Deadliners Podcast

𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚍
  • 4.5 (2)
  • Society & Culture
  • Weekly

Deadliners Club is the essential dispatch for the journalist who refuses to be replaced. A weekly rotation of sharp analysis, exclusive interviews, video deep-dives, and podcasts on how journalism thrives in the age of AI. deadliners.substack.com

  1. Sep 3

    Name the Guilty Men: Emily Atkin on the Failure of Both-Sides Climate Journalism

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In 2019, Emily Atkin did something that felt slightly crazy at the time: she walked away from a staff job to start an independent climate newsletter on a little-known platform called Substack. Six years and over 100,000 subscribers later, Heated has become one of the top destinations for accountability journalism on the climate crisis. But as Emily tells me on this week’s episode of Deadliners, she didn’t launch Heated just to be her own boss — she launched it because mainstream media was failing the topic. “Most editors of climate journalism in mainstream spaces were not themselves climate reporters. They weren’t really sold on the idea that fossil fuel companies were 95% of the time villains in this story.” On this week’s episode, Emily and I dive into the tension between neutrality and moral clarity, the real maths behind newsletter publishing, and what it actually takes to survive as a solo journalist today. The Trap of “Both-Sidesism” For decades, traditional newsrooms treated climate change as an abstract debate or an over-intellectualized policy issue. The result, Emily reckons, was a public left confused, bored, or disempowered. She argues that major corporate polluters actively weaponized this desire for balance on the part of the mainstream press. By manufacturing doubt, they forced reporters to give equal time to bad-faith arguments — a trap that younger audiences, in particular, are completely fed up with. “If you’re not naming fossil fuel companies, deforestation, and industrial agriculture in these stories, you’re not actually giving the reader anything useful to direct their anger at,” Emily says. “You’re just telling them that some amalgamous, vague thing is making their lives worse.” For Emily, real journalism is about combining relentless reporting to point at the culprits destroying the planet for a quick buck. While Heated is often cited as a Substack success story, Emily is remarkably candid about how difficult the transition was. When she started in 2019, Substack offered her an advance that made taking the leap financially possible. She also leveraged an established base of 70,000 followers built over years on pre-Musk Twitter. For journalists thinking about launching their own newsletter today, she offers a few blunt reality checks. First, under-promise on frequency. Emily initially launched Heated four days a week, doing the writing, self-editing, marketing, and business administration entirely alone. And it was exhausting. Second, she cautions against doing it if you’ve no experience whatsoever. “I really wouldn’t recommend this path to anyone who hasn’t had an editor for at least 10 years,” she says, noting that an editor builds necessary guardrails that stop young reporters from making credibility-destroying mistakes. Finally, newsletter fatigue is very real. The competitive landscape has shifted dramatically, and today the top reason subscribers cancel paid tiers is inbox overload and economic strain. But as Emily has shown, when you build genuine trust and deliver something few mainstream outlets are doing, readers will step up to support it. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Aug 17

    Democracy Isn't the Only Thing That Dies in Darkness: So Does Your Bank Balance

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If you’re one of the 50 million Americans who happens to live in a ‘news desert’, here’s what that means… It means a certain level of disenfranchisement; you’re not only disconnected from the news, but from your neighbors. And guess what… your tax rates have probably gone up disproportionately too - because “what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you.” That’s a quote from my guest this week, Eric Steinman, a friend and journalist who lives in the Hudson Valley. Eric’s a freelance writer, and a few years back he helped launch The Hudson Valley Pilot, a local news source for Rhinebeck, a town of about 8,000 people an hour and a half north of New York City. Eric was its editor in chief. When a local paper vanishes - like the Rhinebeck Gazette did back in 2009 - a town loses its collective memory and its watchdog. As Eric breaks down in our conversation, the quiet fallout of the news desert that emerges has more repercussions than you might imagine. When no one is sitting in the back of the municipal board meetings, local spending goes unchecked simply because there is no one left to ask hard questions. Launching The Hudson Valley Pilot was an effort to plug that hole. Going digital was the only viable way to keep the overheads low and stay nimble enough to publish board meeting updates sometimes within an hour. But reaching a small town required surprisingly old-school methods. From planting yard signs stamped with QR codes along local roads to setting up a folding table at the weekly farmer’s market, Eric and his publisher built an audience by being visible and approachable. They deliberately avoided dry, sterile reporting in favor of a distinct, human voice that reflected the character — and occasionally the humor — of the town itself. Yet the project also laid bare the brutal economics of modern local news. Operating even a lean digital newsroom requires steady capital. Navigating the delicate balance between editorial independence and the relentless grind of fundraising eventually led to the Pilot’s merger with The Daily Catch. But as Eric and I discuss, the breakdown of legacy media doesn’t have to be a total dead end. For journalists entering a tough media market, these underserved communities present a real, untapped opportunity. By leveraging direct-to-reader platforms, a reporter can step into a news desert, laser-focus on two or three core issues that govern daily life like local development, land use, or town politics, and build a lean, sustainable micro-outlet. It is a model that strips away corporate bloat and returns journalism to its most vital job: holding power to account and offering a community a clear, authentic portrait of itself. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Aug 5

    'Save Print Media': The 22-Year-Old Photographer Fighting Digital Fatigue

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. On this week’s episode of Deadliners, I meet Ryan Kraus, a 22-year-old photographer and visual artist who started publishing a quarterly newspaper, New Paltz Photo Works, while he was still a full-time student at his local community college. Growing up, Ryan didn’t consume traditional newspapers, but he felt that, for photographers and photography, Instagram was saturated. How could you stand out? He turned to newsprint as a way to bridge generational divides: offering something fresh and curious to younger people, while evoking warm nostalgia for older readers who grew up with newsstands on every corner. But launching a print publication is one thing; keeping it alive without going broke is another. Too many media startups fail because passionate creators forget to figure out the business model. So Ryan breaks down the practical mathematics for me behind putting New Paltz Photo Works together. Despite his deep devotion to the physical, tactile ritual of newsprint, he also understands the modern digital game. He doesn’t treat social media as an enemy to print, but as its engine. By actively promoting the newspaper on Instagram — where his posts pull in thousands of views a month — he sources photographers, connects with subscribers across 25 states and five countries, and builds an audience for the physical paper. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 7

    How the World Gets Its News

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I first spoke to Craig Robertson, a researcher at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, for the Deadliners podcast and newsletter back in April, and he gave us a preview of this year’s Digital News Report. Well, that report - the most comprehensive study of news consumption worldwide - is now out, and Craig agreed to come back and talk to me about what he found out. Some headlines: * For the first time globally social media and video networks have become the single most widely used way of accessing online news. * The use of AI chatbots for news is growing * For the first time, a majority of people now watch online news video * Around a quarter of respondents to the survey get some news from news-focused individual creators or influencers, and almost half get some news from creators of any type. In our chat, Craig tells me Snapchat is really popular in Norway. Who knew? And Threads is really popular in Taiwan. All these little quirks he learned in preparing this year’s report. We talk about attempts by news media outlets to stop AI bots from scraping their content, and how - interestingly - the people most likely to be watching content creators for news are also the people more likely to be using other news brands. “It’s sort of an additive feature to people’s news diets,” Craig says. It’s a way of helping them get a better sense of a story rather than the sole place to get the story. That’s good news for journalism, I guess. I’ll take what I can get. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Please do share it - and this newsletter. And thanks for listening. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Jun 30

    Can Kids Save the News?

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The current landscape of journalism is undeniably bleak: newsrooms are weathering relentless layoffs, public trust is hitting historic lows, and local community papers are disappearing at an alarming rate. Yet, according to Vicki Whiting, a former third-grade teacher and fashion reporter, the salvation of the news industry might just lie in the hands of seven-year-olds. Whiting is the founder, editor, and president of KidScoop, an educational and media literacy initiative designed specifically for elementary school students. Speaking to me for the Deadliners podcast, she shared how a simple dilemma in a small Northern California town blossomed into a national movement aimed at revitalizing print media and creating a new generation of critical thinkers. Tasked with teaching third-graders about their local community in Sonoma, California, Whiting found the standard-issue textbooks didn’t cut it. Looking for a spark to engage her 40 students, she asked a crucial question: “Where can we learn about our community?” A student answered, “The newspaper.” Whiting approached the local family-owned weekly, the Sonoma Index-Tribune, proposing a dedicated page that would leverage the local paper as a primary learning tool. The result was immediate: she told me when the papers arrived, students sat up straighter. Suddenly, geography, math, and science felt connected to their actual lives. Rather than exposing young children to frightening or confusing headlines, the publication uses major global moments to teach foundational concepts. Whiting describes the content as “timely, but not current events.” If a massive tornado hits, KidScoop explains the science of how tornadoes form, giving kids the essential vocabulary to understand the broader world. But beneath the colorful artwork and engaging puzzles lies a deeper, more urgent mission: media literacy. In an era dominated by algorithmic echo chambers and viral misinformation, KidScoop introduces concepts of analytical thinking and — crucially — distinguishing between fact and opinion. “People have this concept that news is factual. Unfortunately, now there are news sources out there that are not factual,” Whiting noted. “That’s why I try to stick with fact and opinion... It might be a news source, but it doesn’t mean it’s factual.” Meeting the Next Generation Research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism indicates young people are deeply curious about the world, often seeking explainers on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram. However, many media executives falsely assume these digital-native audiences will automatically pivot to traditional newspaper subscriptions once they turn 18. Whiting believes the industry must bridge that gap early by reintroducing physical print into the home and classroom. Pointing to recent research on childhood brain development, print reading, and digital fatigue, she argues that parents and teachers are actively craving a return to tactile media. For struggling local publishers, she views this as a vital, untapped revenue stream. Through a licensing model, community papers can bring KidScoop into local schools, backed by local underwriting and philanthropic sponsors. By cultivating that connection early, the media ecosystem isn’t just teaching a child to read — it is securing its own future. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Jun 23

    The Radical Rise of Independent News in Lebanon

    Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. On the surface, Beirut used to look like a playground of free expression. But as Samer Frangie, Editor-in-Chief of the independent outlet Megaphone, reminds me on this week’s Deadliners podcast, if you looked just an inch beneath the surface of pre-2017 Lebanon, you found a media ecosystem kowtowing to politicians, economic interests, and Gulf money. The on-air debates were fierce, but the boundaries of dissent were carefully staged. If you dug into real financial corruption or systemic human rights violations, you quickly hit a wall — or worse. Megaphone was born to smash through that wall. What started as a loose collective of media innovators trying to provide context for a generation radicalized by the 2015 “You Stink” protests has mutated into one of the most vital, irreverent media units in the Middle East. When the popular uprisings exploded in 2019, Samer said he and his team realized they had to dream bigger. They opened their laptops and started recruiting volunteers. But it wasn’t just what they reported; it was how. Megaphone ditched the formal, rigid classical Arabic favored by stuffy network anchors and began publishing in Ammiya, the simplified, colloquial language spoken by everyday Lebanese citizens. Then, they met their audience precisely where they lived: on social media. And while traditional TV stations broadcast dry ministerial meetings or rehashed speeches from the pulpit of press conferences, Megaphone began covering the systemic exploitation of migrant domestic workers and debunking the dangerous scapegoating of Syrian refugees. More than anything, they stopped giving corrupt politicians the unearned respect they felt institutional media afforded them. They mocked them with memes, and ran deep investigations alongside biting satire. The political class, expecting these “young delinquents” to burn out, instead found themselves slapped with impactful journalism. And despite the inevitable lawsuits, Megaphone kept swinging, insulated partly by their digital agility and, as Samer noted, the fact that “the benefit of living in an incompetent state is that the repression is also incompetent.” But the stakes here are devastatingly high. After their offices were destroyed in the catastrophic 2020 Beirut port explosion, and now, as they navigate the terrifying landscape of regional war and ongoing bombardment, Megaphone’s role has shifted from daily reporting to a form of historical preservation. They are archiving a collective memory and documenting a society in flux. ‘The benefit of living in an incompetent state is that the repression is also incompetent.’ For those of us watching the global upheaval of our industry from relative safety, Megaphone is a masterclass in resilience. It reminds us that when institutions fail, the future of journalism doesn’t belong to the media moguls or the state apparatus — it belongs to the people willing to look power in the eye and who refuse to toe the line. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Jun 9

    The University That Told Its Newspaper to Stop Covering News

    Jim Rodenbush spent years training the next generation of journalists at Indiana University, where he served as Director of Student Media and adviser to the Indiana Daily Student — one of the oldest and most respected college newspapers in the country, with roots going back to 1867. His job was to guide student editors, protect the independence of the newsroom, and help young reporters learn what it means to do the work with integrity. Then, in October 2025, he was fired. Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The reason, Jim says: he refused a direct order from university administrators to strip traditional news coverage from a print edition of the paper. What followed was a very public censorship dispute, a lawsuit alleging violations of his First and 14th Amendment rights, and a national conversation about who gets to decide what a student newspaper publishes — the students, or the institution that funds them. The lawsuit has since been voluntarily dropped and is being refiled in state court. Jim says he intends to see it through. This fall, he begins a new role as an associate professor of journalism at Western Kentucky University. For this week’s Deadliners podcast we chatted about what happened, what it means for press freedom in America, and what Jim tells students who are wondering whether journalism is still worth fighting for. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jun 2

    Print Is Dead. Long Live Print.

    As magazine publishers have shifted heavily toward digital in order to survive, one publication has chosen to remain faithful to paper. This week I’m chatting to my friend (and former editor) Kira Don, Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Stranger’s Guide, a magazine about “place” that I (probably inarticulately) describe to people as “somewhere at the intersection of current affairs and travel.” I worked as a senior editor at the magazine for several years. I love it. It’s a beautifully produced publication (it does have a website too) with photo essays, quirky stories, and features that run thousands of words long. When I launched Deadliners back on April 9, I promised I’d bring you exclusive interviews with the people thinking about the future of journalism: reporters who are refusing to quit, founders starting new platforms, and storytellers finding exciting ways to tell us what’s going on in the world. What Kira is doing is precisely what I was talking about. Deadliners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Kira has worked as a magazine editor in New York and California, was executive editor of Lapham’s Quarterly, and as a journalist she’s covered politics and culture around the world. She also co-founded the Oakland Book Festival in the city she now calls home. Since it launched eight years ago, Stranger’s Guide has been nominated for no less than 14 national magazine awards and it’s won four — not bad for a publication that launched on a shoestring at a time when we’re being told that print is all-but dead. “I love print the way some people love vinyl,” Kira told me. “There’s something about holding an object in your hand, and so in starting this magazine, the most important thing was to make it an object that you would want to keep. It’s not print for print’s sake.” What makes Stranger’s Guide feel so important right now is that Kira is doing something AI will never be able to do: traveling to a country, sitting down with local writers and photographers over lunch, and uncovering the accidental, beautiful daily realities of life that then make it into print. “We’re journalists in a moment in which journalism has so little respect; when it has so few avenues for being read or acknowledged or noticed,” she said. We cover a lot of ground — how Kira builds a bespoke editorial board from scratch for every single issue, why she turned Stranger's Guide into a nonprofit, the Iran stories she's most proud of, and her simple advice for anyone crazy enough to start a print magazine in 2026. ("Just do it," she says. And she means it.) Hit play to listen to our conversation above. Or find Deadliners on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Get full access to Deadliners at deadliners.substack.com/subscribe

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Ratings & Reviews

4.5
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About

Deadliners Club is the essential dispatch for the journalist who refuses to be replaced. A weekly rotation of sharp analysis, exclusive interviews, video deep-dives, and podcasts on how journalism thrives in the age of AI. deadliners.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚍
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Deadliners
  • Show Website
    Deadliners Podcast