Americans love opinion journalism. They just don’t know it.

Plus: Friendship and efficiency, 𝖞𝖊 𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊 𝖌𝖚𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖆 𝖕𝖎𝖌𝖘, and more

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, and here are this week’s five items for you.

In this post, paid subscribers will receive:

1. the rest of the first item

2. an article I’ve been reading on friendship and efficiency

3. a recommendation of a fancy paint we’re using in our bathroom update

4. a list of recent work, including my first time using a teleprompter!

5. 𝖞𝖊 𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊 𝖌𝖚𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖆 𝖕𝖎𝖌𝖘

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

Americans love opinion journalism. They just don’t know it.

(via)

Earlier this week, a colleague mentioned that a prominent media outlet is nixing its opinion section. This is a common story in recent years.

It’s why I left The Week last summer. I know of another major outlet that froze hiring in its opinion department for half of last year. And 2022 ended (then 2023 began) with a crush of media layoffs, many of them in or involved with the opinion space, including the entire staff of The Washington Post’s Sunday Magazine.

Gannett Co., the biggest newspaper conglomerate in the U.S. and owner of USA Today, last year decided its papers should scale down their opinion work, too. “Readers don’t want us to tell them what to think,” said an internal Gannett presentation obtained by the Post. “They don’t believe we have the expertise to tell anyone what to think on most issues. They perceive us as having a biased agenda.”

That summary of reader perception rings true. But I also think it’s wrong: