Media Insider: Deadspin Staffers Quit, Twitter Bans Political Ads, National Geographic Celebrates Women

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

CNN BUSINESS | KERRY FLYNN
Deadspin staffers quit in solidarity with ousted editor

This week, turmoil ensued at Deadspin after the site’s parent company, G/O Media, announced new mandates related to editorial policy and told writers to “stick to sports.” Following this announcement and the firing of Deadspin’s interim editor-in-chief, Barry Petchesky, several Deadspin staffers quit via Twitter. GMG Union, representation for the Deadspin editorial staff, states: “From the outset, [G/O Media] CEO Jim Spanfeller has worked to undermine a successful site by curtailing its most well-read coverage because it makes him personally uncomfortable. This is not what journalism looks like and it is not what editorial independence looks like.”

ICYMI: What’s Left of Condé Nast

QUARTZY | SARAH TODD
National Geographic’s new issue shows how the world looks through women’s eyes

National Geographic announced that its November 2019 issue will be the first to be entirely written and photographed by women. The issue kicks off the magazine’s yearlong celebration of women who fearlessly push boundaries and inspire the next generation of changemakers. National Geographic has continued to evolve its view of women over the years: at the beginning, they showed women pictured as beautiful objects; then progressed to women pictured in very traditional roles; and expanded further by publishing images of women showing emotions – such as rage and grief. Today, National Geographic heavily focuses on the strength and power of women while also finding ways to signal the gender inequalities and power imbalances that remain ingrained in countries around the world.

More on women in media fighting for gender equality: Samira Ahmed takes on BBC in landmark equal pay case

THE VERGE | MAKENA KELLY
Twitter will ban all political advertising starting in November

Starting November 22, Twitter will ban all political ads globally. This new policy will affect both candidate ads and issue ads but will still allow ads encouraging voter registration and voting. Earlier this year, Twitter rolled out policies to keep politicians from making false statements on its platform and said that it would gray out tweets from public figures that violated its rules and remove the ability to share the content across its platform. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, says, “Some might argue our actions today could favor incumbents. But we have witnessed many social movements reach massive scale without any political advertising.” On November 15, Twitter will release the full policy to the public.

In related social media news, Facebook stumbles over the same issue

DONALD W. REYNOLDS JOURNALISM INSTITUTE
RJI Fellow will host Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit Nov. 8

RJI Fellow and leader of The Initiative for Better Gun Violence Reporting, Jim MacMillan, is organizing “The Better Gun Violence Reporting Summit.” MacMillan believes better gun violence reporting can help save lives and created this summit to build a community of journalists who want to work toward improving gun violence reporting. The daylong event will feature a panel of experts discussing gun violence topics such as the root causes of gun violence and evidence-based solutions, intervention programs, and gun violence as a public health epidemic. The summit will be held on Nov. 8 at WHYY in Philadelphia and is open to anyone.

A storytelling experiment that’s a “muy buena idéa” for media: Multilingual Reporting For An Increasingly Bilingual Audience

CNN BUSINESS | KERRY FLYNN
NBC News Digital staff announces plan to unionize

Digital news employees at NBC News announced their intent to unionize. The plan to unionize has been in the works for some time but the release of Ronan Farrow’s book, “Catch and Kill,” has triggered more concerns about management and the staff is now pushing harder to unionize. The digital news staff is requesting fair wages, newsroom diversity, and the ability to address the mishandling of sexual harassment allegations with management without fear of retribution. In a statement, the union representative stated that NBC News “should do more to close gender and race wage gaps, address chronic understaffing, meaningfully prioritize diversity, promote transparency, and offer job protections.”

Related: NBC staffers harbor doubts about network’s leadership over handling of Weinstein, Lauer cases

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Erin Wade is a Senior Customer Content Specialist with PR Newswire. She is also an animal lover and aspiring world traveler. Tune into her insights as a social curator at @TotalCSR.