This post might seem a little self-centered, but I think it has become a hot topic around the nation and soon will be a hot topic on campus. This might be lengthier than most, but I think it is crucial to understand.

Some people argue it’s an abuse of power for newspapers to endorse, but I’d argue…they’re wrong!

In the wake of Student Government Association elections coming up, and city government races drawing in more candidates, I wanted to use my last blog post to explain why newspapers (should) endorse candidates.

Though the Optimist runs quite differently than most major newspapers – our editorial board is comprised of staff members from each section, whereas most newspapers separate their staff members from the editorial board (to be fair, our staff is significantly smaller, arguably too small, to be similar) –

I’d have to agree strongly with Jeff Cohen, editor of the Houston Chronicle, when he says:

“We believe it is paramount for the community and electorate to be engaged and strongly advocate for participation. We think that editorial endorsements help provoke higher thought and cognition and is a motivation to partake in democracy.”

When the Optimist endorsed Beto O’Rourke for Senate, we drew had over 6,000 engagements, 174 reactions, over 200 comments and 74 shares on Facebook alone. It was our most interacted with piece last fall.

We started the conversation. We became a medium for our audience to engage in agreements and disagreements (both kindly and quite rudely). We also gave our audience the chance to vote with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (Beto won on Twitter and Insta, but Cruz won on Facebook).

Editor of the Denver Post, LeeAnn Colacioppo, backed the history of editorials – that if they go through the trouble of covering public policy (which obviously, is a lot more work than reading it), it is the right of that respective paper to express an opinion.

“That’s how an editorial page got started to begin with, in trying to make arguments that would be good for society. The reason we do endorsements is because we’re trying to help people understand complicated political questions. Whether that’s a candidate, as in a presidential endorsement, or an issue, like a ballot issue, where the devil is in the details.”

This election season, for both campus and Abilene, we will endorse the candidates we see best-fit for the position, and help inform our readers of why these said people deserve the office they are running for.

Don’t worry, we still accept letters to the editor!

 

 

Since January, large news corporations have been making cuts to jobs after being deemed unprofitable.

Buzzfeed was the first to announce layoffs at 15 percent of their workforce (about 200 people). Next was Verizon Media Group, which owns the Huffington Post and AOL, laying off eight percent of their workforce (about 800 people). And Gannett was third.

Part of the reason these companies have to cut is because of slow advertising. Facebook and Google are at the top of the advertising food chain, getting more for their dollar than the rest of their competition.

New York Times media reporter Edmund Lee said this:

“The conceit around the Internet is it’s sort of vast and endless and all kinds of places to go. In reality, it’s really just Facebook and Google and sort of everyone else.”

All of the job cuts means journalism as a whole is in more danger than just the Trump administration goes. Lee mentioned that we might see companies merging in the near future (i.e. BuzzFeed joins Vox).

I think mergers would be a great way to join audience groups together to indulge on the same style of content in one place rather than many. Like I’ve said before, I never really considered BuzzFeed or likewise media to be news corporations, so consolidating them to one or two would be ideal.

Since the layoffs, BuzzFeed News employees have decided to unionize and encourage compensation of their then-coworkers.

The group published a letter on Medium urging Ben Smith, editor, to pay for the laid-off employees’ vacation days and paid time off that had not been taken. Smith et al. read the letter and chose to compensate all employees who had been laid off.

“We look forward to meeting with the organizers to discuss a way toward voluntarily recognizing their union,” Smith said.

If BuzzFeed recognizes the union, they will have to negotiate who would be covered. If not, the union leaders will bring forth a “union election with an official from the National Labor Relations Board present to facilitate a secret ballot,” according to the New York Times.