Show an ad over header. AMP  

The search for the next generation of newsroom leaders.

27 January 2021
 Dan Ackermann

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,Reuters, HuffPost and Wired are all looking for new editors. Soon, The New York Times will be too.

Why it matters: The new hires will reflect a new generation — one that's addicted to technology, demands accountability and expects diversity to be a priority.

Driving the news: The Washington Post’s widely-respected Executive Editor Marty Baron announced Tuesday he would be retiring at the end of the month, following a monumental nine-year run at the Post, and 45 years in journalism.

  • Sources tell Axios that The Post has eyed both internal and external candidates, including Steven Ginsberg (the Post's national editor during the Trump administration), former Post managing editor Kevin Merida (now at ESPN) and National Geographic Editor in Chief Susan Goldberg (who helped lead that newsroom's successful digital transformation).
  • Since it's owned by Jeff Bezos, the Post will serve as a litmus test for how much traditional newsrooms might think outside of the box for these types of roles.

Be smart: This trend extends beyond print. TV newsrooms are also facing a reckoning.

  • NBC News just tapped Telemundo veteran Cesar Conde to lead MSNBC, CNBC and NBC News. MSNBC vet Rashida Jones will be the first woman of color to lead a major cable news company when she becomes president of MSNBC in February. Susan Zirinsky became the first female president of CBS News in 2019. Suzanne Scott was named Fox News' first female CEO in 2018.
  • What to watch: The next big TV newsroom shakeup is expected at CNN, where the network's boss Jeff Zucker is reportedly eyeing an exit.

The big picture: Trust in traditional media is at an all-time low in America. At the same time, the news business — including big institutions — are struggling to survive the pandemic.

  • The new editors chosen to lead these newsrooms must be willing to approach journalism in a new way. Candidates that would've been considered overly qualified years ago might no longer be equipped to lead a modern newsroom.
  • Candidates, particularly women and minorities, as well as technologists, that were for years overlooked for these types of roles, may now be more appealing.

Bottom line: Change is coming to America's biggest newsrooms.

Go deeper:Women leading press during the Biden era

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.