Poynter

08/27/2026

On Wednesday, Meta reached a landmark settlement and agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims that its social media platforms endangered children through addictive features. Meta will also make major changes to minimize the negative effects of its platforms on children and teenagers.

Read this story and more:

The landmark deal requires changes designed to make Facebook and Instagram less addictive and gives competitors an incentive to do the same

08/27/2026

For decades, Stars and Stripes has been a vital part of the journalistic ecosystem covering the U.S. military, specifically serving the 1.3 million active-duty troops, their families and millions more retired service members.

That credibility and editorial independence are in jeopardy, write Poynter’s Jon Greenberg and Kelly McBride, following the recent firings of publisher Max Lederer and editor-in-chief Erik Slavin. Critical journalism that documents the conditions service members endure, exposes broken systems and holds the generals and the administration accountable ultimately makes the U.S. military stronger.

The independent newsroom is a critical watchdog as the ranks of journalists covering the military continue to shrink

08/26/2026

For journalism to survive, “the journalism itself must become indispensable to people. To make that shift, journalists must make the public the focus of their work, not a bystander to it,” writes journalism professor Tom Rosenstiel.

For Poynter, Rosenstiel makes the case for why (and how) the news industry must shift from a “Journalism of Attention to a Journalism of Value.”

News organizations need to understand what audiences actually need — and build their journalism around those needs

08/26/2026

Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday after a brief battle with cancer, was “more than just a country singer,” writes senior media writer Tom Jones.

Parton was a prolific songwriter, an actress, a shrewd businesswoman and a selfless philanthropist, yet “it was her easygoing, bubbly, optimistic, oversized yet down-to-earth personality that touched her fans — which included pretty much everyone.”

Read more about Parton’s iconic legacy:

Her songs, humor and unmistakable personality made the country music legend a rare unifying figure in American culture

08/25/2026

The U.S. publishing industry generates about $30 billion of annual revenue.

Despite all that money, and book coverage once being a core part of newspaper criticism, newspaper book coverage is disappearing. And when a community loses its book coverage, it creates a ripple effect.

Read the story: https://buff.ly/kLQ9Wtn

Authors, critics and booksellers say shrinking coverage weakens local arts, literary culture and the bond between readers and newsrooms

08/25/2026

“I am here to tell you: Journalists, please stop torturing yourselves over what is essentially a 500-word writing assignment,” writes Boston Globe managing editor Cristina Silva in the latest edition of “Ask the Recruiter.”

“Instead of putting off applying for a job while you agonize over a cover letter, you would likely be better served by ensuring your resume, portfolio, networking and interview skills — the things that truly set candidates apart — are as strong as they can be.”

Some job applicants spend far too much time worrying about writing the perfect cover letter. Here’s what is more likely to get them the job.

08/25/2026

An arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to reinstate columnist Karen Attiah on Monday, noting that the Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to fire Attiah and that it had “violated” its labor agreement.

In a statement, Attiah said she hopes the ruling “sends a message to journalists and media institutions everywhere that freedom of expression is always worth fighting for.”

Read this media story and more in today’s Poynter Report newsletter:

An arbitrator ordered the Post to rehire Attiah, who was fired over social media posts after Charlie Kirk’s killing

08/24/2026

On Jan. 23, 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, thought he was meeting a potential source for a story about terrorism. Instead, he was kidnapped and held for a week before being killed.

His murder and the global outrage that followed prompted a reckoning over the risks journalists face while covering war and terrorism.

For The Poynter 50, staff writer Amaris Castillo explores how Pearl’s death became a turning point for journalist safety, part of a larger shift toward the protections, training and vigilance that now characterize conflict reporting.

🔗Read the story: https://buff.ly/B40CPzi

08/24/2026

An arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to reinstate opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired last September for social media posts about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, The New York Times reported Monday.

In a written decision, the arbitrator said that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate her and “violated” its labor agreement.

Last October, Poynter’s Tom Jones spoke with Attiah on “The Poynter Report Podcast,” where they discussed her 11-year career at the Post, her perspective on the Post’s ideological shift and the limits of performative discourse in a polarized media environment.

Watch the episode:

In this episode of "The Poynter Report Podcast," host Tom Jones tal...

08/24/2026

The 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and the global outrage that followed, prompted a reckoning over the risks journalists face while covering war and terrorism.

His death became part of a larger shift toward the protections, training and vigilance that now characterize conflict reporting.

Read The Poynter 50 story:

The kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl led to global outrage and a reckoning over the risks journalists face while covering war and terrorism. His death became part of a…