Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor at Nieman Storyboard, and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “AIDS in the Heartland,” a series about a gay farm couple facing AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for her account of the sub-Saharan famine.
Another year, another trove of excellent journalism — so much that I’ve given up on keeping up. I take some comfort in that as our profession continues to struggle with issues of trust and solvency. The Storyboard mission is … Read more
Hanukkah came early this year. Christmas is on the near horizon, with Kwanzaa a day later. Other cultures have other traditions this time of year, some religious, some that have nothing to do with dogma but can be just … Read more
Bayfield, Wisconsin, is a charming little village, population 500 or so, that sits on the northernmost peninsula of the state, along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It looks out onto a ice-clear body of water called the Chequamegon … Read more
News that the United States now counts 800,000-plus deaths from COVID-19 — more than reported in any country in the world — made headlines earlier this week. The worldwide number of reported deaths was nearing 5.5 … Read more
Many — maybe most — journalists aspire to write a book. Back in the day, more than a few of them had a work-in-progress hidden in the bottom drawer of their desk. Newsroom sightings put the wannabes at the … Read more
You know those pin-dot graphics that the data dudes produce that show how things are both clustered and connected? Things like who uses Twitter, or COVID rates in red- and blue-voting districts. This week I’ve been wondering how cool … Read more
In the mood for a musical interlude — one that doesn’t involve the endless loop of holiday classics? Consider “The Beatles: Get Back,” running now on Disney+. (Don’t have Disney+? Find a friend or relative with young … Read more
It would be repetitive, at this point, to add yet one more tribute to Stephen Sondheim. For 50 years, he reigned supreme as a Broadway lyricist and mentor, giving us characters and tunes and metaphors that, … Read more
First, let’s get this out of the way: Rumors of Gordon Lightfoot’s death, which have circulated on social media for 20 years now, continue to be premature. Apparently the Canadian balladeer, who turned 84 this week, plans to keep … Read more
The news just never takes a rest, does it? Or maybe it’s a variation on the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, aka frequency bias: Once you’ve tapped into a certain story, related stories or follow-ups catch your attention. Of course, there’s also … Read more
