The vast majority of newspaper stories these days — in print and online — are, of course, about COVID-19.
I’ve been wondering if a particular reporter or publication was out in front of the herd on this story, and yesterday The New York Times provided the answer.
A story in the Business section said a longtime health care reporter identified Helen Branswell as the pacesetter. On New Year’s Eve — almost three months ago, when virtually no one in the U.S. was thinking about a sweeping illness — Branswell referenced in a Twitter post an “unexplained pneumonia” in central China.
On Jan. 2, she tweeted a Chinese newspaper article about the new coronavirus and said, “Not liking the look of this.”
Helen Branswell
Branswell works for a very successful digital publication called Stat, which is based in Boston. Her first article about the new coronavirus appeared in Stat on Jan. 4. Since then, Branswell has written about 50 articles on the pandemic.
Before going to Stat in 2015, Branswell was a health care reporter for The Canadian Press.
Stat is a digital success story. It is owned by Boston businessman John Henry, who bought The Boston Globe from The New York Times for $70 million in in 2013. Like Stat, The Globe has also been very successful under private ownership…It has about 150,000 digital subscribers, by far the most of any major metropolitan newspaper. (The Star, by comparison, has about 12,000 digital subscribers.)
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The Star’s coverage of local developments and situations regarding COVID-19 has been helpful, but every day I see areas where it could be much, much better.
Yesterday, for example, the lead story bore this headline: “About 200 KC businesses cited for violating virus rule.”
Well, that’s very interesting, but the first question that came to my mind was, “Which businesses?”
But nowhere in the story did reporter Alison Kite name any of the businesses, say where the list could be found or explain why they weren’t being named.
Once again, I say, where the hell are the editors?
I’m starting to think there aren’t any editors other than Managing Editor Greg Farmer and Editor/Publisher/President/Kansas City-area-McClatchy-bankruptcy-manager Mike Fannin.
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Although many local newspapers are reporting big spikes in digital readership because of the coronavirus, the pandemic will be another gut punch to the newspaper industry.
Newspaper advertising has been in free fall since 2006 (the year McClatchy bought The Star and the other Knight Ridder newspapers), and it’s accelerating with the advance of COVID-19.
Ken Doctor
In his most recent story for the Nieman Lab, newspaper industry observer and analyst Ken Doctor said this…
“The problem is the same it’s been for years: The increases in reader revenue are outmatched by the declines in advertising. So this very welcome swell of support from audiences is being swamped by the much larger evaporation of ad revenue. News publishers nationwide are afflicted with existential gut checks — aches that get a little worse with each day’s new dot on the chart of coronavirus cases…The earliest reports of cuts and layoffs at daily newspapers have begun to seep out. Expect a lot more of them…Layoffs, furloughs, salary cuts, four-day weeks — however it’s framed, cuts to staffing are on the way.”
One major chain, Gannett, announced Monday it would be instituting furloughs and pay cuts at its papers, and The Tampa Bay Times announced it would suspend print publication except on Sundays and Wednesdays and would furlough some non-editorial staff members.
What irony: Newspaper audiences are way up due to one of the biggest stories of the past 100 years, and, for the very same reason, the business is headed further down.
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As many of us have found, the COVID-19 story takes on greater immediacy and concern when you know someone who contracts it. The person I know is Washington Post columnist David von Drehle, a Mission Hills resident.
In a March 24 column, von Drehle reported that he had “mild to moderate” symptoms — and said that was about all he could stand…”
“Seven days into the waves of fever, I was drifting half in and half out of sleep. I was wearing a down jacket with the hood cinched around my head. I was buried under the covers, teeth chattering. A week like that is a very long time. (Nine days, and counting, is still longer.)”
David von Drehle
I have written about von Drehle, and I met him in late 2018 at a meeting of the Forty Years Ago Column Club. A few days after reading his COVID-19 column, I sent him an email, inquiring how he was doing. On Monday, he replied, saying, “Day 15 is much brighter than before. Thanks!”
Good to hear he appears to be on the mend.
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Finally, you know how everybody is saying, “Stay safe out there”??
Well, that’s a nice sentiment, but staying safe is, to some degree, out of our control and just doesn’t seem to me to be an accurate “complimentary close.”
Better — and more on target — is the complimentary close that former Kansas City Times managing editor Tom Stites used in an email to me Monday.
“Stay soapy,” Tom said.
Now that I can control 100 percent.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
My question is: At 800 deaths per day, how long will it take to get to 1.6 to 2.2 million deaths. Answer…7 1/2 years. Something doesn’t compute!!!!
You are assuming a straight line response. The increase in confirmed cases and deaths are logarithmic (meaning they exponentially increase). The data over the past two weeks shows this is the path we are on. If 50% of the U.S. population gets the virus over the next 12-18 months (and that estimate is considered low), it is expected that 1-2% of those that get it will die. Since the U.S. population is roughly 350 million, that means a minimum of 175 million are infected. 1-2% of that is anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 million people.
They are finding this virus is much more contagious than the “flu” and that is has a higher spread rate. By the way, the death rate from the flu is 0.3% of those that get it.
Before you got to it, Bill, I was going to say the number of U.S. deaths might have hit two million if every state had a governor like the state John lives in. I’m speaking of Florida and that idiot Ron DeSantis…Everybody get out and frolic on the beach now!
How ironic, just when the newspaper product becomes the most needed, the advertising revenue diminishes. I remember, years ago, buying a small book about beekeeping, and complaining about what seemed then an exorbitant price. The clerk said very dryly, “Knowledge doesn’t come cheap.”
While I gave The Star kudos for putting virus news outside the paywall, as usual, they couldn’t wait to step on their ideological wee wees.
The Star’s carpetbagging east coast editorial team derided efforts by Republicans in the Kansas legislature to restrict the “governor’s ability to restrict the sale of guns and ammunition, seize private property if needed, suspend or limit alcohol sales or control movements of people or animals.” Apparently these are items The Star supports.
Then in an ode to medicaid expansion The Star’s reporters put out a litany of anecdotal comments suggesting that a lack of insurance was causing the virus to expand. Unfortunately, no one bothered to report that currently, insurance or no, the preferred method of dealing with milder cases is to send them home to quarantine themselves, but why waste a good crises?
Personally, i took note that several celebrities had decided to go without makeup for the duration and so I too have decided to stand in solidarity with our nation’s cultural giants and eschew the use of makeup until the crisis is past. If that doesn’t flatten the curve, nothing will.
Branswell or Braswell?? (I know, I know, in this day I’m kvetching about spelling?! — just have a thing about accuracy of names.)
As well you should have a thing about accuracy of names, Gayle. Thanks for the catch on the photo caption.
The Star might be out of line editors, but I’ve got a great one in you!
… And three times after the photo, in the body copy. :-)
Jim, I was wondering if you thought the use of the metro ambulance system to support corona patients would make a good topic for one of your posts. It is such a weird dynamic. The ambulance system is definitely a ‘for profit entity’ but we are in a time of need. Since we are asked to stay at home until it’s almost too late, wouldn’t it make sense to have a system in place to get a patient to a place in the city that has (ventilator) services available? Instead of calling 911 maybe you call 922 for corona virus emergency services. I am curious what you think about this.
Thanks, Gayle. Should be all cleaned up now.
Anymore, I’m not so much interested in the event itself, any event, as I am in how it is covered or not covered, as the case may be. Three cheers for Gale, oops, Gayle, Jim’s great proofreader!!! On that subject, I am reminded of the brown sweater with white letters our now-retired proofreader wore at the office Christmas party one year. The first line read, “I’m hungry, let’s eat Grandma!” the second line read “I’m hungry, let’s eat, Grandma!”, and the third line read “Commas save lives.”
Haha, cute, Ryck. I love that sweater. Reminds me of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation!
Shouldn’t that be Eats Shoots & Leaves?
Have you seen the book? That’s the point.