The News Becoming News

NBC News is adding a media reporting unit. In an internal memo (pasted below) from NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, NBC News and MSNBC Head of Digital Nick Ascheim, and MSNBC President Phil Griffin the decision to add the new team is, in part, due to the attacks on journalists’ credibility, consistent innovation in media and the many touch points where media plays a vital role.

Insider Media Management Senior Brand Journalist and Owner J.P. Hervis, who was a broadcast news journalist for more than a decade, applauds the move. “Between radio, print, TV, online media and social media, the news business is now too vast to not have some sort of checks and balances to it,” says Hervis.  He adds, “journalism is the only nongovernmental profession holding those who serve the public accountable. Since the news media, whether a traditional media outlet or one of the many bias/agenda laden information sources, has the opportunity to also serve the public with knowledge and information, these entities should as also be held accountable.”

Fox News and CNN already have staff members dedicated to coverage of media trends as does several online and print outLet’s around the country.

Learn more about  Insider Media services, click here. 

Hervis adds, “this commitment to cover the news about news entities only strengthens the business by helping the public become more informed which may help consumers to (hopefully) gravitate to the media outLet’s, in whatever form, which are practicing real journalism that overshadows the hyper self-promotional, bias fake news that has polluted the national conversation.”

To read the internal NBC Memo, scroll down.

 

—————-(Start of NBC News Memo)

All,

We’re pleased to announce the creation of a brand new team at NBC News & MSNBC covering media.

Media is one of the biggest stories of 2017, cutting across the busy intersection of politics, technology, business and culture. From Silicon Valley to the White House to your smartphone, the landscape is changing dramatically. We see it every day. Competition for attention on screens is fierce. Credibility is under attack. Innovation is constant.

And we want to cover this moment – in our own unique way.

Led by senior editor and reporter Claire Atkinson – who joined us earlier this month from the New York Post where she covered the media business – the team brings together outstanding in-house NBC News & MSNBC talent with outside contributors who are among the most respected and most followed editors and journalists in this space.

The media team will be housed inside NBC News digital, reporting to Catherine Kim. But they will be tasked with providing coverage to all NBC News and MSNBC platforms.

This is an all-star group that we’re proud to share with you today:

• Claire Atkinson will be senior media editor and lead the team. Prior to her seven years at the New York Post, Claire was business editor at Broadcasting & Cable, a media reporter for Advertising Age and media editor at PRWeek. She has also freelanced for the New York Times and Conde Nast Portfolio.
• Internal contributors include:
  • Jim Rainey, who joined NBC News in April as a news reporter based in Los Angeles. Prior to joining us, Jim covered the film and entertainment industry at Variety and politics and media at the Los Angeles Times.
  • Jo Ling Kent, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, who reports on the business of media, the technology giants, and social media platforms.
• External contributors include:
  • Kara Swisher, executive editor at Recode, is a definitive source on Silicon Valley and the tech industry.
  • Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, joins as an on-air contributor, bringing his team’s groundbreaking reporting on the intersection of tech and politics as well as the perspective of a digital native.
  • John Huey, former editor-in-chief of TIME Inc, joins as a contributor for our digital and broadcast platforms.
  • Gabriel Sherman, special correspondent at Vanity Fair, continues as an NBC News & MSNBC contributor.
  • Steven Brill, Journalist and Author – and Founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, Brill’s Content Magazine, Journalism Online, and The Yale Journalism Initiative – continues as an NBC News & MSNBC contributor.
  • Peter Kafka, senior editor of media at Recode, joins as a contributor.

Our coverage (with a name to be announced soon), will launch in the coming weeks on NBCNews.com and all of our platforms.

Please join us in welcoming the new team!

Noah, Phil & Nick

(end of NBC News memo)

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