Lydia DePillis

In a market where the demand for venture capital outweighs the supply, investors can afford to ruffle feathers. It may even be a net positive. Venture capital is largely "a fame game," says one investor at a multistage firm. "We all sell the same money. So brand awareness matters a lot, both in seeing and in winning deals." My latest for Business Insider: https://lnkd.in/gdDvQD2V

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ProPublica: hiring a robust data journalist with "[e]xtensive experience with cleaning and analyzing data in either Python or R... ." 💫 I say this as a heads up because requiring Python or R skills means they don't play. 💫

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The news that The Washington Post is laying off 300 journalists (around a third of its newsroom) is deeply sobering for anyone who cares about our industry. The cuts are more than a difficult moment for one title. It's a signal of structural change across the entire news sector. The Post has long been journalistic royalty: an institution synonymous with global politics and international affairs. Some want Jeff Bezos to reverse the cuts and invest more in "quality journalism”. Others have pointed to the commercial pressures facing even the most prestigious titles. Like every publisher, the Post is scrambling to win digitally. Younger audiences. Video. Audio. Newsletters. Social. Personality-driven and creator-style content.   The transition from legacy dominance to digital sustainability is complex. YouTube traffic reportedly plunged when Dave Jorgenson, the face of the Post’s TikTok and YouTube, left last summer. His start-up now attracts more views than his former employer. But this isn’t about one publication. It reflects a broader structural shift affecting the entire news ecosystem. For PR and comms teams, these redundancies are an important reminder of how much the media landscape is shifting. See link in comments to read Dan Townend's analysis on how comms pros can adapt.

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Journalist’s Resource downsizes After “several funders did not renew their grants,” the Harvard-based hub making academia accessible to reporters cut its program director and managing editor positions https://lnkd.in/ekeVC-PG

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"Speed is the disease of the digital age. In today’s newsrooms, pressure to publish stories at an increasingly fast rate often means that reporters are able to uncover only basic information and complete a surface-level analysis. Twenty years ago media experts were already warning that working at high speeds encourages journalists “to fall back on well-worn themes and observations—interpretive clichés.” In today’s world of digital media, this effect has been compounded." https://lnkd.in/g7gGAzKS

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Richard Feynman on the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. Reminded me of what Yan LeCunn said about LLM's intelligence #AI and real intelligence. 

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My ask to the journalists who are posting solidarity or "sad for my friends/colleagues" posts. Please stop! Be strategic: your post clogs up the feed at a moment when your laid off friends NEED the airtime. Instead of that you can RT their post with comment, pay to boost the posts of your colleagues, signal boost by commenting (give them a recommendation). That is way more helpful than virtue signalling. Exception: Hiring managers and recruiters with actual hiring power, you post those jobs and your emails! Sincerely, Previously Laid Off Journalist

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THIS. Read the post below. Anyone can set up shop on a platform. But, for most of us, proper news reporting is time-intensive to the point that unless you have a spouse supporting you financially or with health insurance, a family safety net, or willing to hemorrhage savings - making a newsletter *profitable* is insanely hard. Don't get me wrong, I am so impressed by the writers who have done it! However, that is definitely not going to be all of us given the economics of subscription models.

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How much editing could A.I. do in newsrooms? The Washington Post might be about to find out. The Post is developing a new tool, called "Ember," which would coach columnists on writing and story structure. Early mock-ups of the tool feature a “story strength” tracker that tells writers how their piece is shaping up, with a sidebar that lays out basic parts of story structure: “early thesis,” “supporting points” and “memorable ending." A live A.I. assistant would provide developmental questions, with writing prompts inviting authors to add “solid supporting points.” https://lnkd.in/eVfxaey6

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This week's post: On a fascinating idea to try to ground LLMs in — if not truth, at least in sourcing — and what that could mean for journalism and public interesting information. Plus, structured journalism. https://lnkd.in/epjz3bAv

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New CT bill would exempt ALPR data from FOIA: https://lnkd.in/dfpqddnx This is a very bad move for transparency. The bill specifically calls out sharing of ALPR data with ICE and other federal agencies, which was rumored to be one of the reasons lawmakers were bringing it forward. Government bad actors abusing data sharing is a real concern. But abuses can be reformed without permanently putting public information outside the scope of public scrutiny, which is what will happen if this passes. Here in CT and elsewhere, journalists have exposed extremely concerning practices of Flock Safety and other ALPR companies through public records requests. I'm currently fighting Manchester Police Department for access to their ALPR data. The public has a right to know what information is being collected through dragnet surveillance and how it's being used. This bill would make that watchdog function that journalists provide impossible. It might stop information from being shared with bad government actors, but it will also eradicate public oversight.

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As more states pass extended producer responsibility laws, it's vital that promo pros understand how this issue could affect their company, including what their obligations may be. Learn more in this in-depth report from Rachel Zoch. #EPR #CSR #sustainability #compliance https://lnkd.in/eQD8cb-T

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Federal agencies have deleted gender identity and sexual orientation data elements from over 360 surveys, forms, research projects and other data collections since Trump took office last year. https://lnkd.in/evxzCKjf

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Independent agencies looking to scale face two compelling choices: the hired gun or the loyal soldier. A growing wave of smaller shops—from Murder Hornet to X&O—are rethinking the traditional full-time employee model, instead building lean cores and activating freelance networks. They argue it means agility, flexibility and access to top talent. But critics say it’s not sustainable, likening it to a “Tinder date”: momentarily exciting, but lacking the foundation for real relationships. So which model wins: freelance-first or FTE-heavy? Or can they coexist? 👉 Read the full Ad Age deep dive in the comments below.

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I first encountered artificial intelligence not as a concept but as a newsroom disruption. Automation, analytics, and algorithmic dashboards were quietly changing how stories were found, framed, and delivered. I could see the transformation, but I didn’t yet grasp its global scope. That question—how AI is reshaping journalism across contexts—eventually became a research project. The result is my latest publication in Computers in Human Behavior Reports. The study examines fifteen years of scholarly work to trace how journalism has integrated, resisted, and redefined AI—from early automation to emerging questions of accountability, transparency, and professional boundaries. The evidence points to a field in negotiation, not consensus: AI is neither salvation nor threat, but a structural force reshaping newsroom routines and journalistic judgment. #AI #Journalism #MediaResearch #DigitalTransformation #ComputationalMedia https://lnkd.in/gVzUh4A8

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We're really starting to see the politics of regulating AI heat up, and no more so than in New York’s 12th congressional district. For Politico Magazine, I've profiled Alex Bores, a Democrat running for Congress from Manhattan. Bores's distinction is having become the main target of a $120-million AI-industry-backed network of Super PACs called Leading the Future. Bores's 'offense'? Being the lead author of a state bill widely seen as the most aggressive—and as some in the AI industry see it, innovation-killing—set of AI safety rules in the country. But one thing just about everyone involved agrees on is that this is about a lot more than Alex Bores and one of 435 House seats. Here's how one source in the story, an official at an AI-safety group, puts it: "Leading the Future's goal is not actually to kill Alex's race. Their goal...is to scare other legislators into submission." My look inside the fight in NY-12: https://lnkd.in/esN-rNbG

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The agent was created to steal. It doesn't matter how you spin it, it doesn't matter what your lawyers told you to say. You created a machine that stole the works of and then impersonated writers. What's worse is that this isn't even your first response. Grammarly's initial reply was that it would continue to steal and impersonate unless someone explicitly opted out. It took countless numbers of us emailing you to tell you that what you were doing was immoral and, given your response after the fact, likely illegal. Update: they are being sued, lol.

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