Weekly Digest: Protocol Shutdown, Reforms at Politico, NPR’s Kyiv Bureau

Protocol, tech news website launched by Politico three years ago, has shut down. The outlet ceased publication on its website, and its flagship newsletter will close down in December. 

Protocol was launched in late 2019 by former Politico owner and publisher Robert Allbritton with a goal to replicate Politico’s success in the field of tech coverage. But Protocol “never had much luck”, as CNN’s Oliver Darcy puts it – impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, by Politico’s sale to Axel Springer, and by recent declines in ad spending as tech companies are facing difficult market conditions. 

Some 60 people were working for Protocol. Many will be laid off, and some will move to Politico’s tech coverage, CNN reports. 

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In other news about Politico, the company’s American and European arms, which operated separately since Politico Europe had launched in 2015, are being combined under a single top management team. The changes have come in the wake of the company’s acquisition by Axel Springer last year.

In an email to staff sent on Tuesday, CEO of Politico Media Group Goli Sheikholeslami said the goal is to create “one transatlantic media company”. Claire Boussagol, CEO of Politico Europe, is thus leaving the company.

As Sheikholeslami previously said in an interview with New York’s Shawn McCreesh, “[the focus is on] leveraging the unique assets of the two newsrooms in helping connect the dots between what is happening in the United States and power centers across the U.S. and what is happening in power centers across Europe.”

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NPR News is opening its bureau in Kyiv, Ukraine, led by the broadcaster’s reporter Joanna Kakissis. The American nonprofit media organisation has been reporting extensively on Russia’s war in Ukraine, with dozens of journalists on the ground at different points of the conflict. 

The move follows other major media organisations like The Washington Post and The New York Times launching their Kyiv bureaus in 2022, as Russia’s invasion has put Ukraine in the centre of the world’s attention. 

Bonus — Five more stories you might want to check out:

• Semafor: Rupert Murdoch plans to replace Wall Street Journal editor with Brit
• Axios: CVC, Group Black partner on bid for Vox Media 
• Semafor: Sam Bankman-Fried had plans for a Matt-and-Nate-heavy Substack competitor
• The Guardian: Qatar World Cup organisers apologise after threats to a Danish television crew 
• Institute of Mass Information: RSF calls on [Ukrainian] authorities to give accreditation back to journalists

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