Best ways to support journalism in 2025

Concrete ideas for news consumers, journalists and policymakers. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 15 hours ago

What comes after "pro-democracy journalism"

Toward tomorrow's popular press. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 days ago

Is a "we're Communists!" push alert really what saves TikTok?

On the power and limits of disclosure. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 days ago

Australia's latest idea to make Big Tech pay for journalism

The Aussies build on the policy that started it all: an update to the News Media Bargaining Code. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 10 days ago

Manipulating algorithms is only O.K. if you're American

On an increasingly protectionist internet, saving TikTok might not be what the First Amendment is for. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 11 days ago

Anti-lib antitrust

How the next Trump administration's attitude toward corporate competition could be worse than nothing. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 18 days ago

Mobs beget mobsters

On Donald Trump, Kash Patel and gangsterism in the democracy. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 20 days ago

Making journalism-shaped widgets at the discrimination factory

Creator-based journalism has a market problem: The market is bad. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Journalism's biggest problems are now what we don't control

Journalists have a democracy problem, in addition to all our other problems. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Well, Patrick Soon-Shiong lied

The owner of the Los Angeles Times now says the Biden's administration's handling of Gaza did play a factor in his non-endorsement decision. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Journalism's fight for survival in a postliterate democracy

The truth is going out of business as technology turns us into a folk-story society, ripe for influence by a demagogue. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Lessons on media policy at the slaughter-bench of history

Contemplating the purpose of the press after the Trump revolution. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Democracy's mystique

The fight for freedom is a war on boredom. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Body horror in the body politic

Donald Trump's haunting obsession with disfigurement in the democracy. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

200,000 canceled subscriptions later, Jeff Bezos proves the point

Listen to journalists. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Why canceling subscriptions to billionaires' newsrooms hurts the wrong people

Toward a more pro-journalist approach to being pissed off. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

Are these your kings?

Billionaire owners at Los Angeles Times and Washington Post set a standard of cowardice in facing a crucial election. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

That doesn't make any sense, Patrick

An embarrassing and avoidable episode for the owner of the Los Angeles Times. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 2 months ago

Understanding Lina Khan and the Millennial class war

Millennial's generational struggle against Boomers is ending where it always would: old-fashioned class war. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 2 months ago

The journalism trust problem that a nonprofit newsroom can't fix

The public isn't the only stakeholder group with grievances against the news industry. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 2 months ago

Gov. Gavin Newsom has opinions about journalism jobs(?)

The California governor's puzzling views on news media policy. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 months ago

A deep dive into Google's shady (and shoddy) California journalism deal

Hardly anyone won, except for Google. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 months ago

The Seth Rogen strike quote I think about all the time

Hollywood and journalism have a crisis in common. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 months ago

California's SB 1327 and the Big Tech astroturfers of the week

California wants Big Tech to pay for local journalism. The legislative fight hasn't been completely fair. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 months ago

Big Tech is behind those creepy "oppose AB 886" ads in California

The latest attack on the California Journalism Preservation Act is showing up on TV and social media. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 months ago

The plotless lives of underground men

On assassins and the limits of biographical meaning. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago

Fix your union, fight for journalism, repair the world

RIP Jane Frances McAlevey, 1964-2024. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago

Slop versus scum: A brief theory of the internet

The two faces of the platforms' war against specificity. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago

Breaking news: California Senate advances a major data mining tax to fund journalism jobs

Senator Steve Glazer's Senate Bill 1327 secures a two-thirds majority. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago

A reporter's guide to practicing self-defense in the newsroom

A tipsheet for investigative journalists. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

AI and the end of journalistic time

What happens when the news isn't new anymore? | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

News: California Journalism Preservation Act gets an overhaul

A hearing on new changes to AB 886 is set for June 25. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

Why creators would let TikTok die

TikTok's best political path to survival runs through its content creators. Platform logic might get in the way. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

Washington Post tries Tronc...?

It's gravitas. But with scale. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

"Moneyball" and the limits of journalism's analytics revolution

Can journalists measure how much good we're doing? What if we learn something we don't want to know? | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 6 months ago

Slop era

Humanity's existential confrontation with machines is not going as expected. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 7 months ago

Slate podcast: "Can California save local journalism?"

An interview with host Lizzie O’Leary on Slate’s “What Next: TBD” podcast. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 7 months ago

California unveils a second major journalism jobs bill

California Sen. Steve Glazer is proposing a data-mining fee on Big Tech to fund $500 million in journalism jobs. Let's do it. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 7 months ago

Google can't afford to pay for journalism!

We must be reasonable! | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

When Facebook bans the news

This is not the news ban you're looking for. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Journalism after the death of hyperlinks

A case for the California Journalism Preservation Act. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Google's censorship of California journalists is a preview of AI's future

It is time to regulate Big Tech. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Journalism Futures: A talk at 4 p.m. PT today (Zoom)

I'm joining Victor Pickard and Brandi Collins-Dexter and for a talk hosted by Freelance Solidarity Project about building a better future for journalism. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Journalism's visionary leaders and the voices missing from the room

Somebody is missing from the upcoming International Symposium on Online Journalism in Austin, Texas. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Bob Iger and the unhappy politics of electoral inevitability

Americans seem stuck with the leaders we've got. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

So you want to improve the economics of journalism...

Some ideas to save journalism are better than others. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 8 months ago

Gannett's central role in the death of local journalism jobs

We always knew Wall Street was bad news for local news. Here are some hard numbers. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 9 months ago

My interview with Adam Conover + California Senate testimony on the local news crisis

Will California introduce a digital ad tax to fund local journalism? | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 9 months ago