New Markup editor Larson: We had fallen behind schedule

Jeff Larson, the new editor of tech news site The Markup, writes about what led to the ouster of previous editor in chief Julia Angwin earlier this week.

Larson writes, “The Markup had planned to launch early in 2019. At that time, we were expecting to have an editorial staff of 24. But by late 2018 it was clear that we had fallen far, far behind. Hiring was slow. Recruitment was slow. Even as of this month, we didn’t have stories banked. We didn’t have editorial processes in place to accept and develop pieces. We hadn’t developed areas of coverage. We still lacked an editorial value proposition. We were very far behind.

“Both Julia and I, having not run newsrooms at this level, were asked to participate in management training and coaching. Recognizing my own shortcomings, I jumped at the opportunity. Julia refused, and was not interested in any of the support offered, and did not want any feedback.

“Finally, there were other management and leadership issues at play, that led us to have a breakdown in trust between the three of us as co-founders.”

Read more here.