The Magazine
May/June 2011
Articles
Feature
The Not-So-Great Migration
From the black press to the mainstream—and back again
By Pamela Newkirk May 25, 2011 at 12:00 AM
It started as a trickle. Sylvester Monroe resigned in 2006 as Sunday national editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and, two... More
Reports
The Smith Rules
Sam Smith covers the Chicago Bulls—for the Bulls
By Daniel Libit May 9, 2011 at 06:00 AM
Sam Smith says he’s living out the “ultimate journalistic fantasy” after leaving the news business. The former Chicago Tribune... More
Cover Story
Breathing Room
Toward a new Arab media
By Lawrence Pintak May 5, 2011 at 08:30 AM
Before there was Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Al Jazeera, there was Hama, Syria. It was 1982 and an... More
Cover Story
English Lesson
The moment has arrived for Al Jazeera English, except in the US
By Lawrence Pintak May 5, 2011 at 08:30 AM
[This is a sidebar article to the May/June 2011 cover story, "Breathing Room: Toward a new Arab media," which you... More
Feature
Anybody There?
Why the UK’s phone-hacking scandal met media silence
By Archie Bland May 4, 2011 at 08:45 AM
On Thursday, July 7, James Murdoch announced that, in the wake of the paper's escalating phone-hacking scandal, the 168-year-old... More
Feature
Covering Obama’s Secret War
When drones strike, key questions go unasked and unanswered
By Tara McKelvey May 3, 2011 at 08:30 AM
In the spring of 2009, New York Times reporter David Rohde was being held captive by Taliban gunmen in a... More
Feature
True Enough
The second age of PR
By John Sullivan May 2, 2011 at 06:00 AM
The Gulf oil spill was 2010’s biggest story, so when David Barstow walked into a Houston hotel for last... More
Reports
The Family Owner Rises Again
A tradition of hewing to basics pays off
By Bret J. Schulte May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
The Seaton family had spent four generations weaving a daisy chain of newspapers across the small towns of the... More
Departments
Editorial
Lift the Shroud
Why we need Al Jazeera English
By The Editors Jun 7, 2011 at 09:45 AM
For most of the last decade, when Americans heard mention of Al Jazeera, the Arabic language Qatar-based satellite news... More
Darts and Laurels
Darts & Laurels
The Oregonian and Village Voice Media help to de-sensationalize a story
By Lauren Kirchner May 26, 2011 at 01:00 AM
In early 2009, the FBI organized a nationwide sting operation to rescue victims of sex trafficking and arrest their pimps.... More
Opening Shot
Opening Shot
Attacks on reporters and photographers in the Arab world threaten journalism everywhere
By The Editors May 1, 2011 at 02:13 PM
Is journalism worth dying for? Murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s editor used those words as the title of a posthumously... More
Language Corner
Important News
Some “most important” notes on adverbs
By Merrill Perlman May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Writers, rejoice! it’s perfectly acceptable to tell people what’s most important by saying “most importantly .” Many people were taught that... More
Letters to the Editor
Notes from Our Online Readers
Readers weigh in on who should fill the slot on the New York Times op-ed page
By The Editors May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
With the recent departures of Frank Rich and Bob Herbert from the New York Times’s opinion pages, and a new... More
Currents
Freed Press
Upheaval in a Tunisian newsroom is all for the better
By Jabeen Bhatti May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Watching the upheaval in her home region from a Tunis newsroom in late December, Assabah reporter Rim Saoudi became frustrated.... More
Currents
Hard Numbers
Some stats and figures on the news industry
By The Editors May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
30 percent of visitors to local news and information websites that live outside the site’s market 25 percent of visitors... More
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Readers respond to our March/April cover story by LynNell Hancock, “Tested”
By The Editors May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Grading Teachers LynNell Hancock’s article, “Tested: Covering schools in the age of micro-measurement” (CJR, March/April), gives a thoughtful and thorough... More
Editorial
Editor’s Note
News about an upcoming web series on digital journalism, “The Story So Far”
By Mike Hoyt May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
This is a full issue and, we hope you agree, a good one. we invite you to read every word,... More
Currents
Paying Off
The problem of bribes in the Liberian press
By Emily Schmall May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
After two civil wars, Liberian journalists are enjoying unprecedented freedoms but struggling to maintain independence. The business of news is... More
Currents
Tide Change at Bay Journal
The Chesapeake Bay Journal celebrates twenty years of educating readers about the bay
By Curtis Brainard May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
The twentieth anniversary of the Chesapeake Bay Journal marks a watershed moment for a publication that knows something about watersheds.... More
Ideas & Reviews
Essay
Pay Up
Sources have their agendas. Why can’t money be one?
By John Cook Jun 2, 2011 at 10:10 AM
Paying for information is, among American journalists, generally regarded as falling in the same moral category as paying for sex.... More
Review
Media Illustrated
Brooke Gladstone’s new book, The Influencing Machine, reviewed in comic format
By Ted Rall May 31, 2011 at 10:00 AM
. More
Second Read
The Paper Chase
For tabloid king Emile Gauvreau, it took a lifetime to slow down
By Michael Shapiro May 6, 2011 at 09:00 AM
Years later, when he recounted the events that would lead to his becoming the most sensational, shameless, ambitious, and... More
The Lower Case
Bishops agree sex abuse rules
Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back
By The Editors May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Girls Think Tank Has Emerged as Key Voice for Human Rights — The San Diego Union-Tribune 1/3/11 Padres pitcher Latos... More
The Research Report
How to Dow
Careless coverage of the Dow Jones Industrial Average can mislead readers
By Michael Schudson and Julia Sonnevend May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Stock-market indices offer an alluring impression of rigor and certainty. But what do they really mean? The University of Michigan... More
Review
Headless Body in Newspaper War
Paul Collins’s new history brings a gaudy death to life
By Kevin Baker May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Spaked The Tabloid Wars | By Paul... More
Review
Brief Encounters
Short reviews of new books about war correspondents Roi Ottley and Byron Darnton
By James Boylan May 1, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Roi Ottley’s World War II: The Lost Diary of an African American Journalist | Edited with an introduction by Mark... 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.
