Nieman Lab

The Nieman Journalism Lab is dedicated to guiding journalism as it navigates the challenges of the digital age. The rise of the Internet has led to an explosion of news and information, but it has also disrupted the traditional business models that have supported quality journalism for many years. Journalists nationwide are facing job losses or adapting to a dramatically different online landscape. Our goal is to showcase innovative approaches and understand what leads to their success or failure. We aim to uncover valuable ideas that others can adopt. We want to assist reporters and editors as they embrace their online roles, help established news organizations find ways to thrive, and support the new startups that may either enhance or replace them. We maintain a positive outlook. While we don't claim to have all the solutions, we are connected to many insightful individuals. Our readers play a crucial role in this exchange, and we encourage your input to make the Lab a space for collaborative idea-sharing. We invite you to share what’s happening in your area or what you believe should be happening. We hope you find value in our work and join us in this ongoing conversation.

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Articles

“I don’t want to outsource my brain”: How political cartoonists are bringing AI into their work

4 days ago | niemanlab.org | Andrew Deck

Long gone are the days when hundreds of full-time editorial cartoonists were employed by major daily newspapers across the U.S. The Herb Block Scholarship estimates the number of cartoonists working at papers nationwide has dropped from 120 to just 30 over the past 25 years. In 2023, three Pulitzer-winning cartoonists were laid off by the McClatchy newspaper chain in just one day. As print continues its decline, a new challenge has emerged for this workforce: the rise of AI image generators.
Business Insider will lay off 21% of staff amid AI disruption and “extreme traffic drops outside of our control”

1 week ago | niemanlab.org | Sarah Scire

LINK: bsky.app ➚ | Posted by: Sarah Scire | May 29, 2025Business Insider will lay off one in five employees and go “all-in on AI,” CEO Barbara Peng told staff on Thursday. In a memo first reported by New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin, Peng announced that 21% of staff will lose their jobs as Business Insider strives to reduce its reliance on “traffic-sensitive” parts of the business.
This owner thinks newspapers are better off diminished than dead

1 week ago | niemanlab.org | Sarah Scire

Is any newspaper better than a news desert? Steve Strickbine thinks the answer to that question is yes. I recently published a story, “National Trust for Local News sells 21 newspapers to a company with a history of gutting local news outlets.” Strickbine, founder and president of the Arizona-based group that acquired the local publications, didn’t respond to my request for comment before publication, but after the story came out, he got in touch.
“Local” is now the most common type of nonprofit news outlet in North America, research finds

1 week ago | niemanlab.org | Laura Hazard Owen

LINK: news.inn.org ➚ | Posted by: Laura Hazard Owen | May 28, 2025A few years back, “single-subject nonprofit newsrooms” — sites like The Trace, The Marshall Project, and Chalkbeat — got lots of attention as one possible future for nonprofit news. Between 2008 and 2021, the number of single-subject nonprofit news sites quadrupled, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) found.
NPR sues the Trump administration, a wolf not in sheep’s clothing

1 week ago | niemanlab.org | Joshua Benton

There’s a wonderful turn of phrase in the lawsuit NPR and some of its member stations filed this morning against Donald Trump — one that would survive a round of edits with any All Things Considered producer. “It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment,” NPR’s lawyers write. “But this wolf comes as a wolf.”The brief is quoting Antonin Scalia, from his dissent in 1988’s Morrison v.
Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, its read-it-later app

2 weeks ago | niemanlab.org | Laura Hazard Owen

LINK: blog.mozilla.org ➚ | Posted by: Laura Hazard Owen | May 22, 2025The read-it-later app Pocket was Mozilla’s first acquisition, back in 2017. On Thursday, the company announced that it is shutting down Pocket (as well as its fake review–detecting extension, Fakespot). Mozilla:Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading.
How big is the market for rigorous reporting on misinformation? This new newsletter will be an Indicator

2 weeks ago | niemanlab.org | Joshua Benton

If you’ve been paying attention to the world of misinformation and disinformation for the past decade, you know the names of Craig Silverman and Alexios Mantzarlis. First at BuzzFeed News R.I.P. and then at ProPublica, Silverman has been one of the top reporters on the beat, uncovering Macedonian fake-news mills, Facebook malfeasance, Google ad shenanigans, and insider ad fraud.
How this year’s Pulitzer awardees used AI in their reporting

2 weeks ago | niemanlab.org | Andrew Deck

A visualization of Elon Musk’s political reinvention. A genealogical investigation that hinged on land grants from the mid-1800s. A visual forensics analysis that disproved the Israeli military’s narrative about killing two journalists. A years-long probe that produced a new database of people killed in the U.S. by police officers who used “less-lethal force.”On May 5, the Pulitzer Prizes recognized these stories among its winners and finalists across 15 different journalism categories.
No more transcripts of Trump remarks on the White House website (and the old ones are gone, too)

2 weeks ago | niemanlab.org | Laura Hazard Owen

LINK: www.nbcnews.com ➚ | Posted by: Laura Hazard Owen | May 22, 2025Videos will replace official written transcripts of Trump’s remarks on The White House’s website, NBC reported Wednesday night:As recently as Sunday, transcripts of Trump’s speeches and comments were still showing up in the “Remarks” section of WhiteHouse.gov. The next day, they were gone, snapshots of the site from an internet archive show. The only transcript appearing now is of Trump’s inaugural address on Jan. 20.
The second location of Lookout Local launches in Eugene, Oregon

2 weeks ago | niemanlab.org | Sarah Scire

— Lookout Eugene-Springfield was getting a fresh coat of paint. The new newsroom is the second location of the digital-only, Pulitzer-winning local news startup Lookout Local and, when I stopped by two weeks after its launch, the downtown open-plan office was in the midst of a vivid makeover in teal and tangerine.