensen,
Harvard Business School
In This Issue
6 Breaking News
Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism.
By Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth
Vol. 66 No. 3 Fall 2012
In Every Issue
watchdog project
41 The Big Chill
Challenging times for national
security reporters.
By Dan Froomkin
sounding
44 The Magician’s Daughter
Her childhood secrets are
nothing like yours.
By Maggie Jones
books
46 Defying Gravity
“Who Stole the American Dream?”
by Hedrick Smith.
Reviewed by Dan Froomkin
48 Waving, Not Drowning
“The Art of Making Magazines”
Clockwise from top left: Fukushima aftermath, page 21, photo by Daisuke Tomita/The Yomiuri
edited by Victor S. Navasky and
Shimbun via AP; on the presidential campaign trail, page 24, photo by Paul Schutzer/Time & Life
Evan Cornog.
Pictures/Getty Images; Grandpa and grandson, page 34, photo by Pam Spaulding; at the Olympics,
Reviewed by James Geary
page 28, photo by Jae C. Hong/AP.
50 The Fighter
“The Algerian Memoirs”
by Henri Alleg.
Features
Reviewed by Aboubakr Jamai
52 Good Girls Don’t
“The Good Girls Revolt”
by Lynn Povich.
21 Lessons From Fukushima Reviewed by Shirley Christian
Interview with Yoichi Funabashi about the nuclear disaster. By Peter Behr 54 Un-American Activities
“Subversives” by Seth Rosenfeld.
24 Truth and Consequences Reviewed by Todd Gitlin
Reflections on the presidential campaign trail. By Adrienne LaFrance
56 Nieman Notes
28 Inside the Rings
Highs and lows of the 2012 London Olympics. By Howard Berkes 60 Heard at lippmann house
Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica
32 An Ode to Readers’ Quirks
Emboldened readers sometimes cross the line of propriety. By Kate Galbraith
Nieman Reports
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University
www.niemanreports.org
Vol. 66 No. 3 Fall 2012
Publisher Subscriptions/Business
Ann Marie Lipinski 617-496-6299
nreports@harvard.edu
assistant Editor
Jan Gardner
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Harvard University, One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098.
Finding a Way
Forward
A Nieman Fellow engages the Harvard Business School’s
master of innovation in a mission to save the news industry.
By David Skok
I have never known a time when increased competition. on strategy and innovation, Harvard
journalism was just journalism or the I’m not alone. For many of today’s Business School professor Clayton M.
only profit margins journalists wor- journalists, the idea of a church-and- Christensen. His disciples include Intel’s
ried about were those belonging to the state separation between the editorial ex-CEO Andy Grove, New York City’s
companies we reported on. and executive teams has always been an Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the late
As a journalism intern at a sports aspiration not matched by reality. We Apple CEO Steve Jobs who, according to
news radio station in Toronto in 2002, I spend our days reporting the news and Walter Isaacson’s biography, was heavily
experienced my first taste of the business leading newsrooms while dreading the influenced by Christensen’s book “The
realities facing my craft. Just four weeks inevitable wave of cutbacks that is regu- Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Tech-
into my internship, the station’s manage- larly just one staff meeting or quarterly nologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.”
ment, unable to compete in a saturated earnings report away. Having already tackled disruption
market, went off the air, leaving dozens Across the industry, there are shock in technology, education and health
of motivated, educated and talented waves being felt as audiences and adver- care, Christensen graciously obliged
journalists looking for work. tisers flock to new platforms. Media my request to help tackle disruption in
Months later when I was an intern at organizations have to adapt to a struc- journalism. Over a five-month period,
“ABC News Nightline,” it faced cancella- tural, systemic shift in their once healthy Christensen, Forum for Growth and
tion amid rumors that David Letterman business models, and, once again, it is Innovation Fellow James Allworth, and
would take our late-night slot. the journalists who are feeling the brunt I systematically applied his theories to
And finally, following the 2008 finan- of these changes. journalism. The goal was to establish a
cial crisis, I watched as colleagues and It is frightening, but it is not terminal. framework for understanding what is
mentors were laid off and news budgets There is still hope for traditional news taking place in the industry. While this
were slashed after my newsroom’s parent organizations if we can make some cou- won’t provide immediate answers to the
company, Canwest Global Communica- rageous choices and recognize our own financial pressures facing incumbent
tions Corp., declared bankruptcy. flaws. There has always been and will news organizations, we hope it will
Time and again, I have witnessed always be reporting so important to the provide a set of questions that news
once mighty news institutions tackle functioning of society that no price tag managers can ask as they make strategic
revenue challenges with cost-cutting can be placed on it. This fact makes it all decisions about their newsrooms.
measures. These measures, in turn, the more urgent to meet today’s revenue Studying the news industry from a
have worsened the revenue challenges, challenges. clinical perspective with my colleagues
putting us in a downward spiral that has During my 2011-2012 Nieman fellow- at the Harvard Business School and
sped up exponentially with the advent ship I had the great privilege of work- using the tools of analysis that have
of new disruptive technologies and ing with the widely recognized expert been applied to industries as diverse as
manufacturing, technology and medicine dence to recognize that without sales instead to meet them on their own turf
has been a challenging but rewarding and marketing, strategy, leadership and, by articulating a strategic vision for our
experience. Having been liberated from first and foremost, revenues, there is no shared sustainable future, because if we
my own journalistic impulses and biases, editorial independence left to root for. can’t make the business case for journal-
I have come to the realization that while In his 1958 address to the Radio and ism, nobody else will.
the technological disruptions facing our Television News Directors Association The culmination of our work is
industry are 50 percent of the challenge; convention, Edward R. Murrow warned now available in the pages that follow
the other 50 percent is on us. We have us not be “deluded into believing that and in e-book format on the Nieman
failed to foster a newsroom culture that the titular heads of the networks control Reports website. Whether you work for
rewards innovation and empowers the what appears on their networks. They all a successful mainstream newspaper,
younger generation, that can readily have better taste. All are responsible to national broadcaster, city-sized daily,
adapt to the new media world around stockholders, and … are honorable men. or an Internet news start-up, we hope
us, and that is willing to experiment with But they must schedule what they can that our work gives you a new lens with
the diversified revenue streams right in sell in the public market.” which to view the dramatic changes
front of us. To use the oft-quoted phrase, My own experience has confirmed taking place in journalism. Beyond that,
“culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Our that most executives are indeed honor- our even greater hope is that it will help
traditional newsroom culture taken in able men and women, but I choose not guide your newsroom with a clearer path
aggregate has blinded us from moving to beg for their permission to create the forward as you position yourselves for
beyond our walls of editorial indepen- journalism that we aspire to. I choose journalism’s bright future.
Breaking News
Mastering the art of disruptive innovation
in journalism
Old habits die hard. This has happened before. Eighty- It happened with Japanese automak-
Four years after the 2008 financial nine years ago, Henry Luce started Time ers: They started with cheap subcom-
crisis, traditional news organizations as a weekly magazine summarizing the pacts that were widely considered a joke.
continue to see their newsrooms shrink news. All 28 pages of the black-and- Now they make Lexuses that challenge
or close. Those that survive remain mired white weekly were filled with advertise- the best of what Europe can offer.
in the innovator’s dilemma: A false choice ments and aggregation. This wasn’t It happened in the steel industry,
between today’s revenues and tomorrow’s just rewrites of the week’s news; it was where minimills began as a cheap,
digital promise. The problem is a pro- rip-and-read copy from the day’s major lower-quality alternative to established
found one: A study in March by the Pew publications—The Atlantic Monthly, The integrated mills, then moved their way
Research Center’s Project for Excellence Christian Science Monitor, and the New up, pushing aside the industry’s giants.
in Journalism showed that newspapers York World, to name a few. In the news business, newcomers
have been, on average, losing print Today Time, with its print and online are doing the same thing: delivering a
advertising dollars at seven times the properties, confronts the challenges product that is faster and more personal-
rate they have been growing digital ad posed by the digital age, but reaches a ized than that provided by the bigger,
revenue. global audience of 25 million. more established news organizations.
Journalism institutions play a vital With history as our guide, it shouldn’t The newcomers aren’t burdened by the
role in the democratic process and we are be a surprise when new entrants like expensive overheads of legacy organiza-
rooting for their survival. But only the The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, tions that are a function of life in the old
organizations themselves can make the which began life as news aggregators, world. Instead, they’ve invested in only
changes required to adapt to these new begin their march up the value network. those resources critical to survival in the
realities. This search for new business They may have started by collecting cute new world. All the while, they have cre-
models remains elusive for most. pictures of cats but they are now expand- ated new market demand by engaging
Executives interviewed in that Pew ing into politics, transforming from new audiences.
report confirmed that closing the revenue aggregators into generators of original Because new-market disruptors
gap remains a struggle. “There might content, and even, in the case of The like The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed
be a 90 percent chance you’ll accelerate Huffington Post, winning a Pulitzer Prize initially attract those who aren’t tradi-
the decline if you gamble and a 10 for its reporting. tional consumers of a daily newspaper
percent chance you might find the new They are classic disruptors. or evening newscast, incumbent orga-
model,” one executive explained in the Disruption theory argues that a con- nizations feel little pain or threat. The
report. “No one is willing to take that sistent pattern repeats itself from indus- incumbents stay the course on content,
chance.” try to industry. New entrants to a field competing along the traditional defini-
But pursue it they must, or their establish a foothold at the low end and tion of “quality.” Once established at the
organizations will be deemed irrelevant move up the value network—eating away market’s low end, the disruptors—by
by news consumers. New entrants are at the customer base of incumbents—by producing low-cost, personalized and,
already leaving their mark on journal- using a scalable advantage and typically increasingly, original content—move
ism—stealing audiences and revenues entering the market with a lower-margin into the space previously held by the
away from legacy organizations. profit formula. incumbents.
In 1925, two of the nation’s leading orators, William Jennings Bryan, above, and Clarence Darrow,
faced off at the landmark Scopes trial about the teaching of evolution. Hundreds of newspaper
reporters converged on Dayton, Tennessee but no account could rival a Chicago-based radio
station’s real-time broadcast of the drama. It was the first trial in the U.S. to be carried live.
Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick had bought the station at a time when other
publishers fought to squash the new medium. McCormick, mindful of the potential synergies
between radio and newspapers, had changed the call letters to WGN for “World’s Greatest
Newspaper.” Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
waits to order and be served. It’s going When Metro was first introduced, Asking the right questions
to be wasted time so David pulls out his it didn’t try to compete head on with As managers think about what their
smartphone. He opens up Twitter and the incumbent papers. In fact, for most news organization can do to thrive in a
scans through his feed for an interesting high-end consumers of newspapers, it changing world, they must ask:
article. A New Yorker article catches his is vastly inferior. Yet despite this, and nW hat is the job audiences want
eye, he clicks on it, and starts reading. while virtually every newspaper has had done?
Just as he finishes it, the barista calls his its readership decline as a result of the nW hat kinds of employees and
name; his coffee is ready. explosion of information available on the structure does the company need so
What we’ve described here is actually Internet, Metro now has over 67 daily it can fulfill that job-to-be-done?
a huge job in the media market—“I have editions in 22 countries. nW hat is the best way to deliver that
10 minutes of downtime. Help me fill it How has it done it? Well, it has tar- information to audiences?
with something interesting or entertain- geted the job that has arisen in David’s One way to figure out what jobs the
ing.” David chose to hire Twitter, but he life. And it just so happens that every audience wants to be done is to look
could have hired a newspaper that was day, millions of people around the world at what successful competitors have
lying around the coffee shop. Or he could also have this exact job. accomplished and then ask what people
have hired a game off the App Store. Or It’s much easier to understand the were trying to do when they hired the
perhaps he could have started replying success of Metro when you view it competitor. Craigslist, for example, is a
to his e-mail. through the lens of job-to-be-done. network of websites that feature gener-
Understanding the world through The job of “help me fill the time” is a ally free online classified advertisements
the lens of jobs-to-be-done gives us an widespread one, but folks who are on with sections devoted to jobs, housing,
incredible insight into people’s behavior. their way home from a day at work are personals, items for sale, and so on. The
Next time you’re sitting in a doctor’s focused on one thing: getting home site, founded in 1995, currently covers 70
office, watch all the people with exactly from work as quickly as they can. Until countries. Craig Newmark created Craig-
this job: “I’ve got 10 minutes to kill; they get on that train, their willingness slist because he intuitively understood
help me fill it.” Traditionally, the office to stop for anything—including to pay audiences’ frustration with classifieds
would help patients fulfill this job by for a paper—is probably pretty low. in newspapers. If a consumer wanted to
leaving magazines in the waiting room. However, hand them a paper without post a classified ad in a newspaper, he
Nowadays, many patients find this job asking them to pay for it, and chances had to pay (usually by the line) for a list-
is better fulfilled by their smartphones are, they’ll take it from you. With ing that might be buried between dozens
or iPads—allowing them to curate and that in mind, the Metro was made a of similar entries. It was frustrating for
read the articles and websites that are of “freesheet”—the cost of producing it buyers and sellers to find a match. It
interest to them, rather than relying on is subsidized entirely by advertising wasn’t easy to search. You’d have to put
the office manager’s taste in magazines. from businesses hoping to target com- your phone number in the listing, and
Before the smartphone, magazines were muters. The stories are intentionally you’d often get calls even after the sale
popular because they were competing made short, punchy and easy to read. had taken place. And, in a digital world,
almost entirely with non-consumption: The aim? Allow readers to complete it was slow—ads would take a day or
if patients didn’t pick up the magazines, the paper (and expose them to all the more to post. Craigslist has been hugely
they were left sitting there with noth- ads) within 20 minutes—which Metro successful because it does a better job
ing to do. But compared to a random worked out was the average time spent than traditional news organizations of
magazine, getting to read what they’re on a train commute home. With a tra- providing classifieds by making listings
interested in on their portable device is a ditional newspaper, a copy left behind easily discoverable, by making it easy
vastly superior choice. on a seat means the next reader gets it to hide your e-mail address, and by
Similarly, the job of “I have 10 for free, depriving the paper of revenue. allowing consumers to post for free in
minutes to spare. Help me fill it with In contrast, a Metro reader who picks real time.
something interesting or entertaining” up a copy left behind has just saved the Another way is to simply watch
arises on David’s commute home when newspaper the cost of distributing one people and get a deep understanding
he’s on the subway. He finished his New more paper. By targeting the job-to-be- of how they live their lives. Both Apple
Yorker article from this morning, but done, Metro has dramatically bucked co-founder Steve Jobs and Akio Morita,
unfortunately, Twitter isn’t an option the trend of declining circulation. co-founder of Sony Corp., were famous
now because his cell phone doesn’t work This is just one very simple example for disparaging market research. Part of
underground. At this point, for millions of a job that arises multiple times in the reason is that too often, consumers
of commuters all around the world, one pretty much everyone’s life every day. are unable to articulate exactly what it
name pops into their heads: Metro. So how can you find these jobs? is they are looking for, their thinking
In 1980, when the three major TV networks devoted only 30 minutes to the evening news, Ted
Turner bet on a much bigger appetite for current events. He launched Cable News Network (CNN),
the nation’s first 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, all-news network. Its watershed moment
arrived in 1991 when it provided the only live TV coverage of the start of the first Persian Gulf War.
The live footage of the bombings, picked up by stations and networks around the world, was seen
by one billion viewers. Today, CNN International is available in more than 200 countries. Photo by
T. Michael Keza for The New York Times.
news and information are everywhere in Jim Moroney, publisher and CEO of Newsweek (-52%), experienced in the
abundance and, increasingly, free. The Dallas Morning News, calls PICA: U.S. during the same period.
This information is also available Perspective, Interpretation, Context and Internet start-ups have curated
across borders. No longer does an Amer- Analysis. This type of newsgathering content successfully for years. The most
ican news organization hold a monopoly requires identifying the organization’s well-known example is The Huffington
over international news coverage enter- main areas of focus, in particular beats Post. Launched in 2005, the site began
ing the U.S. market. Author and X Prize or verticals, and then aligning more as an aggregator of content from around
Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis put reporters, columnists and editors to the Web, including article summaries
it succinctly when he observed that a these subject areas. from traditional news organizations.
Kenyan on a smartphone has access to Bill Simmons, sports columnist for Acquired last year by AOL for $315
more information than Bill Clinton had ESPN, became a household name for million, it is now one of the most
as president. In the past, people who sports fans across North America inter- popular news sites in the United
wanted intensive news coverage of Egypt ested in his musings on Boston sports States, attracting 38 million unique
had to subscribe to an Egyptian news- teams, basketball and pop culture. It visitors in September.
paper or buy an expensive satellite dish. wasn’t the sports scores that drove audi- Along with curation, newsrooms can
Today, Egyptian news is available at our ences to ESPN.com (you could get those create value by bringing into their fold
fingertips. When the Arab Spring upris- anywhere); it was Simmons’s perspec- contributors who complement their own
ings took place in 2011, the Qatar-based tive, interpretation, context and analysis editorial strengths in particular subjects.
news network Al Jazeera reported that that made him arguably one of the most This isn’t just about publishing stories by
traffic to its English-language website, popular sports bloggers in the world. subject experts, but about building net-
where a live stream of its broadcast was Focusing on particular specialties also worked communities around those ideas.
available, increased by 2,500 percent— frees up the editorial team to identify Take the example of Forbes magazine.
with up to 60 percent of the traffic and organize relevant content from Executives at Forbes understand that
coming from the United States. around the news ecosystem. Curation you cannot run a news business and
The wealth of information available lowers production costs by having produce quality content in the digital
almost instantaneously has lowered the newsrooms concentrate more on dis- era with a cost structure built for ana-
value of the general interest news story covering, fact checking, and aggregating log times. The biweekly publication’s
such that it’s often less than the cost of information. Aggregation or “linking to website has changed the traditional
production. General interest and break- your competitors” may be viewed as anti- role of the editor. Editors still manage
ing news reporting comprised of answer- thetical to the values of traditional news staff reporters but their working rela-
ing the “who, what, when and where” has organizations, but it doesn’t have to be. tionship with freelancers has changed.
become commoditized. It cannot create Some traditional news organizations Instead of giving them assignments and
enough value to sustain a news organiza- have achieved great success by curating editing their stories, editors now man-
tion in the long term. content from around the news ecosystem age a network of roughly 1,000 con-
The value for news organizations now and presenting it in a meaningful story- tributors—authors, academics, freelance
increasingly lies in providing context line. The Week, founded in the United journalists, topic experts, and business
and verification—reporting the “how, Kingdom in 1995, draws from over 1,000 leaders, all focused around particular
why and what it means”—and facilitat- media sources from around the world to subjects of interest—who post their own
ing communities around that news and offer a balanced perspective on the issues stories and are accountable for their own
information. of the week—all in a concise, readable individual metrics. According to Lewis
Consider a 2011 survey by video solu- package. According to figures compiled DVorkin, chief product officer at Forbes,
tions company Magnify.net that asked by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, The 25 percent of the content budget is now
a group of individuals to describe how Week has seen steady growth. At a time dedicated to contributors, who wrote a
they felt about their incoming informa- of tremendous upheaval in the maga- total of nearly 100,000 posts last year.
tion stream when they were connected to zine industry, the weekly has expanded, With a focus on niche subjects and
the Internet. Over two-thirds of respon- printing local editions in North America a network of bloggers who write posts
dents (72.7 percent) described their data and Australia. Between 2003 and 2011, and curate work on these subjects from
stream as “a roaring river, a flood, or a the U.S. edition of The Week enjoyed a other publications, Forbes attracts new
massive tidal wave.” Most respondents circulation gain of 197 percent. That per- contributors and facilitates conversation
said the information coming at them had centage increase was bigger than what across the network, driving more traf-
grown by at least 50 percent from the other news-oriented weekly magazines, fic to the company’s sites. As DVorkin
previous year. including The Economist (+93%), The describes it, “Talented people want to
Clearly, there is a need for what New Yorker (+10%), Time (-19%), and belong to a respected network, and
ery trucks and fiber optic lines to generate aging their employees to experiment in revenue from event sponsorships this
value beyond their existing chain. with the “digital agency” concept, in year, plus attendee income.
which news organizations act as online
Selling the ‘news’ marketers and provide training and Long-Tail Repurposing. When news
We put quotation marks around the word consulting services for local businesses. organizations think about selling their
“news” here because managers need to These services can include copyediting content, they traditionally focus on
think differently about what “news” is and showing a business how to set up a short-term prospects. But digital content
if they are to find ways to generate new website, use social media, and produce never disappears. It can be repurposed,
revenue. New opportunities can become professional advertisements. repackaged and re-sold in different
apparent when managers change their This would bring news organizations formats. Whether in video and story
perspective about a news organization’s closer to their communities, foster more archives, e-books or research packets for
role and its standing in the community. relationships, and boost the potential academic case studies, news organiza-
What can sales and marketing teams do for additional revenues in traditional tions should think about how to create
to create additional value? Consulting advertising. It will, however, need to value from their content beyond the
services, event marketing, and long-tail be done in a way that doesn’t erode the daily or weekly news cycle.
repurposing are three possibilities. news organization’s editorial integrity. Following the arrest of Boston
The agency’s operation must be kept gangster James “Whitey” Bulger after
Consulting Services. There is now a separate from newsgathering. 16 years on the run, The Boston Globe
market in the private sector for skilled released three of its investigative reports
journalists and sales representatives who Events. News organizations are fre- about the accused murderer as e-books.
can provide consulting services for retail, quently well positioned to host events The stories were pulled from its archives.
social networking, and entertainment that bring diverse communities together Jeff Moriarty, the Globe’s vice president
companies, among others. The Society around shared interests and ideas. of digital products told the Poynter
of Digital Agencies noted this shift in its Revenue can come from admission fees Institute’s Jeff Sonderman that the only
most recent annual state of the industry as well as corporate sponsorships. expense was hiring a vendor to format
report. The survey of marketers and digi- The nonprofit Texas Tribune, a news and submit the books to Amazon and
tal agencies showed that 66 percent plan website that focuses on statewide issues, other digital bookstores. He said the
production costs were recouped within a
few days through e-book sales.
Managers need to think differently about what ‘news’
We have described some of the places
is if they are to find ways to generate new revenue.
that news organizations can look to see
New opportunities can become apparent when where new value can be extracted. There
managers change their perspective about a news is no one-size-fits-all model, and we do
organization’s role and its standing in the community. not expect that every example will work
for all organizations. However, managers
should think about how they can capital-
increases in spending on earned and has made events a cornerstone of its ize independently on their assets. Having
owned media, such as blogs, corporate revenue plan—and the early reports look an entrepreneurial mindset is critical to
websites, and social media. When asked good. As Andrew Phelps reported for the finding success in this new world.
what would get increased priority in Nieman Journalism Lab, the Tribune Once managers generate ideas about
2012, for instance, 61 percent said con- began by hosting more than 60 free how the company can outperform com-
tent creation like blogs, and 57 percent public events attracting leading politi- petitors in creating experiences that
said mobile Web development. cians, large audiences, and hundreds of fulfill consumers’ jobs-to-be-done and
According to Jay Rosen, a professor thousands of dollars in corporate spon- find new revenue within the value net-
of journalism at New York University, sorships. Last fall, the Tribune hosted its work, they must face the final and most
“Every company is a media company first paid event; The Texas Tribune Fes- difficult step in embracing disruption:
now.” But, while technology has enabled tival was a weekend of talks and discus- implementing changes inside their orga-
everyone to become a journalist or brand sions aimed at activists, policy makers, nization. Pogo, the star of the Walt Kelly
marketer online, not everyone has the and others invested enough in politics comic strip, sized up this challenge when
skills or tools to satisfy an audience. and current affairs to pay $125 for a he said, “We have met the enemy and it is
News organizations can capitalize on ticket. Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith us.” It is no small task to get employees to
this need. They might consider lever- told the Lab that he expects $900,000 change how they think and work.
Build Capabilities
they can include story selection and the
assigning of newsgathering resources.
At the executive tiers, they often take the
One of the most common complaints be charged with assuming personal the company should spin the project out
made by newsroom executives today is responsibility for the success of his part as a new organization.
the difficulty in changing the newsroom of the project. For every key element of News Corp.’s entry into the tablet
culture to adapt to a digital world. When the strategy, there should be one person’s space is an example of this spin-out
attempting to change an organization’s name beside it. At The New York Times, approach. Despite having many well-
culture, the starting point is the task that for example, the boundaries around the known brands—including Fox News,
you’re trying to do, not the process or groups within its newsroom’s digital The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones,
culture. This is because processes and pri- development team were historically and the New York Post—News Corp.’s
orities are a response to recurring tasks. defined as serving the needs of reporters management identified the consumption
and editors. When the Times decided it of news on tablets as a disruptive innova-
Changing the processes and needed to focus on experimental online tion for their traditional news proper-
priorities, one task at a time journalism, it created a new cross-disci- ties. As a result, News Corp. decided to
Processes are not nearly as flexible or pline team to do so. create a separate unit for an iPad-only
adaptable as resources are, and priori- This team inside the Times was newspaper, The Daily. To thrive in the
ties are even less so. In order to instill designed to incorporate the skills of tablet market, News Corp. needed to be
the processes and priorities required to software developers directly into the comfortable with lower gross margins
address disruptive innovation, managers processes of producing stories. As and a smaller market than its traditional
must create a new organizational space digital editor Aron Pilhofer described it newspapers commanded. The company
where these tasks can be developed. in New York magazine, “The proposal needed to be patient for growth, but
There are several possible ways to do was to create a newsroom: a group of impatient for profits.
this, including: developers-slash-journalists, or journal- As of October 2011, the Daily had
n Creating new capabilities internally ists-slash-developers, who would work 80,000 paying subscribers and an
in which new processes can be on long-term, medium-term, short-term average of 120,000 readers weekly;
developed; journalism [projects].” This team would these numbers stack up well against the
n Spinning out an independent “cut across all the desks,” overriding digital editions of some established print
organization from the existing old processes as the newsroom evolved. brands. The New Yorker, for example,
organization and developing within Developers were made full members of had 26,880 iPad-only subscribers as
it the new processes and priorities the news team and given responsibility of that month, according to Ad Age. If
required to satisfy new tasks; or as such; they were encouraged to col- the Daily had the same cost structure
n Acquiring a different organization laborate with reporters and editors, not as its traditional print counterparts,
with processes and priorities that merely wait for assignments. its prospects of getting to profitability
closely match the requirements of This new team is now known as would be remote indeed. But with a
the new task. the Interactive Newsroom Technolo- totally different approach, the likelihood
gies group, and it continues to create of it reaching profitability is far greater,
Creating new capabilities internally. Old new processes so the Times can more and it continues to experiment with its
organizational boundaries, established quickly develop better products around business model to reach this goal.
to facilitate traditional ways of working, data journalism and innovative visual Given that a young upstart may
often impede the creation of new pro- storytelling, rather than simply posting cannibalize the company’s traditional
cesses. A print newsroom, where people old-world newspaper articles online. business, it is critical that such a project
have habitually filed stories for one have high-level support and be inde-
medium, will have a hard time changing Creating capabilities through a spin-out pendent from normal decision-making
the workflow to accommodate new tasks. organization. Economic pressures make processes. Projects that are inconsistent
Managers need to pull the relevant peo- it difficult for large organizations to with a company’s existing profit model
ple out of the existing organization and allocate the critical financial and human will naturally be accorded the lowest
draw a boundary around a new group. resources needed to build a strong posi- priority or, worse yet, face hostility from
New team boundaries can facilitate new tion in small, emerging markets. And the legacy business. Having a separate
patterns of working together that can it is very difficult for a company whose workspace for the spinout organization
ultimately coalesce as new processes. cost structure is tailored to compete can be helpful, but what’s most impor-
Teams should be entirely dedicated in high-end markets to be profitable tant is that a disruptive start-up not be
to the new tasks assigned to them. The in low-end markets as well. When a placed at the mercy of the old organiza-
members—whether physically located company’s priorities render it incapable tion—which might see the upstart as a
together or not—should have a separate of allocating resources to an innovation competitive threat and attempt to have it
structure, and each member should project because of unattractive margins, shut down or cause it to fail.
In January 2009 when a US Airways plane landed in New York’s Hudson River, Twitter users
beat the mainstream media on reporting the news. Janis Krums was a passenger on one of the
commuter ferries dispatched to pick up the stranded airline passengers. He took a photo of the
dramatic scene and uploaded it to Twitpic. It was one of the first images of the accident broadcast
to the world. It also was something of a revelation to the news industry because it demonstrated
how easy technology made it for anyone to be a news provider. Photo by Janis Krums.
Yet this does not mean that the old vaporize the processes and priorities of by which employees make their decisions
operation should be entirely abandoned the acquired firm. Once the manager have served them well in the past. The
in favor of the new. In the example of of the acquired company is forced to very capabilities and culture that have
News Corp., its revenues from print and adopt the buyer’s way of doing business, made news organizations effective also
broadcast advertising are still strong. everything unique about the acquisition’s define their disabilities. In that regard,
But when disruptive change appears on capabilities will disappear. A better strat- time spent soul-searching for honest
the horizon, managers need to assemble egy is to let the business stand alone and answers to the following questions will
the resources, processes and priorities to to infuse the parent company’s resources pay off handsomely: Are the processes by
confront that change before it affects the into the acquisition’s processes and pri- which work habitually gets done in the
mainstream business. They need to run orities. This approach truly constitutes organization appropriate for this new
two businesses in tandem, with one set the acquisition of new capabilities. challenge? And will the priorities of the
of processes geared toward the present If, however, the acquired company’s organization cause this new initiative to
and another geared toward the future. resources were the reason for its success get high priority or to languish?
This needs to be guided by top and the primary rationale for the acqui- The reason that innovation often
management. In previous studies of sition, then integrating the acquisition seems to be so difficult for established
disruption, very few companies suc- into the parent company can make a lot newsrooms is that, though they employ
ceeded without the personal, attentive of sense. Essentially, that means plug- highly capable people, they are working
oversight of the CEO. More than anyone ging the acquired people, products, tech- within organizational structures whose
else, the CEO can ensure that the new nology and customers into the parent processes and priorities weren’t designed
organization gets the required resources company’s processes as a way of leverag- for the task at hand.
and is free to create processes and ing the parent’s existing capabilities.
priorities appropriate to the new chal- Forbes magazine’s purchase of True/ Creating an innovative newsroom
lenge without interference. CEOs who Slant, a digital news blogging network, environment means looking within
view spin-outs as a tool to get disruptive worked well because it understood what the existing value network and beyond
threats off their personal agendas, rather capabilities it was acquiring. Beginning traditional business models to discover
than organizations to be nurtured and in 2008, Forbes invested in the digital new experiences for audiences, then
developed, are almost certain to fail. news start-up whose market value was realigning your resources, processes and
built primarily upon its expertise in priorities to embrace these disruptions.
Creating capabilities through acquisitions. blogging platforms and its more efficient While there is no one panacea to
After assessing its resources, processes digital, print and video content creation replace the traditional business models
and priorities, the organization may models. By doing so, Forbes effectively that news organizations relied upon for
determine that an innovative venture can- incubated a new disruptive start-up as a half a century, these recommendations
not be initiated in-house or by creating a separate entity. When Forbes completed taken in aggregate provide a framework
spin-out organization. In these instances, the purchase of True/Slant in 2010, it for an emergent strategy to take hold.
companies should look to acquisitions. appointed True/Slant’s CEO, Lewis DVor- Innovation requires courageous leader-
Questions about for-profit versus non- kin, as Forbes’s chief product officer, and ship, a clearly articulated vision, and the
profit education aside, when The Wash- adopted a range of elements from True/ strength to stay the course.
ington Post Company determined that it Slant’s business model—including provid-
needed to diversify its revenue stream and ing small payments to contributors based Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B.
it could not create those capabilities in- on pageviews. This careful acquisition Clark Professor of Business Administra-
house, it purchased Kaplan Inc. in 1984. process was a major contributor to the tion at Harvard Business School and
Companies that successfully gain new success that Forbes achieved in building co-founder of Innosight Institute.
capabilities through acquisitions are its community network.
those that know where those capabilities Managers whose organizations are David Skok, the 2012 Martin Wise
reside in the acquisition and assimilate confronting change must first determine Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow, is
them—or not—accordingly. whether they have the resources required the managing editor of Globalnews.ca.
If the capabilities being purchased to succeed. They then need to ask a
are embedded in an acquired company’s separate question: Does the organization James Allworth, a graduate of Harvard
processes and priorities, and not in the have the processes and priorities it needs Business School, is a regular contributor
acquired company’s resources, then the to succeed in this new situation? Asking to Harvard Business Review. He worked
worst thing the acquiring manager could this second question is not as instinctive as a Fellow at the school’s Forum for
do is to integrate the acquisition into for most managers because the processes Growth and Innovation, at Apple, and at
the parent organization. Integration will by which work is done and the priorities Booz & Company.
Lessons From
FUKUSHIMA
‘More than a year after the accident, we still do
not have any serious investigative reporting on
[Japanese nuclear power plant owner] Tepco…’
Hospital patients who might have been exposed to radiation during the Fukushima nuclear accident are brought to a community center for testing.
Photo by Daisuke Tomita/The Yomiuri Shimbun/The Associated Press.
TRUTH AND
CONSEQUENCES
Reflecting on presidential campaign coverage before
and after ‘The Boys on the Bus’ By Adrienne LaFrance
“What goes on up there on the decision not to wear a tie, his workout HOPPING THE TRAIN
platform isn’t really what’s happening.” regimen, or the number of gray hairs on Before the boys were on the bus, they
So said the late Newsweek reporter his head. were on trains. (And this was before
John J. Lindsay, quoted 40 years ago in Identities are meticulously shaped many, if any, women were part of
Timothy Crouse’s “The Boys on the Bus,” by campaigns. That’s long been the case. campaign coverage.) That’s where
which tracked a boozy, foul-mouthed, But the distance between reporter and newspaperman Jules Witcover got his
sleep-deprived group of reporters on the candidate—and in turn between can- start. Already considered one of the
campaign trail in 1972. Four decades didate and the public—is yawning. At heavies in political reporting in 1972
later, Lindsay’s observation still nags worst, reporters write based on what’s when he was with the Los Angeles
at reporters: For all of the time on the given to them, much of which has been Times, Witcover had covered his first
trail, for all of the speeches and rallies exactingly calculated by campaigns. presidential campaign more than a
and gaffes and photo ops, there is that (Worse still: When news organizations decade and a half before that. He was
sinking—no, infuriating—feeling that give campaigns quote approval.) in his 20s, working for the “large but
we don’t really know the candidate. Long gone are the days of casual con- cheap” chain of Newhouse Newspapers,
We know a version of the candidate. versation between reporters and presi- and his boss let him hop on the
One that’s pieced together from stump dential hopefuls. (Harry Truman even Eisenhower campaign train from
speeches, press releases, tweets, slick played poker with reporters—and won— Washington to Philadelphia.
websites, brief visits to the back of on the trail.) Of all of the superlatives In those days, reporters—maybe
the campaign plane, the same the press repeats every four years—that in the dozens—traipsed behind the
milquetoast joke told again and again, this year’s is the most toxic campaign, candidate. (This year, about 15,000
hands grasped and babies kissed on that campaign reporting has never been credentials went out to news organiza-
the rope line, and the rare exclusive so frivolous, that this election is the tions for each of the conventions, accord-
interview. Reporters construct the most important in a generation—the ing to the convention organizers.) It was
candidate we know not just from recurring complaint about access, that an era when Western Union workers
his political record but in details like it has never been more elusive, may would walk through the train cars
the pulled pork he had for lunch, his actually hold weight. calling for copy—“just like a copy boy
AN ILLUSORY PRESENCE
Candidates may appear to be every-
where—they give speeches in towns
across the country, they’re active on
Twitter and Facebook, they’re e-mailing
supporters for donations multiple times
a week—but in ways that are often
one-sided. Campaigns are able to get
out messages while skirting the press.
President Barack Obama’s first news
conference of the year didn’t happen
until March. He didn’t hold another
one until June 29. After that, he waited
until late August to subject himself to
press questions. Romney’s campaign has
routinely tried to keep the press at bay,
including trying to ban reporters from
covering events and reprimanding them
for calling out questions.
(Nieman Reports, hoping to spend
a few days on the bus for this story,
requested credentials from the Romney
Photographers covering John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. Photo by Paul Schutzer/
and Obama campaigns. Both campaigns
Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
turned us down. Romney’s campaign
said seats were only for “those that are
would in a newsroom,” Witcover what they will tell you,” Witcover said. reporting on Governor Romney,” and
remembers—then hop off at the next “Politicians have become almost reclu- Obama’s team said that only members of
stop to transmit stories. sive. They’re out in public but they’re not the White House Correspondents’ Asso-
“It was a thrill to me because I was on accessible. Reporters can’t get to them ciation were eligible for credentials.)
the train with some of the then-famous and that hurts both ways. It hurts the Back in 1966, one of Witcover’s
White House reporters like Merriman ability of the press to get the story but it attempts to get face time with political
Smith,” said Witcover, now 85. “I was just really hurts the politicians because they newsmakers was through the creation of
one of the young kids on that train and I lose an opportunity to let people know the facetiously named Political Writers
kept my ears open and my eyes open.” who they are. Look at Mitt Romney— for a Democratic Society, an elite group
Four years later, Witcover returned to nominated, and the question is still, of reporters who would regularly get
the campaign trail. He went on to cover ‘Who is Mitt Romney? What’s he like? together for drinks and dinner (then
every presidential campaign through What kind of guy is he?’ Reporters who more drinks) with the people they
2004. (He made a couple of campaign cover the campaign, they can’t get next covered. Witcover says President George
stops in 2008, and still writes a syndicat- to him. They certainly don’t ride in a car H.W. Bush showed up to one such
ed column three times a week.) But Wit- with him, and [candidates are] not in gathering while he was in office.
cover has been complaining for decades situations when they let their hair down “The access we got—you could cash
about shrinking access to candidates. and talk to reporters. They also built up in by having someone come to one of
“There’s been a huge difference in the a whole army of protectors, handlers for these dinners, you knew who he was
access to presidential candidates and to candidates, not just strategists but just and what made him tick—but the road
is blocked now,” Witcover said. “And teristics of a carnival, a frantic crusade, a that’s cold and analytical. It involves
that’s the problem. It’s blocked in both portable Chautauqua. In little more than human beings and how they react under
directions. It’s blocked for the reporter a month, it had taken Clinton on a jour- pressure. How quick they think on their
and it’s blocked for the politician who’s ney from the cover of Time magazine to feet. How quickly they can recover from
trying to get himself known in the way the tawdry scandal sheets sold at super- a blunder. Those were the stories that I
he wants to be known to reporters.” market checkout stands, keelhauled him always enjoyed doing.”
These days, a presidential candi- through a controversy that renewed the Observing a candidate from the trail
date is overly protected “by either his pain of Vietnam, and plunged him into a is better than nothing, and there is
handlers or his own attitude,” Witcover free fall in popularity.” much to be learned about a candidate
says. He sees two big reasons that access Dogged by claims of infidelity and from how a campaign is run. But quoting
contracted in the late 1960s and into the in the face of a draft-dodging scandal, a stump speech isn’t ultimately much dif-
1970s: “[President Lyndon B.] Johnson’s
lies of Vietnam and [President Richard]
Nixon’s lies about Watergate” and the Observing a candidate from the trail is better than
increasingly adversarial press-politician
nothing, and there is much to be learned about a
relationship that resulted. But it also
may have been that how reporters candidate from how a campaign is run.
covered politics changed dramatically in
the mid-20th century. After the success
of Theodore H. White’s book, “The Mak- Clinton relied on what Wilkie calls ferent from quoting a press release.
ing of the President, 1960,” newsrooms his “tenacity, his relentless optimism, As long as real access is restricted, there
became more interested in conveying the and his inner reserves” to beat the will be a gap between candidate and
human drama of a campaign. odds and survive a month that could human being.
The paradox: The more reporters have have killed his presidential aspirations. “Writing about the character of candi-
tried to get at who the person running for Remembering that campaign now dates,” Wilkie said, “I think that’s terribly
office is, the harder it has become. still astonishes Wilkie. “Just the crazy important. People don’t give a shit about
drama that was Clinton in 1992,” Wilkie issues, basically. How many people you
THE CLINTON DRAMA recalled. “He should never have gotten think are going to read a 2,000-word
One of the cub reporters on the trail in out of New Hampshire. He was so damn take on the health care program? Not
1972 was Curtis Wilkie, now 72, who resilient. Climbing out of one scandal many. I don’t mean to belittle it. Its good
says he was so young and unknown in and into another.” that we do it, and people do do it. Every
those days that he “didn’t have a whole Clinton was easy to talk to but paper tries to cover issues. But it’s a lot
lot of telephone calls returned.” He was Wilkie, whose words still drip with the more fun covering people.”
covering the George McGovern cam- slow warmth of a Mississippi drawl, Wilkie says he remembers sitting on
paign for The News Journal in Wilming- was uniquely positioned to take his mea- a campaign plane more than a decade
ton, Delaware and would go on to cover sure. Not only are both men Southerners ago, having a drink and talking baseball
eight straight presidential campaigns, but Wilkie was a reporter and editor with Robert Novak, the columnist who
seven of them for The Boston Globe. for The Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Regis- died in 2009.
Wilkie didn’t care much about breaking ter for nearly seven years at the height “We looked around, and virtually
campaign news. He preferred reporting of the civil rights movement. Racial everyone else on the plane had ear-
and writing the kinds of stories that got segregation in the Arkansas of Clinton’s phones on and was transcribing the
at the heart of who a candidate was. youth was one of the subjects the two same speech they had transcribed 12
The story he’s most proud of in all covered as they rode in a car during the times before,” Wilkie said. “Novak says,
those years was published in The Boston campaign and spent time together one ‘Look at this. We are surrounded by a
Globe Magazine in July 1992. “33 Days on one. Wilkie’s proud of the profile he bunch of goddamn CPAs.’ ”
That Defined a Candidate”—based on wrote for The Boston Globe Magazine
observations from the campaign trail the summer before the election. Adrienne LaFrance is a reporter for
and his conversations with Bill and Hill- “It wasn’t news but I think you would Digital First’s Project Thunderdome in
ary Clinton—is about the month leading come away with a pretty damn good idea New York City. She previously was a staff
up to the New Hampshire primary. of who he was,” Wilkie said. “Covering writer for the Nieman Journalism Lab
Here’s how Wilkie set the scene: “… politics—politics are very human. It’s a and a reporter in the Washington bureau
the campaign had acquired the charac- very human exercise. It’s not something of Honolulu Civil Beat.
By Howard Berkes
I lost count of the hours after “No, scotch,” he said, as he opened his dismal MPC food, the daunting logistics,
four all-nighters and 10 20-hour days. fist and made a wrapping motion around the endless demands from editors back
But I knew it was the last of 23 consecu- the two broken ends of his tattered home, and the challenge of being part of
tive workdays and the final 30-minute leather belt. “Scotch. For my belt. Too the planet’s most concentrated pack of
double-decker bus ride from the Main many times I take off at security.” desperate reporters.
Press Centre (MPC) at the London My final official act on the grounds Press credentials are doled out to
Olympic Park to my University of Lon- of the 2012 Olympics was to pull a roll more than 6,000 print and Web report-
don dorm. Despite lingering grogginess of packaging tape out of my backpack, ers and editors, and broadcasters from
from just four hours of sleep, I was buoy- wrap it around the torn ends of this poor radio and TV networks who failed to pay
ant. No more MPC. No more daily “mag fellow’s belt, and then watch him smile gazillions of dollars for exclusive Olympic
and bag” security lines. Just one more broadly, his pants now snug around rights. This latter group wears Olympic
stomach-churning bus ride. his waist. “Thank you,” he said, as he credentials marked “ENR,” which is
The final “to-do” list was short: An grasped both my hands and shook them, Olympic-ese for “non-rights-holding
interview at the BBC, two phone inter- as if I’d just placed a gold medal around broadcaster.” They are the untouchables
views with NPR affiliates, pack, and set his neck. “I am Russian journalist. Come of the Olympic press corps and they
the alarm for 5 a.m. for the long journey to Sochi (site of the 2014 Winter Games) are barred from high-demand events
home. and I will help you.” (including swimming, opening and clos-
One other journalist stood at the curb “Sochi,” I thought, as my new best ing ceremonies, and basketball finals).
waiting for the media bus. Tall and thin friend grabbed my box and carried it That still leaves the bulk of competi-
with a thick Borat mustache, he had the onto the bus for me. “Sochi is only 18 tion for the scarlet-lettered ENRs but
top front of his trousers bunched in the months away!” they can’t enter Olympic venues with
tight grip of a fist and he pointed at the recorders, microphones or video cam-
boxed printer at my feet. THE UNTOUCHABLES eras. They can’t record in “mixed zones”
“You have scotch?” he asked in a thick The first rule of Olympic journalism is where reporters encounter sweating or
accent. that no one should ever feel sorry for dripping athletes as soon as the Olympi-
“Geez,” I thought. “This guy is ready anyone assigned to cover the games. And ans walk off the track, the pool deck, the
to party.” no journalist with an Olympic credential beach volleyball sand, or the competition
“Scotch?” I asked, puzzled as he should ever feel self-pity. I’ve covered arena. And they can’t record medal-win-
continued to point at the box. “It’s just a eight Olympics and it was a plum assign- ning athletes and coaches at their victory
printer.” ment every time, despite the hours, the news conferences at Olympic venues.
If ENRs are lucky, Olympic officials away from the athletes to hear what was cast rights-holder NBC. The network
from their home countries will drag the said. We’re all in this together, after all. has its own sitting member on the
athletes back to the MPC—where ENRs The crush is very real. Beneath IOC—Alex Gilady, the IOC delegate
can record—for one more news confer- Wembley Stadium the night the women from Israel. Gilady is a longtime vice
ence with the untouchables. American of the U.S. Olympic soccer team dra- president of NBC and has been part of
ENRs are very lucky because the United matically defeated Japan for the gold the Radio and Television Commission
States Olympic Committee works very medal, the knot of reporters was so that has oversight over broadcasters
hard to do just that. deep and tight, the barrier protecting covering the games.
The ENR restrictions are part of the the athletes began to crack and collapse. In June of last year, NBC was again
exclusivity rights-holding broadcasters, A volunteer rushed over to brace it with awarded exclusive American rights to
such as NBC in the United States, his body as American star Abby Wam- Olympic broadcast coverage. The $4.38
spend so much money to secure. The bach faced dozens of outstretched arms billion deal that extends through the
rights-holders and the host broadcast pointing palm-sized recorders. 2020 games assures the network of an
operation that serves them get another unbroken string of 11 winter and sum-
18,000 credentials. That’s right: 18,000. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST mer Olympics.
These folks are based in the Interna- A relatively small group of reporters CBS, Fox and ABC/ESPN also bid but
tional Broadcast Centre (IBC) which regularly cover the Olympics, Olympic none had their own IOC vice president.
is adjacent to the MPC but strictly politics, and Olympic sports in the years IOC spokesman Mark Adams told NPR
off-limits to anyone who hasn’t paid big between the games. Some are invited that Gilady played no role in the decision
bucks to be there. to carry the Olympic flame during the to stick with NBC. “He has had no part
IBC Brahmins speak smugly of fabu- torch relays that precede the Olympics, whatsoever in the negotiations, either
lous catered food. I have heard uncon- dumping the detachment journalists formal or informal,” Adams said.
firmed rumors for years that Olympic are supposed to maintain for one of the But Gilady’s biography at the
IBCs even have their own Starbucks. most emotional Olympic experiences International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
But I’m not complaining. It’s a available to selected non-Olympians. is unblinking about his role in getting
privilege being inside the rings, with the And some become part of the Olympic and retaining NBC’s Olympic rights in
endless mix of amazing and disappoint- establishment, serving on the Interna- the past. “In 1984, Gilady was promoted
to network Vice-President for Liaison to
the IOC Radio-Television Commission;
Even in the sweaty and smelly crush of the pack, and later, senior Vice-President of
Global Operations,” the Hall of Fame
great moments emerge, and it doesn’t take much waving bio reads. “He played a major role in
of a notebook or microphone to find exclusive angles the network’s acquisition of broadcast
and details. rights to the summer and winter
Olympic Games of 1988, 2000, 2002,
2004, 2006 and 2008.”
ing athletes, unbelievable achievement tional Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Press
and heart-wrenching failure, stoic Commission, which helps set policy THE JOURNALIST CHEERLEADERS
determination and shameless cheating, for Olympic news coverage and press There’s more worth scrutinizing at the
persistent and lonely struggles to push logistics. Olympics than the athletes and the
the limits of human endurance and bold The IOC Press Commission serves a competition. Many Olympic regulars
money-chasing hucksterism. useful advisory purpose and the journal- are tough reporters who don’t hesitate
Even with more than 24,000 cre- ists among its members advocate for the to question, challenge and expose. Some
dentialed and competing journalists needs of Olympic reporters. The group have written about Olympic ticketing,
and technicians, the stories flow. Even includes at least one representative which enriches the few lucky agencies
in the sweaty and smelly crush of the from a rights-holding broadcaster (even who get exclusive distribution deals, but
pack, great moments emerge, and it though there’s another IOC commission leaves desperate fans spending hours
doesn’t take much waving of a notebook for rights-holders) but does not include on the Web or in line trying to buy and
or microphone to find exclusive angles any lowly ENRs. retrieve expensive tickets. Many in Lon-
and details. And don’t tell the editors, There are many conflicts of interest don complained they couldn’t get tickets
but collegial reporters at the front of the that are part of the Olympic world. The despite hundreds of empty seats at some
pack in a mixed zone freely share quotes most blatant among journalists may be Olympic events.
with those at the back who are too far the one that involves American broad- A ticketing scandal attracted some
An Ode to
Readers’ Quirks
Being one click away from anyone who wants to weigh in on your looks
or any number of subjects has its ups and downs. By Kate Galbraith
In August 2009, about a year after I Aren’t readers the best? Just when blance to this or that Galbraith. Another
began working at The New York Times, you are having a lousy or boring day, piece of reader mail opened with: “Kate,
the following piece of reader mail something weird comes along to keep are you a Dunlap? While reading nyt.
popped into my inbox: you entertained. com yesterday I saw your name, and
I showed Darcy’s e-mail around the then your photo. I sent your photo to my
READER’S NAME: Times newsroom, and my colleagues sister Sarah, and she thinks you look like
Darcy collapsed in laughter. There was instant a Dunlap, too.” (Astonished, I forwarded
READER’S MESSAGE: speculation—was Darcy a man or a the note to my mother, whose maiden
Hi Kate, I think highly of you and I woman? Would I take him/her up on it? name was in fact Dunlap, and she con-
wanted to simply suggest something. I What about bangs, anyway? As to what firmed that the writer had attended her
think you could be more beautiful with a I should write back, someone suggested, wedding reception.)
different haircut and just a tad bit of eye- “Dear Darcy, I bet Frank Rich could use In my current work at The Texas
liner and mascara. Please don’t get upset, a makeover, too.” Tribune, I keep a special folder in my
I haven’t the slightest idea how to write Readers’ imaginations know no inbox. It’s called “Weird Stuff.” Mostly,
this, but I think you could dazzle with bounds, and with the Internet, they’re the e-mails in it are from public relations
just a little effort. I was thinking bangs just a click away from sharing it. people peddling concepts like “motor-
and perhaps a shorter cut? Anyway, Darcy’s note shot right to the top of my ized window treatments.” The National
you’re welcome to toss this, but I’ve done strangest-comments-from-readers list. Audubon Society made the cut, with a
lots of make overs and think just 5 mins But just having my photograph up on press release entitled “Audubon releases
in the morning would do the dazzle the Times website triggered a message virtual birds all over the Internet.” The
thing. Sorry if I’ve offended—totally not roughly every few months from someone folder also contains an e-mail from a
intended. who felt free to remark on my resem- copy editor—not at The Texas Tribune,
Developing Notions
Chronicling a family’s life for 35 years
holds many lessons about what does
and does not change over time. By Pam Spaulding
Beginning with this issue, Nieman Reports is now the home for
Nieman Watchdog Project articles examining the successes and
failures of watchdog journalism. Here, Dan Froomkin probes the
challenges facing national security reporters at a time when the
nature of combat is quietly undergoing a revolution.
It’s a particularly challenging time promised, so the executive branch’s most bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill—
for American national security reporting, controversial methods of violence and not to conduct hearings into what had
with the press and public increasingly in control remain solely in the hands of the been revealed, but to demand criminal
the dark about important defense, intel- president—possibly about to be passed investigations into the leaking.
ligence and counterterrorism issues. along to a leader with less restraint. That’s how Congress has been ever
The post-post-9/11 period finds the More than a decade after it started, since the terrorist attacks 11 years ago.
U.S. aggressively experimenting with we still have no clue how much the gov- “We never got our post 9/11 Church
two new highly disruptive forms of com- ernment is listening in on us or reading Committee,” said Steven Aftergood,
bat—drone strikes and cyberattacks—for our e-mail, despite the obvious Fourth director of the Federation of American
which our leaders appear to be making Amendment issues. Scientists’s Project on Government
up the rules, in secret, as they go along. And the government’s response to this Secrecy, referring to a special investiga-
Troubling legal and moral issues left unprecedented secrecy is a war on leaks. tive Senate committee that held hear-
behind by the previous administration ings on widespread intelligence abuses
remain unresolved. Far from reversing NO HELP FROM HIGH PLACES after the Watergate scandal. “What
the Bush-Cheney executive power grab, After past periods of executive excess, the we’ve got instead is the intelligence
President Barack Obama is taking it to Fourth Estate was certainly more robust oversight committee drafting legislation
new extremes by unilaterally approving and arguably more persistent, but it also to penalize leaks.”
indefinite detention of foreign prisoners found natural allies in the other branches In the interim, the White House has
and covert targeted killings of terror of government—particularly Congress. been plenty busy using the draconian
suspects, even when they are American By contrast, over the summer of 2012, Espionage Act of 1917 to pursue leakers.
citizens. the publication of a minimal amount Despite his talk about openness, Obama
There is little to none of the judicial of new information regarding drones, has taken the unprecedented step of
and legislative oversight Obama had cyberwarfare and targeted killings incited filing espionage charges against six
officials accused of leaking information Abramson warned that “the chilling security reporting during the Bush era—
to journalists—more than all previous effect of leak prosecutions threatens to particularly in his 2006 book “The One
administrations combined. rob the public of vital information,” as Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s
And James R. Clapper, Jr., the director sources fear legal retribution and report- Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11”—argues
of national intelligence, recently directed ers fear being subpoenaed and possibly that the government’s strategies to pre-
that employees under his command be even prosecuted themselves. vent leaking have suddenly become much
hooked up to lie detectors and questioned “Several reporters who have covered more aggressive and effective. “It’s making
about their contacts with journalists and national security in Washington for it more difficult to get that information
about unauthorized leaks to the media. decades tell me that the environment the public truly needs to know,” he said.
Whatever restraint existed inside the has never been tougher or information The increased dependence on e-mail
executive branch seems to have been harder to dislodge,” Abramson said. “One and the government’s enhanced surveil-
overwhelmed by a national security Times reporter told me the environment lance abilities are also a factor, Suskind
apparatus that has swollen to enormous in Washington has never been more said. “In the old days, you could call
proportions since 9/11. “There has been hostile to reporting.” someone up on their kitchen phone. You
no similar strengthening of bureaucracy were pretty much OK unless [FBI direc-
protecting civil liberties and transpar- THE DRAKE EFFECT tor J. Edgar] Hoover knew which line to
ency,” noted New Yorker writer Jane One of the Obama administration’s early tap. Now you have to be extra careful.”
Mayer. “When the national security attempts to prosecute whistleblowers for And Suskind said that the fear of get-
community is militating for leak inves- espionage ended in defeat and disgrace. ting caught is now heightened because so
tigations, there is much less pushback Prosecutors had filed 10 felony charges many intelligence officials are counting
than pre-9/11.” against Thomas Drake, a National Secu- on entering the hugely lucrative world of
rity Agency (NSA) whistleblower who intelligence contracting once they leave
ABRAMSON’S CONCERN allegedly provided classified information public service.
Mainstream media leaders are critical about mismanagement at the NSA to a Before 9/11, the private intelligence/
of the government’s aggressive posture, Baltimore Sun reporter. But days before national security complex just “didn’t
which they see as threatening First the trial was to start, the government have that kind of money,” Suskind said.
Amendment rights. At the annual dropped the charges and settled for But now, it provides “the soft cushion
conference of Investigative Reporters Drake pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. that awaits almost every official inside
and Editors in June, New York Times The judge called Drake’s four-year government with a security clearance.”
executive editor Jill Abramson made the persecution by the government “uncon-
case that the very leaks that seemed to scionable” and said that it goes against THE government view
inflame officials the most were also the “the very root of what this country was Justice Department spokesman Dean
most essential. founded on against general warrants of Boyd rejected the media narrative of a
“Cyberwarfare is a new battlefield, the British.” government assault on the press. “The
where there are no agreements regulating But Aftergood said the Drake case media obviously is an interested party—
the use of malware viruses,” she said. “So had a profound effect on the intelligence or a biased party—in these matters,” he
doesn’t the public need the information to community nonetheless. “I think there’s a said.
evaluate this new kind of battle, especially new level of paranoia within government “Whenever the Justice Department
when it’s waged in its name? Furthermore, about unauthorized contacts with the conducts an investigation relating to
when the existence of drone and cyber press,” he said. “In every significant sense, leaks of classified information to the
attacks are widely known but officially the government won, because it demon- media, it seeks to strike the proper
classified, informed public discussion of strated the price of nonconformity.” balance between the important function
critical questions is really stifled.” Drake agreed. “It was very clear that of the press and law enforcement and
There are in fact so many obvious, they wanted to send the most chilling of national security imperatives,” Boyd said.
unanswered questions about both of these messages, and that chilling message has But, he insisted: “When classified
new weapons of warfare, most notably: been received,” he said. Among former information is improperly disclosed
What happens when other people use colleagues, Drake said, “there are those to the media by a person who has no
them on us, saying we set the precedent who will not talk to reporters—and we’re authority to disclose it, that’s illegal.”
for their use? In the case of drones, does not even talking leaking, we’re just talk- Boyd also denied that whistleblow-
their use require a declaration of war or at ing talking.” ers are being targeted. “On some of
least an authorization of the use of force? Ron Suskind, one of a handful of the cases, it’s clear that the officials
And how many civilians are they killing? journalists who did exceptional national that we’ve accused are not blowing the
Larry Jones levitates his wife, Deede Baquié Jones. Joining them on stage in the basement of their home are sons Mark (in the drum) and Lawrence,
and daughter Valle, sawed in half. Photo by Stern J. Bramson/University of Louisville Photographic Archives.
When I was a child, storytelling Nearby, Thurston vanished cars and The basement’s centerpiece, though,
took place in the basement, in the only levitated women, sending one into the was the stage. That’s where our family
room in my house that was ever locked. sky in a glass elevator. performances took place throughout the
Inside, the air felt several degrees cooler Across the room stood a bookcase, 1960s and ’70s. Behind blue curtains sat
and it smelled of talcum powder and which, if I pushed on it just right, a large cabinet from which my brothers
stale cigarettes. From floor to ceiling, opened to a dark storage area. Inside, would appear and then, with a few words
posters of magicians—most from the the shelves were lined with shoeboxes from my father, would disappear. Across
turn of the last century—lined the walls. filled with fake thumbs, cigarettes, decks the stage, my father would vanish from a
The illusionist Alexander wore a feath- of cards. A black hat and white gloves velvet chair and then enter through the
ered turban and glared at me as he held sat on one shelf. Other shelves held basement door a few minutes later.
a crystal ball, with the caption “The scarves that turned into canes, cham- The most mesmerizing trick, though,
Man Who Knows.” Next to him, the pagne bottles that opened into cigarette featured my mother. As the curtains
magician Kassner stirred a cauldron dispensers, silver balls that transformed opened, my mother, dressed in a gold
with a witch’s head floating in steam. into bouquets of flowers. brocade gown and black flats, lay on a
An Occupy Oakland march in California last year took aim at the unequal distribution of wealth. Photo by Paul Sakuma/The Associated Press.
Defying Gravity
A gripping history of the 40 years since wealth started falling up By Dan Froomkin
Who Stole the American Dream? In his sweeping, authoritative exami- writes, corporate America threw off any
By Hedrick Smith nation of the last four decades of the sense of restraint or social obligation
Random House. 557 pages. American economic experience, Smith and instead unstintingly leveraged its
describes the long, relentless decline of money and political power to pursue
the middle class—a decline that was not its own interests.
Who stole the American Dream? The by accident, but by design. The result was nothing less than
short answer to the question in the title He dates it back to a private memo— a shift in gravity. Starting in the early
of Hedrick Smith’s new book is: The U.S. in effect, a political call to arms—issued 1970s, every major economic trend—
Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart. to the nation’s business leaders in 1971 increased productivity, globalization, tax
But the longer answer is one heck of a by Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a corporate attor- law overhauls, and the phasing out of
story, told by one of the great journalists ney soon to become a Supreme Court pensions in favor of 401(k)s—produced
of our time. justice. From that point forward, Smith the same result: The benefits fell upward.
The Art of Making Magazines: it well when she described her task on Though he didn’t use the term,
On Being an Editor and Other Views first taking over the iconic food title: former Atlantic editor Michael Kelly
From the Industry “What I am supposed to do is change this was talking about something akin to
Edited by Victor S. Navasky magazine so that the renewals go back up conceptual scoops when he said: “Reality
and Evan Cornog again. And change it so that the advertis- has two salient qualities. The first is that
Columbia University Press. 179 pages. ers like the magazine and feel that it’s had it’s real. The second is that it’s a mess
a new infusion of life and interest, but not … Journalism has two related salient
change it so much that the 750,000 exist- qualities. It’s not real—it is artificial,
Reading “The Art of Making ing subscribers notice that it’s changed. I like all storytelling. And it’s orderly. It is
Magazines” is like watching “Titanic”: didn’t know it then, but there is nothing designed, in fact, to take the daily wreck,
However compelling the love story, you more difficult in the entire world than to the chaos and the mess out there, and
already know the ship is going down do this little sleight-of-hand thing, which impose upon it a false order. … all maga-
and only a few will survive. Most of the is to change it but not change it.” Sounds zines exist to shape the chaotic world in
Columbia University Graduate School like the job description of every magazine an artificial, organized way.”
of Journalism lectures collected here editor working today. What is more in need of shaping than
were delivered well before the Internet/ And yet there are reasons to be the shapeless world we live in today?
recession iceberg punched a gaping hole cheerful about the future of magazines. And what better way to shape it than
in magazine business models. The pas- In fact, there are reasons to believe the through the periodic presentation of
sion of lecturers like Felix Dennis, Tina magazine is the format best fitted for the conceptual scoops that is a magazine?
Brown, and the late Michael Kelly for 21st century. “You are buying an organizing
their craft is vivid and convincing. But it My favorite kind of article is what we principle” when you buy a magazine,
feels a lot different to be reading about it at Time used to call a “conceptual scoop.” Kelly said. (Kelly was also speaking of
while clinging to the wreckage. A conceptual scoop is not a breaking newspapers in his talk, but I am focus-
“The time to change is not when you’re news story but a breaking ideas story. ing on magazines.) Indeed, the maga-
doing badly, but when you’re doing well, It involves surveying a wide terrain of zines currently doing best—in terms
as it’s a moment to take risks.” That’s a
lesson Elle editor in chief Roberta Myers
learned from one of her former CEOs.
Unfortunately, it’s a lesson most of the One of the ironies of journalism today is that as formats
magazine industry learned too late. The are becoming shorter, narrower and less complex, the
time to change has arrived and—notable issues journalists need to address are becoming longer,
exceptions like The Atlantic, The Econo-
broader and more complex. In journalism, we need the
mist, and The Week notwithstanding—
we’re doing pretty badly. Which makes long form to form the long view.
this book oddly relevant because, though
it barely glances at the current challenges
to magazine making, it celebrates much information and finding an important but of having a lively digital presence and/
of what should not change: fact checking previously unobserved pattern in it. Take, or enviable circulation—also have the
(Peter Canby of The New Yorker), copy- say, the latest financial headlines, com- clearest, most well-defined organizing
editing (The Atlantic’s Barbara Wallraff ) bine them with some recent behavioral principles: The Economist with its free
and the art of editing itself (Ruth Reichl, economics studies, add in some insights market evangelism, The Atlantic with
former editor in chief of Gourmet). from cognitive science, and, suddenly, its liberal thought leadership, The Week
Reichl, who held that post from 1999 you’ve got a conceptual scoop, a fresh way with its bite-sized digest of world news,
until the magazine closed in 2009, put of looking at the causes of the recession. a format pioneered by Time.
The Fighter
An impassioned believer in the battle for Algerian independence had a few blind spots.
by Aboubakr Jamai
The Algerian Memoirs: Days his understanding of the world. After he Question,” Alleg summoned all of his
of Hope and Combat landed in Algeria in 1939 at the age of skill as a reporter to denounce the sys-
By Henri Alleg 18, he furthered his education by enroll- tem of “enhanced interrogations” used by
Translated by Gila Walker ing in the Algerian Communist Youth French authorities to quell the insurrec-
Seagull Books. 442 pages. before ascending to the editorship of the tion that had been spreading throughout
pro-Communist daily Alger Républicain Algeria since 1954. He described in
(“Republican Algeria”). minute detail the ordeal of a Communist
The dear price Algerians paid for Founded in 1938 by progressives to arrested and savagely tortured: himself.
their independence has been amply counter the powerful press controlled by The slim volume, for which Jean-Paul
documented, but Henri Alleg’s “Alge- the government and landowners, Alger Sartre wrote an introduction, had a
rian Memoirs” is an incomparable, if Républicain advocated assimilation and tremendous impact on public opinion
imperfect, addition to that history. The equal rights. In the paper’s early years, as well as the French intelligentsia. It
French-Algerian journalist is now in his Albert Camus was one of its reporters. exposed the ugliness of French colo-
90s and we are fortunate that his mem- It was not until Alleg took over that the nialism and the moral corruption that
oir, published in French in 2005, has paper became unequivocally anti-colo- infects an occupying force.
finally been translated into English. nialist. Alleg joined the staff as a reporter It is not surprising that “La Ques-
His book is not only a powerful in 1950 and was named editor in chief a tion” was back in the news after the
reminder of the humiliations and year later. The paper never drifted from Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2004, for
injustices endured by a country that its primary mission: to be the voice of Alleg, too, was subject to waterboard-
was colonized by France for 132 years— the downtrodden. Alleg’s passion for this ing and other means of torture. If the
one that won independence just 50 type of militant journalism almost jumps horrors into which the U.S. occupation
of Iraq descended evoked the way the
French army dealt with the Algerian
Those interested in the challenge of managing a struggle for independence, as described
in “La Question,” readers may find some
newspaper will relish the many ruses and stratagems resonance between “Algerian Memoirs”
editor in chief Henri Alleg and his colleagues employed and current events in the Arab world.
to keep Alger Républicain alive. The fight against Western colonialism is
a powerful theme in most of the region’s
countries. Anti-Western sentiment is not
years ago—but an intensely personal off every page devoted to Alger Répub- only the product of an ossified version
story. Alleg was the scion of a Jewish licain. Those interested in the challenge of Islam or Arabism, it is also a vivid
family of Russian and Polish origins of managing a newspaper will relish the impulse in “Algerian Memoirs.”
who fled to London after the scourge of many ruses and stratagems Alleg and his Alleg’s memoir resonates with cur-
anti-Semitism and its ugly manifesta- colleagues employed to keep the paper rent events for another reason. In the
tions—the pogroms—spread in Eastern alive. Alger Républicain many times final chapters, the author shows how
Europe in the late 19th and early 20th was reborn from its own ashes, thanks the newly established Algerian state
centuries. Shortly after his birth, Alleg’s to the dedication and ingenuity of these reneged on the liberation movement’s
parents moved to Paris. There, his newspapermen. promises to transcend ethnicity and
political coming of age was informed Alleg, best known for his 1958 book religion. Algeria did not promote racist
by the Popular Front and he developed “La Question,” once banned in France, or even Islamist policies but its leaders’
a passion for long trips abroad; these devotes a chapter of his memoir to this discourse was replete with pro-Arab
were important for his education and defining episode in his life. For “La and pro-Islam pronouncements
marginalizing the sizable Kabyle pro- more mindboggling to this reviewer. divorce.” When Alleg many years after
portion of the Algerian people, the You don’t have to be a rabid anti- Joseph Stalin’s death dared to criticize
Christians, Jews and atheists like Alleg communist to be dismayed by Alleg’s the Soviet Union, it was only to lament
himself. Islam was proclaimed the fiddling with established historical facts. that a cult of personality dominated the
religion of the state. Will the inaptly In fact, it wasn’t until 1956—14 months Soviet tyrant’s era.
named Arab Spring engender more after the start of the armed Algerian Communist dogma aside, “The
inclusive politics or fall prey to sec- struggle—that the French Communist Algerian Memoirs” tells the story of an
tarianism? See the debates about the Party came around to supporting the extraordinary life of militance, ideals and
Copts’ situation in Egypt or the Shiites Algerian independence movement. disappointments. It is a worthy read.
in Bahrain. Alleg presents Maurice Thorez, the
Alleg’s fight for Algerian indepen- leader of the French Communist Party Aboubakr Jamai, a 2007 Nieman
dence is admirable, and he paid a high from 1930 until his death in 1964, as Fellow, has founded a number of inde-
price for his political engagement. a paragon of anti-colonial rule. Yet he pendent publications in Morocco,
Because the author’s unwavering attach- fails to mention that Thorez, toeing the most recently the online news service
ment to the most respectable humanistic line for Moscow back in 1937, declared lakome.com. In 2003, his work was
values comes across so clearly in what that Algerian independence was off the recognized by the Committee to Protect
he writes about Algeria, his dogmatic table with this statement: “The right to Journalists with an International Press
adherence to communism is all the divorce does not mean the obligation to Freedom Award.
In March 1970, women employees of Newsweek, angered at being barred from reporting and writing jobs, sued the magazine for sex discrimination.
It was the week the women’s movement was the cover story. Eleanor Holmes Norton, second from right, was their attorney. Photo © Bettman/Corbis.
The Good Girls Revolt: How the of The New York Times. As we ate, a opportunities for women in the relatively
Women of Newsweek Sued Their television correspondent asked Abe short time since 1970, when women at
Bosses and Changed the Workplace how our experiences in Central America Newsweek sued to stop sex discrimina-
By Lynn Povich compared with his covering the war tion at the newsmagazine. Their battle
PublicAffairs. 249 pages. in breakaway Katanga province in the was not about slogging along muddy
Congo two decades earlier. roads and pursuing recalcitrant army
“The most obvious difference,” Abe officers but about gathering the cour-
During its civil war, tiny El Salva- responded, “is that here I am surrounded age to say, “Enough!” to the mainly Ivy
dor was a place where correspondents by women.” League gentlemen with whom they
could go out to rural battle sites and While that may have been a slight worked side by side. They shared food,
guerrilla camps during the day and exaggeration, there were women at drink, good times, late nights at the
return to the capital in time for dinner in the table representing the Times, The office when the magazine closed, and,
a good restaurant. On one such evening Washington Post, Newsweek, The Miami yes, beds—but not the titles, glory,
in 1982, about a dozen of us enjoyed a Herald, and probably others. promotions and raises.
roast-pig feast and fine wine as guests of Looking back, I can see that an Lynn Povich, who began her career
the late Abe Rosenthal, executive editor incredible change had occurred in at Newsweek as a secretary and news
Un-American Activities
assembly. To clarify: Officials not only
collected information, true and false, but
they illegally laid hands on history—in
particular, assisting the political rise of
Ronald Reagan.
‘The record of the FBI’s obsession [with student radicals] Rosenfeld has produced a scrupulous
and meddling is overwhelming …’ by Todd Gitlin chronicle and analysis of America’s
deep politics, the likes of which exists
nowhere else. This writer has long
Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student In 1977, The Daily Californian, the surmised that some of what Rosenfeld
Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power University of California-Berkeley’s stu- reports might be true, but wondered if
By Seth Rosenfeld dent paper, filed a Freedom of Informa- paranoia was getting the better of him.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 734 pages. tion Act request for documents bearing It was not. The record of the FBI’s obses-
on FBI surveillance in Berkeley during sion and meddling is overwhelming and,
the ’60s and early ’70s. across the abyss of time, still shocking.
what once was called multiple man Fellows for the 1987 Louis tion’s Alumni Hall of Fame in illustrating took two years, and
personality disorder. M. Lyons Award for Conscience October. King, who received a they were nearing completion
A frequent contributor to and Integrity in Journalism for bachelor of arts degree from when the Occupy Wall Street
Playboy and The Wall Street giving black South Africans a the school in 1983, is currently protests began in September
Journal, Oney has a book deal voice during apartheid. senior product manager for 2011. In response, they added a
with Simon & Schuster to write Following Nelson Mandela’s portal and partnerships for final chapter about the move-
a narrative history of NPR. release from prison in 1990, MSN UK in London, where ment. Hedges writes in the
Sisulu served as communica- she has lived since 2008. She introduction: “This revolt rooted
1985 tions liaison on his world tour. also has a degree in Spanish our conclusion in the real rather
Zwelakhe Sisulu, a South African In 1993, the African National language and literature from than the speculative. It permit-
opposition newspaper editor Congress hired Sisulu to trans- the University of Washington. ted us to finish with a look at a
and anti-apartheid activist who form the South African Broad- King had previously been a Latin rebellion that was as concrete
was jailed several times in the casting Corporation (SABC) from America correspondent and an as the destruction that led to it.
1970s and ’80s for speaking a tool of apartheid into a true editor for Reuters. And it permitted us to end our
out against black oppression, public broadcaster. He served as work with the capacity for hope.”
died October 4th at the age of group CEO of SABC from 1994 to 1999 Hedges, a columnist at
61. He had been suffering from 1997. Later in life, Sisulu was an Chris Hedges is the writer of Truthdig and senior fellow at
complications of diabetes. active businessman. “Days of Destruction, Days of The Nation Institute, spent
South Africa’s President He is survived by his wife, Revolt,” published by Nation nearly two decades as a foreign
Jacob Zuma expressed his Zodwa, one daughter, two sons, Books in June. correspondent for The New
condolences to Sisulu’s family, and one granddaughter. A collaboration with cartoon- York Times, NPR and other
saying, “He has left an indelible ist Joe Sacco, the book is an organizations.
mark in both the struggle for 1986 account of what the pair saw
liberation and the reconstruc- Buzz Bissinger wrote the text for and heard when they visited 2001
tion of our country after 1994. “The Classic Mantle,” published four “sacrifice zones, those areas J.R. Moehringer’s first novel,
He leaves a legacy of selfless by Abrams in October. in the country that have been “Sutton,” was released in Sep-
service, humility, patriotism and The book tells the story of offered up for exploitation in tember by Hyperion.
dedication to this country and Mickey Mantle’s 18-year career in the name of profit, progress, and A work of historical fiction,
its people.” baseball, all with the New York technological advancement”— the book aims to fill the gaps
Sisulu was founding editor Yankees, during which he won the poor neighborhoods of Cam- in the life of bank robber Willie
of the New Nation newspaper three MVP awards, seven World den, New Jersey; the coal-mining “The Actor” Sutton. Through
and worked for several other Series titles, and was a perennial town of Welch, West Virginia; the a narrative that shifts in
news outlets including the Rand All Star. Bissinger’s narrative is Indian reservation in Pine Ridge, time—taking off from an actual
Daily Mail and the Sowetan. He coupled with 50 photographs by North Dakota; and migrant labor Christmas Day interview Sutton
was founding president of the Marvin E. Newman. camps in Immokalee, Florida—to did following his release from
country’s black journalists trade look at the reality of income prison in 1969 and moving to his
union. 1994 inequality in the U.S. earlier years as a criminal and
Sisulu was selected by Nie- Katie King was elected to the The reporting, writing and convict—Moehringer explores
University of Washington
Department of Communica-
Public Works
ProPublica’s Stephen Engelberg on what makes his year and the perils of philanthropy
In the four years since ProPublica started publishing, the Stephen Engelberg, an 18-year veteran of The New York
nonprofit investigative reporting outlet has broken new ground Times who founded the paper’s investigative unit, has been
on a number of fronts. It has gained a wide audience through ProPublica’s managing editor since 2008. In January, he will
partnerships with The New York Times, the public radio succeed Paul Steiger as editor in chief, overseeing a newsroom
program “This American Life,” and the “Frontline” public staff of 34.
television series. By sharing its “Dollars for Docs” database, Engelberg visited the Nieman Foundation in September after
it has helped more than 125 news outlets across the country attending a discussion at Harvard Business School about the
report on local doctors who were paid by drug companies to economics of ProPublica.
give speeches. For its reporting on post-Katrina life-or-death In conversation with Nieman Foundation curator Ann
decisions and the 2008 financial meltdown, it earned two Marie Lipinski, NF ’90, Engelberg discussed the nonprofit’s
Pulitzer prizes. strategy and future. What follows is an edited excerpt:
One thing we’ve discovered at ProPublica is that as the I don’t see, at the moment, a clear revenue path. A paywall for
technology and the field move, if you’re nimble enough, you ProPublica, given the size of our traffic, would produce a little
actually get a chance to erase all of your mistakes and start money and probably drive a lot of people away.
again. We weren’t great at Facebook. But we have been quite
successful in using Twitter as a way to get stories out. Sadly, I am insane about financial jargon. I will not allow it on Pro-
I’m sure at some point they’ll Etch A Sketch that away and Publica. Every now and again somebody will say, “I read your
there will be something else we’ll have to figure out. story on CDOs [collateralized debt obligations], and I actually
understood it.” And I think, “Wow, that’s it, my year is made.”
Our entire purpose in life is to do journalism that brings
change. So the point of having traffic is to get stories to I won’t lie to you: It’s tricky. We
people so they’ll read them and become outraged and had a reporter, in the last year,
force change, or that a person who could change things write a sentence about a
will read them. person who he thought
was not such a great
The first thing I decided when I got to build my own guy, and maybe he was
organization was that the people who did the Internet and maybe he wasn’t,
and wrote code and did digital stuff would sit in the middle but he’d just promised
of the newsroom, would attend every news meeting, and to give us a bunch of
would be treated exactly like everybody else. They would be money. So December
part of every meeting, every conversation about reporting, 31 will come and we’ll
because I wanted them to be completely integral to the see how aggravated this
operation. And that has been a very successful strategy. guy was. But it wasn’t
This “Dollars for Docs” thing resulted from a hallway a nice sentence. I was
conversation between one of the code writers and one of fortunate enough to
the reporters. And the next thing you know we’re writing have no idea that
some complicated piece of code that’s scraping 14 different this guy was giving
drug company websites. us money.
NIEMAN REPORTS
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Reports
Harvard University
One Francis Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
ov a tion
f Inn
aste r o
on How Age
’s M low net
ard Fel nter
Harv a Nieman in th e I
or s e ed
Tut an Succ
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Media
BE THE DISRUPTOR
ALSO in this issue
e the r
B upto
Lessons From Fukushima
Interview with Yoichi Funabashi
r
The Magician’s Daughter
is
By Maggie Jones
Plus
Howard Berkes on Covering the Olympics
Hedrick Smith’s ‘Who Stole the American Dream?’
Shirley Christian on ‘The Good Girls Revolt’
Clayton M. Christensen,
Harvard Business School