"There’s only one full-time newspaper reporter. @AshleyinFloyd's title is Managing Editor of the @FloydPress, but in practicality she’s reporter, photographer, layout designer + editor. Each week she single-handedly pulls together the 16-20 page newspaper."wvtf.org/post/she-s-one…
"When big companies start to buy up papers it’s often no longer seen as a long term investment. @alisonkgraham worries that the lack of investment is a vicious cycle that can only be headed in one direction: Lee Enterprises eventually closing the paper."
"The loss of local reporters is nothing new. From 2008 to 2018 the number of newspaper journalists in the country shrank by half. Those losses have only accelerated during the pandemic." pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020…
Days after this story by @MalloryNoePayne was written, @AshleyinFloyd, the only reporter for the local newspaper, was fired by Lee Enterprises in part for doing this very interview.👇🏼🤬
The gutting of local journalism in America is a devastating + infuriating result of vastly unregulated corporations + greedy shareholders who prioritize profits over a well functioning society. Investors should save local news because it's essential, not bc it will make them rich

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More from @taraemcg

16 Oct
🚨 WSJ confirms what we've suspected: Mark Zuckerberg directly intervened to prevent progressive news orgs like @CourierNewsroom from being included in Facebook's News Tab, while sharing meals with Ben Shapiro + exchanging texts with Jared Kushner 🚨
wsj.com/articles/how-m…
"When @Facebook tweaked its newsfeed algorithm to minimize the presence of political news policy execs were concerned about the outsize impact of changes on the right. Engineers redesigned changes so left-leaning sites like @MotherJones were affected more than previously planned"
"After the launch last year of @CourierNewsroom, a network of 8 progressive local-news sites that is part-owned by a left-leaning nonprofit with close ties to Democratic donors, Mr. Zuckerberg argued that Courier wasn’t a real news outlet, given its political connections..."
Read 5 tweets
30 Jul
Team, we have a problem. Women can and have won elections- and can strengthen a presidential ticket- but the biggest barrier standing in their way is a tried-n-true playbook that has effectively kept us out of positions of power- that even we "progressives" can fall victim to.
We know from research + history that the most effective ways to take down a woman candidate are to make her appear unqualified, untrustworthy and/or unlikeable. We know there's a double standard + we know that standard is significantly worsened if you're a woman of color
Trump, the GOP + their right-wing media are all foaming at the mouth ready to use our badass woman VP (whoever she may be) to divide us + weaken our chances of beating their asses up and down the ballot. And we cannot let them get away with it again. So we have some work to do.
Read 11 tweets
6 Feb
As much as I'd like to stay off this site forever, it’s become clear the amount of misinformation flowing about ACRONYM + its relationship to Shadow has become a distraction from much bigger things. In the interest of full transparency, let’s get into it🧵medium.com/@taraemcg/a-no…
First, I'm the CEO of @anotheracronym, a 501c4 nonprofit org I founded in 2017 to help build power + digital infrastructure for the progressive movement. I was adamant it be a nonprofit bc for-profit digital consultants on our side were failing + greed was losing us elections.
In 2019, ACRONYM became majority investor in @ShadowInchq, a new political tech company founded by @gjniemira with a mission to create more nimble, accessible tech infrastructure for progressive campaigns. Shadow was the 2nd of 3 for-profit companies ACRONYM is a lead investor in
Read 16 tweets
18 Jan
Spent time with my Bernie-supporting friend last night who still believes the Dem Party is “suppressing support for Bernie” + that Warren is a liar who “can’t not keep shooting herself in the foot” + “does NOT have the same policies” as Bernie. Zero interest in unity v. Trump🧵
And don’t even ask what he had to say about our other candidates 😳 It has me so depressed I can’t stop thinking about it. There is so much evidence proving that a divisive primary can + will weaken our eventual nominees’s ability to win the general.
It happened in 16 +could happen again unless we find a way to unify against Trump ASAP. Our org +others helping to fill in for a nominee by taking the fight to Trump, we’re not spending time or resources on this challenge +I honestly don’t know what that would look like if we did
Read 7 tweets
20 Oct 19
Any Democrat who argues the digital spend discrepancy doesn’t matter because Trump is base-building +fundraising is misunderstanding the threat. If we’re not reminding voters every single day the stakes of this election, we are losing + worse, we are failing our future candidate.
Trump’s digital $$$ -even to reach, raise +mobilize his base -all tells a very cohesive narrative about how Dems are extreme socialists who want to take away guns, open our borders + run a witch hunt. It drives the national media narrative + puts Dems on the defense at every turn
Where is our offensive narrative? Oh, in press releases+press junkets that the mainstream media covers with less time or weight than Trump’s tweets? While they cut through the media to define the stakes directly to voters? If we think what we’re doing is enough we deserve to lose
Read 4 tweets
7 Feb 19
In the interest of self care, I outlined my greatest fear about #2020 in @thehill today.

TL;DR --> Dems are starting 2020 at a huge digital disadvantage. If we don't invest in smart digital infrastructure for the general NOW, it could be ours to lose.
thehill.com/opinion/campai…
As Dems kick off an exciting but crowded primary season that will soak up time + resources, Trump's team continues to smartly leverage digital channels to define, spin + own the media narrative and is investing heavily in growing, exciting + fundraising off of his base online.
Trump's team is consistently outspending Democrats online each week & building massive campaign lists in the process that they’ll be able to leverage now through the general. (Read more about this + follow our coverage of weekly digital spending trends-> anotheracronym.org/fwiw/)
Read 6 tweets

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