Tag: business

WEHCO Media Inc., the parent company of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has appointed executive editor Eliza Hussman Gaines to the post of publisher. Gaines begins on Jan. 1.

With Gaines’ appointment, the leadership of the paper will remain in the family hands.

Outgoing publisher Walter Hussman Jr., Gaines’ father, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon. “Hopefully the things that distinguish us as a family business will continue for many years after I’m gone,” Hussman, who will retain the title of chairman of WEHCO Media said.

Previously, Gaines served as managing editor and is the first woman to lead the newsroom and the first to oversee WEHCO Media’s daily operations.

Gaines said:

“We’re a subscription-driven business and our future depends on the readers. This is the time to take bold action, to try new things and to learn more about or readers so we can match their wants and

Washington lawmakers expressed outrage that social media company ByteDance was using TikTok to spy on journalists, reports Emily Baker-White of Forbes.

Baker-White reports, “In a statement to Forbes, Senator Ron Wyden (D-WA) endorsed those concerns: ‘Using customer data to spy on journalists and employees is a scandal that casts doubt on every promise TikTok has made about protecting personal information. Sadly, it’s not the first time a tech company has abused the massive store of information it holds about its customers. As long as corporations have access to detailed data about their users’ movements, personal contacts and interests, companies and governments will be tempted to misuse it.’

“This scandal could not have come at a worse time for TikTok, which is currently negotiating a national security contract with the multi-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to address national security concerns raised by the app. Although

Thor Benson

How have you been feeling about your Twitter ban?

Linette Lopez

I can’t say I’m that surprised. I did upload court documents that are publicly available. I think Elon was looking for a reason. We have a long history of not getting along. I always said I was going to leave Twitter when they turned out the lights and kicked everyone out or when I was kicked out myself, so here we are.

Thor Benson

You’ve been covering him since 2018. What’s that been like?

Linette Lopez

I started investigating [Tesla] in 2018 when I got a tip from a line worker named Martin Tripp. Elon accused him of stealing trade secrets and all of this grandiose stuff and sued him. It turned into a whole

Crain Communications announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire MiBiz for an undisclosed amount.

A story on Crain’s Detroit Business states, “The deal for MiBiz is effective Jan. 1, the companies announced Wednesday. Terms were not disclosed.

“Detroit-based Crain acquired MiBiz, which launched in 1988, from privately owned MiBiz Inc. The purchase follows Crain’s acquisition of the Grand Rapids Business Journal in August.

“MiBiz will be consolidated with the Business Journal into one brand serving Grand Rapids and other areas on the west side of Michigan. The combined entity will be renamed Crain’s Grand Rapids Business in early 2023 and will tap into resources from Crain’s Detroit and elsewhere in Crain’s expanding city brand network, which also includes Crain’s Chicago Business, Crain’s Cleveland Business and Crain’s New York Business.”

Read more here.

Credit Suisse has launched a lawsuit against a popular Zurich finance blog over what it claims are unvetted and abusive comments hosted under stories about the Swiss bank, reports Owen Walker of the Financial Times.

Walker reports, “Lawyers acting on behalf of Credit Suisse submitted the 256-page claim against Inside Paradeplatz and its publisher, Lukas Hässig, in the Commercial Court of Zurich earlier this month.

“‘I’ve been sued before, but this is the biggest so far,’ Hässig told the Financial Times after the suit became public on Monday. ‘I have to fight it — what other choice do I have?’

“The suit is calling for the removal of all 52 articles on the blog published between July 27 — the date Körner was announced as the new chief executive — and October 28 that relate to Credit Suisse, as well as the comments from readers that appear under the articles.”

The Logic editor in chief David Skok writes about how the Canadian technology site sets itself apart during a time of uncertainty.

Skok writes, “While we face the same headwinds as others in the industry, after almost five years of hard work—and from the continued support of readers like you—we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of these shifts. We uphold the highest standards of journalistic integrity, we don’t face the same growing costs as outlets that publish analog media and we have a business team that doesn’t compromise editorial integrity in the pursuit of commercial relationships. This strength of character, discipline and resilience positions us well to take advantage of advertisers’ flight to quality.

“Three years ago, I wrote in a memo to our team that we should always bear in mind the former Wall Street Journal editor Barney Kilgore adage that readers want to know what’s coming around

The Twitter accounts of several tech reporters were reinstated after company owner Elon Musk asked people on the social media site to vote whether they should be allowed back, reports, reports Juliana Kim of NPR.

Kim reports, “The accounts that went dark included Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and journalist Aaron Rupar.

“On Friday evening, Musk put the decision of whether to reinstate suspended accounts up for a public vote. He tweeted an informal poll which asked Twitter users to choose when to “unsuspend accounts who doxxed my exact location in real-time.”

“According to the poll, 58.7% of voters favored lifting the suspensions immediately over 41.3% of respondents who said Musk should wait seven more days.

“Rupar, whose account was reinstated on Friday, said the suspensions signaled Twitter’s instability.”

Read more

Insider columnist Linette Lopez, who has spent years aggressively covering Elon Musk’s businesses, including documenting alleged safety lapses at Tesla, has been suspended by Musk’s Twitter, reports Noah Kirsch of The Daily Beast.

Kirsch reports, “Lopez told The Daily Beast she received no explanation for her suspension, nor information about how long the ban will last. She said she hadn’t tweeted details about the location of Musk’s private jet—his stated rationale for other suspensions—but instead had been cataloging what she considered his hypocrisy over doxxing and targeting private citizens.

“The reporters who have been banned all seem to have recently tweeted about Musk’s attempts to crack down on the sharing of the whereabouts of his private jet. In an email to The Verge, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, pointed to a policy update the company made yesterday prohibiting the sharing of “live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes.”

“‘Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will

The New York Times has tapped Bea Malsky to serve as a graphics/multimedia editor on the Weather Data team. In her new role, Malsky will “help gather, maintain and build systems for handling real-time and historic meteorological data for coverage of day-to-day weather and extreme weather events,” a Times release said.

“She will also help pursue enterprise stories to illuminate weather trends, dissect extreme-weather events and explain weather concepts to readers.”

Malsky joined the Times in 2020 to work with Interactive News on the pandemic data. She was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

She also built tools and data pipelines for campaign finance data analysis, live election results and wildfire tracking. She served as a backend software engineer at New York Times Games.

Prior to the Times, she worked as a lead developer at civic tech consultancy at DataMade.

Malsky