Hello folks, welcome to the relaunch of the Inside The Newsroom podcast! It’s been a while since I got the microphone out, but I’m back and will be podcasting with a top journalist at least monthly from now on.

What better way to get back on the horse than have Glenn Greenwald on the airwaves, who the New Statesman recently described as among the greatest journalists of all time. We talked about what it’s like being Glenn, the mental toll of having the U.S. and Brazilian governments after you, the corporatization of journalism, where to start when writing a New York Times bestseller, and Glenn’s best advice for today’s journalists.

Say what you like about Glenn, but it’s hard to match his achievements. He believes what he believes, and will quite literally risk his life to defend his position.

“You go into journalism in order to do stories like this. If you want to be universally beloved and applauded by people in power, journalism is not the profession to choose.”

Earlier this month we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our subscription model. Read all about everything we’ve done so far, and everything we plan to build over the next 12 months. And be sure to check out my Q&A with Walt Hickey, senior data editor at Insider and founder of the Numlock News newsletter. Walt was incredibly candid about what it takes to build an audience and run a profitable business.

And lastly, we relaunched Data Corner and Election Dissection last week! Read about how the top newsrooms covered the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan from a data viz angle, as well as the latest on the consequential recent elections in Morocco and Norway.

Okay, let’s do this thing! Podcast is up top, and my post-game analysis and Job Corner are down below… Enjoy!

Job Corner ✍️

We have more than 2,500 jobs and more than 300 internships listed in 1,000+ cities across the U.S., UK and Canada. Below is a preview of the openings you’ll have access to when you subscribe. If you’re a paying member, your jobs sheet link remains the same each week.

Interested in a free week’s trial? Reply to this email and we’ll hook you up!

Who Is Glenn Greenwald?

Glenn is a journalist, former constitutional lawyer, author of four New York Times bestsellers, and co-founder of the Hope dog rescue shelter. In 1996, Glenn co-founded his own law firm in New York City, concentrating on First Amendment and civil rights. In 2005, he became bored of being a litigator and travelled to Brazil to “figure out what I wanted to do with my life”. He immediately fell in love the country and met his now-husband: Brazilian congressman for the Socialism and Liberty party David Miranda. They currently reside in Rio de Janeiro.

Around the same time, Glenn started his own blog and began writing about mass surveillance and the changes around civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2007, he was hired as a columnist by Salon, and then joined The Guardian in 2012. It was there that he, along with fellow friend of the podcast Ewen MacAskill, broke arguably the most impactful scandal of this generation: The Edward Snowden CIA leaks.

From there Glenn co-founded The Intercept in 2014, but resigned in October 2020 over editorial freedom. You can read all about why Glenn did so here, as well as a rebuttal from The Intercept’s editor-in-chief, Betsy Reed. Today Glenn writes about a myriad of topics on Substack, and is always an engaging follow on Twitter. Oh, he and David currently have 26 rescue dogs too.

Securing Democracy and Car Wash Scandal

Glenn’s latest book, Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Brazil, was published earlier this year. It details the events that led to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro indicting Glenn for his involvement in the Operation Car Wash scandal, arguably the biggest corruption scandal in history. The scandal saw former Brazilian president and clear favorite in the 2018 presidential election Lula da Silva imprisoned, which allowed Bolsonaro to sweep to victory.

In 2019, Glenn was contacted by Manuela d’Ávila, a centre-left candidate for vice-president in the election. D’Ávila had been approached by a source who had hacked a trove of phone calls between some of Brazil’s most powerful judges and prosecutors. One of those judges oversaw the Operation Car Wash anti-corruption probe that dominated Brazilian politics for the five years prior. The impact of Glenn’s reporting was explosive.

Video: Glenn Greenwald on the Leaked Brazil Archive Exposing Operation Car Wash

A judge ultimately dismissed the indictment against Glenn, but made clear that he would have accepted it, had it not been for an earlier Brazilian Supreme Court ruling. The ruling stated that any attempt to retaliate against Glenn for his reporting would be barred by the Brazilian constitution and the press freedom guarantee it provides.

In our podcast, Glenn talked about how in 2013, Brazil’s parliament was favorable towards him after he exposed the U.S. government’s spying efforts on Brazil amid the fallout from the Snowden CIA leaks. But as Glenn’s husband poignantly pointed out, the Car Wash scandal was completely different and presented more dangers. Aside from now having a truly authoritarian president after him, this time around the folks coming after Glenn were on his doorstep. Having not one but two national governments after you is pretty terrifying, and one can only wonder about the mental toll that will have. The book is a timely reminder of the fragility of democracy.

Corporatization of Journalism

Glenn’s been a writer for the better part of three decades. As anyone who’s followed his work will know, he argues vehemently against the corporatization of newsrooms — the move toward an increasingly corporate ethos and structure. That’s why he co-founded The Intercept — to become an adversarial newsroom and not a subservient one — and is why he’s now completely independent on Substack. But you haven’t had to be in the game as long as Glenn to witness what he’s talking about.

Large corporations have taken advantage of overall falling revenue in journalism, and have applied their ideology of cutting costs to boost profit. The Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that the total number of newspaper owners has declined by 32 percent since 2004, or at an average of 100 newspaper companies per year. More than 2,000 newspaper titles are now owned by the largest 25 companies.

I have a whole newsletter worth of thoughts on this, so I’ll spin them into a separate edition in the future. As you know, I experienced this corporatization first hand through my time at the Wall Street Journal. After slaving away for years building myself a voice and trying to help the journalism community, WSJ gave me a choice: shut down Inside The Newsroom or leave.

As Glenn put it, journalism isn’t a profession as much as it is a tool for anyone to fight injustice. There shouldn’t be a credential system whereby only those from the richest and most established media organizations have the privilege to cover the most important stories. And inside newsrooms, journalists’ voices shouldn’t be silenced because of hierarchy. Journalism is, and should continue to be, accessible to everyone.

Glenn’s Advice For Journalists

We’ll finish with some advice from Glenn for today’s journalists. I asked what his top piece of advice is to navigate today’s industry, and have paraphrased his answer below.

There are a lot of easier ways to earn a living other than being a journalist, especially with the industry’s economic struggles. So make sure you’re entering journalism because of passion. Whether that’s politics, culture, sports, social movements or whatever your thing might be. But passion alone won’t necessarily bring you the success you’re looking for, and along the way you’ll inevitably have to sacrifice something. For many, that means working for an institution. That’s okay and is just something you have to do while you build your audience and pay the bills. But no matter what you do, make sure you always remember and preserve that passion that animated your choice to enter journalism. And even in those dark times of sacrifice, safeguard that passion with everything you have to keep that flame alive and to keep feeding it. Your time will come, so be passionate and prepared for when that time does come.

Thanks for making it to the bottom. If you enjoyed today’s newsletter and podcast, please consider supporting what we’re building at Inside The Newsroom. 🙏

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello folks! Happy December and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is Olga Khazan! As you might know, The Atlantic is my favourite news outlet of them all, so it was an absolute delight to speak to Olga about covering health, gender and science, what it’s like behind the scenes at one of America’s oldest publications, and we discussed her awesome new book, Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World.

Be sure to check out last week’s content including our podcast with Mr. Hurricane Man Josh Morgerman, as well as Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week, where we rounded up the reactions to U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s likely last visit to the Middle East, and visited New Zealand where geologists hope to harness heat from volcanoes to fight climate change. Okay, let’s get to today’s newsletter!

Job Corner

More than 1,000 full-time journalism jobs and internships waiting to be applied to at the likes of the Boston Globe, BuzzFeed News, the Charlotte Observer, The Athletic, The Guardian, the Texas Tribune and the Washington Post. Keep spreading the word 🙏👇

Preview of the job board… 👇

Who is Olga Khazan?

Olga has covered health, gender and science for The Atlantic since 2013, and has also written for the likes of the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Forbes. She was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was just three years old, initially living in Los Angeles before settling in Midland, Texas.

On many occasions, Olga found herself on the outside, unable to fit in with her American counterparts. Her experiences fuelled much of the motivation and content for her new book Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, which explores the social and psychological concepts behind conforming to new groups and societies. As if that wasn’t enough, Olga recently joined Substack where she posts insights from the book, as well as other smart life advice, which we’ll get onto shortly.

Olga 👇

Long Live The Atlantic

If you’re a frequent reader of this newsletter, you’ll be familiar with my obsession with The Atlantic and know that it’s my favourite newsroom. The way they dissect and explore the most important issues less than 24 hours after an event is unequalled and, as Olga puts it, her and her colleagues tell the “second day story on the first day”.

From its humble Boston roots in 1857, to its many journalists in multiple states in 2020, The Atlantic has blessed the world with some of its most defining articles. Whether it was W. E. B. Du Bois’ “The Strivings of the Negro People” in 1897, which introduced the idea of the African American’s experience of “double consciousness” that’s still talked about today; Helen Keller’s 1932 “Put Your Husband in the Kitchen” where she encouraged men to do more housework way ahead her time; Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail” that would serve as one of the defining texts of the civil-rights movement; or modern-day great Ta-Nehisi Coates who in 2014 wrote “The Case for Reparations”, The Atlantic has been leading public debate for centuries. Long may it continue…

Support Independent Journalism

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You’re Weird 🤨

No you’re weird! Shut up Daniel… Weird was released in April and is the finished product of more than five years of research and writing. The book explores the science behind being an outsider and why being culturally, socially, physically or mentally different should be a badge of honor instead of a slur.

Olga isn’t alone. There’s a little weirdness in all of us, but it depends on how brave and willing we are to embrace it, which is why I’m so pleased Olga had the curiosity and courage to explore the psychological links between her upbringing as a Russian immigrant in West Texas, to her struggles and successes in later life. The book also explores why humans crave conformity, the consequences of social rejection and the hidden upsides of being “weird”. Just ask Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga who was bullied in high-school and university for being too eccentric. Or Alan Turing, who was ridiculed at school for his unconventional behaviour but went onto help save the world from Adolf Hitler.

If you’re a fan of this stuff and can’t get enough, both Olga and I strongly recommend Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

Idiosyncrasy Credit

Idiosyncrasy Credit is an old psychological concept that describes how someone’s unusual personality or ideas will be more accepted if that person is first seen as a conformist to a group’s norms. At the most basic level, most people use this technique subconsciously when trying to make new friends. But the concept can be applied to a plethora of scenarios including in the workplace.

For example, when I interviewed for my job at The Guardian and most recently at The Wall Street Journal, I focused on my ability to turn new and unusual ideas into appropriate stories for their respective audiences. When I got the job, instead of heading straight for a new Google doc to brainstorm the wackiest ideas I could think of, I needed to show my colleagues that I could conform to their workflow and help improve their existing ideas. Now that I’ve shown them (I hope) that I’m capable of step one, it’s time to experiment, which means get ready for stories on tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes (only half joking).

Another area where idiosyncrasy credits can be used is dating, which friend of the podcast Amy Webb outlined in her book Data, A Love Story: How I Gamed Online Dating To Meet My Match. To help her find the one, Amy scouted her competition on various dating apps by recording the profile bios of hundreds of other women looking to court the attention of men. She found that the average profile description should be between 90 and 100 words, be as common and unspecific as possible, and one that avoids controversy. Once you show these prospective men and women that you’re semi-normal, then you can start to be yourself.

Related Podcasts

That’s all for today, see you Wednesday for some Inside the Middle East fun! 👋

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello folks and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is the hurricane man himself, Mr. Josh Morgerman. I had Josh and his director Caroline Menzies on the pod last year to talk about their hit TV show, Hurricane Man (highly recommended watch) which followed Josh to the world’s most remote places during the infamous 2018 cyclone season. This time around Josh’s setup was dramatically altered by Covid-19, so we caught up on this year’s hurricane season of which he spent in Mississippi.

As ever be sure to check out last weeks’s coverage outside the newsroom, with Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week. And if you’re a fellow weather geek, enjoy some of my previous podcasts…

Job Corner

We finally did it, 1,000 journalism jobs and internships! This week’s new postings feature the likes of CNN, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Keep spreading the word! 🙏 👇

Data Corner

* Cyclone Activity: Real-time data for all major ocean basins around the world, from Colorado State University

Who is Josh Morgerman?

Josh was born and raised in New York, studied history at Harvard and now resides in L.A. where he runs his own branding consultancy company. Yes, not the typical route to becoming one of the world’s leading storm chasers. As Josh puts it, he was born to chase, which is why Josh has spent the past few months in Bay St. Louis in Mississippi, so that he’s just a drive away from this year’s hurricane action amid international travel restrictions. In non-Covid years, Josh has travelled to some of the most remote areas in the world to capture valuable data for scientists and academics to study.

Josh has been chasing storms for the best part of the past 30 years, but it was last year that shook him to his core. Chasing the most powerful hurricane on record to make landfall in North America led Josh to the Bahamas, where he intercepted Hurricane Dorian head on. When the worst of the storm had passed, not much was left standing, and there was a gut-wrenching 48-hour period when no one could reach him and he was presumed dead. While Josh didn’t study meteorology in college, he’s certainly a student of the field, so we’ll quickly run through some key terms we’ll use in today’s newsletter…

Correction: I originally stated that Hurricane Dorian was the most powerful hurricane on record. It’s not. It’s the most powerful to make landfall in North America.

The Hurricane Man 👇

Quick Glossary

What’s the difference between a cyclone, hurricane and typhoon?

A cyclone is the generic term for a rotating storm, and also the name given to large-scale rotating storms in the Southern Hemisphere. Under that generic label we have hurricanes, which are large-scale rotating storms in the North Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific, while a typhoon is the equivalent for large-scale rotating storms in the Northwest Pacific.

What is Accumulated Cyclone Energy?

Commonly known as ACE, it measures multiple metrics including wind speed and the number of days a storm lasts in order to give an overall impact.

What are the different cyclone basins?

The major ocean basins include the North Atlantic, Northeast Pacific, Northwest Pacific, North Indian, South Indian and South Pacific.

What Are the Differences Between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?

Key differences between the north and south include the time of year each has its season: In the north typically between June and November, and in the south typically between December and April. Cyclones in the north rotate counterclockwise, and clockwise in the south due to the Coriolis effect.

Support Independent Journalism

Hey there, each podcast episode and newsletter takes around 12 hours to put together. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, please consider subscribing so we can continue delivering you the most important news from around the world 🙏

Record Year in the Atlantic

Now that we know that there are multiple ocean basins around the world, let’s take a look at this year’s activity in each so far. You may have heard that the 2020 North Atlantic season has seen a record number of named storms — a storm with winds of at least 39mph — with 30, beating the previous record of 28 set during the ominous 2005 season. What also sets 2020 apart is the fact that we’ve seen a category 4 hurricane in four consecutive months (August to November).

Two more notable anomalies from this season: The last time we saw two hurricanes in November was in 2001, which saw a category 4, and two category 1s including Olga that dipped her toe into December (also extremely rare). Fast forward to 2020 and the category 4 Hurricane Eta and category 5 Hurricane Iota both followed almost identical paths and slammed into Nicaragua, adversely affecting the likes of Honduras and El Salvador as well. While the National Hurricane Center is watching a disturbance currently trying to form, fingers crossed we can close the book on the 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season.

What About the Rest of the World?

While the Atlantic has seen several records broken, overall activity in the Northern Hemisphere this year has been below average. The good folks at Colorado State University track activity in all the world’s major ocean basins, and thankfully the number of storms and ACE (see glossary above) is way down in the Northeast Pacific, which experienced its highest ACE on record in 2018, and the Northwest Pacific, which saw an insane five typhoons last year in November alone.

Elsewhere, the Southern Hemisphere’s cyclone season is just starting…

Climate Change?

It’s the elephant in the room any time there’s a major hurricane, and it would be extremely negligent not to discuss climate change any time there’s a severe weather event. But that’s where things become extremely complex and we must contextualize wherever we can. The first thing we must decipher is the difference between meteorology and climatology, which are intertwined yet fundamentally different.

Meteorology is the study of weather, most often on a day-to-day or even season-by-season basis. For example, we know that there were a record number of named storms in the Atlantic this year. Climatology, on the other hand, is the study of meteorology over an extended number of years. In order to conclude whether climate change makes hurricanes worse, we must look at long-term trends, including of the individual ingredients of a hurricane, which I did for the Guardian a couple of years ago.

Now, with that information, we still cannot definitively say any one hurricane (or any weather event) is directly linked to climate change, yet. But what we can conclude is that climate change is making monster storms such as Eta and Iota from this year, or Florence and Dorian from last year, much more likely. Friend of the podcast and legendary climate scientist Michael Mann has written about this very issue, as have many others. Only time will tell if the trend continues…

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow for Inside The Middle East! 🌍👋

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello folks! Happy U.S. election day and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom! Best of luck to everyone voting today, I’ll be following along every step and making a whole lot of charts along the way!

Before I do, I can’t wait to share my conversation with Dalal Mawad, senior producer and correspondent for the Associated Press, and perhaps the most accomplished guest at such a young age we’ve ever had on the podcast. I was also joined by Aina, my very first co-host, as we learned from Dalal what it was like living and reporting through the huge chemical explosion in August, and how the heck the country escapes its deep political and economic crises.

Be sure to check out last week’s episode with New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum, who took us inside what it was like to interview the Democratic presidential candidates last year, his views on news reporting vs opinion journalism, and what policies are needed to solve the harshest income inequalities highlighted by Covid-19… 👇

I’m still figuring out next week’s guest, so until then, enjoy this week’s… 🤓

Job Corner

We upped our game to add almost 200 new postings to the job board, taking our total to 900! Help us out be spreading the word!

Data Corner

* Refugees: Database on the world’s refugees, from the UN

* Protests: Global mass protest and conflict data, from ACLED

Who is Dalal Mawad?

Dalal was born and raised in Lebanon and has carefully observed everything that’s happened in her country over the past 15 years. She graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from the American University of Beirut, a master’s in international political economics from the London School of Economics, and a master’s in journalism from Columbia. Oh, she also happens to be fluent in English, Arabic, French and Spanish. I’m not jealous at all…

Dalal covers the entire Middle East and North Africa region, and has reported on several wars and other disasters in the past, including Syria’s civil war and Palestine’s humanitarian crisis. Before the AP, she reported for the UN, Al Jazeera, and the New York Times. She’s also the recent winner of the Samir Kassir Award, the MENA region's most prestigious journalism award, for her feature on Lebanon’s drag performers.

Dalal 👇

Blast Investigation Update

Tomorrow marks three months since one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, at a warehouse in the Port of Beirut that killed more than 200 people and ripped the city to shreds. Political interference and a seriously flawed judicial system mean we still don’t have answers on who was responsible. Calls for an independent international investigation were discarded as a waste of time by President Michel Aoun, making a credible and impartial domestic investigation seemingly impossible.

Two fires that broke out on September 8 and September 10 prompted allegations of evidence tampering, and as of October 13, reports say 25 people have been arrested in relation to the explosion. But the authorities have failed to publicly detail any evidence, and not a single minister has been questioned as a suspect. Meanwhile the FBI has also failed to conclude what caused the blast, and U.S. government sources have suggested the blast was an accident. The country’s economic and political woes mean there’s simply not enough money to compensate the people of Beirut, as outlined in Rania’s tweet below…

Crisis No. 1: Politics

Lebanon’s political and economic crises are directly linked and haven’t appeared overnight. Before we dive into where the economy stands, let’s recap a tumultuous 15 years that is the root for most of the country’s problems…

2005: Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is killed in a car bomb, killing 21 others. Hezbollah enters government for the first time.

2006: Hezbollah goes to war with Israel, which kills 1,200 Lebanese in five weeks.

2008: Diplomatic relations with Syria are established for the first time since both countries gained independence in the 1940s.

2011: The government of Saad al-Hariri, son of former PM Rafik al-Hariri, quits over the UN-backed trial that indicted four senior Hezbollah members over the killing of Rafik. Syria’s civil war erupts and Lebanon begins taking in refugees and asylum seekers.

2012: Syria’s conflict spills into Lebanon with deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria fires rockets into Northern Lebanon.

2015: Beirut’s main landfill site is closed without an alternate location arranged, sparking mass protests over rotting waste in the streets. The situation is perfectly summed up by chants of “You stink!” aimed at the government.

2016: Saad al-Hariri returns as PM, but tenders his resignation a year later over ties with Saudi Arabia, and then rescinds it a month later.

2019: al-Hariri quits for real, and more protests start over a government move to tax internet calls.

2020: al-Hariri returns for a third time and has the near-impossible job of healing deep economic and political wounds, after two more prime ministers come and go.

Crisis No. 2: Economics

A plethora of reasons are responsible for why Lebanon’s economy has collapsed, so we’ll run through some of the top-level causes and consequences. By some measures, the country is in its worst ever economic crisis: Government debt has soared to record levels and interest payments on that debt represent around half of all state revenues, one of the highest in the world. Also separating Lebanon from most countries is its hyperinflation, which soared to 112 percent this year, meaning the country has moved into uncharted territory similar to Venezuela.

The situation has been exacerbated because the U.S. dollar, of which Lebanon’s economy relies so heavily on, has appreciated against the Lebanese pound so much that Lebanon’s buying power has decreased to the point that the pound is practically worthless. Because dollars have become so scarce, banks are preventing people from withdrawing their money. International aid given to Lebanon has skyrocketed since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, which has seen Lebanon take in around 1.5 million refugees, leaving only Aruba to host more refugees per capita. And in the aftermath of August’s explosion, the bulk of pledged foreign assistance is conditional on major political reforms, which haven’t yet taken place.

Credit: Amnesty International

What’s Next for Lebanon?

Good question and one that we can only speculate over. Lost in the economic and political woes is the pandemic, which sees Lebanon’s daily cases and deaths continue to soar. Just when you think it can get any worse, new basement levels keep on appearing. Dalal wrote for the AP on what she thinks will happen next, so I’ll let you read that, as well as what my WSJ colleagues think could happen…

Credit: Worldometers

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow for Inside The Middle East 👋

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! Welcome to another episode of the Inside The Newsroom podcast. It’s been a while since we hit the airwaves, but now that the paywall is up and the bulk of the world’s elections are completed, I plan to bring you a podcast every week until Christmas. Leading things off is my colleague Louise Story, The Wall Street Journal’s Chief News Strategist and Chief Product and Technology Officer. We talked about how Louise rose through the newsroom, a couple of crucial management concepts she learned at business school, and the emergence and future of strategy within journalism. We also mentioned the rise of newsroom strategy jobs, so I’ve listed below a selection of relevant postings we recently added to the job board. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Instagram, so take a read of this masterpiece by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino on The Age of Instagram Face. As ever, thank you for supporting the newsletter. You are literally the ones that make it happen. 🙏

Job Corner

Full-Time

* Business Insider — Editorial Subscriptions Strategist — New York

* Politico — Product Manager — Arlington, VA

* The Economist — SEO Manager — London/New York

* The Independent — Product Manager — London

* The New York Times — Product Designer — New York

Internships

* Business Insider — Social Media Fellow — London

* Dallas Morning News — Audience Engagement Intern — Dallas

* Philadelphia Magazine — Audience Development Intern — Philadelphia

* Spectrum Networks — Product Intern — Colorado

* The Texas Tribune — Engagement Fellow — Austin

Who is Louise Story?

Louise is currently The Wall Street Journal’s Chief News Strategist and Chief Product and Technology Officer. She returned to WSJ two years ago having interned there in the summer of 2004, and previously spent the bulk of her career at The New York Times in various reporting, editing and strategic positions. Before all of that, Louise put the time in to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in the classroom, gaining a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Yale, a master’s in journalism from Columbia before returning to Yale for an MBA. She now leads a team of more than 150 people at the Journal known as DXS — Digital Experience & Strategy — all working toward the goal of making WSJ more of an audience-focused newsroom. Perhaps her largest project to date was orchestrating a content review that involved reading more than 7,000 articles in two weeks to understand what type of content resonates most with readers. Like most of us, Louise didn’t get to where she is without the help of others, which is why she’s making herself available on her personal email to answer questions about her career, the future of strategy and journalism, and how to get involved with DXS at the Journal. Email her below… 👇

Louise 👇

The Rise of Strategy in the Newsroom

Strategy within journalism is nothing new, at least it wasn’t for well-functioning newspapers before the advent of the internet. Without reducing newsrooms’ old strategy to a single line, it was largely “maximise reader engagement in order to maximise newspaper sales,” and that often fell to marketing and sales teams while reporters and editors concentrated on what they did best. Healthy revenues from a combination of advertising and newspaper sales likely made strategy relatively seamless. Then came the Dot-Com boom in the mid-to-late-90s, which saw most newsrooms, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, launch their websites, and suddenly journalists were forced to think about reader engagement and then social media when Facebook and Twitter became mainstream around 2010.

What’s different in today’s newsrooms is the pace of technological change and number of threats from technology companies — In 2000, newspapers and magazines held half of all advertising spending, but that share has since declined to less than 10 per cent, with the likes of Google and Facebook swallowing the bulk of that, according to GroupM, a WPP-owned media agency. In order to survive, newsrooms have been forced to think like these tech giants, whether it’s implementing subscription models or hiring data scientists and UX designers to study their users. What’s most exciting is the fact that this section of the newsroom is still fledgling, highlighted by Louise’s transformation of the DXS team, which wasn’t a thing just two years ago. Whether it’s at the WSJ or elsewhere, there’s probably never been a better time to enter the strategic field.

Related Podcasts

#74 — Major Garrett (CBS News)

#70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute)

#67 — Sarah Nöckel (Femstreet)

Are You a Book Quitter?

Managing and setting goals for more than 150 people is no joke, heck, having the time to meet your own daily and weekly targets is hard enough. That’s why Louise is exceedingly aware of the sunk cost concept, the idea of accepting an amount of time or money has already been spent and cannot be reclaimed. For example, have you ever bought a book and realized within the first couple of chapters that this particular book just isn’t for you? Yeah, we all have, but are you the person to stop there and move onto another one, or is the fact that you’ve spent $10 or £10 on it enough to keep you reading even though finishing the book will offer little value?

That doesn’t mean to say you should never finish anything. Our best work often takes hard work, dedication and a bloody long time to complete. But that’s where the more stories and projects you work on, the better your judgement will be in assessing which ones you should see through to the end, and which ones are just a drain on resources. I’ve found that since I started working in data journalism, which has involved a lot of coding and formulas, my decision making is a lot more like a computer algorithm, which brings us onto our next section…

Thinking Like a Computer

I started studying data journalism five years ago and have worked with datasets containing up to a million records. For most projects, there’s simply not enough time to manually observe what’s on each row of a spreadsheet, plus that’s just really boring. So I’ve had to learn some programming languages in order to automate the task of sorting and analyzing these large datasets. Part of that process has involved writing effective algorithms, which only work if you tell the computer exactly what to do and exactly when to do it. If you’ve worked with code before, you’ll be familiar with if/else statements. For those that haven’t, an if/else statement is simply a way to make decisions based on different conditions. For example, if tomorrow’s weather forecast is sunny, I’ll go for a walk in the park, but if tomorrow’s weather turns out to be anything else, I’ll stay home and be a lazy ass. This is a very simple yet effective way of “computational thinking”, and thinking like a computer has many other benefits…

Perhaps most beneficial for me has been the ability to eliminate as much emotion as possible when making decisions, just like a computer. For example, I deal with breaking news a few times a week. If I let my emotions — fear of failure, imposter syndrome, hunger — drive my decision making, my work would suffer. Instead, as soon as I’m handed an assignment, I write down the first handful of things I need to do, and out of those I decide what needs to be done in which order to complete the job as quickly and to the highest quality as possible. All I’m doing is creating an algorithm. Additionally, making decisions rationally and level headed before they have to be made — for example before a big meeting with your manager — can be crucial in not letting yourself make dumb choices based on too many emotions swirling inside your brain. I’ve touched on all of the above in the past with two legendary psychologists and behavioural economists, Cass Sunstein (Harvard University) and Art Markman (University of Texas), which you can listen to below…

Louise’s Predictions for the Future

Louise had several thoughts on what the future for journalism might hold. One of which was the choice media brands will be forced to make between having their content distributed by third-party platforms or keeping all of it in-house on their own websites. So what does Louise mean by that? Well, we’re certainly going to continue to see the likes of WSJ and The Guardian keep the bulk, if not all, of their content hosted on their own websites. And maybe we’ll see more subscription partnerships similar to the one The Washington Post and the Financial Times launched recently. But doing so means it’s essential to know everything about your users, which is of course not an easy thing to do. The BBC found that out the hard way by spending £10 million/$13 million on rebranding its suite of podcasts and radio shows into BBC Sounds, and is now facing a review by Ofcom over complaints it has squeezed out its competition.

The alternative looks something like the recent $100 million/£82 million Spotify will pay Joe Rogan to exclusively license and host all of his podcasts on its platform. While that’s obviously not possible for everyone, more platforms such as Luminary, which also pays podcasters to exclusively host their content, have sprung up. Another of Louise’s predictions is the acceleration of artificial intelligence and computational journalism in creating tools to not only make reporters’ jobs easier, but also to enhance the overall storytelling experience for readers. In fact, I had one of Louise’s former WSJ colleagues on the podcast a few months ago, Francesco Marconi, who left the Journal in February to launch his own company, Applied XL, which develops new data tools to track the health of people and places around the planet. 👇

That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed today’s podcast newsletter, consider telling a friend by sharing it or even gifting a subscription to someone you think might enjoy this type of content too. See you later in the week for roundups of elections in Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, New Caledonia, Italy, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands. 👋

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom, as we welcome in Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School and one of the foremost behavioural economists to have ever lived. Cass has a new book out in September called Too Much Information, which explores the theory that when information is positive, we eat it up, but when it’s negative we don’t want to even hear it. In the podcast, we dissected his 2008 book Nudge, which still has great influence more than a decade later. Before we do, I wanted to honor the passing of another legend to have walked this planet. Congressman John Lewis passed away over the weekend at the age of 80. John was an absolute icon when it came to civil rights, and carried the torch lit by Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks well into the 21st century. Rest in peace, Congressman.

Sharing Is Caring

Podcasts are fun. I love doing them. But they take a bloody long time to put together. I estimate a single hour podcast and newsletter takes around 12 hours to put together. So how about a cheeky share to show your appreciation? Please and thank you. 🙏

Job Corner

The job board has been updated and this week’s deadlines include jobs at CTV, the Financial Times, Newsquest, Poynter, the Pulitzer Center and the City NY. Spread the word. 🤜🤛

Who is Cass Sunstein?

Cass is considered one of the smartest behavioural economists and legal scholars on the planet. He’s the founder and director of the Program on Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at his alma mater, Harvard Law School, the author of dozens of books — one of which (Nudge) is the subject of the podcast, and was the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009 to 2012 in the Obama administration, of whom he became friends with during their time together at the University of Chicago. I’ve followed Cass’ work for a long time, so it was an absolute treat to hear him speak at the London School of Economics back in January on his then latest book How Change Happens (more on that later).

Nudge

Together with Richard Thaler, Cass co-authored perhaps his most influential book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Published in 2008, the book describes the theory that almost all decisions we make in life, whether it’s where and when to buy a house or even as small as picking what to have for lunch from a restaurant menu, are influenced by the decisions and frames, or “nudges”, made by other humans, aka “choice architects”. For example, would you go bungee jumping if the instructor told you there was a 90 percent chance nothing bad would happen? Probably. But what about if the instructor told you there was a 10 percent chance you’ll die if you jump? Probably not, right? The book was well-received among free market policy makers as a way to increase economic activity. But you can apply the theory in almost every aspect of life, such as where in a new school an architect chooses to place the bathroom will determine how often students go to the toilet. Cass and Thaler have been heavily influenced by another pair of behavioural scientists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, whose friendship helped shape the world we live in today…

The Undoing Project

The friendship between Tversky and Kahneman is among the most important in recent history, and was excellently chronicled by author Michael Lewis in The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World. Lewis documents how the two Israeli psychologists identified in the late 1960s how humans tend to make decisions based on emotion over rationality — see Moneyball. Before Tversky and Kahneman, not much was known about why we make the decisions we do, and their work has since influenced most, if not all, behavioural economic theory we have today, including that of Cass and Thaler. Check out Lewis speak about the book and friendship to Malcolm Gladwell below…

Related Podcasts 🎙️

#61 — Rachel Botsman (University of Oxford) on issues with trusting people and the media

#58 — Art Markman (University of Texas) on knowing ourselves and the power of introversion

#44 — Sebastian Junger (Tribe, The Perfect Storm) on how some humans are addicted to war because it unites them

How Change Happens

As mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to catch Cass speak at the LSE about his latest book on how social change happens. Why is that after around 150,000 years that we Homo Sapiens have occupied this planet, that it took until the early 19th century for women in many countries to vote? And how did the social movement that led to women in Saudi Arabia being able to vote in 2015 even start? Once we understand what’s happened in the past then we can begin to dismantle other archaic and repressive policies around the world. Check out Cass’ talk by clicking on the button below…

What is Luck?

So many of our decisions influenced by other people. Cass elicits that 100 percent of our decisions are controlled by choice architects, whether it’s intentional or not. It raises the question of whether luck is real or a fictional concept we’ve made up over past centuries and millennia. The answer to this question depends on the situation. According to Merriam Webster, luck is “the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual”. So let’s break it down with a few examples personal to me, but please apply to your own circumstances as we go along…

Let’s start with how I believe I got my current job at The Wall Street Journal. Back in February, a member of the graphics team got in touch about a possible opening and told me I should apply. One might call that lucky, but said member follows this very newsletter and thus was familiar with my work. They wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t published this newsletter, so I don’t think my new job was down to luck. That’s something I indirectly controlled, i.e. the quality and quantity of my work. But there are still many things that I’ve had zero control over. The most prominent in all of our lives are things such as which country we’re born in, our sex at birth and what name our parents give us. We have absolutely no control over any of that, which means that some degree of luck is involved that’ll determine where we live, how much money we’ll earn and whether we’ll face a lifetime of racism or not, for example. In what ways has luck played a part in your lives?

The Future of Behavioural Economics

Tversky and Kahneman only started to theorize in the late 1960s, which makes the field of behavioural economics incredibly young. Already in the past half a century, we’ve learned so much about ourselves and how our brains are wired. As we head into the next 50 years, Cass fully expects the explosion of knowledge to continue at a rapid rate. He referenced books such as Scarcity: Why having too little means so much, which explores why people in difficult circumstances tend to make objectively bad decisions. For example, why is it that people in poverty don’t take advantage of opportunities to save when they can? Why are poor people perceived as less capable than rich people? I know a lottttt of wealthy folks that are stupid asses!

Now that we have a decent understanding of how our brains work, we can continue to build from Cass’ work and apply this knowledge to improve people’s lives. Cass referenced the idea of getting rid of the ‘sludge’ — he apologized for the similar-sounding name to this book, Nudge — to make our lives far easier. Sludge is the burdens and hoops institutions make us jump through in order to complete important and sometimes trivial tasks. For example, to my knowledge Transport For London don’t tell you if you’ve crossed into a congestion charge zone — it costs at least £15 to drive in certain areas in central London — which is a form of choice architecture that has created ‘sludge’ for drivers in not knowing whether they need to pay. And in the U.S., the process of finding a healthcare provider, filling out the forms and receiving a payout is a tedious task created by humans that can be easily avoided. Now that we know sludge exists and we have a snazzy word for it, we can figure out ways to reduce it.

See you later this week… 👋

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom! Today’s podcast is the first in a while, so it felt great to get back on the horse and devour some knowledge. Today’s guest is Janelle Shane, research scientist in artificial intelligence, and author of the recently-published You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, a book about the weirdest artificial intelligence out there. We got into all sorts of AI questions and even had a discussion on trucks with giant testicles dangling down from the back of them, so whatever you’re into there’s something for everyone. In all seriousness, AI is crucial yet so misunderstood, so I’m hoping the podcast above and newsletter below go some way in breaking down barriers for understanding its place in this world. Enjoy 🤓

Job Corner

Several deadlines coming up in the next few days, including at CBC, ITV, The Independent and The Texas Tribune. Check out almost 400 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance contracts. Please spread the word.

Who is Janelle Shane?

Janelle is a research scientist specializing in artificial intelligence, TED2019 speaker, and author of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, a book on how AI works and why it’s making the world weirder. The book is an expansion of Janelle’s popular blog, aiweirdness.com, which makes fun at some of the stranger AI trends and innovations, like cockroaches being able to masquerade as giraffes to fool security. Janelle’s also written for The New York Times, Popular Science and Slate.

Buy the book 👇

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You Look Like a Thing and I Love You

Janelle published her first book late last year titled You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, a book on how AI works and why it’s making the world a weirder place. Maybe it’s me and the line of work I’m in, but AI is more often than not associated with negatives, such as machines taking our jobs, racist algorithms, or fatal self-driving cars crashes. While there’s certainly cause for concern over the outcomes of machines overstepping the mark in terms of invading our privacy and threatening our security, it’s of course us humans programming AI that’s the problem. In the same vein, Janelle looks at some of the weirder AIs that humans have created, such as truck nuts…

Truck nuts you ask? Yeah I did a double take too. One of the things I love about America is some people’s inability to control their testosterone, and the latest way this group of people are displaying their manliness is by dangling a pair of giant testicles from the back of their trucks. But in fine fashion, the AI from a Tesla recently recognized the oversized nuts as a traffic cone, a beautiful reminder of AI’s naivety and that we can all reduce some individuals with overflowing arousal to a traffic cone.

What is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?

Pinching this next bit from my podcast with Francesco Marconi, former R&D Chief at The Wall Street Journal and now co-founder of Applied XLabs. The never ending rise of power and influence of technology companies in our lives means we hear and read about terms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning seemingly every day. AI as we know it arguably started in the first half of the 20th century, just as computers were gaining steam. While AI and ML are closely linked and overlap in many ways, they are different.

Artificial intelligence is:

The overarching umbrella term for the simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans and mimic our actions.

Whereas machine learning is:

The concept that a computer program can learn and adapt to new data without human interference. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that keeps a computer’s algorithms current regardless of external changes. For example, autocorrect or self-driving cars.

Essentially, you need AI researchers to build the smart machines, and you need machine learning experts to make them super intelligent. You can’t have one without the other.

Is AI Misunderstood? 🤔

This is a question that’s been rattling around my brain for months now, and is one I’m starting to understand better the more I dissect its pros and cons. Like many of you reading, I got swept up in the fear and hysteria over automation eliminating up to 800 millions jobs in the next decade, paranoid that the machines are coming to get us! Like with most things in life, the more I learn about AI and the more experts I talk to on the podcast, the more I realize that AI can and should be a helluva lot less intimidating than it’s currently perceived.

Two main factors come to mind that give AI a bad name. Firstly, as we discussed earlier, when AI does bad things, whether it’s intentional or unintentional, human decisions are behind it, such as the Chinese government’s decision to spy on its citizens and give everyone a social credit score based on trivial offences such as jaywalking. Automation has shaped economies for centuries. Whether it was the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century that sent factory production soaring, or the invention of the internet that has all but killed off the printing press, people have lost jobs due to machines for as long as we can remember.

But that’s not the problem — free markets will always endeavour to find savings. Which brings us onto the second point. The problem has been dormant governments failing to react quick enough to changing industries, if at all. Across the Midwest and South, economic wastelands have sprung up over the past decade because federal and state governments failed to reinvest in these communities through teaching people necessary skills, and through a lack of incentive to keep innovative companies at home. And in the UK, jobs left empty because of Brexit will ironically be filled by robots. Until we truly understand what automation is and what it can do, the stigma around AI will only become dirtier.

Credit: Axios 👇

Which Country Is Best At AI?

Like with most areas of life, I love a good bloody index to show who’s better than who on a particular subject. While rankings are just rankings, they do provide a decent snapshot of which country prioritises certain issues over others. When it comes to AI, Tortoise Media’s index looks at the level of investment, innovation and actual implementation of AI by country, while Stanford University’s index looks at the vibrancy of each nation including public perception and societal considerations. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, are number one and two on both indices.

Source: Tortoise Media 👇

Delving into the U.S. deeper, researchers at Stanford concluded that while larger states with the biggest economies may not be at the top of the standings in terms of AI job growth, that’s because they’ve already had their AI surge. It’s part of the reason they’re still at the top. Oil also helps… Talking of which, oil-rich states such as North Dakota and Wyoming have seen AI jobs in their states boom of the past decade, and goes to show that you don’t need to be in California or New York to jump into AI.

Related podcasts…

#77 — Francesco Marconi (Newlab) on artificial intelligence and its role in the future of journalism

#72 — Ryan Broderick (BuzzFeed) on the 15th anniversary of YouTube

#70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) on the lack of government preparation for the coronavirus and the latest 2020 technology trends

#61 — Rachel Botsman (Trust Issues) on the why people believe fake news

Last week …

🇺🇸 America's Protests: We Must Now Focus on Voter Suppression

Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read.

If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at [email protected].

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Friday folks, and welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom, where today we’ll have the latest in our series of candidates running for public office. This time it’s the turn of Mark Gamba, who’s vying to represent Oregon’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mark’s biggest test won’t be November’s general election, instead it’ll be Tuesday’s Democratic primary where he must topple 12-year incumbent Kurt Schrader, who’s one of the most senior Democrats in the country. We got into how the race has changed since going 100 percent digital amid the coronavirus lockdown, as well as how Mark’s 30-year career as a photojournalist exposed him to some of the worst effects of climate change, and how the emergency is fuelling the world’s wars and mass migration. Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, but first my picks of the week and today’s Job Corner. Enjoy! 🤓

Picks of the Week

* How To Get Away With Murder — Goodbye to one of the most complex black women on TV 🥂

* Buzzfeed, Quartz — Buzzfeed announced it’s shutting its UK and Australian newsrooms, and Quartz is laying off 80 people

* MoMA — Explore 139,000 artworks displayed in the Museum of Modern Art with this spectacular interactive visualization

Job Corner

Lots of deadlines this weekend for more than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs. Companies include the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Politico Europe and Telemundo. Spread the word far and wide!

Like Me, Please

Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers.

Who is Mark Gamba?

Mark is a former photojournalist of 30 years who decided that journalism wasn’t enough, and turned to public service to make a bigger impact. He became mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon, a city of around 20,000 people in 2015, and won reelection in 2018. Having worked with the likes of National Geographic and Sports Illustrated, Mark’s work took him to all parts of the U.S. and rest of the world, exposing him to different cultures, languages and the harsh reality of climate change. It’s why he believes he’s the right person to represent Oregon’s 5th district in the U.S. House of Representatives in November. Mark’s biggest test will be to defeat incumbent Democrat Kurt Schrader, who was first elected in 2008, in Tuesday’s primary. Schrader won 87 percent of the Democratic vote in 2018, but Mark’s challenge is the most serious Schrader’s received in years, and his centrist position could land him in trouble amid the age of growing left-wing populism in the U.S.

History of Oregon Politics

Oregon is a blue stalwart on paper, having voted for a Democratic president in every election since 1988. But as we’ve discussed tirelessly in this newsletter, there are endless nuances under the hood/bonnet in each state, whether it be the weirdness of West Virginia’s state legislature, or the fact that Maine has voted for a Democratic president in every election since 1992, but hasn’t had a blue U.S. Senator since 1995. In Oregon, the intrigue stems from the fact that in 2016, voters turned out for the two main parties in their lowest percentage in 20 years, when third-party candidate Ross Perot won nine percent for his Reform Party, after he won 24 percent in 1992. This could mean that Oregonians are tired of the same old two-party system and are ready for new leadership, meaning the five sitting U.S. Representatives, who have a combined 97 years of service, could be in trouble come November.

Balancing Budgets

In Milwaukie, Mark and his team have done their best to offset the immediate and future financial losses his city’s workers and businesses will suffer due to the coronavirus. But Milwaukie just isn’t big enough to have the money saved in its coffers to deal with such a crisis. The same can be said of many states, who are beginning to struggle to foot the bill of unemployment claims due to the millions of layoffs and furloughs in recent months. A report by Tax Foundation shows that several states have enough money saved to survive several months, and Wyoming’s estimated to be able to cover its people for more than six years. Meanwhile the likes of California, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts can only afford to pay out unemployment benefits for up to seven weeks.

Credit: Tax Foundation

Unlike the federal government, states are legally required to balance theirs budgets, which is why the likes of New York, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, West Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts and Ohio have filed for federal financial help. Additionally, the coronavirus shutdown could cost the U.S. economy half a trillion dollars, and that’s probably a conservative figure. It will likely be years before the U.S. economy recovers, if at all, and will likely take an unconventional shape economists are calling the Swoosh Recovery. States therefore face inevitable cuts on a mass scale to foot the bill.

What Can We Learn From the New Deal?

Amid the current financial chaos, many are calling for countries around the world to adopt a New Deal-style financial program to re-stimulate their economies and get people working again. The latest figures show that unemployment’s soaring around the world, and could rise to 25 percent in the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs. During the darkest days of the Great Depression in 1933, unemployment rocketed from 3 to 25 percent, forcing newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt to unleash a series of government-funded programs and projects not seen before. While the economy received the shot in the arm it so desperately needed and many credit FDR for shortening the duration of the Great Depression, the jury is out on what impact his actions really had, with the Dust Bowl lasting the majority of the decade.

In South Korea, a ‘Tech New Deal’ will fund 5G networks and AI development. In the UK, GDP fell 2 percent in the first three months of the year, and significant government spending is needed to jump start the economy after more than a decade of meagre growth. And some members of the European Parliament have called for an ambitious plan centered around new green jobs. Unlike the aforementioned countries and regions, the U.S. has a forthcoming general election, which could mean a stimulus package that will actually benefit the people might not be implemented for another year, deepening the woes of people across the country.

Migration and War are Fuelled by Climate Change

Mark’s travels exposed him to parts of the world that many of us will never experience, which is why he’s so knowledgable about the effects of climate change. More than a million people migrated from the Middle East and parts of Africa to Europe in 2015, sparking an influx of people not seen on such a scale since records began, overwhelming many countries in the process. In 2018, a so-called “Migrant Caravan” of more than 7,000 Central Americans arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after months of travelling up from the likes of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Many migrants flee their home countries because of persecution, poverty and violence, but what’s often lost is that it is climate change that’s fuelling the majority of the problems such countries are facing.

Credit: United Nations

There are currently around 71 million displaced people around the world, a figure the UN forecasts could be anywhere between 24 million and 1 billion by 2050. Imagine that, around one tenth of the world’s population could be a forced migrant because climate change has made parts of this planet completely inhabitable. Unfortunately we’re living in a vicious feedback loop, whereby the worse climate change becomes, the more wars it’ll spark, driving more migration until the cycle repeats itself. As climate change ramps up its next attack on the planet, we can only expect more deadly wars and migrants dying as a consequence.

Related podcasts…

#73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate) on running for the office for the first time and why Midwestern politics is so weird

#68 — Mckayla Wilkes (U.S. House) on taking on No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer and why the U.S. needs Universal Basic Income

#64 — Paula Jean Swearengin (U.S. Senate) on West Virginia’s devastating opioid crisis, and what it’s like running for the U.S. Senate

This week…

#77 — Francesco Marconi (Newlab) on artificial intelligence and its role in the future of journalism

… Last week…

#76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) from Maine on her race with Susan Collins, and a look at the history of campaign finance laws in the U.S.

#75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism

Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read.

If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at [email protected].

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is… one of the smartest people to grace this podcast’s airways, Francesco Marconi! Francesco recently left the Wall Street Journal where he was R&D Chief to form his own company, Applied XL, in partnership with Brooklyn-based frontier technology center Newlab, which builds tools for journalists around the world using artificial intelligence. His new book, Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism, was published this year and Francesco’s giving away a handful of free copies to readers of Inside The Newsroom. So if you want a free book, email me at [email protected] and I’ll pass on the names of the first few! Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, including an updated job board. Enjoy! 🤓

Job Corner

The job board was updated last night with more than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs. New companies added include Netflix, Open Democracy, Politico Europe, and Rogers. Spread the word far and wide!

Who is Francesco Marconi?

Francesco was a student journalist just a few years ago and is now one of the most talented and knowledgable minds on the future of journalism. After completing a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics in Portugal and Italy, respectively, Francesco moved to the U.S. to complete his master’s degree in journalism and business at the University of Missouri (MIZ!), and completed his post-graduate work at Columbia University and Harvard. He then scored a job with the Associated Press on its strategy team, before being hired by the Wall Street Journal as its Research and Development Chief. In addition to his many other positions and accolades, Francesco was recognized in 2018 among MediaShift’s top digital media innovators. Now Francesco runs his own company, Applied XL, part of New Lab, of which he is also SVP for Data and AI.

Like Me, Please

Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read. Cheers.

What is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?

The never ending rise of power and influence of technology companies in our lives means we hear and read about terms such as artificial intelligence and machine learning seemingly every day. AI as we know it arguably started in the first half of the 20th century, just as computers were gaining steam. While AI and ML are closely linked and overlap in many ways, they are different.

Artificial intelligence is:

The overarching umbrella term for the simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think like humans and mimic our actions.

Whereas machine learning is:

The concept that a computer program can learn and adapt to new data without human interference. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that keeps a computer’s algorithms current regardless of external changes. For example, autocorrect or self-driving cars.

Essentially, you need AI researchers to build the smart machines, and you need machine learning experts to make them super intelligent. You can’t have one without the other.

Newsmakers: What is the Future of Journalism?

Francesco answers the billion dollar question in his new book, Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism Paperback, which addresses journalism’s burning need to integrate AI and ML ten fold. Having been on both sides of the coin — R&D chief at The Wall Street Journal, manager of strategy and AI at the Associated Press, and now founder and chief data officer of Applied XL — Francesco believes journalism needs to continue to reflect and integrate the views of the audience into storytelling, whether that’s mining social media or using internal data to identify what people are talking about.

While that seems innocent and doable, we know it’s far easier said than done. We’ve talked plenty about The Inversion in this newsletter before — the real scenario that the majority of clicks, likes and comments on the internet are not made by humans but by click farms, where hundreds if not thousands of devices play and click on the same videos and posts, before moving onto the next one. Identifying what’s real and what’s a bot is incredibly difficult and not accessible to every news organization, which means a big part of the next decade will be the need for more collaborations between large and small news organizations, and the larger newspapers implementing M&A strategies similar to the likes of Google and Facebook.

Newspapers Are Now Technology Companies

Tech giants like Google and Facebook have for years bought smaller startups to integrate new technology into their platforms, and to ensure their existence and survival. According to this extremely trustworthy Wikipedia page, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has acquired 234 companies, including the likes of YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion, Waze in 2013 for more than a billion dollars and has a pending deal for Fitbit that’s estimated to be around $2 billion. Facebook has also been extremely active, acquiring 83 companies according to its reliable Wikipedia page, including Instagram in 2012 for a bargain $1 billion, WhatsApp in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion and CrowdTangle in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. If the Google search engine or Facebook social media platform were to ever become extinct (more likely for Facebook), the two companies would still thrive because of all the pies they have fingers in. And now the same can be said of large news organizations.

The New York Times most recently bought Audm in March, an app that turns longform journalism into audio, part of a growing number of acquisitions according to its sturdy Wikipedia page. And The Boston Globe, with its partnership with New Lab, is another example of a media company investing in new tools to improve the storytelling experience. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Large organizations with large amounts of money are realistically the only outlets able to acquire assets and new technology, which is why the need for them to share their new technology with smaller news organizations has never been greater.

Democratizing Knowledge and Technology

Perhaps never in history has there been a greater gap in knowledge and innovation between large and smaller news organizations. It’s part of the reason that 33,000 journalists were laid off between 2017 and 2018, and according to a study by Pew Research, mid-market newspapers — those with between 100,000 and 249,999 daily circulation — experienced the largest cuts. The coronavirus pandemic has only poured more oxygen onto the fire, and Poynter has gathered a list of all the newsroom layoffs, furloughs and closures caused by the outbreak that’s updated daily.

So how do we plug this knowledge and innovation gap that’s widened? Part of it can be filled with more collaboration between newsrooms of different sizes. Whether it’s large-scale projects such as The Panama Papers, which was one of the largest joint journalism projects in history that exposed the corruption of the world’s biggest political leaders around the world, or the free distribution of tools such as TimelineJS, an awesome tool created by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University that allows for easily embeddable interactive timelines, there can never be too much collaboration. Here are a couple of sources to find out more about funding journalism projects.

Related podcasts…

#74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) on the difference between asking Barack Obama and Donald Trump questions in the White House press briefing room

#70 — Amy Webb (Future Today Institute) on the lack of government preparation for the coronavirus and the latest 2020 technology trends

Last week…

#76 — Betsy Sweet (U.S. Senate Candidate) from Maine on her race with Susan Collins, and a look at the history of campaign finance laws in the U.S.

#75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism

… This week …

#78 — Mark Gamba (U.S. House Candidate) from Oregon on a 30-year career in photo journalism and the history of Oregon politics

… Next week

#Alex Crawford (Sky News) on her career as a war correspondent

#Burundi general election special 🇧🇮

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Hello! Welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom where today we welcome Betsy Sweet to the podcast! Betsy’s a veteran of Maine politics and is running for U.S. Senate, where she must defeat Sara Gideon and Bre Kidman in July’s Democratic primary, before taking on Republican incumbent Susan Collins. Our conversation centered around the ridiculous nature of U.S. elections that sees voters bombarded with political ads and door knocking for two years, before it all starts again for the next cycle. And we went deep into campaign finance laws and the history behind Citizens United, which allows corporations to fund candidates in the name of free speech. Up top is the podcast, down below is the post-game, but first my top stories of the week. Enjoy! ✊

Picks of the Week

* Elon Musk — He’s back! The billionaire tech mogul appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast for the second time, a year after smoking a blunt live on air

* Fossil Fuel Bailout — Oil prices have tanked to their lowest in 15 years, but instead of keeping to their capitalist principles, oil firms are seeking a bailout

* Bibi Netanyahu — Israel’s Prime Minister is on the verge of forming a unity government delaying the country’s fourth general election in a year

❤️❤️❤️How You Like Me Now? ❤️❤️❤️

Before you read on, please like this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ up top. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read.

Job Corner

More than 350 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance gigs are currently listed, with no position posted before March 1. Companies include CNN, the BBC, the NBA and Telemundo. Spread the word far and wide!

Who is Betsy Sweet?

There’s a saying that in order to know what a person is about, look at what they’ve done. Betsy’s been helping others for almost 40 years, whether it was writing and helping to pass the first Family Medical Leave Act in the country, getting rid of environmental toxins from building materials and children’s toys, or expanding the Human Rights Act in Maine, Betsy’s record speaks for itself. If and when Betsy wins June’s Democratic primary, she must topple Republican incumbent Susan Collins, who’s been a U.S. Senator from Maine since 1997. One of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country, Collins is against Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, and has voted with Donald Trump 67 percent of the time since he assumed office. Betsy 👇

A Brief History of Maine Politics

As is often the case with many states, there’s a disconnect between Maine’s presidential and U.S. Senate voting history. Apart from Maine’s 2nd congressional district giving Donald Trump a single collegiate vote in 2016, the Pine Tree State has voted blue solidly since George H. W. Bush swept the country in 1988. Meanwhile, Betsy’s vying to become the first Democratic senator to represent the state since George J. Mitchell did so in 1995 — current senator Angus King has a mixed history but was elected as an independent in 2012.

Credit: 270toWin

This is a massive part of U.S. politics that’s all too often glossed over, with most outlets labelling Maine a blue state, or West Virginia, for example, a red state, when in reality neither is any color other than purple. That’s why Betsy is running on a platform of issues that shouldn’t be seen as left or right, but rather up and down, supporting the average voter against big-money interests of corporations and billionaires.

Where Do Campaign Contributions Go Once a Campaign Ends?

It’s a question I’ve always wondered, especially on the presidential level where campaigns can be left with millions of dollars after they’re suspended. The 2020 Democratic primary field raised an estimated $2 billion million between the two dozen or so candidates, including the $1 billion Michael Bloomberg and $315 million Tom Steyer dropped on their campaigns.

There are many paths candidates take. If you’re Elizabeth Warren, you might use the $11 million in hand to pay the $5.9 million monthly payment it cost to run your campaign. If you’re Beto O’Rourke, you might make donations to organizations including Everytown For Gun Safety and March For Our Lives, which champion gun control and is something Beto holds close to his heart after the El Paso mass shooting that left 20 dead last year. If you’re Mini Mike Bloomberg, you might transfer a cool $18 million to the DNC, making it the largest transfer by a presidential campaign in recent history. If you’re one of the many senators or representatives, you might transfer funds from your presidential campaign to your congressional campaign, so long as they don’t surpass limits on what donors had already contributed.

Which raises the next question: How much does all the ad spending benefit local economies?

Ad Spend in the Local Economy

We know that more than $2 billion was raised by Democratic candidates in the 2020 primary race and the majority of that will have been spent in advertising. This means that early voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina felt a real cash injection from not only the increased advertising, but also from campaigns and reporters spending money on hotels, in restaurants and on rental cars for example. Research conducted by Rebecca Lessum, an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, and Carly Urban, an associate professor of economics at Montana State University, found that increased spending in a state around a primary can increase total per capita earnings in that quarter by up to 25 percent.

If you follow elections in other countries, you’ll know that the U.S. system is an anomaly in that there’s barely a break in political campaigning. As soon as the current presidential cycle ends in November, it’ll be a few short months before activity resumes toward the 2022 midterms, if not right away. Compare that to the UK’s campaigning rules, which states that the official campaign period is limited to 25 working days. It’s why Betsy is among a growing number of people calling for limits to the campaign period in the U.S., so not to desensitize voters from the onslaught of campaign material.

Citizens United Inc

Perhaps the main reason why U.S. presidential campaigns are so damn long is the money involved. Betsy and I discussed the need to reduce the influence money has on politicians and their policies, which in turn fuels the endless campaigning. That’s where Citizens United enters the fray, which was a landmark case in 2010 that ruled that political spending is a form of free speech protected under the First Amendment, and opened the door for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising. While the increased spending will inevitably benefit local economies, it reduces the power of each voter and allows lobbyists to buy candidates and elections.

But it wasn’t always like this and doesn’t have to be this way. Between 1907 and 1970, a series of acts were passed limiting the influence of money in politics. And in 1971, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act, which strengthened the requirement for candidates to publicly report their campaign finance and put limits on the amount they could receive in one go. But then in 2010, Citizens United paved the way for the open season system the U.S. has today. A full history can be found in the below video…

Last week…

#75 — Alex Schiffer (The Athletic) on the grind of making the jump from local to national journalism

#74 — Major Garrett (CBS News) on the difference between asking Barack Obama and Donald Trump questions in the White House press briefing room

… Next week

#77 — Francesco Marconi on the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning in journalism

#78 — Mark Gamaba (U.S. House Candidate OR) on his 30-year career in photo journalism and now running for national office

Related podcasts…

#73 — Nick Rubando (U.S. House Candidate OH) on winning the Democratic nomination for Ohio’s 5th district and November’s general election

#68 — Mckayla Wilkes (U.S. House Candidate MD) on America’s draconian At-Will employment laws, and the need for Universal Basic Income

#64 — Paula Jean Swearingen (U.S. Senate Candidate WV) on West Virginia’s toxic history with coal mining, and the impact of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Thanks for making it all the way to the bottom. Please like and share this edition of Inside The Newsroom by clicking the ❤️ below. That way I’ll appear in clever algorithms and more people will be able to read.

If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I publish (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 and email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at [email protected].

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidethenewsroom.substack.com/subscribe