The Nieman Foundation for Journalism

Over the past two weeks, DeepSeek has made a splash in the AI industry. On January 20, the Chinese startup released its new open source model, DeepSeek-R1, which beat competitors like OpenAI’s o1 on several important performance benchmarks, despite costing a fraction of the price to develop. In the DeepSeek hype cycle, however, little attention…

Here are a few of the things that, in the opening weeks of the second Trump administration, have gone from “totally normal” to “DEVIANT BEHAVIOR THAT SHOWS THE EVIL LURKING AT THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN MEDIA”: A television news program does bog-standard edits on an interview with a politician, of the boring sort that…

It’s not hard to find people who want to talk about cities dismantling homeless encampments and throwing away their belongings. In our reporting over the past year, we found that almost everyone we talked to who lived outside had been through a sweep. More than 150 people shared their stories with us. Many had lost…

There’s been a spike in legislation that could impact local news outlets in recent years. Some proposals have aimed to unlock funding for the struggling local news industry through tax credits, ad spending, fellowships, or other means. Others have sought to codify legal protections for journalists. And there’s more to come. Some estimates indicate 25…

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan closed out with a deal for rich countries to contribute $300 billion over 10 years to help developing countries fight climate change. The poorer countries, expected to face more of the consequences for climate change, had requested $1.3 trillion. Amid a flurry of…

For decades, critics of the BBC have accused it of bias in its coverage and its failure, despite public promises, to diversify its newsroom. In 2001, its own director-general said the corporation was “hideously white,” and 21 years later Variety reported that women of color at the BBC, exhausted by fighting what they called a…

Soon after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the team at El Tímpano began considering the implications for their work serving and covering Latino and Mayan immigrant communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In a political climate that often vilifies the communities El Tímpano serves, managing editor Heather Tirado Gilligan realized telling nuanced, human…

When The Washington Post ran its first piece on the federal funding freeze last week, its reporters gave credit where it was due: It was independent journalist Marisa Kabas who had broken the story. Kabas started her newsletter The Handbasket as a Substack in 2022. (As in “to hell in a handbasket.”) The newsletter, now…

With the Trump-induced shakeups to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this week, journalism’s labor leaders say newsroom unions will likely face even longer processing times for union petitions and labor violation claims, and that the news industry should expect more frequent and drawn out strikes. President Donald Trump’s move to fire National Labor Relations…

Young people are the elusive audience many news outlets are vying for. They are moving away from traditional news brands and towards news influencers producing podcasts and short-form video. A new generation of news startups in Southern Europe is trying to change this, with a more informal tone and a focus on explainers and online…

On June 25, 2024, Kenya experienced a pivotal moment: young Kenyans protesting a controversial financial bill that proposed higher taxes stormed the national parliament. These unprecedented protests took a tragic turn when police opened fire on the demonstrators, leaving at least 23 dead and dozens injured. This violent climax followed weeks of widespread protests in major…

It’s a cold winter’s day in the city of London: a chill wind funnels through the skyscrapers, sunlight glints off the windows, city workers pull their scarves up tight. I’m among a group of journalists from the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe, here for an exercise in journalist surveillance — to see if reporters who…

Imagine you’re the team behind a locally-owned legacy newspaper serving a small New England town and the surrounding region. Say that for more than two centuries — 225 years — your publication has stayed in business to deliver news to and for this community, supported primarily by print advertising. Having reached such a milestone as…

When she took the podium for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, Karoline Leavitt became the youngest White House press secretary in history. The 27-year-old New Hampshire native is the sixth working mother in a row to hold the post. In the 45-minute-long briefing, Leavitt was repeatedly pressed to answer questions about a controversial freeze on…

Early this month, Sarah Alvarez, founder of Detroit’s Outlier Media and author of the newsletter Understated, was named the new James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. Sarah is a friend, and I was a board member at Outlier until last year. She is also, in my view, one of the…

On first glance, Good Day Fort Collins appears to be a standard local news round-up. One recent edition of the newsletter includes short blurbs and links to over a dozen stories about the mid-size Colorado city — a restaurant opening, a record-breaking snowfall, a leadership shake-up at a local hospital. The newsletter attributes the stories…

I love a good cozy game. A year or so ago I got into Dave the Diver; before that came A Short Hike, Spiritfarer, and Stardew Valley, all of which I played on my Nintendo Switch. I missed the Animal Crossing boat during the pandemic because I was too busy playing Hades, which I’d argue…

With President Donald Trump installed for a second term, one big item on the new administration’s agenda appears to be rearranging the media landscape, undermining its journalistic critics and giving a boost to the media that have supported it during the campaign. Trump insiders have already suggested that there will be changes in terms of which…

When Gary Lee was 12 years old, he read about a scholarship program that would change his life. A Better Chance enabled him to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy, and helped propel him to a career in journalism for national publications like The Washington Post and Time Magazine. Lee first read about the scholarship program…

How much of your headspace should Donald Trump be taking up? Let’s assume, for a moment, that you’re not a fan of his. You didn’t like his first term, and you’re worried about many of the things he says he will do. In other words, you see his presidency primarily as a threat to be…

The reporter’s notebook, that indispensable instrument of the profession, may be facing its own digital disruption. As Gabe Bullard explores in Tool of the Trade, these slim, top-wired notepads may be on the road to obsolescence. While digital tools continue to reshape journalism, many reporters still cherish the simplicity of a notebook. For some, it offers a physical connection to their work and for others, it’s a reminder of their earliest days in the field. From Nic Garcia’s journey to design his own custom notebooks to the legacy of Stationers Inc., Bullard’s piece highlights the enduring sentimental and functional value […]

Nic Garcia’s office, like a lot of journalists’, is packed with artifacts of the craft. There’s a photo of Edward R. Murrow with a cigarette in one hand and a story in the other. Behind Garcia’s chair is a Rocky Mountain News newspaper box. And in a frame on the wall, there’s a notebook — the tall, slim kind with wire ruling at the top that used to cover newsroom desks and vanish all too fast from newspaper supply rooms. Its cover is the same shade of light blue as Air Force One, with gold letters declaring its purpose: “The […]

Voces Internship of Idaho, an internship placement program, started out of frustration.  As co-founders of the program —  Ximena, an Idahoan, and Nicole, one of the state’s first Hispanic Affairs reporters  — we were tired of leaders saying they wanted to diversify their newsrooms. They claimed to want to hire more reporters who spoke Spanish or could relate to the 13% of Idahoans who identified as Latino, but argued there were too many obstacles. Ximena Bustillo Editors didn’t know where to find candidates. Latinos from out of state were wary of taking jobs in Idaho. Idaho candidates didn’t have enough […]

Michael Petrou, NF '18, on leading "In Their Own Voices," an oral history project about the post-war lives of Canadian veterans. Two summers ago, I sat down with Alex Polowin, one of a quickly dwindling number of Second World War veterans, and asked him how he felt when the war ended. “Sad,” he told me.  Polowin, who has since died, served three years in the Royal Canadian Navy, including during the D-Day invasion of France. He recalled steaming into Halifax Harbour at war’s end and seeing, for the first time, ships lit up because their crews no longer feared German […]

Edward Wong, who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., said his father never shared much about his life in China before immigrating to the United States. Over the years, Wong initiated more conversations, learning that, as a young man, his father once enthusiastically embraced Mao Zedong's Communist revolution, dropped out of college to join the People's Liberation Army, and hoped to serve in the Chinese air force during the Korean War. He eventually grew disillusioned with Mao’s regime, and made a daring escape to Hong Kong in 1962 before ultimately settling in Alexandria, Virginia. Edward Wong Wong delves […]

In 1998, when the internet was still relatively new and its implications for the news industry still unclear, MassLive joined one of the earliest waves of digital-only news outlets. Since then, it has continued to focus its coverage on Western Massachusetts from its Springfield offices.  Ronnie Ramos The organization took another step toward statewide coverage in September 2024, when it started reporting on high school sports teams in the Bay State and Catholic Conferences. The combined 19 teams in those leagues come from some of the wealthiest communities in the state. What motivated this move? And how does MassLive hope […]

In 2024, U.S.-based journalists faced a historic presidential election, while the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas claimed an unprecedented number of reporters’ lives. Nieman Reports’ feature writers reported on these topics as well as on changes to journalism education, the need for news leaders to develop better business savvy, the evolving relationship between news outlets and social media, and more. As the year comes to a close, have a look at our top five feature stories that resonated most with readers. Journalism Needs Leaders Who Know How to Run a Business For the next era of journalism, news […]

This year, Nieman Reports contributors explored some of the most pressing challenges facing the future of journalism: how to create sustainable newsroom business models, how to navigate the complex relationship with AI companies, and how to find your way in a job market rocked by layoffs and volatility. As we approach the start of 2025, take a moment to revisit our top five opinion pieces from this past year. Let’s Retire the “Leaving Journalism” Fallacy   For reporters facing layoffs and a tough job market, freelance writer and columnist Katherine Lewis reminds us that leaving journalism doesn’t have to last forever. […]

These personal essays pull the curtain back to reveal the ins and outs of reporting on the plight of asylum-seekers, government corruption, the devastating effects of climate change, and the history of gun manufacturing in the United States. The authors describe the risks and challenges they face in their work. As 2024 comes to a close, revisit the year’s top 5 first-person essays from Nieman Reports.  A Moment of Deep Sorrow on the U.S.-Mexico Border For our visual journalism column, AfterImage, photographer Barbara Davidson shared her experiences on a reporting trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2023. In the […]

In the past year, Nieman Reports published interviews with reporters, founders of new news outlets, and media experts on the ongoing challenges facing journalism and the various strategies for overcoming them. The interviews highlight the urgent need for transparent and reliable coverage in conflict zones like Gaza, and how reporters can combat the alarming spread of misinformation on social media. Here are five of Nieman Reports’ most thought-provoking conversations in 2024.  ‘I’ve Never Experienced This Level of Silence’ As public officials become increasingly evasive or even hostile toward members of the press, journalists must adopt new strategies for covering politics […]