Media Insider: Medium Cuts Staff, Teen Buys Local Paper, Journalism Grads Feel Optimistic

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round up of journalism, blogging and freelancing stories from the week.

Photo by Christopher Michel used under CC BY 2.0

Medium Lays Off Staff, Closes Offices (FishbowlNY)

ICYMI: Medium is closing its offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Fifty staff members will be cut, and the remaining will work remotely, reports FishbowlNY. Despite 2016 being Medium’s “best year yet,” according to a note from CEO Ev Williams (pictured above), the platform came to rely too heavily on ad-driven media, which affected the quality of the content for consumers. Medium seeks to realign itself with its original mission and reward content creators for their ability to enlighten and inform.

Teen Buys Arkansas Weekly, Starts Newspaper Anew (Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

Hayden Taylor, 19 years old, recently bought Central Delta Argus-Sun, an Arkansas weekly, and plans to refresh the local newspaper.  According to Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the teen has no experience in the journalism field, but says he cannot get on board with using Facebook for local news. “My friends think Facebook is where they can get ‘local news’, and I just don’t believe that,” Taylor told the Gazette. “That ‘news’ isn’t always news, and it’s hardly ever really local.” He plans to focus on local sports, avoid political editorial pages, and include a variety of local columnists and guest writers.

Why New Journalism Grads Are Optimistic About 2017 (Poynter)

The job outlook in the field of journalism is riddled with uncertainty, but this hasn’t deterred students from pursuing careers as journalists. Al Tompkins recently spoke with newly minted journalists and discovered that all are optimistic about the future. Interviews were conducted with nine graduating seniors from schools large and small. His discussion with the students revealed their main motivation for being a journalist: “to make a difference.”

QZ.com is Now Delivered Over HTTPS (Quartz)

Quartz wants readers to trust that what’s written on its website is actually written by people at Quartz and not anyone else, which is why the site is now delivered over HTTPS. Quartz announced that HTTPS will keep anyone from modifying content before it reaches readers’ browsers. Because of the switch, not only will the content be more secure, QZ.com will load faster as well. The shift to HTTPS follows other news organizations, and is called Quartz’s “new year’s resolution to make your reading more secure in 2017.”

The New York Times Wants to Offer You a Guided Tour of the Met (and Eventually a lot More too) (NiemanLab)

“Make the Most of The Met” is a museum guide published by the Times — an effort that’s focused on finding new ways to build relationships with readers. The guide is written by culture desk editor Daniel McDermon, and features highlights of both notable and lesser-known attractions. The museum guide is not the first for the Times (wellness guides were published last fall) and brainstorming is already in effect for later guides. The idea is to create helpful resources that readers can use over and over again.

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Tabresha B. Langham is a Customer Content Specialist with PR Newswire. She also is a social media junkie, foodie, music fiend and lover of SEC Football (War Eagle!). Tune into her insights as a social curator at @PRNmedia, or follow @TabreshaL