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Monday, November 21, 2016
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With its new app, RadioPublic wants to tackle podcasting’s lingering challengesIts ambitions are three-pronged: improving show discovery, improving how (and how deeply) listeners engage with their favorite shows, and improving channels through which show creators can make money. By Shan Wang. |
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Two NPR designers left their comfort zones to create an experimental podcast for kids“We wanted to find out more about what NPR could offer for kids.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
What We’re Reading
Reveal
These are the 2016-2017 Reveal Investigative Fellows →
The full list of fellows here. “The fellowship's underlying goal is to increase the range of backgrounds, experiences and interests within the field of investigative journalism, where diverse perspectives are critically important.”
The New York Times / Rob Walker
A look at GE’s second podcast, “LifeAfter” →
“As with ‘The Message,’ a notable detail in this branding experiment is that the sponsoring brand is, by design, almost never mentioned.”
The Verge / Casey Newton
Instagram’s take on live video arrives with an ephemeral twist →
As soon as the video ends, it disappears.
Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott
Canadian local news site only sources stories from its paying members →
Members ,who pay $100 a year, “are able to log into the online Story Graden and suggest ideas for future articles by asking how and why questions about things they want to know.”
Fortune / Erin Griffith
BuzzFeed wants to sell you stuff →
For the past three weeks, Ben Kaufman — CEO of the failed consumer product startup Quirky — has been leading a team of 10 called BuzzFeed Product Lab. Its mandate is to experiment with all forms of e-commerce until the team finds something that is sustainable. It is unveiling products like the Tasty Cookbook, a custom-printed and customizable collection of recipes, for which shoppers can choose seven different styles of Tasty recipes to include in their book, along with a custom dedication page.
New York Post / Claire Atkinson
Report: ABC is exploring a 24-hour digital news channel →
New York Post claims its “sources say ABC News chief James Goldston is spearheading the effort, and is bullish on it given the election bump from recent Facebook live experiments.”
Huffington Post South Africa
The Huffington Post launches a South Africa edition →
“So another Huffington Post global trait will fit right at home here: a bent towards solutions-based journalism.”
Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
Call it a ‘crazy idea,’ Facebook, but you need an executive editor →
“Whatever the title, Facebook needs someone who can distinguish a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph from child pornography and who can tell a baseless lie from a thoroughly vetted investigative story.”
Bloomberg / Gerry Smith
The FT wants to buy companies that can boost its digital subscriptions →
“The publisher is hunting for companies that can "support and accelerate our growth in quality content and, in particular, are based on digital subscriptions," [CEO John] Ridding said in an interview in New York. The company is also interested in technology firms that bolsters its data analytics — valuable for targeting readers with advertising and subscriber offers, he said.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
With its own election looming, France sees an influx of US publishers →
“Post-Brexit and post-Trump, next year's French elections could hardly be less predictable or more important and influential.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Email newsletters have a measurement problem →
“MailChimp, the company that serves many email newsletters, has technological limits in how it measures open rates, which can lead to underestimates of how much email newsletters are read. Then there's the issue of publishers fluffing their subscription numbers by using come-ons like contests, which may yield email addresses if not necessarily loyal readers.”
NPR.org / Alina Selyukh
Post-election, overwhelmed Facebook users unfriend and cut back →
“Facebook is a source of news for a majority of American adults, but in the vitriol and propaganda of the 2016 election, its proverbial public square for many users has devolved into a never-ending Thanksgiving-dinner debate — or an omnipresent Speakers’ Corner.”
The New York Times / Jim Rutenberg
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook must defend the truth →
“With a mainstream news media that works hard to separate fact from fiction under economic and political threat, Facebook — which has contributed to that economic threat by gobbling up so much of the online advertising market — is going to have a special responsibility to do its part.”
The New York Times / Sapna Maheshwari
How one fake news story went viral →
“While some fake news is produced purposefully by teenagers in the Balkans or entrepreneurs in the United States seeking to make money from advertising, false information can also arise from misinformed social media posts by regular people that are seized on and spread through a hyperpartisan blogosphere.”