Inside The Newsroom 1-Year Anniversary 🥂
Here's what's in store for the next 12 months 🍻
Morning folks! Pinch and a punch, it’s the first of another month. Today also marks one year since I launched the subscription model for Inside The Newsroom. Much has happened since, so let's look at some of the highlights (and lowlights), and shine a bright light on the next 12 months. Subscribe below for just $5/£3.60 a month or $45/£32 for the year.
Lowlights (Let’s Get Them Out of the Way)
We’re of course still in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century. Thousands of students had their internships abruptly cancelled, and thousands of journalists continue to lose their jobs. Thanks to our friends at Poynter, we’re able to track many of them.
In April of last year I started throwing a few hundred jobs on a spreadsheet. I spent up to 15 hours every weekend adding even more to try to mitigate the impact of all the layoffs. Fast forward 18 months and we now have almost 3,000 on there. We're the most comprehensive journalism job and internship board in the world. Period.
Personally, I know all too well of being left with nothing. As many of you know, in March I was forced to resign from the Wall Street Journal after it became clear they wouldn’t allow me to run ITN. All I wanted to do was help other journalists, but they refused to listen or compromise.
That chapter caused me so much unnecessary stress, some of which I’m still recovering from. But it did give me first-hand experience of what really happens behind closed doors between management and employees. Employees rarely win, but that can and must change. Now more than ever, Inside The Newsroom really does need your help.
This isn’t meant to be a self-serving soliloquy. So let’s look at some of our finer moments from the past year and beyond…
Mmm, Numbers 🧮
Because I’m a data journalist and love a good dataset, here are some quick stats about what we’ve achieved so far with Inside The Newsroom:
376 newsletters including 146 in the past 12 months + 72 job board updates
We serve ~14,000 journalists around the world
~3,000 jobs and internships in 649 newsrooms across 306 cities
Hundreds of you have emailed to say you landed work through the job board ❤️
9 of you took me up on my offer to help you start your own publication
302 datasets available on Data Corner
89 podcasts all time
Podcast Relaunch 🎉
Talking of the podcast, we’ll be relaunching it very soon. I’ve heard from many of you with guests you’d like to hear from — it’s not too late to get your request in. Until then, let’s look at some of the awesome guests we’ve already had on…
What it’s like to ask questions to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump with Major Garrett of CBS News
Covering climate change with Emily Atkin of HEATED, and renowned climate scientist Michael E. Mann
Why we make the decisions we do with Harvard's Cass Sunstein
Factchecking Donald Trump with CNN’s Daniel Dale
History of voter suppression with Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone
History of women’s sports with the legendary Christine Brennan
Decimation of local news with media entrepreneur Scott Brodbeck
Lebanon crises with the AP’s Dalal Mawad
Jason Kander on PTSD and veteran neglect
America’s coal addiction and running for U.S. Senate with Paula Jean Swearengin
Opioid crisis with David Armstrong of ProPublica
Independent politics with former British MP Anna Soubry
Preparing for the next pandemic and natural disaster with Amy Webb
Hilarious fun with comedian and journalist Francesca Fiorentini
History of populism with The Hill’s Krystal Ball and The Intercept's Ryan Grim
Future of AI in journalism with former WSJ R&D chief Francesco Marconi
Election Dissection 🗳️
Later this month will also see the return of one of my favourite things: Dissecting every major global election with local and global context. This was something I started at the start of last year and continued for 12 whole months. Below is a full list of every election I dissected last year…
December: Venezuela, Ghana and Romania🇻🇪🇬🇭🇷🇴
November: Belize, Myanmar and Moldova🇧🇿🇲🇲🇲🇩, Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Georgia🇹🇿🇨🇮🇬🇪
October: Chile and Guinea🇨🇱 🇬🇳, New Zealand and Bolivia🇳🇿🇧🇴, Northern Cyprus, Lithuania and Tajikistan🇱🇹🇹🇯, Kyrgyzstan, Czech Republic and New Caledonia🇰🇬🇨🇿🇳🇨
September: Jamaica and Iran🇯🇲🇮🇷, Montenegro🇲🇪, 2020 What’s Happened Since Part 2
August: 2020 What’s Happened Since Part 1, Belarus and Sri Lanka🇧🇾🇱🇰
July: Mongolia, Iceland🇲🇳🇮🇸, Croatia, Dominican Republic🇭🇷🇩🇴 and Syria, North Macedonia🇸🇾🇲🇰
June: Serbia, Kiribati and Malawi🇷🇸🇰🇮🇲🇼
April: South Korea🇰🇷
March: Israel, Slovakia and Tajikistan🇮🇱🇸🇰🇹🇯
February: Cameroon, Ireland, Azerbaijan🇨🇲🇮🇪🇦🇿 and Iran, Togo🇮🇷🇹🇬
The Next 12 Months and Beyond 🔮
I've been relatively quiet this summer. Partly because of the stress and burnout from the WSJ ordeal, but also because I've worked hard to put together an autumn schedule of content for paid subscribers in addition to the job board. Below is a list of everything you’ll receive for just $5/£3.60 a month or $45/£32 for the year.
Access to ~3,000 jobs in 649 cities across the U.S., UK and Canada
Résumé/CV and cover letter help
Podcast and written Q&As with the world’s top journalists
Monthly global election roundups
Media roundtables with the latest industry insight and advice
Individual start-your-own-publication workshops
Data Corner: Monthly roundup of the most topical and important datasets on the internet
Thanks so much for making it all the way to the bottom. I’ve honestly never been so excited and motivated to help other journalists navigate through the journalism industry. If you believe in doing the same, please consider subscribing or sharing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart 🙏
Congratulations on the last 12 months fantastic read !
Looking forward to the next 12 months.
👏👏👏