February 2014

Freelancers in the ‘Gig Economy’ Find a Mix of Freedom and Uncertainty

A look at New York City’s growing tribe of independent contractors and freelancers who are hoping to transform hardship into opportunity on the sidelines of the nation’s traditional 9-to-5 economy.

The Brooklyn-based Freelancers Union is one of the nation’s fastest-growing labor organizations, with about 234,000 members. In New York City alone, the union’s membership has surged since the Great Recession, jumping to 146,477 last year from 76,760 in 2008. They are writers, lawyers, accountants, consultants, website developers and others working in what Sara Horowitz, the union’s founder and executive director, heralds as the new “gig economy.” Describing “the standard workweek as a prison of the past,” Horowitz declared last month that freelancers were “establishing a new way to work -- and in the process, they’re cultivating a new way of life.”

Local Papers Shine Light in Society’s Dark Corners

[Commentary] Lots of eyes and talent are focused on big national news in Washington, but there are far fewer boots on the ground in states, counties and towns, which is where services are actually delivered and where much of the money is spent.

According to the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2013 annual report, newspaper staffs have lost 30 percent of their reporters since the peak in 2000. The cuts have had impact everywhere -- who knows what important news is going unreported? -- but given that the last big government corruption bust in New Jersey required buses to haul away all the suspected perpetrators, the loss of journalists at The Star-Ledger and elsewhere is a scary prospect. In that context, The Record is an increasingly endangered and valuable species. As chain owners have denuded local newspapers of muscle, The Record, a family-owned business, has managed to avoid the wholesale cuts that have decimated other newspapers. It helps to have dedicated ownership: Started in 1895, The Record has been owned since 1930 by the Borg family, which has called all the shots. The family has made sure that the newspaper is a source of accountability and high-quality information. About 200 people, including 85 reporters, work in the newsroom of The Record.

Cybersecurity in slow lane one year after Obama order

Nearly a year after President Barack Obama issued an executive order to improve the cybersecurity of the nation’s vital assets, the administration doesn’t have much to show: The government is about to produce only some basic standards, with little incentive for the private sector to participate. The program’s early weaknesses are a sign that -- even as high-profile breaches at Target and other retailers compromise the data of millions of consumers -- the White House and Congress have made minimal progress on the potentially more serious issue of protecting power plants, oil pipelines and major banks from a crippling cyberattack. The administration’s blueprint for such “critical infrastructure,” due this month, is shaping up to be a simple checklist, mirroring well-established industry norms. The standards are entirely voluntary and, so far at least, the White House and Congress haven’t come up with much-needed perks -- like tax breaks or federal contracting advantages -- that could spur companies to take part.

Sprint Rethinks Acquiring T-Mobile After Public Antitrust Opposition

Sprint officials are regrouping to decide whether trying to acquire smaller rival T-Mobile US makes sense after antitrust officials expressed strong sentiments against a deal publicly, people familiar with the matter said.

Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son and Chief Executive Dan Hesse, who met with officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission in Washington in recent weeks, always knew a deal would be a tough sell, the people said. But the men were surprised by the level of opposition and its very public nature, one of the people said. The sides are now letting the message sink in, the people said. Son may yet pursue a deal, they added, believing Sprint's US options are limited if the country's third-largest carrier doesn't get bigger. But if the sides do decide to go ahead, they could take weeks or more to ponder strategy and perfect their regulatory arguments, two of the people said. Sprint and T-Mobile have argued that their companies should be allowed to merge to create more robust competition for market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The Justice Department and the FCC repeatedly have indicated that the U.S. market is more competitive because there are four national carriers in the wake of their decision to block AT&T's $39 billion deal for T-Mobile in 2011. But Sprint and T-Mobile had hoped authorities would view their tie-up differently.

A day for celebrating all the good done on the Internet

[Commentary] For the past 11 years, the European Commission and Insafe, a Belgium-based nonprofit, have been coordinating Safer Internet Day celebrations across Europe and other parts of the world. It will be celebrated this year on Feb 11. There have been sporadic Safer Internet events in the United States but, until now, it hasn't been coordinated or official. But in late 2012, then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes signed a joint declaration to bring Safer Internet Day to the United States. The international theme of this year's celebration is "Let's create a better Internet together." Rather than just focusing on all the negative things that can happen online, we're focused on what's good about how people, including kids and teens, are using connected technology and what we can all do to make things better. So, as we recognize Safer Internet Day, it's also a time to recognize the fact that we are building a better Internet. It's far from perfect, but it's changing our lives and the lives of people all over the globe, mostly for the better.

NBC Responds to Opening Ceremony Criticism: We Edited IOC Speech for Time

NBC has responded to media reports questioning edits to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach’s speech during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, in which Bach urged everyone not to discriminate against people from other countries. Bach encouraged the athletes “to live together under one roof in harmony, with tolerance and without any form of discrimination.” An NBC spokesperson say, “The IOC President’s comments were edited for time, as were other speeches, but his message got across very clearly to viewers.”

Bill Keller, Former Editor of The Times, Is Leaving for News Nonprofit

Bill Keller, a columnist at The New York Times and its former executive editor, will leave the paper to become editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism start-up focused on the American criminal justice system.

Keller, 65, will be at The Times through early March before assuming his leadership post at The Marshall Project. Formed late last year by Neil Barsky, a journalist turned Wall Street money manager, The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering criminal justice. Barsky, 56, worked as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal before pursuing a career in finance. He was a research analyst at Morgan Stanley before starting a hedge fund, Alson Capital, which at its peak had $3.5 billion under its management. He shut down the fund in 2009 and has recently turned to filmmaking, directing “Koch,” a 2012 documentary about former Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York. The website, scheduled to start in the second quarter of this year, plans to raise money from foundations and individual donors and is modeled on other nonprofit news organizations. Its budget is projected to be about $5 million a year, which would pay for a staff of about 30.

NSA Flap Strains Ties With Europe

A furor in Europe over new reports of National Security Agency surveillance is undermining US efforts to move beyond the affair and has thrown plans for a trans-Atlantic trade agreement into question just weeks before talks are scheduled to resume.

US officials have engaged in a diplomatic offensive in recent weeks aimed at putting European fears over the data collection to rest. But a wave of European media reports based on information provided by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have provided further details of the U.S. surveillance programs, confounding Washington's efforts. Tensions worsened Feb 7 after the disclosure of a recorded phone conversation in which a top State Department official made derogatory comments about the European Union to a colleague.

Independent News Station, Feeling Kremlin’s Wrath, Asks ‘Why?’

It is not quite clear what Dozhd, Russia’s only liberal, independent television news station, did wrong. It could have been the report on a secret dacha owned by a top aide to President Vladimir Putin. Or it could have been its coverage of the political crisis in Ukraine, which officials here ascribe to the work of fascist revolutionaries and meddling Western diplomats. Or its discussions of corruption at the Olympics, which state television presents in manicured panoramas of Sochi’s sparkling new facades. The answer, people at the station say, could be all of the above or perhaps different reasons entirely. Russia, after all, is a country where an independent television news channel is increasingly an oxymoron.

Venezuela's Currency Squeeze Threatens Nation's Newspapers

Venezuelan newspapers said President Nicolás Maduro's government is withholding the foreign currency they need to buy newsprint and in doing so crippling the industry and impoverishing the political discourse. At least 12 newspapers have shut down recently and another 15 are in danger of closing in the next few weeks unless they acquire paper, said free-speech advocacy group Espacio Público. "They've been wanting to shut us up," said Carlos Carmona, president of El Impulso newspaper. "They want to harass us to put us in line."

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