Inside ESPN’s mobile strategy: “If we’re thinking about anything else, we’re failing the audience”: The latest from Nieman Lab

Friday, February 26, 2016

Inside ESPN’s mobile strategy: “If we’re thinking about anything else, we’re failing the audience” “Mobile is everything,” says Chad Millman, ESPN’s vice president and editorial director for domestic digital content. By Joseph Lichterman.

While AdBlock Plus (sort of) explains its business model, New York Times might block adblocker users

What We’re Reading

Deadspin / Greg Howard

How SB Nation published its Daniel Holtzclaw story →

“Among other things, this story serves as an example of why diversity in the newsroom is so important. It isn't because diversity is charity, or because giving opportunities to people other than white men is a Christlike thing to do, but because everyone has blind spots, and everyone fucks up.” (Story by future Carr fellow Greg Howard.)

Aljazeera

Today is the last day Al Jazeera America is publishing online →

“We tried in our brief tenure to uphold the fine tradition of an American journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”

The Huffington Post / Michael Calderone

Win McCormack buys The New Republic after period Of turmoil →

“McCormack has selected Hamilton Fish, a former publisher of The Nation, to be publisher and editorial director of the magazine.”

The Guardian / Alex Hern

Adblock Plus opens up about how ‘acceptable ads’ work →

“Publishers with more than 10 million blocked ads have to pay 30% of the revenue from previously blocked ads to make it on to whitelist”

USA Today / Roger Yu

The Hill plans to grow its staff by 25 percent this year →

“The Hill is profitable, and we intend to invest all this money in the future.”

Wall Street Journal / Mike Shields

Snapchat enlists Nielsen to track ad campaigns, including video ads →

“Nearly all of the digital media giants have eventually had to take this step.”

From Fuego

How SB Nation Published Their Daniel Holtzclaw Story —de​adspin.c​om

Johana Bhuiyan Is Now Driving Re/code’s Transportation Coverage —re​code.n​et

2/26: How Two Runaway Llamas And A Dress Gave Us The Internet’s —ww​w.buzzfeed.c​om

Help ProPublica Research More Than 700 Navy Ships That Served in Vietnam —ww​w.propublica.o​rg

Advanced Social Media Analytics — by DigitalEd @ MediaShift —ww​w.bigmarker.c​om

Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.

Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo

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A Q&A with Google’s head of news Richard Gingras on its vision for the Accelerated Mobile Pages project: The latest from Nieman Lab

Thursday, February 25, 2016

A Q&A with Google’s head of news Richard Gingras on its vision for the Accelerated Mobile Pages project “There's a lot more we can do in evolving the format. AMP is not just about news and not just about articles.” By Shan Wang.

Why journalists interested in drones should be watching an FAA reauthorization bill An amendment would make newsrooms’ use of small drones legal in most circumstances, opening up a field that has been wrapped in red tape. By Matt Waite.

Nearly half of Reddit users go there for 2016 election info

What We’re Reading

Boing Boing / Cory Doctorow

Google launches Project Shield to protect news sites from DDoS attacks →

“Increasingly, DDoSes are deployed by governments and political movements to shut down news sites that are critical of them. This is especially hard on independent news sites in autocratic and developing nations…this is where Google’s Project Shield comes through.”

MediaShift

MediaShift launches a media metrics and analytics site, MetricShift →

Metrics editor Alexandra Kanik said, “A real need exists for actionable, accessible reporting on how [small to medium] organizations can use the tools and knowledge already out there to make data-driven decisions with their own metrics.”

Politico Media / Joe Pompeo

New media players seek to make their mark on the 2016 campaign →

“As digital outlets have proliferated, some of them growing to match the old guard's scale and prominence (if not always its newsgathering prowess), each recent presidential election has seen its share of new players breaking onto the scene.”

The New York Times / Nick Corasaniti

CNN’s investment in political coverage is paying off →

“Committing $50 million more than it spent in 2012, CNN added 45 journalists to its political team. It doubled the size of its special events and logistics unit, making it possible to negotiate, plan and execute the town halls in a matter of days. Online, its political reporting has all but taken over the network's home page.”

The Conversation / Damian Radcliffe

Five years after the Arab Spring, how does the Middle East use social media? →

“Although social media's contribution to sociopolitical change in the region may have been overstated, it did help amplify discontent and provided global media outlets with valuable on-the-ground insights. At a time of information scarcity, social media offered perspectives that might otherwise have been hard to come by.”

NPR.org / Bob Boilen

Behind the scenes of an NPR Tiny Desk Concert →

NPR made a 360-degree video of Wilco’s recent show at the Tiny Desk.

The Brookings Institution

A new report from Brookings explains the importance of explanatory journalism →

The project includes interviews with Vox’s Ezra Klein and The New York Times’ David Leonhardt.

AdWeek / Tim Baysinger

The New York Times would consider “banning adblocking readers who are not subscribers” →

“In the end, they’re not really helping pay for what they consume,” said CEO Mark Thompson.

Re/code / Peter Kafka

Meet the brains that power BuzzFeed’s tech and The New York Times’ video →

“Meet BuzzFeed's Dao Nguyen, whose title is publisher but who is really the one who runs all of all the company's tech; and the Times' Alex MacCallum, who is responsible for both audience development and video at the paper.”

Digiday / Lucinda Southern

Inside Axel Springer’s answer to Facebook’s Instant Articles →

“In September, Upday launched in beta and now has around 1,200 publishers on board — including The Economist, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, Der Spiegel and Axel Springer publications — all eager to take a stand against platform offerings like Facebook's Instant Articles and Apple News. During this test period, Upday claims users were spending over two hours a month using the platform.”

Politico / Joe Pompeo

New media players like Gawker and Fusion seek to make their mark on the 2016 campaign →

“You can’t just put out the same headlines. You have to be different.”

Medium / Simon Owens

Email newsletters are the new zines →

“Speaking to newsletter writers, it struck me how attracted they were to the newsletter's inefficient means of discovery.”

Bloomberg.com / Gerry Smith

Google gives publishers what Facebook and Apple haven’t: A paywall →

The New York Times will share more than 60 stories a day through Google AMP, because “the Times asks readers to buy digital subscriptions after getting 10 free articles a month. Google readers count toward that limit. Facebook and Apple readers don’t.”

From Fuego

Mark Zuckerberg Asks Racist Facebook Employees to Stop Crossing Out Black Lives Matter Slogans —gi​zmodo.c​om

OPINION: Six hot media startups to watch in 2016 —am​erica.aljazeera.c​om

Nearly Eight-in-Ten Reddit Users Get News on the Site —ww​w.journalism.o​rg

Facebook Officially Launches Canvas To Give Advertisers Rich Media Pages In Its App —te​chcrunch.c​om

Mark Zuckerberg Asks Employees To Stop Crossing Out “Black Lives Matter” On Facebook’s Walls —te​chcrunch.c​om

Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.

Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo

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Former L.A. Times publisher: Local news orgs need to take advantage of their “unique geography”: The latest from Nieman Lab

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Former L.A. Times publisher: Local news orgs need to take advantage of their “unique geography” Austin Beutner was fired as the Times’ publisher last year after he clashed with its parent company over strategy. By Joseph Lichterman.

Diving all in or dipping a toe? How publishers are approaching Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative “Everything we know about building a webpage, we have to relearn. But we’re relearning it from the premise of converting a current product over, not creating a product from scratch.” By Shan Wang.

The good, bad, and ugly of the world of bots, and the journalistic implications of using them

What We’re Reading

The Wall Street Journal / Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

Time Inc. strikes licensing deal to rebrand two Asian TV channels as Sports Illustrated →

“The multiyear licensing, programming and operations deal is with Hong Kong-based All Sports Network Ltd., a closely held operator of two channels that carry an array of sports programming including the National Football League, National Hockey League and Nascar.”

Scripting News / Dave Winer

Some reasons why Facebook Instant Articles helps the open web →

For one, it’s built on RSS, an open format. The RSS can be used for other purposes, such as posting to LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium or any new service that might come along, writes Dave Winer.

Tow Center

Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism announces its new fellows →

“The new Fellows will work on six distinct projects across four areas: Audiences & Engagement, Computational Journalism, Impact & Metrics and Experimental Journalism.”

Wall Street Journal / Jack Marshall

Google AMP is supported by WordPress →

AMP content is now appearing in Google search results, highlighted with a green lightning bolt. WordPress is also supporting AMP, “potentially adding AMP versions of content to millions of websites using WordPress software.”

Columbia Journalism Review / Anna Clark

An update on STAT, “the media startup to envy” →

The Boston Globe killed its science and health section four years ago, but “a STAT staffer is present at the Globe's daily morning meetings, updating the newsroom on the stories the publication is working on.”

TechCrunch / Josh Constine

Read-it-later service Pocket will begin experimenting with sponsored content in its feed →

Pocket, now 9 years old, has always been free (though there’s a premium version). The Premium version will continue to be ad-free.

Politico Media / Alex Weprin

Fusion more than doubled its revenue in 2015 →

It went from $28.1 million in 2014 to $63.5 million last year.

From Fuego

Brian Sandoval, Republican governor of Nevada, is being vetted for Supreme Court vacancy —ww​w.washingtonpost.c​om

I got hacked mid-air while writing an Apple-FBI story —ww​w.usatoday.c​om

A Responsibility I Take Seriously —ww​w.scotusblog.c​om

Google Is Going to Speed Up the Web. Is This Good? – Backchannel —ba​ckchannel.c​om

President Obama | Facebook —ww​w.facebook.c​om

Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.

Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo

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Radiotopia, two years old with 13 shows in the fold, will be going on a (Pod)quest for a new show in April: The latest from Nieman Lab

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Radiotopia, two years old with 13 shows in the fold, will be going on a (Pod)quest for a new show in April “It’s not just about the idea, it’s about how you develop the sustainability of something as well.” By Shan Wang.

Hot Pod: Not enough advertisers for podcasts, or not enough podcasts worth advertising on? Plus: Strong early numbers for Modern Love, NPR emphasizes being live, and why there aren’t more podcasts for kids. By Nicholas Quah.

The next step: Moving from generic analytics to editorial analytics A new report finds wide gaps in how different news outlets are using analytics to drive their editorial strategy: “Analytics can be about more than having a big screen with numbers that go up and down.” By Federica Cherubini and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen.

A tool to make audio easier to share, and 10 other media projects the Knight Foundation just funded

What We’re Reading

POLITICO / Eliza Collins

HuffPost is using Facebook’s live video platform to cover the 2016 election →

We wrote last week about how The Guardian is also experimenting with Facebook Live.

Medium / Edward Lichty

Yep, Medium is going to be home to Bill Simmons’ new site The Ringer →

“Look for The Ringer to go live in late spring or early summer.”

Bloomberg.com / Sarah Frier

Facebook tries (again) to take on Google and Twitter with search →

“Our founding belief is that there's a huge amount of wisdom and knowledge in that information after 12 hours, after 24 hours.”

TechCrunch / Anthony Ha

BuzzFeed launched a stand-alone video app →

“BuzzFeed is using its own native video player for the app, rather than relying on YouTube or Facebook. Shapins said that allows the app to collect more data about user activity, gives the company more flexibility in how it wants to make money and delivers a better user experience.”

Bloomberg / Alex Sherman

Time Inc. is reportedly looking to merge with Yahoo →

“Still, Time Inc. may see it as a worthwhile effort, because it could pursue a structure with Yahoo called a Reverse Morris Trust, a tax-free transaction in which one company merges with a spun-off subsidiary, the people said.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

News publishers are going all-in on Google’s answer to Instant Articles →

“Some participants in the rollout said they're AMP-coding all their articles because they see Google AMP as replacing their existing traffic, rather than cannibalizing it.”

New York Times

New York Times awards David Carr fellowships to John Herrman, Amanda Hess, and Greg Howard →

“Mr. Herrman, 28, known for his long essays about the Internet and technology, will work with The Times's media group and write primarily for the Business section. Ms. Hess, 30, who covers the human side of web culture for Slate, will join the Culture section. And Mr. Howard, 27, who has written about race and sports at Deadspin since 2013, will work with The New York Times Magazine and other sections.”

Business Insider / Jay Yarow

Bill Simmons is reportedly partnering with Medium for his new site, The Ringer →

Simmons would “be by far the highest-profile content creator Medium has partnered with to date.”

From Fuego

Time Inc. Said to Be Interested in Joining Fray of Yahoo Suitors —ww​w.bloomberg.c​om

How to Think About Bots —mo​therboard.vice.c​om

Times names three David Carr fellows —mo​ney.cnn.c​om

CNN: Trump Supporter Roger Stone “Will No Longer Appear On” Network —me​diamatters.o​rg

TheStreet Makes Leadership Changes —ww​w.adweek.c​om

Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.

Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo

Twitter / Facebook

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The Longest Shortest Time shutters its huge, unruly Facebook moms group to focus on the podcast: The latest from Nieman Lab

Monday, February 22, 2016

The Longest Shortest Time shutters its huge, unruly Facebook moms group to focus on the podcast The private Facebook group hit 18,000 members, with many threads devolving into fights over touchy parenting topics. By Laura Hazard Owen.

Using the new app Anchor, WNYC is experimenting with social audio “It's very hard to share audio on social media, and now we have a place to go and share our voices and hear the voices of our fans too." By Joseph Lichterman.

With a new anonymous tumblr, NBC News wants to know what you really think about the election

A call for better journalism research, with more consideration for technology and audiences

What We’re Reading

The New York Times / Kate Murphy

The Adblocking Wars →

"I feel like I'm caught between two parents fighting. There is a valid security and privacy reason to run ad-blocking software, obviously, but then you have the brands who want their ads to pop up and autoplay and take over. This is killing the free web."

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune replaces premium subscription with metered paywall →

Non-subscribers can read 10 articles free each month. Previously, “news exclusives, investigations, editorials, sports columnists and art reviews” were completely blocked from non-subscribers.

Washington Post

Margaret Sullivan joins The Washington Post as media columnist →

“The centerpiece of her work will be a weekly column. It will encompass everything related to digital media, and how that transformation is affecting people's lives and work, along with journalism, news literacy, privacy and free speech, and media personalities. “

Bloomberg / Alex Sherman, Kiel Porter, and Brian Womack

Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are among the companies interested in buying Yahoo →

The pipes companies are diving deeper into the content business.

Digiday / Jessica Davies

How German publisher Gruner + Jahr is winning the adblocking fight (for now) →

Since November, the parent of news title Stern and hundreds of consumer magazines has been barring ad-blocking software users from desktop content on a number of its titles and seen a significant drop in users visiting with adblockers turned on. But G+J will face a bigger test of its ad block strategy this quarter when it extends the test to its daily sites, including Stern.

Digiday / Garett Sloane

Facebook begins to loosen rules for publishers posting video ads →

Videos that advertisers pay to produce or sponsor are technically not allowed to appear as organic content on the social network. Facebook has been known to remove clips from publishers that feature brands. However, new rules have enabled select publishers to post branded videos with "sponsored by" messaging.

The Guardian / Roy Greenslade

The U.K.’s Trinity Mirror is launching a new newspaper →

"Revitalising print is a core part of our strategy in parallel with digital transformation and there doesn't have to be a choice between the two – newspapers can live in the digital age if they have been designed to offer something different”

Financial Times / Robert Cookson

Study: 37 percent of mobile users say they’ve blocked ads on their phones in the past month →

“The survey found that across all ages and genders, at least 70 per cent of respondents said they were either blocking ads already or were interested in doing so.”

The Guardian / Emily Bell

As publishers lose control, are news websites a dead parrot? →

“Having a legacy business configured around a website is now almost as much of a headache as the rumbling printing press, fuelled by paper and money”

Monday Note / Frédéric Filloux

News publishers need to jump into bots →

“The survival of the news industry depends, for a large part, on its ability to create services on top of their contents streams. But getting into personalized services requires a major leap forward for which "Conversational Bots" could become strategic tools.”

Sports Illustrated / Richard Deitsch

Inside The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ new site →

“I think we need to move a little quicker given the way consumption works and the way mobile has transformed content. We need to be more nimble. “

Business Insider / Alyson Shontell

Former BuzzFeed president launches Cheddar, a CNBC for millennials, with $3 million in funding →

“To do this, Cheddar will stream one to two hours of live content every day, primarily from the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. It will chop up pieces of the videos and distribute them across the web on platforms like YouTube.”

Deadspin / Greg Howard

SB Nation puts longform program on hiatus following cop profile story →

Two days after SB Nation pulled the story about convicted rapist cop Daniel Holtzclaw, the company is “launching an internal peer review on the process and sequence of events that led up to our publication of this story as well as systemic and organizational factors ranging from how our team is resourced to our efforts to build a more diverse and inclusive culture.”

From Fuego

Margaret Sullivan joins The Post as media columnist —ww​w.washingtonpost.c​om

More Support for Justice Department Than for Apple in Dispute Over Unlocking iPhone —ww​w.people-press.o​rg

Sometimes Social Media Can Change Minds —ny​mag.c​om

Why I’m Starting the First AngelList Cleantech Syndicate —ra​meznaam.c​om

Kasich: Women came out of the kitchen to support me —ww​w.youtube.c​om

Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.

Nieman Lab / Fuego / Encyclo

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