Baltimore Banner’s Editor-in-Chief Kimi Yoshino moves on to a big job at the Washington Post
For this item, I turn it over to my colleague Rick Edmonds, Poynter’s media business analyst.
The Baltimore Banner, one of the highest profile nonprofit startups, lost its first editor-in-chief Thursday. Kimi Yoshino is leaving to become a managing editor of the Washington Post. Her portfolio will include features, sports, local, investigations and data.
Founder Stewart Bainum Jr., who has pledged $50 million to the Banner’s launch, lavishly praised Yoshino in the site’s own article: “She has been our architect — the person who took an audacious idea and with grace and grit made it real…We had a vision. We had no playbook. We just had a belief that local journalism still matters, and she made it happen.”
In three-and-a-half years, The Banner has grown to Maryland's largest newsroom, eclipsing the established Baltimore Sun on that. This spring it won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for a series of stories on the city’s opioid crisis, which was produced for The New York Times’ local investigations fellowship.
The Banner is growing but not yet breaking even, as my colleague Angela Fu reported in January. It projects reaching that point in 2027. The publication is not burdened with any printing and delivery costs, thus it can dedicate a higher percentage of spending to news.
As the Banner searches for a new editor, Brian McGrory will fill in for the interim. He is a member of the board, the dean of the school of journalism at Boston University and a former editor-in-chief of The Boston Globe.
Over at The Post, Yoshino’s hire completes a team of four managing editors that Executive Editor Matt Murray has formed. Two of the others – Jason Anders, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, and Liz Seymour, formerly of The Financial Times – were also added this year.
The Banner’s full coverage is here.
The drama at CBS News
CBS news is experiencing a tumultuous spell.
The owner of the network, Paramount, is being sued by President Trump for $20 billion because he believes they deceptively edited a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last year to help her win the election.
And even though legal experts say Trump has no case, outlets report that Paramount appears to be in talks to settle the case, mostly because it needs government approval (i.e. Trump approval) to be sold to Skydance Media.
The mess really started to hit the fan when respected “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens resigned last month, saying he could no longer run the show the way it needed to be run. Then this week, Wendy McMahon, the president and CEO of CBS News and Stations, abruptly quit, saying, “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”
So, do the math. Trump sues. Reports of a settlement. One top news executive quits. Then another. Add it all up and what do you get?
The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr writes, “Now many staffers at the network are viewing McMahon’s departure as further proof that a settlement is imminent, particularly coming after the resignation last month of ‘60 Minutes’ executive producer Bill Owens, who also opposed a deal.”
One unnamed CBS News staffer told Barr, “As soon as it was announced that Wendy was leaving, the general mood was, ‘Okay, this settlement is much closer than we thought.’ It really felt like she was another scalp following Bill Owens, and maybe that is something that would appease Trump and his negotiators.”
The launch of the Journalist Assistance Network
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague Amaris Castillo.
On Thursday, the Journalist Assistance Network was launched to provide legal and safety resources and training to journalists and newsrooms in the United States.
According to an announcement from PEN America, the nonprofit organization is aimed at raising awareness for the protection of free expression in the U.S. and worldwide. PEN America is one of its founding members. The other four are the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom of the Press Foundation, the International Women’s Media Foundation and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
In a written statement, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said journalists and newsrooms from across the country are “increasingly concerned about a raft of measures and actions that threaten press freedom in the United States. We hope this network will make it easier for individuals and media organizations to locate advice and assistance.”
According to the press release, the press freedom organizations will coordinate holistic safety and legal training for U.S. journalists, journalist organizations and newsrooms. It will also promote safety and legal resources to help reporters understand what assistance is available and refer requests for support to member organizations within the Journalist Assistance Network who can meet the specific need.
Bruce D. Brown, president of the RCFP, said in a written statement that the organizations behind the network want to make it easy for any journalist who needs help to find it, “no matter the issue.”
Organizations that provide legal assistance to journalists have had to adapt and expand or shift resources to navigate a growing climate of hostility. Kay Murray, managing attorney of Lawyers for Reporters, which provides pro bono legal assistance to local and mission-driven journalism organizations throughout the country, recently told Poynter that clients are expressing new fears.
“They’re coming to us with concerns about more lawfare. For example, SLAPP suits coming based on the sort of maelstrom of reporting opportunities that are out there,” Murray said, referring to lawsuits filed in an effort to silence or intimidate the press rather than over a genuine legal claim. “So there’s more opportunity, but clients are wary because of an environment of hostility to the press.”
Disappointing news on ice
