 |
Thursday, August 4, 2016
 |
On track to bring in $850,000 this year, the profitable Charlotte Agenda says its model is working“For global media, reaching scale is the hardest thing. In local, making money is the hardest thing. Delaying the hard thing makes for a crappier company.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
 |
ESPN.com has finally replaced espn.go.com, and a newish SEO rule means it won’t lose Google juiceA remnant of the old portal days of the 1990s disappears as it becomes clear news sites won’t be penalized by Google for redirecting their traffic. By Joshua Benton. |
 |
Talkshow has become a new troll-free way to run Q&As, host liveblogs, and talk to readers“We’re coming at this with the assumption that, if you build a platform for people to have texting conversations in public, you’ll get some interesting, different kinds of conversations out of it.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
 |
Newsonomics: Tronc M, Tronc X, or just Tronc — it’s still in an uncertain positionFor all his talk of media reinvention, CEO Michael Ferro’s company is in the same position as lots of newspaper publishers: cutting costs to deal with accelerating print decline. By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
Google Webmasters
Google’s advice for news publishers on switching to HTTPS →
“We recommend initially moving just a piece of the site to test any effects on traffic and search indexing. After that you can move the rest of your site all at once or in chunks.”
Journalism / Catalina Albeanu
Why BBC News went on Yik Yak to talk Brexit with millennials →
“Since noticing the app’s popularity with a coveted segment of the BBC’s audience, the media organisation has been experimenting on Yik Yak with getting young people to discuss politics and open up about mental health.”
Svdj / Tim De Gier
Four lessons from creating a daily podcast about the Tour de France (in Dutch) →
Former Nieman fellow Tim De Gier, along with Willem Marinus Dudok, created a daily podcast chronicling the Tour de France. This post is in Dutch, but Tim shares some of the lessons they learned from creating a daily pop-up podcast.
TheWrap / Brian Flood
Facebook Live videos from the GOP and Democratic Conventions were viewed more than 120 million times →
Some perspective: The Chewbacca Mom video got 160 million views.
WGBH News / Dan Kennedy
Memo from Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory: How The Globe will reinvent itself; some layoffs possible →
“Now, four teams of 12 people each are working on recommendations for the future of the paper, focusing on newsroom culture, workflow, editorial mission, and the business side of the paper.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Tamar Wilner
With key new hires, Texas Tribune continues to reach beyond political insiders →
“Amanda Zamora, the former senior engagement editor at ProPublica, started as chief audience officer at the Tribune in June. She joins an outlet that has seen a steady rise in readership over the past two years, but believes it still has room to grow.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Why Breaking Media believes small can be beautiful →
“By building a diversified stream of revenues, Breaking has grown revenue 25-30 percent in each of the past five years, despite being mostly self-funded, according to its CEO, John Lerner.”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
Google plans to give AMP pages more prominence in search results →
“In a presentation Google has made to several publishers this summer, the company has outlined plans for a new "live ticker" section, which will be placed above the "top stories" carousel that currently shows up during mobile search results.”
Reveal
Reveal/The Center for Investigative Reporting is launching a fellowship for emerging journalists of color →
Fellows receive a $10,000 stipend and a full year of mentoring and guidance from Reveal editors, producers and reporters. They will produce an investigation for their home news outlet, to be co-published with Reveal. Apply here.