WHEN A JOURNALIST COMPLAINS THAT THE GOOD DAYS OF MEDIA ARE OVER
Why this—right now—is the best moment to be working in journalism.
Gettin’ my creative-destructive-productive optimism on.
Sign Language: What L.A. Neighborhoods Should Billboard About Themselves - Los Angeles magazine
"We almost expect women athletes to not be classically beautiful or feminine, and therefore we’re not surprised to learn they’re gay. Male professional athletes, by contrast, are thought to be our most masculine specimens. So when they come out as gay, it seems they’re playing against type. Even more than with femininity, masculinity and heterosexuality are widely perceived to be linked. For all the progress that’s been made, there’s still a perception that the bullied gay kid is spending his after-school hours curating a Lana Del Rey Tumblr, not practicing with the varsity basketball team. The bullied teen lesbian? She’s the one on the court."
"I didn’t even realize how big the brand journalism thing had gotten until I got canned,” Bennett says. That’s when other brands trying to do journalism started to ask for her thoughts on the matter. Consumers are getting smarter about traditional advertising and marketing, she adds, and some companies are taking the unorthodox approach of directly employing journalists—whose ideas and copy they don’t directly control—to cover their brand or community. “Sixteen-year-old kids can see through some rewritten press release bullshit in a way their parents might not have been able to,” Bennett says. “Consumers are savvier, which is where I think some of the drive to hire journalists for some of this content comes from.” For reporters and editors tired of layoffs and buyouts, these jobs offer a middle ground between journalism and copywriting, a way to take home a decent paycheck without feeling like you’ve sold out completely."
But how do you make independent journalism when your boss is a brand, not a media company? I had some #realtalk with Jess Bennett about the demise of Tumblr Storyboard.
WHEN A HALF-DOZEN ANONYMOUS EMPLOYEES CALL THEIR FEMALE EXECUTIVE EDITOR “CONDESCENDING”
… and how Politico could have done it better.
"The goal shouldn’t be to get women to focus on how we are all gorgeous in our own way. It should be to get women to do for ourselves what we wish the broader culture would do: judge each other based on intelligence and wit and ethical sensibility, not just our faces and bodies."
Beauty above all else: The real problem with Dove’s new viral ad - NYmag.com
