Journalists can get reminiscent about our first jobs. The characters. The stories. The newsrooms themselves. This project, documenting 100+ newspaper newsrooms in rural Kansas, is not that. poynter.org/business-work/… LSU photography professor Jeremiah Ariaz was looking for signs of democracy in rural America leading up to the 2020 election. When a man in Haskell County, Kansas invited him into his newsroom, Ariaz realized there was another story to tell, and it was about rural newspapers.

This is such important work from @angelanfu, breaking down legislation meant to help local news, who supports it and how likely it is to pass: poynter.org/business-work/… @angelanfu Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: "If passed, the bill will grant news publishers immunity from antitrust laws for four years, allowing them to collectively negotiate with technology companies like Google and Facebook."

I've been covering layoffs since I became a media reporter in 2013. This year was especially brutal. Here are a few things that stood out to me from 2020.
poynter.org/locally/2020/w… After my colleagues and I covered several layoffs in the early spring, my former editor and friend @abeaujon suggested I start a list. It took a few days to pull it all together, but once we did, what looked like a drip drip drip of job losses turned into a flood.

Last week, I saw a great piece by @katie_reports and her colleagues at the @KCStar, who spent days asking protesters why they were out. It was simple and powerful. Then, I started noticing examples from all over the country. poynter.org/reporting-edit… @katie_reports @KCStar >@katie_reports said she found two themes in what protesters told her in KC. “One of them was people were feeling very hopeful and this was going to bring change,” she said, “and the other side of that is that people were tired.”

Here's what other local newsrooms heard:

We’re collecting the published obituaries of the journalists and those employed by the media around the world who’ve died because of the coronavirus. poynter.org/business-work/… Anthony nypost.com/2020/04/12/ant…