Carly Zakin (left) and Danielle Weisberg, co-founders.
By Corinne Segal, Contributor, Tufts University
About a month ago I watched a local Fox News “journalist” explain that women and men didn’t play by the same rules. Tufts University (where I am a senior) had been receiving plenty of well-deserved bad press for student misbehavior at Winter Bash, an annual dance at the Boston Westin Copley where, this year, a few too many people had a few too many.
Two students in particular, a man and a woman, did something awful that I won’t waste words on (you can watch the report here). They were both clearly at fault, but the man who reported the incident expressed shock that a woman would do such a thing.
“I’ve come to grow to expect this stuff from guys, but the woman doing that blows me away,” he exclaimed.
Watching these thirty seconds unfold, I realized we still need more women at the forefront of media so that misogynistic comments like this stop. The good news is that we’re at the start of that change. Women's ideas are beginning to shake up the news and the way we get it. Exhibit A? theSkimm.
theSkimm? What’s that?
It’s reliable. It’s fun. It’s smart. It knows what it’s talking about.
No, I’m not talking about your best friend; theSkimm is an online daily newsletter that breaks down the headlines. It’s the perfect length to read while enjoying a morning cup of coffee or waiting as the subway passes over the Manhattan Bridge for a glorious 7 minutes of cell service.
It’s the news, pared down to the essential and sprinkled with one-liner quips that keep you reading. It’s not gender specific—just a unique delivery by two female entrepreneurs. Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, two journalists who began their careers at NBC News, founded the company, and I started interning there this past winter shortly after becoming a Skimm addict.
theSkimm is fantastic for a few reasons that are obvious if you take even the quickest look at it. On a judge striking down New York City’s large-soda ban: “Hear that? That’s Mayor Bloomberg crying.” On Paul Ryan: “Rep. Ryan (yup, that one) loves budgets more than Skimm HQ loves chocolate.”
Beyond the fun writing, though, there’s a deeper story there about what it is doing for the world of media today. And the more time I spend with it, the more I’m convinced that companies like theSkimm are our future.
Why we need it:
It’s no secret that we live in a world where women have only rarely, and under intense scrutiny, entered powerful positions in the working world. For all intents and purposes, men have historically been a privileged class. For as long as that has been true, women have asked: why?
One answer came from second-wave feminist Kate Millet, who used Marxist theory in the sixties to explain gender inequality. She boiled it down to this: women have never owned the means of production of life, which prevented them from holding powerful positions in society. By “the means of production of life,” she meant reproductive rights, and women’s advancement meant gaining control of reproduction.
For a minute, though, think about the other means of production that exist in our world. For example, knowledge. How do we produce and spread knowledge? At the moment, the answer is this: through educational and media institutions where women are usually a minority.
Today, men currently account for over 60 percent of newspaper newsrooms. During last year’s presidential election, male bylines outnumbered females' almost three to one. Cool.
The good news is that female innovation in media is allowing us to divide the production of knowledge more evenly across gender lines. Namely, companies like theSkimm are beginning to level the playing field.
Enter the lady journos.
It’s no news that we live in a changing society, one where older news organizations are struggling to effectively use the Internet. “Print” now means “online.” Old structures of media no longer work in a world with Internet, and the minority status of women in business no longer makes any sense. (And if anyone thinks otherwise, Sheryl Sandberg is on it.)
Let’s change that.
This is where theSkimm comes in. Working there, I’ve realized that its innovative approach to using the Internet, as well as its status as a female-owned company, moves media and gender relations into the next phase, one that is more equitably owned and will ultimately provide better news to an audience.
Bottom line: theSkimm has opened my eyes to the opportunities that female entrepreneurs have to change the face of media. And the best news? As we enter the future, there will probably be a few less of these asinine “But WOMEN shouldn’t do that!” comments in the media.
Also, it’s super fun to read. So what’s not to love?
About a month ago I watched a local Fox News “journalist” explain that women and men didn’t play by the same rules. Tufts University (where I am a senior) had been receiving plenty of well-deserved bad press for student misbehavior at Winter Bash, an annual dance at the Boston Westin Copley where, this year, a few too many people had a few too many.
Two students in particular, a man and a woman, did something awful that I won’t waste words on (you can watch the report here). They were both clearly at fault, but the man who reported the incident expressed shock that a woman would do such a thing.
“I’ve come to grow to expect this stuff from guys, but the woman doing that blows me away,” he exclaimed.
Watching these thirty seconds unfold, I realized we still need more women at the forefront of media so that misogynistic comments like this stop. The good news is that we’re at the start of that change. Women's ideas are beginning to shake up the news and the way we get it. Exhibit A? theSkimm.
theSkimm? What’s that?
It’s reliable. It’s fun. It’s smart. It knows what it’s talking about.
No, I’m not talking about your best friend; theSkimm is an online daily newsletter that breaks down the headlines. It’s the perfect length to read while enjoying a morning cup of coffee or waiting as the subway passes over the Manhattan Bridge for a glorious 7 minutes of cell service.
It’s the news, pared down to the essential and sprinkled with one-liner quips that keep you reading. It’s not gender specific—just a unique delivery by two female entrepreneurs. Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, two journalists who began their careers at NBC News, founded the company, and I started interning there this past winter shortly after becoming a Skimm addict.
theSkimm is fantastic for a few reasons that are obvious if you take even the quickest look at it. On a judge striking down New York City’s large-soda ban: “Hear that? That’s Mayor Bloomberg crying.” On Paul Ryan: “Rep. Ryan (yup, that one) loves budgets more than Skimm HQ loves chocolate.”
Beyond the fun writing, though, there’s a deeper story there about what it is doing for the world of media today. And the more time I spend with it, the more I’m convinced that companies like theSkimm are our future.
Why we need it:
It’s no secret that we live in a world where women have only rarely, and under intense scrutiny, entered powerful positions in the working world. For all intents and purposes, men have historically been a privileged class. For as long as that has been true, women have asked: why?
One answer came from second-wave feminist Kate Millet, who used Marxist theory in the sixties to explain gender inequality. She boiled it down to this: women have never owned the means of production of life, which prevented them from holding powerful positions in society. By “the means of production of life,” she meant reproductive rights, and women’s advancement meant gaining control of reproduction.
For a minute, though, think about the other means of production that exist in our world. For example, knowledge. How do we produce and spread knowledge? At the moment, the answer is this: through educational and media institutions where women are usually a minority.
Today, men currently account for over 60 percent of newspaper newsrooms. During last year’s presidential election, male bylines outnumbered females' almost three to one. Cool.
The good news is that female innovation in media is allowing us to divide the production of knowledge more evenly across gender lines. Namely, companies like theSkimm are beginning to level the playing field.
Enter the lady journos.
It’s no news that we live in a changing society, one where older news organizations are struggling to effectively use the Internet. “Print” now means “online.” Old structures of media no longer work in a world with Internet, and the minority status of women in business no longer makes any sense. (And if anyone thinks otherwise, Sheryl Sandberg is on it.)
Let’s change that.
This is where theSkimm comes in. Working there, I’ve realized that its innovative approach to using the Internet, as well as its status as a female-owned company, moves media and gender relations into the next phase, one that is more equitably owned and will ultimately provide better news to an audience.
Bottom line: theSkimm has opened my eyes to the opportunities that female entrepreneurs have to change the face of media. And the best news? As we enter the future, there will probably be a few less of these asinine “But WOMEN shouldn’t do that!” comments in the media.
Also, it’s super fun to read. So what’s not to love?