1 big thing: Free press in dinner spotlight

Illustration of a news microphone wearing a bow tie under a spotlight. 

2. 📷 Inside the dinner

3. 🍿 Zingers 

4. 🎸 Party report

5. 💐 Pregaming with the powerful  

6. 🇰🇷 1 for the road: South Korea state dinner

This weekend's White House Correspondents' Association dinner and parties were back like they haven't been since before COVID. As a Sunday treat, this Deep Dive takes you inside the festivities.

Smart Brevity™ count: 991 words ... 3½ mins.

Special thanks to copy editor Kathie Bozanich, and to each of you for spending a bit of your Sunday with Axios!

🎉  Axios Deep Dive: Washington's big weekend

Deep Dives

Two adjacent full coffee mugs, one red and one blue.

blue

A deeper look at the biggest topics impacting the future

Axios AM Deep Dive

Deep Dive

National

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

There's a sharp divide in American journalism between haves and have-nots. While national journalists covering tech and politics on the coasts reap the benefits of booming businesses and book deals, local media organizations, primarily newspapers, continue to shrink.

Why it matters: The disparate fortunes skew what gets covered, elevating big national political stories at the expense of local, community-focused news.

At the local level, newspapers continue to be gobbled up by hedge funds eager to slash jobs for profits. News veterans with more experience are often the first to go. 

Dozens of journalists at the Chicago Tribune have recently taken buyouts in response to the purchase of its parent company by a hedge fund known for slashing local newspaper jobs for profit. 

A recent New York Times opinion piece about Julie Brown, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Miami Herald who broke the story about Jeffrey's Epstein's abuses but often had to pay her own expenses, also underscores that discrepancy. 

At the national level, venture money continues to pour into new outlets like Puck and Recount Media, among others, creating more opportunities for those that cover broad national topics, like media, influence, politics and technology.

CNN says it will hire 450 new people for its new streaming service, CNN+. While it's unclear how many of those jobs will be local, it's reportedly paying one top national anchor over $1 million to be a part of the service.

CNET recently announced plans to hire 150 people. While many jobs are remote, most are based in New York or San Fransisco. 

Be smart: Such opportunities give national journalists much more bargaining power in salary negotiations and more visibility for book deals. 

"I can't sell local books, only national," says Jane Dystel, a veteran book agent and the president of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC. "For local, they're not getting paid any advances."

"A reader in the Midwest is not going to want to read about a local L.A. politician no matter how big or rich he is," Dystel says.

Case in point: Facebook recently said it has been the subject of 368 books. There is a wave of at least 17 new books about Donald Trump, and The New York Times reported last year that there were over 1,200 books written about Trump between 2016 and 2020. 

The salary disparity at the local and national levels contributes to broader competitive issues for local outlets. 

The average base pay for a local reporter job, according to Glassdoor, is $49,061 annually, compared to $65,437 for national reporters.

"You don't want to limit your hiring pool to those who are being financially supported by their family, which is basically what you're doing by paying someone with a college degree so little," says Scott Brodbeck, Founder and CEO of Local News Now, which operates several digital outlets in Northern Virginia.

What to watch: There have been hundreds of new digital ventures and newsletter experiments at the local level, but many of those efforts are bootstrapped. 

"More than half our membership has two or fewer full-time employees for their whole company,"  says Chris Krewson, executive director at the trade group LION (Local Independent Online News). "This obviously means they are not even paying *themselves* while they establish themselves." 

A recent study from LION, Google News Initiative and the University of North Carolina found that of 700+ digital-first local news outlets, more than half bring in less than $100,000 a year. Only 10% have revenue of more than $1 million annually. 

The big picture: Despite an overwhelming number of new efforts trying to bridge the gap between local and national news investments, the delta between the two seems to be growing wider. 

"I think there is a disparity right now in the sustainable businesses we see with national media companies versus local media companies," says Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium.

Wills' group aims to provide more shared services and technology for local outlets so that their cost structure is lower. "That way, they can pay their journalists more of the revenue that they bring in.”

What to watch: Some local outlets are leaning into partnerships like the Local Media Consortium to save costs. 

Others are becoming non-profits so that they can accept philanthropic donations, a trend that's become very popular during the pandemic. Most, however, are still scrambling to find a workable solution. 

Journalism's two Americas

National media is thriving while local news shrinks

Illustration of a tattered newspaper flying on a flagpole. 

Media trends

Technology

An aggressive offer in Sinking Spring, Pa.

Pics of the day: Help wanted

Photo: Ben Hasty/Reading Eagle via Getty Images 

Jobs

An aggressive offer in Sinking Spring, Pa.<figure><img alt="" height="2268" id="c43d007e-b557-42e9-bdd0-88f51c0d02d0" src="https://images.axios.com/zIJHhHAx8duR63D2lOrI5ERPHkc=/2021/07/31/1627737206455.jpg" width="4032"/><figcaption>Photo: Nicholas Johnston/Axios</figcaption></figure>Spotted at Chicago O&#x27;Hare.

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Want to start a passionate discussion in Davos? Don't bring up supply chains, AI or crypto. Talk about the weather!

Driving the news: The WEF returned to January this year after the pandemic moved last year's event to May. The ice, wind and early sunsets had attendees wistfully remembering verdant alpine flower meadows and casual sidewalk strolls.

❄️ Watch out for the ice! Davos sidewalks aren't salted. The lack of shoveling discipline would get you fined in the U.S.

That's created what IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn calls "the anatomy of shoes." Wear snow boots and switch into street shoes at events? Wear boots all the time? Buy crampons to strap onto regular shoes? Throw caution to the wind and wear heels?

Most executives we hosted at Axios House events preferred summer Davos because of the pleasant weather and lighter packing loads (fewer shoes and no coats). 

⛷️ The winter partisans raved about the skiing and pointed out ... It's the Alps! It's supposed to be snowy and cold!

🏔️ And of course don't forget the scenery: "Before this week I was going to say summer Davos," said Qualcomm chief sustainability officer Angela Baker. 

"But we just walked down from where we're staying — it's probably a 30-minute walk, and it was so beautiful. Like a little Christmas village."  

1 fun thing: summer vs. winter Davos

Left: People walk from the congress center ahead of the WEF annual meeting in Davos on May 21, 2022. 

Left: People at the Davos forum in May 2022. Right: People at Davos this week. Photos:  Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Deep Dive - Davos 2023

Want to start a passionate discussion in Davos? Don&#x27;t bring up supply chains, AI or crypto. Talk about the weather!Driving the news: The WEF returned to January this year after the pandemic moved last year&#x27;s event to May. The ice, wind and early sunsets had attendees wistfully remembering verdant alpine flower meadows and casual sidewalk strolls.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

Washington D.C.

To escape the drudgery of his kitchen and occasionally avoid a commute to Axios Worldwide HQ in Clarendon, Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnston has begun sampling the District's WeWorks. 

Why it matters: This might be the future of work, man! A little at home, a little in the office, a little everywhere else. 

Nick has been to four WeWorks so far, so here's a first-look ranking in ascending order.

Definitely the smallest so far, but not very crowded, so very easy to get access to the private phone booths. The common area is small and only gets natural light from a center light shaft so it felt cloudy all day. Seemed like there were good lunch options around but I had too many Zooms that day.

#3 Mount Vernon Square. 655 New York Ave. NW Big and spacious and lots of natural light. 

Looking south you just see other buildings but looking north are some cool views over Shaw. Not terribly crowded and no problems with phone booths. Kind of a hassle for lunch since you have to cross New York and Massachusetts Avenues to get into Chinatown.

#2 Navy Yard. 80 M St SE. Big sprawling location across a building's first three floors (it's massive!). 

A bit of construction going on outside but very nice inside. Plenty of common areas but it's a hike from the third floor if you need to make a sparkling water run. 

No problem finding phone booths, but the paneling inevitably leads to jokes about doing Zoom calls from a sauna. Easily the most bustling location the day I was there. Plenty of lunch options down First Street SE. Definitely the place to work when you have Nats tickets.

#1 Chinatown. Lots of awesome natural light across two floors with cool views of Mt. Vernon Square (even though it's really just an Apple Store). 

Super easy access to what's left in Chinatown for lunch. But here's the clincher: some of the desks in the common area are also old-timey video games! Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pacman, Zaxxon, BurgerTime!!! That Zoom distraction puts this location over the top by a mile.

A picture of the BurgerTime arcade game. 

BurgerTime arcade game. Photo: Nicholas Johnston/Axios

With a $29 day pass you get free WiFi, and all the hot coffee, cold brew, lime soda water, and Kombucha you can drink. 

What's next: As Nick visits the five other locations in the District we'll update you (though don't expect reports from the WeWorks in Ballston, Clarendon, or waaaay out in College Park).

And if you think some of these verdicts are terrible — or you know better options around town — hit Nick up at nick@axios.com.

A roundup of D.C.'s WeWorks

Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnston shares his thoughts on the District's WeWorks.

Photo: Kiyoshi Ota for Bloomberg via Getty Images

Washington, D.C.

To escape the drudgery of his kitchen and occasionally avoid a commute to Axios Worldwide HQ in Clarendon, Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnston has begun sampling the District&#x27;s WeWorks. Why it matters: This might be the future of work, man! A little at home, a little in the office, a little everywhere else.

Things to Do

Pressure from new publishing platforms has finally pushed newsrooms to create programs that give writers more pay, autonomy and flexibility. Those changes are attracting some independent writers back to traditional news companies. 

Why it matters: The Substack threat to newsrooms was overblown. Newsrooms have been quick to react to the idea of the independent-operator model while journalists have been sharing its challenges or detailing why they decided to return to newsrooms.

Driving the news: The Information is in early stages of launching "The Information Newsletter Network," a platform to power independent newsletter writers on The Information's tech stack.

"Everyone in publishing knows the hard part happens after you hit send," says CEO and founder Jessica Lessin. 

"We are the only solution I've seen that gets that. We've got eight years of experience about how to scale premium subscription publications. No tech platform has that in their DNA, and it shows in their products."

The company's first member is Parqor from Andrew Rosen. Rosen's newsletter was previously on Substack. Lessin says the first batch of newsletters are business-related, "but our lens for inviting writers to participate is  really just whether we love their content."

The platform, she adds, is "designed for subscription newsletters and the vast majority will be paid, but one of the next to launch is currently free and exploring paid related products." 

Other news outlets are revamping their strategies to meet the demand. 

The Atlantic earlier this month rolled out its new newsletter program with nine contracted writers, giving them the ability to take on projects outside of the company while also reportedly giving them a cut of subscriber revenue.

The New York Times recently put a bunch of opinion newsletters behind its paywall. Some newsletters will be written by non-Times employees.  

Puck, a newsletter-based startup that focuses on covering people in power, launched explicitly to give independent writers the support of a brand to help them build their audiences. 

Forbes in January debuted a newsletter platform that lets journalists launch their own paid newsletters and split the revenue.

Between the lines: Substack on Monday said there are more than 1 million paid subscriptions to publications on its platform, up from about 250,000 in December 2020.

"These are subscriptions that didn’t exist before — they’re not being siphoned off from traditional media outlets or redistributed from other platforms," wrote Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie.

Despite losing a few writers, news executives feel mostly optimistic that Substack's success will help encourage people to get in the habit of paying for quality content, thus bolstering their own subscription efforts.

"I would regard anything that is about helping make the market for paid digital journalism is good," New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien told investors this month in response to a question about Substack. 

By the numbers:  Over the past few months, it's become increasingly clear that  Substack — now four years old — has become a haven for controversial  writers, given its lack of editorial oversight. 

Bari Weiss, the former New York Times writer who left the paper, now makes roughly $800,000 on Substack. 

Alex Berenson reportedly earns around $720,000 per year on Substack. 

Glenn Greenwald, according to an estimate from The Financial Times earlier this year, is on track to make between $1 and $2 million per year on Substack. 

"Substack is way more reliant on political controversy," says Uri Bram,  publisher of The Browser, and the author of Thinking Statistically. Bram left Substack for publishing platform Ghost last year. 

By comparison, a few top journalists that left mainstream platforms have recently revealed data that showed how building an audience on Substack can be more challenging than anticipated. 

Eric Newcomer, a Bloomberg veteran, wrote last month he has 1,374 paid subscribers after one year on Substack. The "Newcomer" newsletter is one of the top technology paid publications on Substack. 

Casey Newton, who authors the most popular paid technology newsletter on Substack, said in September said that he converted a smaller percentage of subscribers to paid than he thought he would in his first year. 

Charlie Warzel recently wrote when he left Substack for The Atlantic that he accrued 1,600 paid subscribers since leaving The New York Times in April. 

What to watch: The newsletter boom will birth new platforms catering to creators looking for a happy middle ground between newsroom support and independence. 

Workweek launched last week to give business writers full-time support to work independently.

Lede, the publishing platform that powers Defector Media, was spun out from its parent company called The Alley Group, to focus more on helping writers spread beyond newsletters and into things like podcasts. 

The bottom line: Journalists that crave the infrastructure and editorial support offered by newsrooms are finding more happy mediums as the newsletter industry grows. 

Big media strikes back at Substack

"Everyone in publishing knows the hard part happens after you hit send."

Illustration of a newspaper with a Substack logo cut out of it

Substack

Media

Pressure from new publishing platforms has finally pushed newsrooms to create programs that give writers more pay, autonomy and flexibility. Those changes are <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="attracting" data-vars-click-url="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/11/11/a-good-newsletter-exit-strategy-is-hard-to-find" data-vars-content-id="f8b21c46-10f5-4a75-ad65-11a93103ae8e" data-vars-headline="Big media strikes back at Substack" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/11/11/a-good-newsletter-exit-strategy-is-hard-to-find" target="_blank">attracting</a> some independent writers back to traditional news companies. Why it matters: The Substack threat to newsrooms was overblown. Newsrooms have been quick to react to the idea of the independent-operator model while journalists have been sharing its challenges or detailing why they decided to return to newsrooms.

Nicholas Johnston

Stories

1 fun thing: summer vs. winter Davos

Big media strikes back at Substack

A roundup of D.C.'s WeWorks

Pics of the day: Help wanted

Journalism's two Americas

Newsletter editions

🎉 Axios Deep Dive: Washington's big weekend