Poynter • 24th October 2024

Tom Condon wrote for the Hartford Courant for 45 years. Another news organization wrote his obit.

The Hartford Courant published two obits for Tom Condon, perhaps the paper’s most accomplished journalist over the past half-century. Apart from publishing them, the Courant had nothing to do with either one.

Poynter • 10th September 2024

Amid urban & news business declines, a reporter finds hope at the end of the line

As a journalist in Detroit for more than 30 years, John Gallagher worked the front lines of double crises: the hollowing out of a great American city and the collapse of the newspaper business model required to tell that story.

National Catholic Reporter • 23rd June 2024

Sebastian Junger's close call: A secular investigation of the sacred

If you want to write a best-seller, author Sebastian Junger told an interviewer, "come to the conclusion that there's an afterlife and that NDEs (near death experiences) prove it." Junger did not write that book. Instead…

Poynter • 20th June 2024

Nicholas Kristof declares his journalistic purpose. What’s yours?

Unlike most candidates for public office, Nicholas Kristof did not time his memoir to coincide with the launch of his campaign for governor of Oregon. He waited until it tanked. The timing worked out well for Kristof to produce, “Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life.”

Poynter • 20th June 2024

Journalism memoirs: More than just war stories

Nothing wrong with war stories, actual and less so, but the most interesting journalism memoirs dig into the why and wherefore of the work and the life in ways useful and provocative for the rest of us.

Poynter • 16th April 2024

Two new books are essential reading for anyone considering a news startup

Two new books, “What Works in Community News” by Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy, left, and “Changing Models for Journalism” by Brant Houston offer clear-eyed accounts of what’s emerging in the face of the closure of thousands of U.S. newsrooms.

National Catholic Reporter • 6th January 2024

Two new books look inside The Washington Post and The New York Times

Collision of Power is an apt title for the new memoir by journalist Martin Baron, and not just the collision of "Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post" highlighted in the subtitle. Baron, who retired as executive editor of the Post in February 2021, provides a participant's account of the forces buffeting news organizations everywhere. He puts a face — often his own — on the clash of print and digital platforms; the tensions between social

National Catholic Reporter • 15th May 2023

What a groundbreaking doctor learned at the feet of his homeless patients

I was drawn to Tracy Kidder's latest book, an investigation of homelessness, with three questions in mind: • What's it like to be homeless? • What can those of us with homes do to help? • What can we learn from Dr. Jim O'Connell, the Boston physician who has devoted his life to caring for people on the streets?

National Catholic Reporter • 18th November 2022

Enlarge the tent: A mandate for NCR as well as the church

Two time periods, each filled with energy and challenge, stand out for me over the course of NCR's 58-year history. The first was immediately following the Second Vatican Council, an era recalled by founding editor Bob Hoyt as ideal for the launch of the nation's first independent source of news about the Catholic church... The second period of NCR history that I want to spotlight is right now...

National Catholic Reporter • 26th August 2022

A note from the publisher

When I wrote my first story for the National Catholic Reporter as a college freshman in 1967, I certainly had no idea I'd end up as its publisher and CEO a half century later. When I accepted the position two years ago, I told the board I would serve until my 75th birthday, with the goal of helping the board identify a longer-term publisher to lead NCR into the second half of its first century. Although my 75th birthday is a year off, NCR is on a positive trajectory and now is the time to begin...

National Catholic Reporter • 10th June 2022

Not letting go: Sticking with the stories that matter

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse gathered with supporters June 4 to mark an important anniversary and, even more importantly, to reenergize their solidarity.

National Catholic Reporter • 19th May 2022

Catholic News Service shutdown is about more than just the news

In announcing the elimination of the domestic operations of Catholic News Service May 4, the American bishops delivered a brutally blunt message: The work of these lay journalists, at least in the view of the bishops, is expendable. James Rogers, the bishops' chief communications officer, delivered the news to CNS staff without any prior consultation or discussion with them. So much for synodal listening.

National Catholic Reporter • 20th December 2021

Listening, investigating, reporting: A message from Francis and an invitation to readers

In the summer of 1964, when NCR co-founder Robert Hoyt was making the case for a Catholic newspaper independent of church control, he distributed a flyer re-printing a treatise on freedom of the Catholic press by theologian and Jesuit Fr. John Courtney Murray. Murray argued that any "well-ordered society" — secular or religious — requires unfettered access to what's really going on. And that, of course, requires freedom for journalists to dig up the truth and share it with readers without fear o

National Catholic Reporter • 10th December 2021

3 lessons from a battery-powered holiday road trip

The GPS predicted we'd cover the 374 miles between Boston and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in six hours. It took us 10. Those four extra hours — plus another four on the return trip — tell a couple of stories. One recounts the stops and starts of long day trips without a drop of gas in the tank. The other, more of a surprise, shines a light on the bigger picture of the...

National Catholic Reporter • 10th July 2021

James Carroll's book outlines struggling relationship with Catholic Church

Catholics of a certain age and outlook, like many of NCR's readers, will find in James Carroll's latest book, The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost Its Soul — A Memoir of Faith, a useful framing of our relationship with the church. I'm thinking, especially, of Catholics encouraged by the inclusiveness and compassion exhibited by Pope Francis but confounded by a church that remains bogged down by clericalism and resistant to reforms already too long delayed.

National Catholic Reporter • 26th December 2020

The making of a novel: Trump, Francis and a church re-imagined

Former Democratic Whip David Bonior has done a lot of interesting stuff since leaving Congress. Check out his new novel.

National Catholic Reporter • 23rd December 2020

Jesuit Fr. Bill Barry and a friendship like no other

The hallmark of Bill Barry's scholarship and spirituality was the idea that God seeks out friendship with each of us. This is a brief story about one of the most remarkable friendships that Barry found along the way.

National Catholic Reporter • 22nd October 2020

Asking for a friend: Can a Catholic vote for Biden?

It comes up in phone calls and email exchanges: "Given his support for legal abortion, can a faithful Catholic vote for Joe Biden?" Both of us have fielded questions like that in recent weeks. Maybe you have, too. The short answer is "Yes." The longer answer relies on a combination of church teaching and the conscience of individual Catholics. But you might not know that to hear from some priests, politicians and prelates, not to mention other Catholic media and an occasional former college football coach.

National Catholic Reporter • 21st August 2020

A fix for your late NCR -- and a welcome to a new staffer

In my first few weeks as NCR publisher, I've experienced a frustration I bet many of our print subscribers have also encountered: wondering just when the paper is going to show up. People say It's always good for company bosses to experience discomfort felt by its customers, but I'd also like to share with you a partial solution to the current delivery problem.

National Catholic Reporter • 19th August 2020

A book review: What happens when you live life 'horizontally, not vertically'

Our two years living at Beacon Hill Friends House provided us with a taste of living simply, but visiting the Agape Community and reading the book by its founders raises that game to a whole other level. Here's my review of the not-exactly-a-memoir by Suzanne and Brayton Shanley.