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Wednesday, March 8, 2017
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Newsonomics: With a cross-country merger, Spirited Media aims to build a nationwide digital local news chainAfter combining with Denverite, the company behind Billy Penn and The Incline hopes to prove its events-heavy model can work in a dozen or more cities. By Ken Doctor. |
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Jim Brady: Events and experiences are key to connecting younger audiences to local news“You have an event that goes really well. You send 175 ambassadors out of your event thinking it was awesome, saying ‘I love Billy Penn’s events.’ And on top of that, you make money doing it.” By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
Dow Jones
Wall Street Journal introduces “The Face of Real News” campaign →
The Journal is producing seven videos that illustrate “the ground-breaking reporting behind some of its most notable and ambitious stories, as told by the journalists behind them.”
The Verge / Kaitlyn Tiffany
What a day without women means in online journalism →
“If our site is mostly tech coverage written by men for the day, there will be hundreds or thousands of readers — many of whom my female co-workers and I hear from every day — who are thrilled.”
Newsweek / Zach Schonfeld
How Reductress, a parody women’s magazine, took over the world-or at least every 20-something’s Facebook news feed →
“All of the stories function as an unsparing send-up of women's media in the digital age, of feminism being marketed as a performative brand, and of millennial women and how they are expected to behave and be seen: How to Eat Lunch at Your Desk So Silently That You Cease to Exist; Why I Stopped Meditating and Started Screaming; I Am Not a Feminist, but I Do Think All Men Should Die; How to Impress Your Boyfriend's Mother When His Cum Is Still Inside You; I Don't Regret Carrying My Pregnancy to Term, but I Do Wish I'd Known I Would Die; Can I Still Be a Feminist if I Hate Myself?; I Can Only Come to the Hamilton Soundtrack.”
Motherboard / Ben Sullivan
Bellingcat launches a (new) Kickstarter campaign to help debunk fake news →
More funding for open source investigations.
Jezebel / Emma Carmichael
How Jezebel is participating in the women’s strike →
“Jezebel will be run entirely by the men we work with here at Gizmodo Media Group, while our women writers and editors will be joining the strike and participating in protests.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Blasting News pays people to distribute its content through niche Facebook groups →
“We're doing this in a healthy way; it's sustainable and legitimately good for readers.”
The Cut
In honor of International Women’s Day, the Cut won’t publish today. Here’s why. →
“The Cut can't possibly speak to or for every single American woman, but we decided to strike today to show solidarity with the women around the world who are standing up for equal pay and equal opportunity, reproductive freedom, an end to sexual assaults, an end to bigotry of all kinds, and policies that support our families like parental leave, health care, and child care.”
Politico / Josh Dawsey
DNAinfo’s Joe Ricketts, local news publisher and Trump backer, acquires Gothamist websites →
“Gothamist’s flagship website covering New York will become the ‘official blog’ of DNAinfo’s New York operation, which covers neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs.”
The New York Times / Javier C. Hernández
Chinese mistake satire on Trump as real news →
“The article about Mr. Trump that appeared in the Chinese media this week was based on a short satire, published on Saturday, by the comedian Andy Borowitz, who has a regular column, "The Borowitz Report," in The New Yorker.”
The WordPress.com Blog / George Hotelling
WordPress now has a feature that lets you quickly turn a Google Doc into a WordPress post →
Your images and most formatting will carry over too.