Media Insider: Three Startups Help Save Local News, Kavanaugh Hearing Highlights Power of Photo Editors, Jemele Hill Joins The Atlantic

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round-up of media stories from the week.

TECHCRUNCH | JOSH CONSTINE
Until data is misused, Facebook’s breach will be forgotten

Facebook says at least 50 million users were affected by a security breach. Without a nefarious application of the breached data, this scandal could blend into the rest of Facebook’s troubles, TechCrunch says. As breaches become more common, the public may be desensitized. At worst, we could become complacent, TechCrunch’s Josh Constine writes.

Read up on the breach: Facebook says at least 50 million users were affected

CNN | JULIA WALDOW
These three startups are here to save local news in their communities

The Colorado Sun, Block Club Chicago, and the Daily Memphian aspire to fill the voids in their communities left by shrinking staffs, budget shortfalls, and shuttered publications in local newsrooms, CNN reports. All three startups are really new, with the Daily Memphian launch taking place Sept. 17. “Journalism didn’t fail,” said Eric Barnes, president and executive editor of the Daily Memphian. “The business model behind journalism on a local level is what failed. And that was a mix of just changes that weren’t foreseen and changes in the advertising world, the Internet, a bunch of really self-inflicted wounds in terms of putting so much content online for free.”

Columbia Journalism Review just released a study looking at various sectors of local media. Here’s its Digital Adaptation in Local News.

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW | DARREL FROST
Kavanaugh hearing highlights the power of photo editors

The images now are nearly iconic: An angry Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a composed Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school. When it comes to photos of closed settings like Senate hearings, many newsworthy moments are still the purview of a restricted group of photojournalists, CJR reports. The result: “What one finds on Getty is what one runs. (Especially if you’re a local or mid-sized paper, and especially on deadline.) And Getty is showing a lot of Angry Kavanaugh,” CJR says.

Reuters has its own collection of that Senate hearing. View its photos here.

VARIETY | BRIAN STEINBERG
Jemele Hill Joins The Atlantic as Staff Writer

Jemele Hill is building a new life after leaving ESPN. She’s joining The Atlantic as a staff writer and plans to cover issues related to sports, race, politics, and culture. Hill will write for The Atlantic magazine and TheAtlantic.com. She will be based in Los Angeles, where The Atlantic is establishing a second California bureau after opening an office in San Francisco this summer, Variety reports.

Just a few weeks ago, Hill confirmed she’s leaving ESPN.

CBS NEWS | STAFF
Can blockchain save local journalism?

A new startup called Civil is betting big on cryptocurrency to save journalism. As more newspapers are moved online, it’s become harder than ever to develop revenue streams that work. Civil’s business model involves “average citizens buying a share of independent newsrooms with the help of cryptocurrency,” CBS reports. Civil already has funded online journalism outlets from Chicago to Singapore.

ICYMI: What Blockchain Could Mean for the Future of Journalism

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Christine Cube is a senior audience relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. Follow her at @cpcube.