about the image above

March 28, 2024

Don't Forget About Yahoo

Yahoo’s taken a backseat in the current iPadMania and enduring news focus on Google.

The New York Times’  Miguel Helft — With Hirings, Yahoo Steps Up Its News Coverage — notes how Yahoo’s news operation has newly hired a dozen well-pedigreed journalists, like ex-Politico’s Michael Calderone,  ex-Business Week’s Jane Sasseen and ex ABC’s “Good Morning America” Anna Robertson.

It’s a further reminder that  — soon? — more experienced journalists may be working outside legacy brands than inside of them. There’s a lot of good in that, as journalists port over their skills and principles, diversifying the base of journalism. It’s problematic if their new homes don’t back up solid journalistic principle — without fear or favor — especially when push comes to shove, notably from advertisers.

What I’d like to see:

  • Professional meeting places, online and off, that aggressively mix and match journalists from older and newer media orgs;
  • Standard disclosure on a standard part of news pages, as to journalistic standards, influence (or not) of advertisers;
  • Top leadership public endorsement of journalistic independence. News publishers, even as they complained about the scruffy news types, knew the business principles they were supposed to maintain, and the separation of the business and the news production. They’d reassert that point from time to time. I’d like to hear that from Carol Bartz, for example, and the heads of other newer media companies now hiring journalists.

Article Tags

Categories

Related Posts