Journalism

Under the cloud of an aggressive takeover bid, Gannett reported a dip in fourth quarter revenue Wednesday. But the company said it was encouraged by growth in digital advertising.

Former CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan appeared on  Fox News Channel’s Hannity Wednesday evening to expand on her recent remarks characterizing the media as mostly liberal. “It’s obvious, right, because you get targeted,” she said, explaining her earlier comments that she was committing “professional suicide” by criticizing the media. “It’s the same group of people, they’re already starting to target me again now and I was expecting it. I know they’re gonna come after me again. The same people come after you.”

The idea that you would collaborate with your competitor when you’re fighting for ratings is anathema to broadcasters. But it may be a key part of how local news remains sustainable.

President Trump on Wednesday labeled The New York Times “a true enemy of the people” one day after an extensive report detailing the ways in which he has sought to influence the investigations into his presidency and allies. The president’s tweet did not refute any specific reporting from the Times, but marked yet another escalation in his sustained attacks on his hometown paper and the media as a whole.

The 10,000th flight occurred on Jan. 30, part of an assignment for a news report for WPMI Mobile, Ala. The drone was commanded by Robby Hughes from Sinclair’s WEAR Pensacola, Fla., with visual observer Jan Czernik stationed in Mobile.

CBS News is considering making significant changes to its flagship CBS Evening News, according to four people with knowledge of the talks, part of a top-down look at the news division by incoming president Susan Zirinsky. Executives are considering putting CBS This Morning anchor Norah O’Donnell in the lead role of its evening news, these people said, as well as moving the broadcast to Washington, instead of its longtime roost in New York City.

Hearst promotes the assistant news director of its WESH Orlando, Fla., to lead its news team in Jackson, Miss.

The former Nexstar and NBC executive will also hold the title of executive vice president of Allen Media, the parent company of Entertainment Studios and The Weather Channel.

ABC News has signed star anchor George Stephanopoulos to a new, four-year contract that will keep him with the company through the 2020 presidential election, a network source confirmed Tuesday.

The NBC O&Os are making audience inroads on platforms where many other station groups have feared to tread. Digital chief Lora Dennis says early moves on Instagram’s IGTV and voice platforms like Amazon and Google have been promising, and bilingual digital collaborations with its Telemundo stations are also proliferating.

Lara Logan, the journalist who gained wider renown covering war-torn spots in the Middle East for CBS News, is no longer with the network and has not been for several months. The split was disclosed as the result of Logan making an appearance over the weekend on a podcast with Mike Ritland in which she suggested news consumers ought to get information from both liberal and conservative outlets, calling the news “mostly liberal.”

Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday called for the Supreme Court to reconsider New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 ruling interpreting the First Amendment to make it hard for public officials to prevail in libel suits. He said the decision was the product of unprincipled “legal alchemy” that had no basis in the Constitution as understood by the people who drafted and ratified it.

Patti McGettigan, news director of Cox’s Memphis Fox affiliate, died Feb. 16 after a long battle with cancer. McGettigan had beaten the deadly disease twice. She was 53 years old.

WAVY, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Portsmouth, Va., is in the fortunate position of having its own news helicopter on the premises as well as a drone. But deciding when to use either is a fine art. “So we see what fits best, the drone or the helicopter, and some days, we have them both out,” said Jeff Myers, WAVY’s news operations manager and chief photographer.

The Knight Foundation says it will invest $300 million in local journalism over the next five years. Among the beneficiaries are the American Journalism Project, which provides grants to local nonprofit news organizations; the investigative site ProPublica; Report for America, a service organization that pays for the hiring of local journalists; and PBS’s Frontline, the documentary program that’s making its first foray into local news.

There is no “free time” in the typical newsroom today. Adding new activities without eliminating other tasks is a surefire way to sabotage a promising innovation. It’s also intellectually dishonest. When push comes to shove, the new and extra lose out to the demands of the day and the urgency of the now. That’s why smart managers start their innovation process by brainstorming a “Stop Doing” list before they generate a “Start Doing” list. They create capacity for innovation first.