The plotless lives of underground men

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 12 days ago

Fix your union, fight for journalism, repair the world

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 18 days ago

Slop versus scum: A brief theory of the internet

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 25 days 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 | 29 days ago

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

A tipsheet for investigative journalists. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month ago

AI and the end of journalistic time

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month 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 | 1 month 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 | 1 month ago

Washington Post tries Tronc...?

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 1 month 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 | 1 month ago

Slop era

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 2 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 | 2 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 | 2 months ago

Google can't afford to pay for journalism!

We must be reasonable! | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 months ago

When Facebook bans the news

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 months ago

Journalism after the death of hyperlinks

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


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 3 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 | 3 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 | 3 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 | 3 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 | 3 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 | 3 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 | 4 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 | 4 months ago

We can't save journalism by just begging people to subscribe

On the need for journalists to start thinking much bigger. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 months ago

Once upon a time, Los Angeles voters created their own newspaper

The story of the Los Angeles Municipal News, and the hope — and limitations — of publicly owned newsrooms. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 months ago

What if we can't quit Instagram?

My review of Kyle Chayka's new book, "Filterworld." | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 4 months ago

Meditations in a journalistic emergency

The worst thing journalists can do is give up hope. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago

Coming soon

This is Matt Pearce. | Continue reading


@mattdpearce.substack.com | 5 months ago