ISSUE

Fall 2012

Be the Disruptor

Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation provides a framework to understand how businesses grow, become successful, and falter as nimble start-ups muscle in on their customers. It’s a familiar story, one that has played out in the steel and auto industries, among others. Now Christensen, in collaboration with 2012 Nieman Fellow David Skok, has applied his analysis to the news industry. Their goal in this issue's cover story, “Breaking News,” is to encourage news executives to apply the lessons of disruption to the media industry as a means of charting new paths to survival and success.

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Articles

From the Curator

Rising to the Challenge

Journalism is an escape artist.For the generation raised on Watergate, that lesson landed hard. The most powerful men in the world could not shut a story down. They lied and…
Ann Marie Lipinski
October 17, 2012
On the Outside Looking In
Features

On the Outside Looking In

Barack Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential win, as reported in, from left, O Povo (Fortaleza, Brazil), Apple Daily (Taipei, Taiwan), Maariv (Tel Aviv, Israel), and Die Tageszeitung (Berlin, Germany). All images…
Jonathan Seitz
October 16, 2012
Journalist’s Trade

Finding a Way Forward

Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation provides a framework to understand how businesses grow, become successful, and falter as nimble start-ups muscle in on their…
David Skok
October 16, 2012
Nieman Notes

Fall 2012: Class Notes

1946Robert Manning, an influential editor of The Atlantic Monthly, died of lymphoma at a hospital in Boston on September 28th. He was 92.Read his obituary from The Boston Globe.Manning was…
October 16, 2012
Sounding

The Magician’s Daughter

Her childhood secrets are nothing like yours.
Maggie Jones
October 15, 2012
Books

Good Girls Don’t

After suing Newsweek for sex discrimination, some women ran up against their own timidity.
Shirley Christian
October 15, 2012
Books

The Fighter

An impassioned believer in the battle for Algerian independence had a few blind spots.
Aboubakr Jamai
October 15, 2012
Watchdog

The Big Chill

The Obama administration is operating amid unprecedented secrecy—while attacking journalists trying to tell the public what they need to know.
Dan Froomkin
October 15, 2012
Developing Notions
Features

Developing Notions

Chronicling a family’s life for 35 years holds many lessons about what does and does not change over time.
Pam Spaulding
October 15, 2012
Features

An Ode to Readers’ Quirks

Being one click away from anyone who wants to weigh in on your looks or any number of subjects has its ups and downs.
Kate Galbraith
October 15, 2012
Features

Inside the Rings

‘The first rule of Olympic journalism is that no one should ever feel sorry for anyone assigned to cover the games.’
Howard Berkes
October 15, 2012
Features

Truth and Consequences

Reflecting on presidential campaign coverage before and after ‘The Boys on the Bus’
Adrienne LaFrance
October 15, 2012
Live @ Lippmann

Public Works

ProPublica’s Stephen Engelberg on what makes his year and the perils of philanthropy
Stephen Engelberg
October 15, 2012
Books

Waving, Not Drowning

Thoughts on the future of the magazine
James Geary
October 15, 2012
Books

Un-American Activities

‘The record of the FBI’s obsession [with student radicals] and meddling is overwhelming.’
Todd Gitlin
October 15, 2012
Books

Defying Gravity

A gripping history of the 40 years since wealth started falling up
Dan Froomkin
October 15, 2012
Features

Lessons From Fukushima

‘More than a year after the accident, we still do not have any serious investigative reporting on [Japanese nuclear power plant owner] Tepco…’
Peter Behr
October 12, 2012
Features

Truth and Consequences

Reflecting on presidential campaign coverage before and after ‘The Boys on the Bus’
Adrienne LaFrance
October 11, 2012
Features Journalist’s Trade

Breaking News (En Español)

La teoría de la disrupción del profesor Clayton M. Christensen, de la Escuela de Negocios de Harvard, provee un marco para entender cómo los negocios crecen, alcanzan el éxito, y…
Clayton M. Christensen
September 15, 2012
Breaking News: Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism
Features Journalist’s Trade

Breaking News: Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism

Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism
Clayton M. Christensen
September 15, 2012
Features Journalist’s Trade

Download the Cover Story

“Breaking News” by Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth, which applies the lessons of disruptive innovation to the media industry, is available in EPUB and MOBI formats for…
September 15, 2012