Vox and Condé Nast hold layoffs

Vox Media and Condé Nast held layoffs Thursday, becoming the latest media companies to make cuts in an attempt to weather a tumultuous advertising market.

Vox reduced its headcount by 4%, primarily laying off staff in product, design, technology and advertising; Vox.com; and The Dodo, according to company spokesperson Lauren Starke. At least 20 people were laid off, The New York Times reported.

“This reflects continued turmoil in advertising and the need to build even more loyal audience relationships given the increasing volatility of search and social platforms, among other factors,” Starke wrote in an emailed statement.

Vox previously held a round of layoffs in January, when it cut 130 jobs, or 7% of its staff. At the time, CEO Jim Bankoff cited a “challenging economic environment.” Thursday’s layoffs included reporters covering climate change, policy and tech, according to the union representing Vox journalists.

“We — and the audiences who trust our journalism — deserve a stable and more equitable media landscape,” the union wrote in a statement. “Layoffs like these only deepen the instability and inequity that is rife within our industry, and make it harder for those of us who remain at Vox Media to do our jobs.”

Layoffs at Condé Nast also began Thursday. Affected publications included The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, Puck reported. CEO Roger Lynch previously warned staff in a memo Nov. 1 that the company would lay off roughly 270 employees, or 5% of its staff. He blamed a “changing” industry, in which audiences and advertisers have shifted their behavior.

Dozens of news outlets have executed layoffs this year, including NPR, ABC News, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed News. Between January and October, the media industry had nearly 20,000 job cuts, according to a report by employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

Court says police can’t use Marsy’s Law to shield their identities

A Florida Supreme Court ruling Thursday has ramifications for accountability in law enforcement and the public’s right to know — and perhaps lessons for the dozen states that have enacted the victims’ rights measure “Marsy’s Law,” whose provisions include shielding crime victim identities.

The court ruled 6-0 that police officers may not use the law to hide their identities when they use deadly force on the job by claiming they were victims of crimes by the suspect. The court went even further to say that Florida’s 2018 constitutional amendment doesn’t guarantee any crime victims the absolute right to have their names withheld, a practice that has become widespread among Florida law enforcement agencies.

“We conclude that Marsy’s Law does not guarantee to a victim the categorical right to withhold his or her name from disclosure. In their ordinary and plain usage, the relevant words of our Constitution, ‘information or records that could be used to locate or harass the victim or the victim’s family, or which could disclose confidential or privileged information of the victim’ … do not encompass the victim’s identity,” the ruling said, according to coverage in the Tallahassee Democrat of the case there that led to the ruling.

Without the identities of officers who use force on the job, journalists often cannot review service records or look for past problems or patterns within an agency.

The decision has particular resonance for me, since last year, when I was executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, two deputies came to my house one Friday night to serve notice that a judge had issued an injunction ordering the paper not to publish the name of a deputy who had shot and killed a man during an eviction. The sheriff’s office claimed Marsy’s Law made it illegal to do so.

The state attorney had given us the deputy’s name in response to a public records request but hadn’t intended to — because of Marsy’s Law — and went to court to stop it from being published. The unconstitutional prior restraint was in place for more than two weeks before another judge tossed it out and we published fuller details about the shooting, including a deputy’s name.

Marsy’s Law has given crime victims some important victories, like the right to be notified and speak at criminal proceedings. But the twisted logic by police unions and law enforcement agencies that used it to shield officers from public view when they took a life in the course of their job was a huge disservice to transparency and accountability.

By Jennifer Orsi, senior director for publishing and local news initiatives

Reaction to Henry Kissinger’s death

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died Wednesday night. He was 100.

His passing was marked with obits and remembrances that both lauded and loathed his place in history.

In an absolutely brutal takedown, Rolling Stone’s Spencer Ackerman compared Kissinger to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Ackerman wrote, “McVeigh, who in his own psychotic way thought he was saving America, never remotely killed on the scale of Kissinger, the most revered American grand strategist of the second half of the 20th century.”

The headline of the Rolling Stone story read: “Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies.”

Here are more notable pieces in the aftermath of Kissinger’s death:

• Mother Jones’ David Corn with “Dead at 100, Henry Kissinger Leaves Behind a Bloody Legacy.”
• For The Atlantic, Gary J. Bass with “The People Who Didn’t Matter to Henry Kissinger.”
• In a guest essay for The New York Times, former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes with “Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite.”
• The Washington Post’s Rebecca Tan and Regine Cabato with “Henry Kissinger’s central role in the U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodia.”
• In an opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times, Ariel Dorfman with “Saying goodbye to Kissinger the criminal.”
• Niall Ferguson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, for The Wall Street Journal: “Henry Kissinger’s Century.”

By Tom Jones, senior media writer

Sports Illustrated’s newsy week

It has been quite the week at Sports Illustrated. Earlier this week, there was a report claiming some stories, specifically product reviews, appeared to be generated with artificial intelligence. That included names of authors who didn’t exist paired with AI-generated photos and fictional bio pages for these not-real authors.

Then on Thursday, Sports Illustrated announced its annual Sportsperson of the Year, and the selection was polarizing. SI selected college football coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, who certainly brought a lot of hype and attention to the University of Colorado Boulder this year. But, the team only went 4-8, which is why Sanders’ selection was surprising to many.

Of course, the immediate and predictable reaction on social media was: “AI must have made this selection.”

In its announcement, SI wrote, “In less than a year, Coach Prime has not only transformed a moribund Colorado football program. He’s also breathed fresh life into the campus and transformed a community.”

In his profile of Sanders, Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde put it into perspective: “There are numbers that define the Prime Effect upon the University of Colorado in Boulder, a place that hasn’t always had a chummy relationship with football. First-year applications are up 26.4% year over year; Black or African American applications are up 80.6%; nonresident applications are up 29.8%; and international applications are up 38.4% from 97 countries, including 16 that didn’t have any applications last year. While those numbers cannot be definitively linked to Sanders, others can be: September sales at the school’s online team store were up 2,544% over the same month in 2022. Every home game in 50,183-seat Folsom Field was sold out for the first time in school history.”

I personally had no issue with Sanders being named Sportsperson of the Year. There’s no question that he and his program were among the biggest sports stories in 2023. But many people couldn’t get past the fact that after an exciting 3-0 start, Colorado won only one of its final nine games. Then again, it should also be noted that Colorado won only one game all of last season before Sanders arrived.

Who could SI have picked instead of Sanders?

Some suggested tennis player Coco Gauff, who won the U.S. Open. SI has been known to have co-winners, and it could have named two women who helped women’s college basketball set TV viewership records: LSU’s Angel Reese and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

But, I still say Sanders was a legitimate choice.

By Tom Jones, senior media writer

Poynter to run respected journalism awards

A long-running prestigious journalism contest has a new name and a new home. The Poynter Institute is taking over the awards formerly run by the News Leaders Association, which is winding down operations, and has renamed them The Poynter Journalism Prizes.

“Poynter is honored to be the new home of one of the most respected contests in journalism. These awards have a rich history of recognizing excellence in writing and reporting, and we are excited to continue a tradition that showcases quality journalism that is serving democracy in vibrant and vital ways,” said Poynter president Neil Brown. “We appreciate the NLA’s choosing Poynter to safeguard the legacy of these distinguished prizes.”

Poynter will administer the 2024 contest covering work from 2023, with plans to open the awards for entries in January, close entries in mid-February and name winners in April.

The contest includes awards and cash prizes for local accountability reporting, distinctive writing, diversity, innovation, commentary, editorials and more.

Poynter has a long history with the contest, which started in 1979. The awards began as the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Awards and were inspired by the late Gene Patterson when he was editor of the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times). Patterson served as ASNE president, and was chairman of the Poynter Institute, which owns the Times. (ASNE merged with the Associated Press Managing Editors in 2019 to form the NLA.) For many years, Poynter hosted the judging for the ASNE awards at its St. Petersburg headquarters and published an annual book compiling the work of the winners, Best Newspaper Writing.

While initially the awards focused on newspaper writing, the contest now honors excellence in journalism across U.S. news organizations and platforms, Brown said, adding that distinguished writing remains a key measure in most categories.

Read more here and here.

By Jennifer Orsi, senior director for publishing and local news initiatives

Changes at MSNBC

MSNBC is making changes to its weekend lineup, including the cancellation of Mehdi Hasan’s show that also streams on Peacock. Semafor’s Max Tani wrote, “Over the past several years, Hasan became a cult favorite online for his tough interview style and impassioned monologues. But these never translated to ratings successes on the weekends or during fill-in appearances on primetime shows.”

Tani reported Hasan will become an on-camera analyst and fill-in host. Ayman Mohyeldin’s show will expand from one hour to two to replace Hasan’s show.

Meanwhile, MSNBC is starting a new show after the holidays called “The Weekend.” It will be co-hosted by MSNBC anchors Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Michael Steele. It will debut on Jan. 13 and air on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 to 10 a.m. Eastern. It will be based in Washington, D.C.

By Tom Jones, senior media writer

Media tidbits and links for your weekend review

• CNN’s “King Charles” show, co-hosted by Charles Barkley and Gayle King, debuted Wednesday night. The initial numbers were royally disappointing. The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona has more in “CNN’s ‘King Charles’ Flops With Lowest Primetime Debut in Decade.”
• The New York Times’ Katie Robertson reports that weekly magazine Bloomberg Businessweek will relaunch as a monthly print publication sometime in 2024 with “heavier paper stock for a more high-end look and feel.” Bloomberg bought Businessweek in 2009 and revitalized the struggling publication. Still, Robertson reports, “it has not avoided the persistent headwinds facing all print publications, including ever-declining circulation and lower advertising revenue.” Robertson said the memo did not indicate if the Businessweek name would change.
• The New York Times had a big scoop Thursday night that you expect will have some ramifications. Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman write, “Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago.”
• Reuters’ Sheila Dang, Chavi Mehta and Jaspreet Singh write that in a memo to staff Thursday, X (née Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino said Elon Musk’s Wednesday interview, in which he told fleeing advertisers to go (expletive) themselves, was “candid and profound,” and encouraged employees to watch it.
• Media reporter Brian Stelter appeared on “The View” on Thursday morning. Here’s a clip.
• The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell with “Bari Weiss’s Surging News Startup Lures Readers Miffed at Media Coverage of Israel.”
• The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger with “Tax Docs Reveal Tucker Carlson Is Finally, Truly Out at The Daily Caller.”
• For CNN, Will Leitch with “What the Sports Illustrated AI debacle is telling us.”
• The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell with “Montana ban on TikTok blocked, extending critics’ losing streak.”
• NPR’s David Folkenflik with “NPR names new podcast chief as network seeks to regain footing.”

More resources for journalists

• Subscribe to Poynter’s Friday newsletter, Open Tabs with Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme, and get behind-the-scenes stories only available to subscribers.
• Poynter ACES Introductory Certificate in Editing (Online) — Enroll now.
• How to Improve Your Coverage of LGBTQ+ Communities (Webinar) — Start anytime.
• Got a story you’d like to write for Poynter? Email pitch@poynter.org with your idea, approximate timeline and word count.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.