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Friday, March 18, 2016
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Newsonomics: In Southern California’s newspaper chaos, is anyone really speaking for the readers?Well-intentioned antitrust actions by the Department of Justice are likely to deliver two newspapers to a company with a record of milking papers for profit through deep cutbacks. By Ken Doctor. |
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NPR decides it won’t promote its podcasts or NPR One on airThe public radio giant is letting its present impose a strategy tax on its future. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
Washington Post / Hayley Tsukayama
Twitter heard you: The 140-character limit is here to stay →
CEO Jack Dorsey: “It’s staying. It’s a good constraint for us. It allows for of-the-moment brevity.”
Slate
Farewell, pagination: Slate articles will now appear as an infinite scroll →
“Simply put, we've held on to pagination long past its Internet sell-by date. We did so for business reasons: Pagination increased ad views, and we're a publication that relies on advertising revenue. Our hope is that infinite scroll will increase the number of stories a reader goes through in one sitting, making up for lost ad views, while vastly improving reader experience—a happy reader stays longer on the site. So far, our testing has borne this out.”
The Information / Tom Dotan
Time Warner is investing more in Mashable →
“The site has been on and off the market for several years and has been in acquisition discussions with Time Warner more than once, including late last year. Those discussions don’t appear to have gone anywhere.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
After six months of pitching, The New York Times launches its first native ad campaign in the U.K. →
“… the U.K. team is just four people fighting for a slice of global budgets while targeting smaller markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In a saturated market, the Times also has to convince readers to make it their first stop for news.”
Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
Trinity Mirror raises price of its new paper, The New Day, as sales flounder →
“The initial sales target for the politically-neutral title, which is aimed largely at women, was 200,000 sales a day. But latest reports are that it is selling below 100,000 per day (which is believed to be the break-even threshhold).”
PRX / Maggie Taylor
Radiotopia’s Podquest has officially launched →
“An open call for new shows that align with Radiotopia's mission: to support motivated, independent producers and original shows that champion creativity, rich narratives, and high production value. Podquest pitches will be accepted March 17 – April 17, 2016.”
U.S. Department of Justice
The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit to stop Tribune Publishing from acquiring competing newspapers →
“Tribune's acquisition of its most significant competitor would give it a monopoly over newspaper sales in each county and allow it to increase subscription prices, raise advertising rates and invest less to maintain the quality of its newspapers.”
From Fuego
How Donald Trump Bent Television To His Will —www.buzzfeed.com
Twitter heard you: The 140-character limit is here to stay —www.washingtonpost.com
Paris attacks suspect reportedly captured in Belgium raid —mashable.com
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.