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Monday, December 12, 2016
 | Earn trust by working for (and with) readers“I’m not surprised that audiences think journalism’s highest aim is to hijack their attention and trick their eyeballs into spending a split second on banner ads.” By Ernst-Jan Pfauth. |
 | Building a coherent core identity“Our consumers know us by the design choices we make, the frequency and character of our push alerts, what we do on social, how we monetize, how we market, and which technologies and platforms we choose to pursue.” By Julia Beizer. |
 | Podcasting stratifies into hard layers“My fear is that the ecosystem we have invested in all these years will start to resemble the vanity publishing marketplace or the guy selling CDs out of the trunk of his car after gigs: a place that's easy to publish into, but rarely yields a significant audience.” By Eric Nuzum. |
 | Trust is the new click“The major social networks have struggled to build trust over the last year, and the passive programmatic machine lurking in the background is, by its very nature, anonymous.” By Michael Kuntz. |
 | News after advertising may look like news before advertising“The link between advertising and news that has for so long provided so much of the money invested in professional journalism is coming apart.” By Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. |
 | “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”“When my cousins’ Facebook timelines make no meaningful distinction between fact-checked magazine stories and flat-out lies from an AdSense scammer or a Fox News propagandist, the means by which meaningful public discourse can happen isn’t only damaged, it’s broken.” By Maria Bustillos. |
 | The return of the gatekeepers“Walter Lippmann was right. There is no substitute for experts in a field, parsing information and serving as the arbiters of truth, and reifying our faith in a shared reality, a shared body of facts.” By Dannagal G. Young. |
 | The year of augmented writing“The combination of AI and journalism will contribute to a more informed and efficient society by enabling journalists to conduct deep analysis, uncover corruption, and hold people and institutions accountable.” By Francesco Marconi. |
 | Defining a focus, and then saying no“In 2017, the publishers that optimize for quality of content over quantity of clicks will earn the loyalty — and the business — of readers. Their audiences may be smaller, but they'll be more valuable.” By Keren Goldshlager. |
 | There is no neutral interface“What are we optimizing for? Is it for civic responsibility? Personal relevance? Quality? Truthiness? Diversity of sources and viewpoints? Time on site? Time well spent?” By Sara M. Watson. |
 | A healthy skepticism about data“Political journalism used to be more like anthropology — relying on field work, on long, in-depth interviews. I fear that kind of reporting is now regarded as ‘anecdotal.'” By Bill Keller. |
 | A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis“Democratized platforms have not always respected how much people crave expertise, even as they resent it.” By Tressie McMillan Cottom. |
 | Headlines matter“Even with the best-crafted headline in the world, for every person who clicks on it, there are hundreds, if not thousands, who see it, digest it, and simply move on. People get their news from headlines now in a way they never did in the past.” By Felix Salmon. |
 | Stop flying over the flyover states“We have to stop thinking of these people as subjects we cover and relate to them as neighbors, friends, and readers we make journalism for.” By Rachel Schallom. |
 | The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us“Where are the people getting their negative impressions of their new leader? They are getting them from the same press they say they do not trust.” By Richard J. Tofel. |
 | The triumph of the small“Rather than retreating into making or craft, we will retreat into smaller and more nuanced connections. Into quality over quantity. Into the single story over collections of stories. Into the subtle over the general.” By Liz Danzico. |
 | The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom“The second click is when it starts to become interesting: A user that we attracted wants to get more of our content, our service.” By Anita Zielina. |
Facebook is looking for someone with “20+ years” of experience to head its news partnerships efforts
What We’re Reading
Poynter / Kristen Lepore
How 4 public radio stations in California collaborated to cover the election →
“It wasn't easy herding more than 20 journalists among from newsrooms during this crazy election season. Naturally, I learned a lot. Here are a handful of problems and solutions we encountered along the way.”
New York Times
Times CEO Mark Thompson’s remarks on fake news to the Detroit Economic Club →
“If you as a citizen are worried about fake news, put your money where your mouth is and pay for the real thing.”
Ad Age / Garett Sloane
Digital media startup Mitú gets a Snapchat Discover channel →
“It’s smart from Snapchat’s perspective,” said Mike Su, Mitú’s chief product officer, referring to the app’s decision to add a publisher that serves young Hispanics in the U.S. “That’s the fastest-growing segment.” Snapchat has been picking Discover partners partly to attract specific different segments to each channel and try to give advertisers insights into the interests of the audience for targeting purposes.
Digiday / Ross Benes
Google still fuels fake-news websites through its complex web →
Despite beating Facebook in the early PR battle against fake news, Google is still indirectly helping fund publishers that intentionally spread misleading information.
Wall Street Journal / Jack Marshall
Publishers take on ad agency roles when it comes to branded content →
The Times' T Brand Studio, for instance, employs 110 people, and took in about $35 million in 2015, approximately 18 percent of the company's total digital advertising revenue. It is expected to report "substantial growth" for 2016 (at a recent UBS Global Media Conference, Times CEO Mark Thompson did admit that the Times was not on track to “close to double” its native content business, as he had projected last year).
Digiday / Max Willens
Why sex, millennials and video didn’t sell for Elite Daily →
A combination of a reliance on Facebook aid risqué content made it difficult for The Daily Mail to integrate and sell Elite Daily to advertisers.