Ray Kelly | The Republican | November 28, 2109

Wayne E. Phaneuf, will retire as executive editor of The Republican on Jan. 1. He will be succeeded by Cynthia G. Simison, who will become the first woman executive editor in the newspaper’s 195-year-history.

George Arwady, publisher and CEO of The Republican, announced the change in leadership at the end of November.

“Wayne Phaneuf shaped this newspaper and the community for a generation. Few people ever do as much good for their hometowns as Wayne has accomplished here through truth-telling for half a century,” Arwady said.

He added, “Cynthia, an outstanding writer and editor in her own right, has spent four decades of incredibly dedicated work on behalf of our readers, making a difference for good at the newspaper, in the community, and in the lives of countless other women and men of talent and dedication. Now, she will be in a position to do even more. I can’t wait to see what’s to come.”
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Mark Glaser | Knight Foundation | December 11, 2019

If you were to train the perfect local news journalist or publisher, you would make sure they had a good grasp of digital business, used innovative reporting techniques, listened to and engaged deeply with audiences, and understood the value that their community’s many cultural and intellectual differences bring.

Training programs run the gamut from online webinars to in-person boot camps at conferences to fellowships and cohorts that learn together over a longer period of time. And the training programs aren’t just about keeping up with the latest tech tools; they also try to imbue a mindset of innovation, so journalists can be flexible and curious and open to constant change in the industry.

“We see our mission as investing in people,” said Meghan Murphy, senior manager, communities & local journalism initiatives at the Online News Association (ONA). “We can’t fulfill our mission to make the journalism field more innovative without lifting up the people in the industry.”
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The annual Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting honors investigative reporting that best promotes more effective and ethical conduct of government, the making of public policy, or the practice of politics.

Financial support for the Goldsmith Awards Program is provided by an annual grant from the Goldsmith Fund of the Greenfield Foundation. The program is administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

The winner receives $25,000, and five finalists receive $10,000. Prize money is paid directly to the journalists, not the news organizations. While the subject can address issues of foreign policy, a submission qualifies only if it has an impact on public policy in the United States at the national, regional or local level.

Nominations for the 2020 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting are open now. Up to two entries are allowed per news outlet and entries are due by January 2, 2020.
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Christine Schmidt | Nieman Lab | December 10, 2019

The Connecticut Mirror — Hartford’s nonprofit news outlet, created ten years ago with $1.8 million from residents of the state concerned about layoffs at local news outlets. Now, 90 percent of the Mirror’s revenue comes from reader donations and its journalism is shared in the state’s 12 largest daily papers. The Mirror said it received a $830,000 grant from AJP.

The Mirror is among the first 11 grantees of the American Journalism Project. Each site gets a part of $8.5 million — average grant around $800,000. The grants will fund an organization’s first dedicated revenue positions, or grow an existing revenue team. Most will fund at least two new full-time positions for 24 months dedicated to revenue and fundraising.
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The Pulitzer Prize Board | December 5, 2019

The Pulitzer Prize Board announced a new Journalism prize category for the 2020 prize cycle: Audio Reporting.

The new prize will be awarded “For a distinguished example of audio journalism that serves the public interest, characterized by revelatory reporting and illuminating storytelling.’’

The Board invites submissions from producers of radio programs and podcasts that exemplify the excellence the Pulitzer Prizes have honored for more than a century. Competitive entries will reflect the work the Prizes has championed traditionally, from investigative reporting that exposes wrongdoing to dynamic features, and news coverage of major issues or events.

News organizations currently eligible to compete for the Pulitzer Prize — “U.S. newspapers, magazines, wire services and online news sites that publish regularly’’ — will be permitted to enter audio stories in this new category, as will independent American producers and U.S. radio broadcast outlets. Non-U.S. outlets are ineligible. Eligibility rules for the other 14 Journalism categories will remain intact.

The contest for Audio Reporting and all other Journalism categories will open on December 16, 2019, and the deadline for all submissions is January 24, 2020 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Audio entries must be submitted without preroll advertising.
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Ken Doctor | @kdoctor | Dec. 6, 2019

News industry analyst and author Ken Doctor reports how the 5 biggest newspaper chains could become 2 before the end of June 2020 in his latest Newsonomics article published by Nieman Lab.

Is an end in sight?

The first half of 2020 “will be the final dance of the newspaper industry,” one of my savviest financial sources told me Thursday — someone who’s been right on the money for years. “Everything will get resolved in the first half of 2020.”

By “everything,” he means the consolidation of ownership and control of the United States’ major newspaper companies. What as recently as three weeks ago were five big chains — Gannett, GateHouse, McClatchy, Tribune, and Alden Global Capital’s MNG Enterprises — could well, by the middle of 2020, be two.
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