 |
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
 | Unlocking a deeper mobile experience“We are finally seeing some legitimate creative capabilities surface for app developers and editors that will allow for compelling experiences outside of the traditional app.” By Christopher Meighan. |
 | The Faustian Facebook dance continues“What they are giving up in return may not be their souls, but it’s close enough.” By Mathew Ingram. |
 | Journalism is community“Who is consuming our work? Is this audience different from who we would expect? Are there other people who would benefit from our work, and how do we reach them?” By Geetika Rudra. |
 | "Selfie journalism" becomes a thing“Because it produces better content, and because audiences that can go anywhere to get their news are increasingly demanding to be both informed and moved.” By Taylor Lorenz. |
 | Snapchat grows up“Organizations that aren't on Snapchat Discover will go beyond the experimental phase on Stories. The remaining skeptics won't be for much longer.” By Rubina Madan Fillion. |
 | Time to pay up“Websites and email newsletters will remain the two most important tools for independent news publishing and distribution, three decades running.” By Mark Armstrong. |
 | Fake news gets solved“Yes, there will always be dark and stupid places on the internet that are just out to make a buck and that will always spread fake news. But most people won’t want to go there and great companies won’t want to play there.” By David Chavern. |
 | Chaos or community?“Newsrooms must hire decision-makers, not just reporters, who are reflective of the communities we cover.” By Errin Haines Whack. |
 | API or die“By offering greater API access, news organizations can also experiment with becoming capable of being platforms themselves.” By Trushar Barot. |
 |
Students: Spend the summer working with Nieman Lab via the Google News Lab FellowshipThe tech giant is offering opportunities for students to work with eight different journalism organizations next summer, including us. The deadline to apply is January 3. By Joshua Benton. |
 | The year collaboration beats competition“Think about how much faster the industry would move if there was less focus on beating your competitor and more focus on learning from them.” By Olivia Ma. |
 | International expansion without colonial overtones“Geography, after all, is just one very imperfect proxy for who we are and what we want to read and consume.” By Millie Tran. |
 | A call for great editing“The challenges we all face as journalists in framing, emphasis, skepticism, and tone call for highly focused editing which is unafraid, exacting, details-driven, and intelligent.” By Lee Glendinning. |
 | News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”“Building news literacy and trust in the media is critical to helping the public discern what to believe, share and act on.” By Mira Lowe. |
 | Cultural reporting goes mainstream“Those who can articulate and help readers understand who we are as a society will now break out of academic salons and the literary set.” By Megan H. Chan. |
 | The year of the fact-checking bot“The falsehoods will continue, but the bots will be a force multiplier to provide people with the truth.” By Bill Adair. |
 | The audience is the source and the story“People who normally wouldn’t tell their stories will now have their own audience, who will continue to serve as a ‘newsworthy’ litmus test.” By Mandy Velez. |
 | A boom in responsible conservative media“Conservative audiences deserve no less, even if they never read the Times again.” By Jonathan Stray. |
 | Measurement companies get with the times“If media is only becoming more distributed, then it requires an equally distributed solution for measuring its influence.” By Jonathan Hunt. |
 | High touch, high value“We’re likely to see a return to the studio model, where IP is the most valuable asset a media company or an independent producer can leverage.” By Caitlin Thompson. |
 | The people running the media are the problem“It’s the safest prediction I could make beyond the sun coming up in the morning: You won’t fix this.” By Matt Waite. |
 | Trust depends on the details“When they notice something sloppy, they tell you so, publicly. And when pollsters come around to ask whether mainstream, nonpartisan journalism is trustworthy, they tell them, too.” By Elizabeth Jensen. |
 | What lies beyond paywalls“We can combine machine learning, predictive, and anticipatory analytics to optimize the value exchanged from this reader, on this device, coming from this platform, on this article, at this exact moment in time.” By David Skok. |
What We’re Reading
Recode / Peter Kafka
Facebook says it’s in talks to buy its own video shows →
“People familiar with Facebook's talks say it seems more interested in experimenting with different formats, but hasn't committed to big-ticket investments like Netflix and Amazon has made for original content.”
The Verge / Casey Newton
You can now broadcast live video from the Twitter app →
“The feature is "powered by" Periscope, Twitter's live video app, but can be used regardless of whether you have installed Periscope or created an account. The move represents an attempt to blunt Facebook's chief advantage over Twitter in live video: everyone who has Facebook on their phone can go live without downloading a separate app.”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
‘Apps are the new magazines’: Why Bloomberg’s doubling down on apps →
Other publishers are shutting down their mobile apps, but Bloomberg is doubling down: Starting with its redesigned flagship mobile app, Bloomberg plans to launch several new apps in the coming year with a focus on delivering personalized content to users.
Digiday / Jessica Davies
‘They’re in denial’: Anonymous confessions of a digital chief at a legacy publisher →
“The history of legacy media companies in the last few years is peppered with examples of high profile tech people coming in and lasting a year and moving out again. It's like the saying, ‘How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?’ Well, the light bulb has to want to change. And the legacy media company has to want to change.”
Washingtonian / Andrew Beaujon
The Washington Post says it was profitable in 2016 →
It “more than doubled digital subscription revenue in the past 12 months with a 75% increase in new subscribers since January.”
Politico / Jack Shafer
Don’t blame Craigslist for the decline of newspapers →
“According to one study, Craigslist, where ads are mostly free, saved classified-ad customers $5 billion during 2000-2007. There's another way of looking at that number, of course—that Craigslist ‘took’ $5 billion in revenue from newspapers. But that analysis makes sense only if you think newspapers had some divine right to collect monopoly rents from their classified customers forever.”