“Magazines are businesses, much like other companies. But there’s one big difference—they almost always get smaller, not bigger.” So starts Ted Gioia’s recent article, The Death of the Magazine. It is an interesting look at the rise and fall of the industry that was once […]
At Finance & Commerce, I created Beyond the Skyline, a podcast about economic development, real estate and construction in Minnesota. We are closing in on our 100th episode. In this special episode, I speak with historian, former financial services executive and bestselling author Zachary Karabell about his latest book, Inside […]
I’ve worked at magazines for a large part of my career, and part of what I have enjoyed most is the feeling of accomplishment in seeing all of the work, writing and design come together to make the final printed product. I’ve even enjoyed watching […]
I love the opening description in this story of news in the 19th century, Ghosts of Newspaper Row: “The reporters would pant up five flights of stairs to reach their dingy, dim newsrooms, where light eked through the dirt-cloaked windows and the green shades over […]
Can journalism be saved? That’s the question and the title of Nicholas Lemann’s new piece in the New York Review of Books. Lemann examines the issue by reviewing many of the recent books written on the crisis the industry has faced in recent years. One […]
During the first five months of 2019, journalism job losses have been the worst in more than a decade, according to data recently compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the industry shed 7, 914 jobs during the […]
Axios has an alarming summary of comments made by Nicco Mele, director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, to the Wall Street Journal. Half of existing newspapers could be gone, soon. The trends are familiar to those who work in the […]
Reporters Without Borders has released its 2019 Global Press Freedom Index. The United States ranks 48th out of 180 countries featured in the report, making it the third straight year it has fallen in the rankings.
My favorite ad from the Super Bowl was The Washington Post’s celebration of the importance of journalism narrated by Tom Hanks: Democracy Dies in Darkness
This is a bit of an unsettling sign for those of us who have spent our careers in journalism. The Newseum, the financially struggling monument to journalism on the Washington mall will soon close. According to the story in the New York Times, the building […]