2014 Annual Report

Nieman Reports produced deeply researched cover stories on four issues of vital interest in 2014: censorship in China, the state of journalism education, the future of foreign news, and the lack of female newsroom leaders. With the redesign of the print magazine as well as Nieman’s websites, our journalism has a smart, fresh and contemporary new look.

At a time of heightened interest in and tensions with China, the Winter 2014 issue delivered an important analysis on how Chinese and foreign journalists are coping with resurgent censorship. Among the contributors were The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos, who won the National Book Award for his book on China, and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Barboza of The New York Times. In addition, 2014 Nieman Fellow Yang Xiao, Luo Changping, winner of Transparency International’s Integrity Award in 2013, and Hu Shuli, editor in chief of leading Chinese independent publisher Caixin Media, also contributed. The articles were translated into Chinese and published as dual-language Word documents and PDFs.

The Spring 2014 cover story on journalism education gave voice to leading journalism educators and reformers—including Steve Coll, new dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation among others.

The product of months of research and reporting, the cover story “Where Are the Women?” for the Summer 2014 issue quantified the problem in a way other articles have not. “Where Are the Women?” cited academic research on the impact of female editors on coverage and staff diversity, and it suggested ways to increase the ranks of women in newsroom leadership positions. Anna Griffin, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, was interviewed on “PBS NewsHour,” and the article sparked substantial and ongoing industry conversations. The American Society of News Editors and the Online News Association featured at their annual conferences discussions with women quoted in the cover story package.

For the Fall 2014 issue, Joshua Hammer, a 2005 Nieman Fellow, undertook a wide-ranging examination of the state of foreign news. The cover story package was illustrated with images by Tyler Hicks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer who delivered the 2014 Joe Alex Morris Jr. Lecture at the Nieman Foundation.

As part of the website redesign, Nieman Reports added about 200 issues to our online archive, making every issue of the magazine available back to the first issue in Spring 1947. Among the gems uncovered in a search of the audio archives at Lippmann House was a concert and talk by blues guitarist B.B. King, now online. There’s more to come in 2015.

Nieman Lab continued to grow its audience and its reach in 2014, its sixth year. Forty-two percent of its more than 4 million visitors were outside the United States, pushing the conversation around journalism innovation across the globe. Our presence on social media continued to expand, with nearly a quarter million people following the Lab on one social platform or another.

Among this year’s biggest topics: the continuing rise of mobile devices and the new paradigms for news consumption they’re building; the troubled quest for smarter paywalls and the struggles of traditional online advertising (and the boom in native advertising); the growth of interest in explainers and other ways of contextualizing news; the maturation of a generation of online news startups from the past several years; and the shifting sands of community engagement and social media.

In May, the Lab published the most popular piece in its history, a smart, in-depth analysis of The New York Times’ leaked internal innovation report. It spread like no other piece of ours before, with more than 27,000 shares on social media and 400,000 reads; it was passed around newsrooms and news businesses who wanted to learn from the Times’ missteps.

This year marked some major changes for Nieman Storyboard as the site established new narrative horizons and we welcomed new editor Louise Kiernan, NF  ’05, associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School.

In September, we launched a sharp and newly streamlined website. We also expanded our established Annotation Tuesday feature with our first audio annotation, highlighting a classic “This American Life” story about a young man, his mother and The Little Mermaid. Be on the lookout soon for our first visual annotation.

Our most popular posts this year reflect the crucial role Storyboard plays in exploring the frontiers of journalism, as well as highlighting classic narrative. Our interview with the creators of “Serial,” a new blockbuster podcast, was, by far, the most-read post of 2014, but our annotations continued to draw steady attention and readers also sought out essays from masters of the craft.

Our website traffic continues to grow, increasing 27 percent over what it was just two years ago. On Twitter, @niemanstory, we are now just shy of 10,000 followers. We’ve also recently established a presence on Instagram, at NiemanStoryboard, and you can find us on Pinterest, at Nieman Storyboard.

As we move into 2015, Storyboard remains the foremost authority on the art and craft of nonfiction storytelling and, like journalism itself, continues to chart new worlds.

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Storyboard’s previous editor, Paige Williams, who for the past four years also served as Nieman’s narrative writing instructor, accepted a professorship at the Missouri School of Journalism in the fall. A 1997 Nieman Fellow, Williams writes for The New Yorker, has taught at universities including NYU, MIT, and Emory, and has won numerous awards for her work, including the National Magazine Award for feature writing in 2008.

The Nieman Foundation is grateful to Paige for her strong stewardship of Nieman Storyboard during her time in Cambridge.