Damon Kiesow
@damon.kiesow.net
Knight Chair in Journalism at Mizzou. Authored first textbook for News Product Management. Previously: Director of Product at McClatchy. Big @newsproduct.org fan.
Pinned
Damon Kiesow
@damon.kiesow.net
· Nov 12
Who am I following here?
People who create, develop and protect knowledge.
Who study history and democracy.
Who take a critical eye to technology.
Who monitor public health, labor, supply chains.
People who create, develop and protect knowledge.
Who study history and democracy.
Who take a critical eye to technology.
Who monitor public health, labor, supply chains.
Let's check in on how the national media doing in balancing the tension between reporting the news objectively while recognizing the long record of bad faith arguments, actions and arrests by the current administration.
January 30, 2026 at 5:32 PM
Let's check in on how the national media doing in balancing the tension between reporting the news objectively while recognizing the long record of bad faith arguments, actions and arrests by the current administration.
Definitely not beating the allegations:
January 30, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Definitely not beating the allegations:
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
My Substack essay on how misguided "visionaries" and negligent owners are threatening journalism at two of media’s most important news outlets: CBS News and The Washington Post. https://loom.ly/gqt822g
January 29, 2026 at 7:32 PM
My Substack essay on how misguided "visionaries" and negligent owners are threatening journalism at two of media’s most important news outlets: CBS News and The Washington Post. https://loom.ly/gqt822g
Paraphrasing historian Timothy Snyder:
Trump does not understand what “a country” is, what being a “sovereign state” is.
To him, Ukraine and Greenland are just real estate deals.
Trump does not understand what “a country” is, what being a “sovereign state” is.
To him, Ukraine and Greenland are just real estate deals.
January 30, 2026 at 1:33 AM
Paraphrasing historian Timothy Snyder:
Trump does not understand what “a country” is, what being a “sovereign state” is.
To him, Ukraine and Greenland are just real estate deals.
Trump does not understand what “a country” is, what being a “sovereign state” is.
To him, Ukraine and Greenland are just real estate deals.
Answering the question: what do we do with all these data centers after the AI bubble busts.
NEW: ICE has spent at least $172 million this month on warehouses that it plans to convert into immigration jails
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
W/ @sooophie.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
W/ @sooophie.bsky.social
US Spends Millions on Warehouses in Historic Expansion of ICE Detention
Plans for ‘mega centers’ and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.
www.bloomberg.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:21 AM
Answering the question: what do we do with all these data centers after the AI bubble busts.
I keep saying this!
VIDEO PODCASTS ARE JUST CALLED TALKSHOWS
New: David Brooks is leaving the NYT for the Atlantic, where he will be a staff writer and host a video podcast
January 29, 2026 at 4:08 PM
I keep saying this!
Nice write up in E&P about the Local News Impact Consortium: www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/defi...
Defining local news: Why a newsroom census matters - Editor and Publisher
As philanthropy pours new money into local journalism, a fundamental question looms: how do funders decide where their investments will have the greatest impact? With no comprehensive census of U.S. n...
www.editorandpublisher.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Nice write up in E&P about the Local News Impact Consortium: www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/defi...
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
Mistakes news startups make – and how to avoid them rjionline.org/news/mistake...
Mistakes news startups make – and how to avoid them
What you can learn from other newsrooms’ wayward decisions.
rjionline.org
January 28, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Mistakes news startups make – and how to avoid them rjionline.org/news/mistake...
What a fantastic project by @mujschool.bsky.social Liz Lucas for @newsmediahelpdesk.org benchmarking some AI models for newsroom uses: www.newsmediahelpdesk.org/benchmarking...
We graded how five free AI chatbots performed journalism tasks. Here’s what we learned. – News Media Help Desk
www.newsmediahelpdesk.org
January 28, 2026 at 7:12 PM
What a fantastic project by @mujschool.bsky.social Liz Lucas for @newsmediahelpdesk.org benchmarking some AI models for newsroom uses: www.newsmediahelpdesk.org/benchmarking...
So vampires with a novel legal theory.
My wife told me she heard at a training she attended that ICE has argued "ALL ARE WELCOME HERE" signs are invitations to enter private spaces and if that don't beat all I don't know what does.
January 28, 2026 at 5:06 PM
So vampires with a novel legal theory.
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
Journalists will always resist change seen as a threat to the mission and values of the profession. And that is (usually) good.
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
Why do journalists hate change?
tl;dr: The headline is clickbait. Journalism and Journalists have often been at the forefront of economic, technological, and social change. Those who claim otherwise are often trying to impose change...
kiesow.net
January 28, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Journalists will always resist change seen as a threat to the mission and values of the profession. And that is (usually) good.
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
Really interested to hear the details of this - a chamber of commerce buys some local papers in Missouri.
dirksvanessen.com/press_releas...
dirksvanessen.com/press_releas...
Lexington Area Chamber of Commerce to Acquire Three Missouri Newspapers from Main Street Media – Dirks, Van Essen & April
dirksvanessen.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Really interested to hear the details of this - a chamber of commerce buys some local papers in Missouri.
dirksvanessen.com/press_releas...
dirksvanessen.com/press_releas...
Here is what I don't need more of:
Posts written about how a columnist who is paid to drive outrage clicks in fact wrote a column driving outrage clicks so that other people paid to aggregate outrage can write about how sad it is this outrage professional in fact outraged people. It is outrageous.
Posts written about how a columnist who is paid to drive outrage clicks in fact wrote a column driving outrage clicks so that other people paid to aggregate outrage can write about how sad it is this outrage professional in fact outraged people. It is outrageous.
January 28, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Here is what I don't need more of:
Posts written about how a columnist who is paid to drive outrage clicks in fact wrote a column driving outrage clicks so that other people paid to aggregate outrage can write about how sad it is this outrage professional in fact outraged people. It is outrageous.
Posts written about how a columnist who is paid to drive outrage clicks in fact wrote a column driving outrage clicks so that other people paid to aggregate outrage can write about how sad it is this outrage professional in fact outraged people. It is outrageous.
Just for reference, an abridged list of shows I watched on Amazon which were canceled because Bezos was not trying to bribe a president at the time:
The Wheel of Time
The Peripheral
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Wheel of Time
The Peripheral
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
January 28, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Just for reference, an abridged list of shows I watched on Amazon which were canceled because Bezos was not trying to bribe a president at the time:
The Wheel of Time
The Peripheral
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Wheel of Time
The Peripheral
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Journalists will always resist change seen as a threat to the mission and values of the profession. And that is (usually) good.
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
Why do journalists hate change?
tl;dr: The headline is clickbait. Journalism and Journalists have often been at the forefront of economic, technological, and social change. Those who claim otherwise are often trying to impose change...
kiesow.net
January 28, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Journalists will always resist change seen as a threat to the mission and values of the profession. And that is (usually) good.
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
kiesow.net/why-do-journ...
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
He warned us for over a decade
After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.
January 27, 2026 at 11:05 PM
He warned us for over a decade
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
From personal ads to web scraping and revenue streams; here’s what we learned rjionline.org/news/this-ye...
This year we launched 16 short-term experiments with newsrooms across the country
From personal ads to web scraping and revenue streams; here’s what we learned
rjionline.org
January 27, 2026 at 6:26 PM
From personal ads to web scraping and revenue streams; here’s what we learned rjionline.org/news/this-ye...
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
ICYMI: I looked through a published archive of Boston newspapers from the 1760s, when British troops were stationed in the city.
The accounts read remarkably similar to what's happening in Minneapolis.
radleybalko.substack.com/p/two-cities...
The accounts read remarkably similar to what's happening in Minneapolis.
radleybalko.substack.com/p/two-cities...
Two cities under siege
Remarkably similar scenes from Boston and Minneapolis, 260 years apart, show a federal government betraying its founding principles.
radleybalko.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:25 PM
ICYMI: I looked through a published archive of Boston newspapers from the 1760s, when British troops were stationed in the city.
The accounts read remarkably similar to what's happening in Minneapolis.
radleybalko.substack.com/p/two-cities...
The accounts read remarkably similar to what's happening in Minneapolis.
radleybalko.substack.com/p/two-cities...
You know what matters more to a newsroom than condescending memos and speeches? Almost anything else.
Weiss' full remarks to CBS News staff (1/4)
January 27, 2026 at 5:47 PM
You know what matters more to a newsroom than condescending memos and speeches? Almost anything else.
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
How advertising blocklists undermine online journalism rjionline.org/news/how-adv...
How advertising blocklists undermine online journalism
Nine guidelines help newsrooms protect their bottom line while also informing their audiences.
rjionline.org
January 27, 2026 at 2:27 PM
How advertising blocklists undermine online journalism rjionline.org/news/how-adv...
Reposted by Damon Kiesow
The fight over AI at McClatchy: “Until we have solid language here, we’re not going to feel safe about the integrity of our jobs—or the language our readers read.” Read Lucy Schiller. www.cjr.org/feature/figh...
The fight over AI at McClatchy.
“Until we have solid language here, we’re not going to feel safe about the integrity of our jobs—or the language our readers read.”
www.cjr.org
January 27, 2026 at 2:10 PM
The fight over AI at McClatchy: “Until we have solid language here, we’re not going to feel safe about the integrity of our jobs—or the language our readers read.” Read Lucy Schiller. www.cjr.org/feature/figh...
What exactly is the history of service journalism in mainstream media that reads like a chapter from riotmedicine.net
January 27, 2026 at 2:09 PM
What exactly is the history of service journalism in mainstream media that reads like a chapter from riotmedicine.net
Saw some rando tech dude ranting (in favor of) the killings in Minneapolis and lo and behold he makes $$$ on defense contracts. Their motivation is frequently just that simple.
January 26, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Saw some rando tech dude ranting (in favor of) the killings in Minneapolis and lo and behold he makes $$$ on defense contracts. Their motivation is frequently just that simple.
A survey of 135 leaders at US weekly newspapers found 88% charge a fee for obituaries, yet the revenue makes up less than 5% of income in 80% of newsrooms (RJI)
Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink
Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink
January 26, 2026 at 3:59 PM