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Friday, September 30, 2016
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As government records move from paper to email to channels like Slack, how should FOIA keep up?“I have a love-hate relationship with FOIA.” By Shan Wang. |
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Om mani padme hum: The New York Times wants to help you meditate (and run and lose weight and just feel good)With increasingly product-driven thinking, the Times’ Well is breaking out of the news cycle — through VR, evergreen newsletters, and how-to guides — in an attempt to connect more deeply with readers. By Ricardo Bilton. |
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For many legacy news organizations in Europe, digital disruption comes with new ideas but few answersA new Reuters Institute report reaffirms familiar trendlines in digital publishing: “People are using mobile more and more, but we are not yet getting the revenue out of it that we would like to get.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
Medium / Periscope
Periscope refocuses its website into “curated broadcast channels” →
“Through curated channels, we highlight interesting topics, ideas, and events that spur multiple perspectives from our community. Channels are categorized according to the conversation that surrounds them, ranging from breaking or developing events to ongoing, enduring topics.”
First Draft News / Josh Stearns
Why do people share misinformation and rumors online during breaking news events? →
“For some it is a prank, akin to a crank call for the digital age. For others, it's a narcissistic effort to rack up likes and followers. Others see political opportunity and want to hijack people's attention for their own political or commercial gain.”
TechCrunch / Josh Constine, Natasha Lomas, and John Biggs
Facebook “Messenger Day” is the chat app’s new Snapchat Stories clone →
“By using the international popularity of Messenger to spread the Stories format, Facebook could boost retention and return visits to its chat app while becoming the primary place where people post off-the-cuff lifecasting content before they get hooked on Snapchat.”
Talking Points Memo / Kristin Salaky
Newsweek’s website was attacked by hackers after it published a Trump story →
“Last night we were on the receiving end of what our IT chief called a ‘massive’ DoS (denial of service) attack. The site was down most of last evening, at a time when Kurt Eichenwald’s story detailing how Donald Trump’s company broke the law by violating the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was being covered extensively by prominent cable news programs.”
NPR / Rob Schmitz
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post feels the heat from China →
“In recent years, though, the Post’s coverage of mainland China has gradually softened and it’s eliminated some of its content entirely: In early September, the paper shut down its Chinese-language website, deleting its archives.”
Current / Rupert Allman
Diane Rehm is retiring this year. Here’s how WAMU is approaching its search for her successor →
“So how do you find someone to follow Diane Rehm? How do you find a host who is both authentic and authoritative and has the range to speak as fluently in politics and policy as s/he does in pop culture, tech and, dare I say, sports? And does this person sound and act differently from how a host would have been expected to sound and act 37 years ago?”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Newspapers hit with a wave of requests to take down embarrassing archived stories →
“Legacy news organizations have been trying for more than a decade to crack the code of what to publish digitally, where and when. Now they are fielding a different kind of urgent request from readers — can you ‘unpublish’ that?”
The Financial Times / David Bond
U.K. publisher Trinity Mirror says print ad sales fell 20 percent in the third quarter →
“The publisher of the Daily Mirror said group revenues were expected to fall 9 per cent in the quarter — a slight increase on the 8 percent fall it reported for the six months to the end of June.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Some publishers appear to be cooling on Facebook Instant Articles →
“Newswhip looked at several publishers' posts to Instant Articles during a five-day period (Sept. 16-20). During that limited timeframe, it found that while some publishers including The Huffington Post, Mic and Washington Post are essentially all-in on the format, other early adopters (BBC News, National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal) barely seem to be using Instant Articles at all recently. NBC News and Business Insider, ‘seem to have pulled back as well from creating Instant Articles.’ Facebook hasn't yet responded to requests for comment.”
Washington Post / Kevin Curry
More and more people get their news via social media. Is that good or bad? →
“But because social media is so young, political science hasn't fully explored the political implications of how citizens use it to get news. Research has found that consuming news makes people more likely to vote. In theory, democracy should benefit from the presence of more information sources. But we don't know yet exactly how social media influences its consumers.”
Association of National Advertisers / Bob Liodice
The Association of National Advertisers on Facebook’s video ad controversy →
“With more than $6 billion of marketers' media being directed to Facebook, we believe that it is time for them — and other such major media players — to be audited and accredited. That is the standard of accepted practice that marketers and agencies have relied on for decades.”