August 2015

Officer Eric Karsseboom merely wanted to find a four-door, white Dodge car on the evening of January 21, 2013. Instead, someone else found him. The Oakland (CA) Police Department veteran was suddenly facing down the barrels of a trio of guns as three men—Denate Kincaid, Joseph Pennymon, and Damien McDaniel—surrounded his vehicle, an unmarked Chevy Tahoe, in the parking lot of a gated apartment complex at 1759 Seminary Avenue. Located in East Oakland, this was and remains the heart of one of the city's toughest neighborhoods. Kincaid spotted the trapper, a slang term for a gun, after he and his associates stopped Karsseboom's car for an informal interrogation. Undercover and alone, Karsseboom had crept into the apartment complex behind another vehicle, hoping to find the Dodge that OPD connected to a suspect from a shooting the previous day. Now more gunfire loomed.

Within a few days, all three—plus a fourth man allegedly involved—were eventually located. A criminal case, United States vs. Ellis et al, now hangs in the balance. The men are charged with both the attempted murder of a local police officer and for running an alleged East Oakland gang centered around Seminary Avenue (known as "SemCity"). But in the process of locating one of the alleged assailants on that night nearly three years ago, the department may have unintentionally opened up a way for the defendants to challenge evidence in the case. And perhaps worse for the authorities at large, the OPD's actions in the wake of Karsseboom's beating are shedding new light on one of the government's most prized and secretive surveillance tools: the cell phone hunting and intercepting device known as a stingray.

Robert Freeman has been helping people extract public information from New York state agencies for four decades. He is the executive director of the New York Committee on Open Government, a division of the New York Department of State that advises the public on the Freedom of Information Law -- the state statute authorizing access to public records. While Freeman gives Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) credit for making a substantial amount of state data available online, he says the administration has been slower and more difficult than any previous administration in responding to formal Freedom of Information requests. Several ProPublica reporters have recently experienced delays and resistance from New York state agencies in responding to such requests. Joaquin Sapien has spent the last several weeks reporting on violent crimes perpetrated by youngsters living in group homes throughout New York City. Last week, he received a response to a request for inspections of the homes and enforcement actions made against their operators from the Office of Child and Family Services. The response came two weeks past the 20-day-deadline and said the agency needed an additional 75 business days to fulfill the request. Meanwhile, ProPublica reporter Michael Grabell has fought a three-year legal battle with the New York Police Department trying to obtain records on the department’s use of X-ray surveillance machines. Freeman agreed to participate in a Q&A with Sapien. In it, Freeman, 68, draws on his experience working under seven different governors to speak to such delays in the release of public information and their underlying causes.

[Commentary] Every other headline out there today promises to break topics down into bite-sized bits. “4 Ways to Be a Better Leader,” “8 Steps to a Healthier Lifestyle,” “16 Abuses From the CIA Torture Report” -- it seems as if no topic is too serious or nuanced to undergo “snackification.” Like Cheetos and M&Ms, these articles lend themselves to mindless consumption. There is nothing wrong with them in moderation, but at some point, you start to crave something with more substance. Today’s readers want more than listicles and clickbait, and this is driving meaningful change across the digital publishing industry. The increasing demand for long-form speciality content will shape the future of the publishing industry.

An article in Fast Company highlights Wait But Why, a long-form blog that has acquired 31 million unique visitors and 87 million page views, through 80 articles that average over 2,000 words each. “If you can blow someone’s mind -- really, genuinely blow it, again, in a really well-written way -- then that’s something they want to share,” said Wait But Why co-founder, Andrew Finn. Publications will realize that there is far more value in creating a strong community around a specific topic and connecting those readers with relevant businesses than there is in mass-producing content for the masses. Readers benefit from better content, and publishers benefit from more effective monetization opportunities. Engagement, rather than eyeballs, will become the underlying drive. That said, articles like “27 Cats Who Are a Better Human Than You” will always have their place, because everyone needs a little junk food every once in a while.

[Joe Hyrkin is CEO of Issuu]

After a week of earnings reports that sent the media sector stocks tumbling, analysts took a beat to see what they’ve learned. Based on the numbers reported by the companies that own networks, Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research figures that national advertising finished down 2.7 percent in the second quarter, which he terms the worst non-recessionary, non-Olympic drop on record.

Broadcast network advertising was down 2.9 percent -- worse than expected -- and cable was down 2.6 percent, a bit better than expected. Nathanson doesn’t see things improving much in the short term. “Until ratings trends improve -- and easier 3Q comps materialize -- the lack of ratings points will likely keep reported national advertising in the zero to negative range." The weakness in ad spending was largely known before last week. But worries about the pay TV bundle unraveling and threatening what had appeared to be strong, predictable growth in distribution revenues intensified during the earnings calls. “Cord-cutting is real, and perhaps the silver lining is the market is now fully aware,” said Ben Swinburne of Morgan Stanley. But he cautioned that “we are not calling this the bottom.” Finding the bottom would require conviction in estimates of future earnings and a sense that valuations have troughed. “Neither box can be checked,” he said. Swinburne added that “the distributors are increasingly desperate. We think skinny bundles are gaining share, and that 1-2 percent pay-TV subscriber declines may become 2-3 percent cable network subscriber declines. Moreover, every MVPD is focusing more on building bundles that leave some networks out.”