Laura Hazard Owen

the Atlantic moved the disclaimer to the top.

lol do you know how many people have told me second person is always fiction and I’m an idiot and bad reader for even wondering otherwise?!

I don’t blame the writer here tbh. this is ultimately an editorial call i think?

update

www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...

also ppl keep being like "well DUH the 2nd person is always fiction," which just isn't true

ty sam!!! i am not an expert but i do read a lot lot of things and I just think the explainer could have been longer and at the top. putting it at the bottom is a little too gotcha esp considering how few readers get to the ends of things

the other thing is I think you could find a real actual mom who could say a lot of these things as an “as told to.” (you could probably not get this ending that way, though.) it would be hard to find that person…but, unfortunately, easier than it used to be. I think it could be done.

thank you for your good thoughts on the interview!! this is ultimately where I’m at too. Primarily I think the disclaimer should be at the top.

i'm still not sure how I feel about it but glad I got to ask!

The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig on her “hypothetical,” heavily reported measles essay "We were attracted to the idea of providing a play-by-play of the progression of measles in granular detail."

So I asked her a bunch of questions, beginning with the choice to write this as "creative nonfiction," which she kindly answered! Interview here: www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...

This Is How a Child Dies of Measles When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak

I was stunned by Elizabeth Bruenig's @theatlantic.com essay, "This Is How a Child Dies of Measles." Then I was struck by the disclaimer at the bottom: "This story is based on extensive reporting and interviews with physicians, including those who have cared directly for patients with measles."

so @theonion.com actually predicted this in its print issue last month

How The New York Times uses a custom AI tool to track the “manosphere” The daily podcast round-up is just one way the Times is adopting in-house AI transcription and summarization tools.

"Built in-house and known internally as the 'Manosphere Report,' the tool uses large language models to transcribe and summarize new episodes of dozens of podcasts." www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/how-... by @andrewdeck.bsky.social

Most Americans don’t pay for news and don’t think they need to For a new report released Wednesday, the Pew Research Center surveyed 3,560 U.S. adults in December 2025 about their relationship to the news and how they perceive its value in everyday life. Pew aThe...

"I don’t pay to go to church, to get a spiritual message, you know? And if you’re true, and your mission is to relay facts that are fundamentally important for people’s well-being, do I need to pay you for that?"

Medill posits that folks living in news deserts are happy enough because "residents get so used to feeling thirsty that they no longer realize there is a different way to live" www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/many...

“Terribly frustrating”: After USPS changes, more newspapers aren’t reaching subscribers on time Newspaper delays are just one consequence of cost cuts and changes to a fraying 250-year-old system.

You too may become a "postal guru" after reading this story www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/terr...

Journalism lost its culture of sharing. Here’s how we rebuild it The data are clear: The open-source culture that defined an earlier era of online journalism has collapsed.

🗞️ Nieman Lab republished the piece Scott Klein and I put together analyzing the decline of open-source news.

If you haven't checked it out yet, here's another chance.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/journalism-lost-its-culture-of-sharing-heres-how-we-rebuild-it/

30+ things The Washington Post did wrong and 19+ things they could do to fix it "@mackenziescott you have the opportunity to do an extremely funny (and genuinely heroic) thing right now."

you guys have been posting a lot. i harvested it into nieman lab content www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/30-t...

doing a gigantic thread of ppl's advice for the washington post and/or diagnoses of what went wrong so if you've seen good posts lmk

“Something I will be most proud of when I’m 90”: How Jeff Bezos used to talk about The Washington Post, and what’s changed Jeff Bezos used to talk about The Washington Post with real curiosity, and the things he said were interesting and specific. Over time, that changed.

Jeff Bezos used to say interesting things about the Post and showed genuine curiosity in newspaper owning! in 2013, he talked about the importance of bundles and daily habits & so on

that language changed a lot over the last few years. by 2024 it's "small inventions" and "stay tuned"

eliminating the books department when you have the whole amazon/goodreads thing does not make sense, to me!

Journalism coops seem utopian. What’s it like working in one? "If I was less self-directed, I'd probably be freaking out."

"You have this vision of your perfect job: Finally, you’re out of the thumb of the traffic-obsessed boss, and you can do your big investigations. But the reality is that now you have all these other jobs that [other] people used to do, and now you have to do them too." by @neeldhanesha.com

News publishers limit Internet Archive access due to AI scraping concerns Outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times are scrutinizing digital archives as potential backdoors for AI crawlers.

NEW: News publishers are limiting Internet Archive access to prevent AI crawlers from using the digital library as a backdoor to their content.

@hanaatameez.bsky.social and I confirmed The Guardian and The New York Times have put in place new restrictions. www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news...

What a safety expert thinks journalists should know about “less than lethal” rounds and chemical irritants used by ICE "The consideration that we make with all of our recommendations is, 'What is the safest thing you can use while still getting your assignment done?’"

this Q&A by @neeldhanesha.com about what federal agents are using in MN, is alarming, but also really interesting.

The pepper spray in use today is hotter & clingier than it used to be.

"Less than lethal" rounds are larger & faster, and standard eye protection doesn't protect against them.

What a safety expert thinks journalists should know about “less than lethal” rounds and chemical irritants used by ICE "The consideration that we make with all of our recommendations is, 'What is the safest thing you can use while still getting your assignment done?’"

"Back in the day, you’d have [riot police using] beanbag guns, or Nerf or sponge rounds that were moving at 150 to 200 feet per second. The newer 'less than lethal' rounds move 450 to 500 feet per second." www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/what...

A scrappy story-sharing tool with local newsroom DNA gains traction Plucky Wire was incubated in an unlikely place for a journalism technology: the tiny Granite State News Collaborative. Now, it's being used by hundreds of outlets countrywide.

two great stories from @niemanlab.org today. One, on a storyshare run by a tiny NH news co-op " Brannon praised Bassett for listening so attentively to local newsrooms — including some of the smallest newsrooms and newspapers with clunky tech in her cohort" by @sarahscire.com

In Minneapolis and other U.S. cities, Bellingcat supplements local news by “zooming in with a forensic lens” Partnerships with local news outlets help "bring our stories to the audiences who need to see them most."

the work @bellingcat.com is doing in Minneapolis is essential. I spoke with @eoghanmacguire.bsky.social about the site's U.S. strategy

www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/in-m...

Craig Newmark explains why he’s pulling back on funding journalism One question he says other funders should ask: "Do the organizations have real plans to grow their audiences outside of their most faithful followers?"

he says other journalism funders should ask themselves 2 questions:
1. Do the organizations have real plans to grow their audiences outside of their most faithful followers?
2. Do they understand how to defend themselves and their work from bad actors?

www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/crai...

When just showing the video isn’t enough: Minneapolis shooting puts news organizations to the test When everyone has seen the same videos, what service do news sites provide?

"In the aftermath of Good’s killing by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, it’s clear some news organizations were better equipped than others to analyze the visual evidence provided from bystander videos," writes @laurahazardowen.bsky.social for @niemanlab.org.

The 2025 gift guide for journalists Coffee (faster!), #tradwife murder mysteries, heated mattress pads, Prohibition-era video games, and much more.

ok these gifts will not save journalism. BUT they will caffeinate, entertain, feed, and snuggle journalists

www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...