In the vacuum left by the DOJ's faulty Epstein Files search, journalists and engineers have stepped in to build alternatives for readers.
"[When] people feel the government’s not being transparent, it’s even more important for media outlets to provide that service" www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/ai-p...
by a (different) Peter Baker in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/m...
“This new mode dovetails neatly with the incentives of the online video economy: assembling an elaborate account of how the Illuminati actually control the world takes work — you have to write out your argument. Posting, say, an empty grocery store shelf captioned by a raised-eyebrows emoji or a simple semi-assertion — ‘more fraud?’ — takes just a couple of minutes, and gives the viewer the satisfaction of having something mind-bogglingly complex reduced to a single potent image that appears to say it all. Much easier to hit your weekly upload quota and stay on schedule.” —SS
a lot of people are saying!
"Not asking you to click on any link, just subscribe to a real news organization with real journalists doing firsthand, fact-based reporting."
A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, urging people to support "original reporting" wherever they find it.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/new-...
"Normally, in these ads, we talk about the importance of subscribing to the Times. I’m here today with a different message." www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/new-...
Before this past year, “The last time more people left the U.S. than moved in, according to Census historical statistics, it was 1935 and the destination of choice was the Soviet Union.” www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...
I wrote about one part of my reaction to recent events: the importance and nuance of what it means to subscribe to something.
I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people local newspaper reporters are rarified elites instead of ink-stained wretches driving their Honda Civic to a crime scene so you know don’t have to rely on Nextdoor and the police press release.
must-read from @charlottetklein.bsky.social on the disastrous Will Lewis tenure at @washingtonpost.com nymag.com/intelligence...
must-read from @charlottetklein.bsky.social on the disastrous Will Lewis tenure at @washingtonpost.com nymag.com/intelligence...
DM me if:
A) You know what “journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets" means
B) You want to share tips about predictions market things happening in journalism that I should know about
C) You want my Signal for B
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/poly...
update
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...
The ongoing problem of bringing journalism to news deserts: They're concentrated in rural areas and urban communities of color, which is where the money isn't. @dicktofel.bsky.social's latest. #journalism dicktofel.substack.com/p/thinking-t...
TikTok and other social media influencers are destabilizing entire communities with their antics, whether it's in Tucson about a high-profile kidnapping, or Ohio, spreading rumors about groups working with Haitian immigrants. 19thnews.org/2026/02/tikt...
The @washingtonpost.com layoffs disproportionately affected union members of color, per data from the @postguild.bsky.social.
50% of Hispanic/Latino guild members, 45% of Black members, and 43% of Asian members were laid off, compared to 37% of white members.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/wash...
the most popular story on @theatlantic.com right now is a devastating piece about kids and measles. some readers confused it for a true personal story.
@laurahazardowen.bsky.social talked to the journalist about writing the "creative nonfiction." www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...
A woman in her 50s said, “I don’t pay to go to church, to get a spiritual message, you know? And if you’re true, and your mission is to relay facts that are fundamentally important for people’s well-being, do I need to pay you for that?”
I'm going to become the joker www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/most...
—over 2/3 say they're telling their students to consider careers outside academia
—more than 1 in 6 said they have lost researchers to institutions in other countries since Trump took office
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...
new study of scientists and NIH funding recipients by @bostonglobe.com:
—more than half have delayed hiring in their labs and 1/3 have made layoffs
—68% said funding cuts and federal policy changes had moderately or significantly reduced the scope of their work
this (unfortunately) has it all — large exec salaries in public media while reporters struggle to make ends meet, cancelling impactful investigative podcasts, cracks in firewall between newsroom and business, and a top-down pivot to video www.thewesternedge.media/p/i-had-a-dr...
he was wearing #2 not #20!
My friends at Niemanreports.org asked me to write about the experience of being a journalist on the ground in Minneapolis right now. I knew I wanted to tell reporters elsewhere how even this most hopeless of times has been clarifying and, in some ways, energizing. (1) share.google/ms1wKDQZmgep...
The EU Commission has preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act over its addictive design — infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications & hyper-personalized recommendations. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
from curiousity at acquisiton to the "democracy dies in darkness" days to "a complexifier for me" to mandates for the opinion section. @laurahazardowen.bsky.social made a timeline of Bezos statements about @washingtonpost.com. www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/some...
"If Lewis’s editors had radical ideas about the Post’s sports section—how to break it, how to modernize it, how to write a Wizards gamer somebody would actually read—those ideas never reached the ears of the writers I spoke to."
Hello, looks like independent publishers should beef up our books coverage.
If you're into the idea of joining the @flaminghydra.com collective and writing a book review each month (800-2000 word range), please send us your ideas and some clips to hello@flamingydra.com
in the same post, OpenAI acknowledges the relationship between big tech and news orgs has been “defined by tension” and says it wants to take "a different path" than its peers.
“A thriving, independent media sector isn’t just compatible with AI; it’s essential to it."
one million questions about local news is a lot. but it's still a tiny fraction of overall usage. OpenAI has said ChatGPT has 800 million weekly users. www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/chat...
Journalism coops give me — and most of the journalists I know — a lot of hope for the industry. But I've been curious: What's it like to actually work at one? I spent the last few months talking to a bunch of brilliant worker-owners to find out.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/jour...
