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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
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The Winnipeg Free Press’ bet on micropayments will generate about $100,000 in revenue this yearLast year, the Canadian daily became the first North American paper to introduce per-article payments. It’s found fewer takers than expected, but they’re buying more on average. By Joseph Lichterman. |
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A year into its new original content strategy, Upworthy is focusing on do-good videos instead of clickbaitUpworthy is sorry for all the clickbait, but it’s not sorry for what it’s learned about how to get people to read, watch, and share its output. By Ricardo Bilton. |
What We’re Reading
Medium / Rob Leathern
Claim: Ads cost iPhone users $8 billion a year →
An assumption-laden calculator to estimate how much mobile ads are costing users in data charges.
The Verge / Nick Statt
Facebook’s new Messenger bots are the slowest way to use the Internet →
“Poncho the ‘weathercat,’ which Facebook messaging chief David Marcus demoed onstage at the company’s F8 developer conference today, comes with a disclaimer that it ‘typically replies within an hour.’ That’s neat, if you’re the kind of person who can spend an hour waiting to know whether it’s going to rain.”
International Press Institute / Gülsin Harman
In Turkey, technical attacks imperil digital media survival →
“Overwhelming evidence, however, now suggests that pressure on journalists and the media is increasingly penetrating Turkey's digital space, too. As a result of this squeeze, Turkey's online media face not only the spectre of self-censorship or legal trouble, but also a threat to their economic viability.”
Current / Tyler Falk
‘Changing business realities’ shape talks over NPR programming dues →
“All member stations will pay 3.5 percent more for newsmagazines, membership dues, Digital Services and fees for some non-newsmagazine programs, according to Tom Thomas, co-c.e.o. of the Station Resource Group.”
WAN-IFRA / Rob Wijnberg
How the Dutch site De Correspondent is trying to diversify its staff →
“We had two job vacancies, so we decided they would be available exclusively to candidates from non-western backgrounds. The same goes for the in-house traineeships we run four times a year, these will be exclusively dedicated to non-western candidates for the next one-and-a-half years.”
LinkedIn / John Crowley
Here are some lessons from the International Journalism Festival →
These takeaways are from John Crowley, editor in chief of International Business Times UK.
The Verge / Walt Mossberg
Walt Mossberg has some ideas about how to improve Slack →
“In an interview for this column, Slack's smart and genial CEO, Stewart Butterfield, conceded that ‘we've created a new problem, because people feel overloaded.'”
Coral Project / Andrew Losowsky
The Coral Project is changing its focus →
The joint New York Times, Washington Post effort to improve commenting is narrowing its focus from eight products to three.
Poynter / Melody Kramer
Before using third-party tools, publishers should ask themselves these questions →
“What are the ethics that help publishers think about the types of information they’re gathering with third-party tools? What does ethical consent for users look like? As a user of a news website, what expectations do I have of privacy?”
Fast Company / Daniel Terdiman
Report: It may take years for VR to go mainstream →
“There will be 2 million headsets sold by the end of the year, but it could take six to eight years for VR to reach a tipping point.”
Recode / Peter Kafka
BuzzFeed didn’t cut its 2016 forecast in half, says BuzzFeed chair Ken Lerer →
"They're driving in the dark at 60 miles an hour, without headlights," says one person familiar with the company. "But that's better than standing still."
From Fuego
Donald Trump meets with Megyn Kelly at Trump Tower —money.cnn.com
At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you’re being fed fiction —www.tampabay.com
Nest CEO Tony Fadell went to Google’s all-hands meeting to defend Nest. Here’s what he said. —recode.net
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.