Nick Jackson
@nbj914
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Editor-in-Chief, @AtlasObscura . Former EIC, Pacific Standard + SSIR. Launched @TheAtlantic Tech + Health. IMSA/NU Alum. And: @BuiltIn , @Slate , Outside, etc.
Chicago
Joined February 2008
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Happy to share that I've joined—or re-joined—
@AtlasObscura
as editor-in-chief! A real privilege, in 2024, to work on this kind of fun, engaging editorial product. Great stories, thousands of extraordinary destinations, podcasts, books, adventures, courses, and much more to come.
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Today is an extremely difficult day, the worst day—and I’m heart-broken and devastated. We learned this morning, without any warning, that our primary funder is cutting off all charitable giving and that our board is shutting down
@PacificStand
, effective next Friday.
570
2K
4K
@PacificStand
To everyone who has read or subscribed or shared, to everyone who has supported us along the way, thank you—really, genuinely, truly. Thank you. It has meant the world to us, and encouraged us to keep going when times were tough. We’ll need you again wherever we all end up.
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@PacificStand
Even though we’re leaving, there’s still a pressing need for the kind of work
@PacificStand
produces—non-partisan, science-informed reporting on social and environmental justice. I hope some of what we’ve done has touched you, and influenced others who continue where we can’t.
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@PacificStand
I’m scared, about my future and this industry, and upset that I won’t get to keep working with the 20-plus extremely talented journalists I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to hire and coach and mentor and learn from since I took on the EIC role four years ago. Hire them!
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@PacificStand
I’m feeling all of the emotions about this terrible news. Anger and frustration, certainly—we were repeatedly and enthusiastically told we were over-performing and -delivering up until the very end, and that we had a long-term commitment—shock, sadness and disappointment.
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@PacificStand
But I’m also really proud of what we’ve accomplished. My primary goal when I joined
@PacificStand
back in 2013 was to do the journalism worth doing, and to prove that you could find an active, engaged, thoughtful audience for it. By that measure, we’ve succeeded spectacularly.
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@PacificStand
And we did all of this while promoting transparency, and investing heavily in fact-checking, copy-editing, legal review, proofreading, and a fellowship program to support early career journalists—all of the expensive things that are often the first to go we held on ’til the end.
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@PacificStand
I’ve been here nearly 6 1/2 years now. In that time, this team has changed policy and changed minds, influenced educators and saved lives—literally. That’s not an overstatement or bloated mission speak; it’s the power of storytelling and reporting done in the public interest.
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@PacificStand
We’ve published 20,929 articles, working with a diverse army of 2,729 freelance writers and reporters (that’s about 31 million words), and commissioned thousands of illustrations and photographs (some of which won us our second National Magazine Award).
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@PacificStand
We sent reporters to Afghanistan and the Maldives, to the Gulf of California and an abandoned zoo in Buenos Aires. We’ve reported from all 50 states, the U.S. territories, and opened a second office in Washington, D.C., to report on the biggest social justice stories of our time.
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@PacificStand
We reached tens of millions of people every year; produced podcasts and nearly 50 stunning print magazines; hosted events and panels and dinners to encourage industry collaboration; and partnered with dozens of others to promote and support their reporting efforts; and lots more.
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Some exciting news! I have a new job and, while I can't say what I'm going to be doing just yet—soon!—I can tell you it's in Chicago and, after 10 years away, it's time for me to finally move back to the city that I've been calling home even while I was elsewhere.
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Since it's on my mind... I could run
@PacificStand
for ~12 years — w/ a staff of 20, fellowships, 100% benefits coverage, and freelance, fact-checking, art, photography, design, and copy-editing budgets for 30,000 stories — for the cost of 1 mile of border fencing.
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Maidment to Deadspin: “We have plenty of other sites that write about politics, pop culture, the arts, and the rest, and they’re the appropriate place for such work.” Of course, he killed off Splinter, that politics site, just a couple weeks ago:
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"Without Twitter operating in its full capacity as a public utility, reduced access to breaking news and other essential information spells trouble for the public at large."
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Friends! Freelancers! I’m up to something and looking for pitches and collaborators. The goal: Build on
@PacificStand
's Stories That Matter mission. Curation of influential work, interviews w/ reporters on craft, reporting on what media gets right — and how it can do better. 1/x
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One small bright spot this week is that
@grist
is taking over the
@PacificStand
archive, and will work to keep it available to the public, and free; even though we haven't published in 10 months, the archive still brings in ~1 million people/month:
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This is, partially, why all of your relatives on Facebook are so hard to reason with — and why YouTube is next. When you worship at the altar of growth and engagement, you'll let anything on your platforms that elicits a strong emotional response.
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It's incredible how quickly everyone went from being an expert on vaccines to being an expert on aircraft engines.
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Over 20 years,
@Wikipedia
has built a reputation most websites would envy. Here's what the rest of us can learn from that.
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#ff
@NickHagar
, our former *intern*, who, when be heard the news about
@PacificStand
closing, wrote a script that PDF’ed the 20,000-plus articles in our archive overnight for staffers to download.
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OK, so, I’ve tried to be measured about this whole thing—despite also being angry & upset—but this one’s been bothering me. Yes, 32. And 28 when I got the job, which I fought for. Sorry? Journalism is the only thing I’ve ever cared about; and I put in 3x the work because of that.
(A 32 years old editor in chief? Come on...) ‘This is Heartbreaking. What a Loss’: Inside the Sudden, Brutal Death of Pacific Standard vía
@thedailybeast
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Everyone's talking about AI Bourdain but can we also talk about how great
@hels
is at capturing just how difficult it is to tell a story about someone else, in part because we're always, up until the very end, just trying to figure out our own stories:
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Give me back
@PacificStand
, even just as a side project. This moment, this election cycle, this year calls for fewer pundits and more ambitious reporting on social justice that reaches a wide audience from both sides of the aisle. We did that in a way few others do anymore.
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Going through a ton of pitches again for some freelance editing I'm doing and, while there are a million exceptions and no two editors or publications are the same, I guess my best advice is still to just try writing the first two paragraphs of your story and pitching that.
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Everyone who still has a job in journalism, because I don’t anymore: Please find more ways to work together, however weird or experimental. Other publications are not your competition.
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Every reporter and editor loves a state with a one-party consent law.
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In tomorrow's paper the
@nytopinion
team goes full Snowfall against Trump: . Here's
@brianstelter
with the making-of story:
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Hey folks: I’m feeling really very grateful for all of the messages of support we’ve received w/ the news that
@PacificStand
is done. I wanted to take a minute to talk about my team. I had the best team—and now you have a chance to bring some of their talent into your own office.
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THIS: Independent, reliable journalism is a lifeblood for our democracy. -- Many congrats to
@Ocasio2018
, who we profiled in print, in brief, way back in our March print issue: . Wouldn't have gotten it all right w/o the fact-check process. Do the work.
Out of all the outlets I’ve been interviewed by,
@PacificStand
is the first to have a separate fact-checker follow up with me.
In an age where the news industry is in such upheaval, it was a breath of fresh air. Independent, reliable journalism is a lifeblood for our democracy.
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I talked to the
@latimes
about today & the unexpected shutdown of
@PacificStand
. For those asking, our funder—Sage Publishing—is named here. I’m just being careful about what I say because of the non-disparagement clause written into the severance packages presented to my team.
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👇 Discussion re: pitching. Agree that “no but please keep pitching” is something everyone should act on. In my experience, that’s nearly as close to a green light as an automatic yes. (And for most bigger pubs there is no automatic yes; the pitch is the start of a conversation.)
I'm teaching a class tomorrow on pitching stories (to newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.). I'd be grateful for your best tips. And examples, if you're feeling frisky.
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I'm excited to finally announce the
@KSJatMIT
Science Editing Handbook, a resource and guide I hope will help editors to meet the highest standards for quality in science journalism: . This thing is packed with 240-plus pages of insights and tips.
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Good Media News:
@404mediaco
is profitable and building its business in a smart, sustainable way () and
@Slate
just had its most profitable year in its 27-year history ().
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Most great journalism takes time, costs money. You can see here how the Miami Herald's Jeffrey Epstein coverage might have never happened, or the reporting cut short:
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Some really good work advice in here if you want to start a journalism career in the early '90s.
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The NYTimes’ focus on California will keep growing, and it’ll threaten the LAT’s current plans. There’s no NDA so: I’ve had multiple calls with folks at the NYT asking for advice on areas to cover, where to build bureaus/invest, and more. And I know several others who have too.
It's fascinating - and telling! - that the New York Times has more digital subscribers in California than it does in New York state.
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The
@nytimes
' Trump tax investigation is incredible reporting. But I'm mostly thinking about how broken media, an institution critical to a functioning democracy, is. Not enough places left that can do this kind of work, and so many will dismiss it as fake w/o reading a word.
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As I understand it, there’s no plan from the board regarding
@PacificStand
’s archive or to support future work besides vague statements about its value. Anyone interested should email me. I’d like to transfer ownership to a staff-owned LLC or other property & seek future funding.
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If it isn't already clear, I'm gay. Have been forever; told everyone 15 years ago. I don't usually participate in hashtags, but as the Supreme Court prepares to make LGBT job discrimination legal—as I search for a new job—it seems worth saying it again.
#NationalComingOutDay
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@bananafitz
Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. He fainted halfway through and knocked out his two front teeth. First and last date. Still friends though, and what a good story.
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The video rental store that reinvented itself as a non-profit community center:
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Some personal/personnel news... I'm joining Stanford as the next editor-in-chief and publisher of the
@SSIReview
in the new year and very much looking forward to working with and learning from the incredible team there. I think this is an opportunity to do some real good.
SSIR announces new editor-in-chief & publisher: Nicholas Jackson
@nbj914
, a National Magazine Award-winning editor whose extensive background includes roles with Outside, Pacific Standard, and The Atlantic. Join us in welcoming Nick to the SSIR community!
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I can't talk much about this yet, but I got to spend a big chunk of my personal time over the last 8 months working w/ some of the best science editors and writers in the business on a special journalism project we so need right now. I can't wait to share it with you all soon.
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"Now the narrative has quickly shifted: CNN is vital. CNN is a global powerhouse. No one can cover a calamity quite like CNN."
@joepompeo
on CNN's 80-person presence in Ukraine.
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This is not actually an unusual background for a journalist, unfortunately.
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This took three hours. The
@NewYorker
has been, for a long time, among the best reads. Lately, it‘s also been absolutely essential. That shift is a significant one many readers might not immediately pick up on; don’t underestimate the work they’re now positioned to do.
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New report finds 11,027 newsroom cuts in the first six months of this year — nearly triple the already bad figure from the same time last year, and that's not counting all of the furloughs and time off:
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No matter how the rest of the votes go, and even though the Democratic Party is flawed and divided, more people voted for Joe Biden in this cycle than have ever voted for another American for president in history, and at this point he cannot lose the popular vote.
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I want to hire a contract writer/contributor for
@PacificStand
w/ a science journalism background to cover where media and social science intersect. Write about new research relevant to media, profile academics working in this space, cover the fake news phenomenon, etc.
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Friends and freelancers! I'm excited to be doing a bit of contributing editor work for
@ConsiderableHQ
and looking for quick pitches for lightly reported features and essays. Paid, of course. You can email me with any questions or your ideas at nicholas.b.jackson
@gmail
.com. 1/x
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PMC/Jay Penske closed its acquisition of Bookforum's parent company, Artforum, last Tuesday.
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When Pacific Standard died, I took the Ellie my team won w/ me. I was—and am—so fucking proud of the work we did. It just arrived here in Chicago & I can’t to show it off to a whole new group of friends and tell them about this little magazine that did amazing, improbable things.
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Vox Media is cutting hundreds of freelancers in California ahead of Assembly Bill 5, the state's new gig economy law. Expect more announcements like this in the coming days.
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Math! Perdue has fallen to 49.9997% of the vote, and what's left to count in Georgia will almost certainly favor
@ossoff
. Control of the Senate will come down to a January 5th runoff election for the last two seats, 15 days before the presidential inauguration.
@felixsalmon
@nytimes
If all 200K of those votes include a vote for senator (so far, about 0.8% of Georgia votes don't), Perdue needs like 35% of what's left to clear the 50% threshold. He's performing better than Trump but only by a tiny margin. So, uh, 🤷♂️. I'd guess if Biden wins we see two runoffs.
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Hot Ones-branded sauces pulled in about $7 million in revenue last year. That and 100 other great details about one of the best talk shows anywhere right now, in this
@bijanstephen
feature on
@seanseaevans
and his wings:
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There are about 200 non-profit newsrooms across the country now, almost all of them having started in the past 10 years, and while many are (very) small, they're succeeding:
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1/ Hey folks: I have some exciting
@PacificStand
news to share. After celebrating our 10-year anniversary, most of my hours over the past many months have gone toward planning for the next 10. Here’s a brief letter about the first phase of that:
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So here’s a thing I honestly never thought I’d ever get to say when I decided to go into media: I just bought a place. In Chicago. It feels good to be—and have a—home. Come visit me!
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Journalism school applications: Medill/Northwestern up 24%, Columbia Graduate School up 10%, Annenberg/USC up 19%:
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Feels good to be hiring, especially in this challenging time (an understatement) for journalism. We've made internal promotions, just filled 2 new positions, & are currently looking for 4 fellows & an assistant editor. Coming soon: accountability reporter & staff writer listings.
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Really great, quick work from the
@latimes
—which you all should be supporting!—on our story today: My
@PacificStand
team over-delivered on every metric, and would have been open to cuts or finding alternative arrangements, but wasn't given any warning.
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Will never forget the first time The Atlantic was profitable and we drove to Atlantic City, Wolfgang Puck made us dinner, and then a bunch of 20-somethings who built up the digital editorial product hotboxed a hotel bathroom and stayed up all night gambling. Media used to be fun.
Inbox: Some good news — The Atlantic has topped 1 million total subscribers and is profitable.
Full release with more info below:
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Not the way I wanted to trend on Twitter, but I'll take it. Honestly, the literally thousands of texts and calls and emails and other messages I've received over the past 12 hours have been so warm and encouraging. Thank you, all of you.
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Told my landlord I'm leaving October 31st. Booked a storage unit. I don't have any plans beyond that at the moment, so I guess I'm technically going to be homeless? Just loading up my Jeep and driving for a while; if I don't have anything in place, I'll stop wherever feels right.
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I also talked to
@NiemanLab
about
@PacificStand
: Here’s more on one of the things I’m most upset about today: “They ... had recently hired new employees, on the board’s encouragement and in line with Jackson’s recently-submitted-to-the-board 10 year plan for Pacific Standard.”
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Took almost nine years but I paid off my last student loan today. I think that calls for a beer. Cheers!
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You all already know
@pamelacolloff
is the best, but while we're talking about how bad unpaid internships are, let me tell you that, when I was in one at Texas Monthly 12 years ago, she paid me out of her pocket to do after-hours transcription for this: .
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I'm most proud of the work we've done
@PacificStand
, but seeing the team grow has been neat too. When I moved into the EIC role in 2015, editorial was 7+2 fellowships. In July, editorial will be 16+5 fellowship (some editorial, some engagement), w/ another 24 people on contracts.
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Wear your mask, stay inside. If not for yourself, then for the bubble people:
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An anonymous source on
@HuffPost
as Verizon reportedly looks to sell it: "This thing loses so much money. It's such a mess, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. I don't think there's any way you can make money."
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Ah! Bring back
@PacificStand
, and the nonpartisan social justice reporting it stood for. 14 months and people still feel it. Hey
@grist
/
@BradyWalkinshaw
: Let the team relaunch it? Hand the name back to us and I’ve already committed 10K to new journalism while we seek funding.
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Thrilled to announce I'm joining
@BuiltInChicago
next week as director of growth content, overseeing a team of 20-plus and strategy for features, news & professional development materials across eight regional markets. If you're in Chicago, I'm moving back into the city tomorrow.
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I feel like it’s maybe not a great sign that I had to teach the guy doing my interview at the Employment Development Department how to spell Journalism. Then he told me to “just go get a job at the Washington Post.” Your move,
@washingtonpost
.
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Please like or RT this if you’re interested in a
@PacificStand
reboot — and believe in the need for nonpartisan social justice reporting right now — so I can show it to the powers that be. I love Grist, and their commitment to our archives, but nobody does this like the PS team.
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Magazine stories too. We used to do this at Pacific Standard.
All books should have ending credits like they have in films, where everyone who worked on the book is listed.
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I love Outside. But I can honestly say that seeing from the inside how that freelancer system worked—or, more often, didn’t—for a year as digital editorial director pushed me to build something better at
@PacificStand
. But that didn’t work either, so what the hell do I know.
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After co-founding both Politico and Axios, two of the most successful digital media properties of the Internet age, here are
@JimVandeHei
's digital media dos and don'ts, from
@DylanByers
' interview in
@PuckNews
.
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@PacificStand
@Ryanj899
@throwin_shadows
@ben_c_rowen
@ezass
@Ted_Scheinman
@beccaworby
@ianhurley77
@KateWheeling
@franciediep
@emilym_moon
@TomJacobs_PSMag
@sophiemurguia
@jonahshai
@tofuandwhiskey
@JBrianCharles
@isabelaalhadeff
@maxinespeier
@hyimclaire
@avamachanews
@jherrerx
I’ve doubted myself every day in this role, but I’ve learned a few things, not least: Put most of your energy into hiring & coaching, be open to all ideas, and treat your people as best you can. There will be fires; surround yourself with those you want there to help fight them.
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They can take away our offices and our desks, they can physically separate us, and they can shut us down, but they can't break up the
@PacificStand
editorial team. I'm so, so proud to be just one little part of this group of exceptional, compassionate, brilliant journalists.
I'm really proud of the
@PacificStand
staff and the way we've supported each other this week. Next week I'm going to promote the crap out of everyone on here. But right now I'm sad and I'm tired. Thanks to everyone who's reached out at this garbage time ❤️
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Not controversial at this point to say Andor is the best Star Wars TV show yet. But maybe it's the best TV show of the year? Maybe it's the best Star Wars anything in the last ... 40 years?
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John Lewis' last words, published on the day of his funeral. We don't know when the next batch of votes will come in, but, when they do, Clayton County, in Lewis' district, will almost certainly be the one that turns Georgia blue.
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Unemployment is just a way for the state to subsidize media companies that insist on day-long interviews and over-the-top editing tests and site/project proposals. I thought you all were exaggerating how out of hand these things have gotten over the years, but damn.
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📖 It's Not Just the End for Journalism. It's a Beginning.: "[W]e need to stop pretending journalism can make anyone rich, and instead try like hell to serve the public interest ... while breaking even."
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@michelledean
impossible to hit the wall when your constant state is just being smushed up against it. I am one with the wall.
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Bye Santa Barbara 👋. You’ve been (for the most part) good to me for the last 6 1/2 years, but it’s time for a new adventure.
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I’ve been on the road for the past four days, spending time with myself and putting shit back in perspective. I’ll stop in Seattle to see friends and then do another 2,000+ miles. Grateful I can do this. Hopeful I’ll end it w/ some ideas about my next job or project or adventure.
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I've always wanted to be in the
@nytimes
and mentioned alongside the wonderful work of
@topicstories
and
@AnnaHolmes
, though this is not exactly how I was envisioning it...
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Fact-checking is hard, expensive & time-consuming, but the fact that most books aren't checked is infinitely more frightening once you've been checked or done checking. You know how many errors get past even the most careful and well-intentioned among us.
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A great way to do the year-end thread if you’re primarily an editor. I’ll be watching —
@PacificStand
is doing well and always assigning. Our staff is growing (probably 5-6 new positions in 2019) but we’ll still run, I expect, ~1,000 contract or one-off assignments next year.
I'm going to share a thread of freelance writers who I've enjoyed working with this year. I really hope other editors will commission them, and consider bringing them on full-time if/when you're hiring staff writers.
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Four weeks of night shoots, 13 houses, a 15-foot pit, and three dozen cranes to hold the lights so you don't get that dreaded Game of Thrones/I can't see what's happening effect.
@roxana_hadadi
on how last night's The Last of Us episode was created.
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@helaineolen
@PacificStand
I don't have any answers yet, unfortunately. I'm trying to negotiate better exit packages for my staff first, then turning to closing out open contracts and commitments, and then trying to preserve our archives. :/
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Graydon Carter on Conde Nast's unionization effort: "Why not? They don't even have desks anymore. They don't have landlines. They probably share a pencil. I think, in this case, a union is probably fine."
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This week marks the close of my 6th year at
@PacificStand
. What a ride. I've learned lots from many, and have had the chance to hire and build what I think is one of the best teams in journalism. Wanted to go back and share some favorites; good work can always use another boost.
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