Journalists look back on eight months of disintegration

An earlier version of this piece was featured in the Tow Center for Digital Journalism’s weekly newsletter. In March 2019, Craig Forman, then McClatchy’s president and CEO, announced a new partnership with Google News’ Local Experiments project. Dubbed the Compass Experiment, its goal was to create three digital-only outlets in communities with little access to local […]

In recent weeks, ever since Marc Lacey started running the Live platform at the New York Times, Sandy, his labradoodle, has been getting more walks. “I’m sure she’s wondering, ‘Oh my god, what happened?’ ” Lacey said. “ ‘He used to be gone all day at the office, and now he’s home and he’s walking me like […]

They won the Alaska newspaper giveaway. Then the pandemic arrived.

A few months after I profiled the Burmese journalist Swe Win, in August 2019, he was shot in the leg. He had been driving through Rakhine State, on vacation with his wife and young daughter, when a bullet tore through his car. A source later told him that an army chief had “personally directed” the […]

After eight years leading the Washington Post—the capstone on a nearly half-century career in journalism—Marty Baron announced this week that he will soon be retiring. He is a legend in the industry, and his reputation is well deserved. But many in the Post’s newsroom also believe that his departure is well timed, because, ultimately, he […]