The Magazine
July/August 2012
Articles
Short Takes
Old time, real time
What if Jessica Mitford had been on Twitter?*
By Justin Peters Aug 15, 2012 at 11:08 AM
*Mitford's tweets are actual quotes. More
Feature
Cell coverage
How a convicted murderer found his true calling as a jailhouse reporter and prisoners’ rights crusader
By Alysia Santo Aug 2, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Paul Wright began his journalism career behind bars. When he was 21, Wright killed a man in Federal Way,... More
Feature
Piecemeal existence
For today’s young freelancers, what will traffic bear?
By Ben Adler Jul 31, 2012 at 11:05 AM
In 2009, an editor for a new website called The Faster Times, which sought to be “an edgier Huffington Post,”... More
Feature
Copywrong
How well do you know fair use?
By Patricia Aufderheide Jul 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Are the following scenarios responsible, or wrong? • Prithi did a beautiful arts feature on the history of a musical... More
Feature
Unfair use?
How a documentary filmmaker was (temporarily) foiled by the copyright cops
By Steven Rosenbaum Jul 25, 2012 at 11:25 AM
It began with an invitation to present at a TEDX event in Grand Rapids, MI. I wanted to share... More
Feature
Networks schmetworks
The race is on to recast the newscast
By Sang Ngo Jul 17, 2012 at 11:00 AM
While the big three networks struggle to adapt to the world of mobile, on-demand delivery, a number of experiments... More
Feature
Weighing anchors
The nightly newscasts are retooling to suit their stars, and it’s working—for now
By Paul Friedman Jul 16, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Five days before Christmas, on the night Congress deadlocked on payroll tax rates and unemployment benefits affecting more than 160... More
Cover Story
20 women to watch
A by-no-means-complete list of eXXcellent talents we’d bet on to map the future of the media business
By The Editors Jul 13, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Molly Bingham (@4GJournalist) Descended from a venerable newspaper family, Bingham is an intrepid photojournalist and filmmaker who’s now launching ORBmedia, which... More
Cover Story
The divine sisterhood
All hail 40 women who changed the media business in the past 40 years
By The Editors Jul 12, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Jill Abramson First woman to be executive editor of The New York Times Christiane Amanpour CNN’s fearless, globe-trotting war correspondent... More
Cover Story
Katherine the great
In her searing portrait of an Indian slum, Katherine Boo demonstrates the potency of deep, patient reporting
By Kira Goldenberg Jul 11, 2012 at 11:02 AM
When Katherine Boo worked at The Washington Post in the 1990s, the future Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winner... More
Cover Story
The sixth W
Who, what, when, where, why—and women. A bow to those who helped close the media gender gap, and a cheer for leaders of the future
By Cyndi Stivers Jul 10, 2012 at 11:10 AM
On the high wire Lynn Povich was named the first female senior editor of Newsweek in 1975. Here she... More
Feature
Something fishy?
John Solomon had grand plans for the digital future of the Center for Public Integrity. But there was always a catch…
By Mariah Blake Jul 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM
When John Solomon took over as executive editor of The Washington Times in 2008, the conservative daily had long... More
Departments
Currents
Darts and Laurels
Sterile cuckoo
By Erika Fry Aug 17, 2012 at 10:55 AM
In August 2002, Winston-Salem Journal reporter John Railey was part of a team of reporters assigned to a story... More
Currents
What’s in My…Purse
Mimi Swartz, Texas Monthly
By Meghan Sikkel Aug 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM
She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker and Talk, autopsied the Enron scandal from the inside out... More
On the Job
Boy on the bus
Kid reporters hit the campaign trail
By The Editors Aug 13, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Z ach Dalzell is 13 and covering his first presidential campaign. You might think that his observations on the political... More
Currents
Back from the dead
Zombie mags!
By The Editors Aug 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Not long ago, the print magazine, flush and glossy, was journalism’s most vibrant arena—the place where big writers went... More
Currents
Language Corner
Author! Author!
By Merrill Perlman Aug 9, 2012 at 11:18 AM
People who write are “writers,” though many call themselves “authors,” especially if their products are books, or legislation. More and... More
Currents
Title Search
Taxonomist
By Jay Woodruff Aug 3, 2012 at 03:15 PM
Barbara McGlamery is a taxonomist at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. A semantic Web specialist, she has worked as an... More
Currents
Hard Numbers
How genuine are those followers on Twitter?
By The Editors Aug 1, 2012 at 11:08 AM
140 million monthly active Twitter users 340 million tweets sent per day 25 million+ followers of Lady Gaga, the current... More
Letters to the Editor
Notes from our online readers
Comments erupt over David Simon’s paywall piece
By The Editors Jul 27, 2012 at 11:08 AM
In May, David Simon, the former Baltimore Sun reporter who created the television shows The Wire and Treme, reiterated his... More
Editorial
A helping hand
The Ford Foundation reaches out to broaden minority coverage
By The Editors Jul 23, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Anyone who cares about the future of newsrooms is on the lookout for omens. And there have been plenty... More
Currents
Open Bar
The Billy Goat Tavern
By Tanveer Ali Jul 20, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Year opened 1964 (original location, 1934) Who drinks here Mostly tourists, but journalists still turn up. It remains the... More
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to our May/June issue
By The Editors Jul 19, 2012 at 11:25 AM
China syndrome Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi asks in “Sino the times” (CJR, May/June), “Can China’s billions buy media credibility?” The problem... More
Editorial
Editor in Chief’s Note
CJR’s business crew unveil The Best Business Writing 2012
By Cyndi Stivers Jul 19, 2012 at 11:25 AM
What is Hugh Grant—yes, that Hugh Grant—doing in a book called The Best Business Writing 2012? Turns out the actor’s... More
Opening Shot
Opening Shot
What New Orleans is losing
By The Editors Jul 6, 2012 at 06:51 AM
I n the years since the Times-Picayune and the city of New Orleans endured the trauma of Hurricane Katrina, it... More
Currents
D’oh!
Halo effect
By The Editors Jul 6, 2012 at 12:25 AM
Today’s video games are so sophisticated, and the shenanigans at the UN can be so sophomoric. Perhaps that’s why,... More
Currents
Sending out an SOS
A new low in Azerbaijan
By Amanda Erickson Jul 6, 2012 at 12:25 AM
Radio Liberty’s Khadija Ismayilova has built her career on exposing corruption in oil-rich Azerbaijan. She did it largely without... More
Currents
Sree Tips
Social-media etiquette for journalists
By Sree Sreenivasan Jul 6, 2012 at 12:25 AM
Q: It’s so hard to keep track of social media, so how do I make sure I miss none of... More
Currents
The Lower Case
Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back
By The Editors Jul 6, 2012 at 12:25 AM
Breivik killed with joyous "battle cry": survivors—Reuters, 5/16/12 Escaped wallaby caught using huge fishing net—BBCNews.com, 4/13/12 Police: Dismembered woman lived... More
Ideas & Reviews
Review
Brief Encounters
Short reviews of Out on Assignment and Famous Long Ago
By James Boylan Aug 14, 2012 at 10:49 AM
Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space | By Alice Fahs | University of North... More
Review
All on the same page
A new essay collection suggests technology will enhance book culture, not kill it
By Michael Meyer Aug 8, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Mark Bauerlein, an english professor at Emory University and the author of the 2004 National Endowment for the Arts study... More
The Research Report
Sounds about right
Talking up talk radio
By Michael Schudson and Katherine Fink Aug 7, 2012 at 10:56 AM
Occasional advertising boycotts of Rush Limbaugh’s program notwithstanding, political talk radio has been wildly successful in recent years—in terms of... More
Review
Deconstruction boom
Barlett & Steele hammer away, again, at the middle-class decline
By Julia M. Klein Aug 6, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Meet Barbara Joy Whitehouse, known as Joy, whose life story seems to constitute a catalogue of misfortune. The widow of... More
Second Read
Look back on anger
At his best, Ambrose Bierce used vicious satire to puncture the smug complacency of America’s Gilded Age
By Bill Marx Jul 30, 2012 at 11:10 AM
I s journalist, short-story writer, and poet Ambrose Bierce one of the biggest SOBs in American literature? He is certainly... More
Review
Blinded by the fight
In a new book on poverty in America, the authors’ lectures undercut their message
By Justin Peters Jul 24, 2012 at 10:54 AM
In 2009, reporter Chris Hedges and cartoonist Joe Sacco set out to capture the state of American desperation. Over the... More
Q and A
Setting a new Record
Martin Gottlieb returns to his roots
By Mike Hoyt Jul 18, 2012 at 11:00 AM
He traded Paris for Hackensack? Really? Well, not exactly. As global editions editor for The New York Times, Martin... More
New survey reveals everything you think about freelancing is true - Data from Project Word quantifies challenges of freelance investigative reporting
Why one editor won’t run any more op-eds by the Heritage Foundation’s top economist - A reply to Paul Krugman on state taxes and job growth made some incorrect claims
Why we ‘stave off’ colds - It all started with wine
The New Republic, then and now - Tallying the staff turnover at the overhauled magazine
Why serious journalism can coexist with audience-pleasing content - Legacy media organizations should experiment with digital platforms while continuing to publish hard news
Email blasts from CJR writers and editors
The rise of feelings journalism (TNR)
“Bloom engaged in an increasingly popular style of writing, which I’ve discussed on my blog before, which I call “feelings journalism.” It involves a writer making an argument based on what they imagine someone else is thinking, what they feel may be another person’s feelings. The realm of fact, of reporting, has been left behind.”
Things a war correspondent should never say (WSJ)
“The correspondent retelling war stories surely knows that fellow correspondents had faced the same dangers or worse”
The joyful, bloody media circus of bringing down Brian Williams (Bloomberg)
“In the media, we eat our own for sport”
On WaPo trying to interview a cow (National Journal)
“‘I wasn’t milked on the White House lawn by a strange man,’ The Washington Post—the venerable institution that would later come to break the Watergate scandal and win 48 Pulitzers—quoted her, a farm animal, as saying”
Greg Marx discusses democracy and news with Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
