Second Rough Draft

3 weeks ago | dicktofel.substack.com | Richard J. Tofel

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. The Trump tax bill, narrowly passed last month by the House of Representatives, is a breathtaking hodge-podge.

4 weeks ago | dicktofel.substack.com | Richard J. Tofel

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. One of the emerging trends in American journalism is an effort to establish what are being called “multi-local” outlets, digital newsrooms covering different communities but having a common corporate parent and gaining efficiencies through shared services.

1 month ago | dicktofel.substack.com | Richard J. Tofel

Longtime readers of this column may recall that I raised questions about President Biden’s age and the journalism being done (or mostly not being done) around it starting in the Fall of 2023. I returned to that issue the following winter. So when Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, was announced in February, I was especially eager to read it.

1 month ago | dicktofel.substack.com | Richard J. Tofel

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. I don’t go to as many journalism conferences these days as I did when I had a real job, but three of the four or five I expect to attend this year happen to have been in the last month, and I saw a common emotion at them that I want to address this week. That emotion is fear.

1 month ago | dicktofel.substack.com | Richard J. Tofel

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. One of the most interesting—and I think hopeful—developments in and around journalism these days is the rise of the creator economy, independent journalists operating under new brands of their own.