YULI AHMADA: April 2017

Sabtu, 29 April 2017

News aggregator Upday, a sort of Apple News counterpart for Android, expands into 16 countries: The latest from Nieman Lab

Friday, April 28, 2017

News aggregator Upday, a sort of Apple News counterpart for Android, expands into 16 countries

The Axel Springer-owned app gets an automatic leg up across Europe from being pre-installed on new Samsung phones, but can it now keep enough of those users interested in order to sustain itself on advertising alone? By Shan Wang.

It turns out people are very bad at estimating the magnitude of the fake news problem

There are a lot of reasons, though, that Facebook and Google are compelled to act. By Laura Hazard Owen.

The creator of Google News has an idea for how platforms can help stop fake news

What We’re Reading

TechCrunch / Connie Loizos

Report: Content recommendation companies Taboola and Outbrain are in advanced merger talks →

The deal isn't final, according to Israeli news outlet Calcalist, but the two companies have moved past many of the sticking points that ended earlier talks. If successful, the merged company will be valued at more than $1 billion, the report said.

Adweek / David Cohen

Newly Redesigned and Renamed HuffPost Also Has a New Twitter Strategy →

Starting this week with editor in chief Lydia Polgreen, one editor or reporter will helm @HuffPost each week, continuing to tweet the site's best stories, as well as incorporating the beat or focus they are responsible for.

Adweek / David Cohen

HuffPost has a new name and a new Twitter strategy →

“Starting this week with editor in chief Lydia Polgreen, one editor or reporter will helm @HuffPost each week, continuing to tweet the site's best stories, as well as incorporating the beat or focus they are responsible for.”

Eater / Whitney Filloon

Behold the cover for Lucky Peach’s final issue →

“Today also marks the remaining staff's final day in their New York City office, so everyone please send them pies, boxes of Popeyes fried chicken, and/or hot dog bouquets.”

HoldTheFrontPage / David Sharman

Local British newspaper’s name dropped from social media channels in digital rebrand →

“The South Wales Evening Post's Facebook and Twitter channels have been rebranded as 'Swansea Online', while parent company Trinity Mirror has also set up a separate Facebook account called 'Neath Port Talbot Online'. The changes come after the Evening Post's website was closed last month in a move which saw its digital content moved to TM's Wales Online site, based in Cardiff.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

The New York Times will bring a brand-safety message to the NewFronts →

"What the fake news crisis exposed was, fundamentally, the value of the consumer having a relationship with news providers," said Meredith Levien, CRO of the Times. "Facebook and Google are growing as fast as they are because they're wildly effective at reaching audience at scale. There is an important role for content creators to play as well. That's a good thing for the Times and other companies like the Times."

NewsMediaWorks

Australia’s ABC cracks second in traffic numbers behind news.com.au →

“The public broadcaster received a 19 percent increase in unique audience traffic with 4.85 million visits, the highest number since August 2016. Nine.com.au had no change in unique audience from February. News.com.au retained the top spot with an audience of 5.73 million.”

Journalism / Madalina Ciobanu

Three organizations are collaborating to find out how connected devices can influence news consumption →

“How can a physical device or object, connected to the web, have a positive impact on how people get their news and interact with it, at home and in public spaces?”

MediaShift / Jason Alcorn

Report: Public media beats other non-profits in monthly giving, email metrics →

“Public media does far better with monthly giving than any other group of non-profits. Public media brought in 31 percent of its total online revenue from monthly gifts in 2016. The next-best group was animal welfare groups, at 23 percent, with an overall average for all non-profits at 17 percent of total online revenue.”

CNN / Brian Stelter

Time Inc. backs away from plans to sell itself →

“Investors did not take kindly to the news. Time Inc. stock fell about 18% in morning trading after the announcement. Morale at the company is likely to take a hit as well. Staffers at Time’s magazines are bracing for further cuts to the company’s portfolio — and its workforce.”

Jumat, 28 April 2017

These national journalists are building a local site to bring a different kind of news to East Texas: The latest from Nieman Lab

Thursday, April 27, 2017

These national journalists are building a local site to bring a different kind of news to East Texas

The Tyler Loop fashions itself as a data-savvy, digital alt-weekly for the growing, increasingly diverse city of Tyler. By Shan Wang.

With its Amazon-inspired pilot project, Panoply used listener feedback to help decide its new shows

“We’re basically asking [listeners]: Are we way off base? Are we a little off base? You tell us before we make a whole season of something drive you away.” By Ricardo Bilton.

What We’re Reading

Variety / Todd Spangler

Some former BuzzFeed staffers are posting YouTube videos on why they left the site →

“I don't want my identity to solely be BuzzFeed.”

Facebook / Jen Weedon, William Nuland, and Alex Stamos

Facebook releases a whitepaper on how it plans to fight “attempts to manipulate civic discourse and deceive people” →

It differentiates among “information (or influence) operations,” “false news,” “false amplifiers,” and “disinformation,” which “is distinct from misinformation.”

The New York Times / Jonah Engel Bromwich

The BBC kids and their parents are back, in a cartoon →

“I just love Marion. I just love her,” says the former Elite Daily writer who created “THe Adventures of Mina and Jack.”

Facebook Media

Facebook and Knight are partnering to give local newsrooms and nonprofits “Facebook training and support” →

“Currently the pilot project is focused on local and community newsrooms that are part of the LION, INN, and Detroit Journalism Cooperative networks, as well as several major metropolitan news organization that are part of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Houston Chronicle, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The San Jose Mercury News, The Seattle Times, and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.”

Axios / Mike Allen

BuzzFeed News is testing new features to get audience feedback about what to report on →

“We speak the native language — whether English or Portuguese — of the web, in text and video….We are committed to sharing what we know with our audience, from being clear about corrections to sharing documents with our audience, including the famous dossier. We are…testing some technical features aimed at getting even more feedback from our audience on what they want reporting on,” BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith wrote in a memo to staff.

Deadspin / Kevin Draper

Deadspin has a running list of ESPN layoffs →

“There will be plenty of names you have heard of, as ESPN reorients their daily lineup of shows, and their online video and stories to match.”

AdAge / George Slefo

It’s not just Google and Facebook driving ad spending, IAB says (Jason Kint disagrees) →

“73 percent of revenues in Q4 came from the top 10 digital companies, but they only contributed 69 percent of the growth. That means 31 percent of the growth came from companies outside the top 10. So the media is mistaken.” See Jason Kint’s responses on Twitter here.

The New York Times / Jane Perlez

The tech challenge of reporting under China’s watchful eye →

“All stories are a challenge. Everything. That's the point — the Great Firewall blocks so much.”

Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas / Paola Nalvarte

A write-up of Joshua Benton’s ISOJ 2017 podcast panel →

“News is not inherently interesting. Having a story to tell is not as important as the way you tell it,” said Eric Nuzum, SVP of original content development for Audible.

Pew Research Center / John Gramlich

How Pew used Google search data to study public interest in the Flint water crisis →

“This was our first use of data from the Google Health API, which is essentially an access point for analyzing large amounts of data about the terms that internet users searched for during a given period.”

The Outline / Joshua Topolsky

The Outline’s ad business is working well, Joshua Topolsky says →

“Not only is our interaction rate 13x industry average, our clickthrough (if you must use the metric) is 25x (that’s twenty-five times) what a normal ad does (to be clear: the goal of our units isn't even clicks, it's engagement and interaction).”

WAN-IFRA

These are the winners of this year’s European Digital Media Awards →

Including The Guardian, Expressen, the BBC, Metro, Dagbladet, and Axel Springer.

Kamis, 27 April 2017

This is how The New York Times is using bots to create more one-to-one experiences with readers: The latest from Nieman Lab

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

This is how The New York Times is using bots to create more one-to-one experiences with readers

“I’m not worried about this technology driving the humanity out of journalism. I’m really excited about the promise of technology bringing more humanity to journalism.” Also: a Michael Barbaro bot. By Andrew Phelps.

These are the bots powering Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post efforts to build a modern digital newspaper

“It’s this great, simple experience, and the technology is getting so much better for it: AI’s getting better. big data’s more accessible.” Also: a Marty Baron bot. By Joey Marburger.

The Information’s new Briefing is a continuous update of opinionated takes on other people’s articles

Briefing is meant to be more Politico Playbook than Techmeme. It’s updated around the clock, but is also being sent out as a daily email newsletter for subscribers. By Laura Hazard Owen.

What We’re Reading

Wall Street Journal / Mike Shields

More than half of digital advertising is now mobile →

“According to a new report conducted by PwC US for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, mobile ad spending accounted for 51% of the record $72.5 billion in total U.S. digital ad spending last year.”

Search Engine Land / Danny Sullivan

Google’s ‘Project Owl’ — a three-pronged attack on fake news & problematic content →

“Google hopes to improve by better surfacing authoritative content and enlisting feedback about suggested searches and Featured Snippets answers.”

The Information / Tom Dotan

How Jeff Zucker wants to “future proof” CNN: by not calling it CNN →

“It invested in Great Big Story, an internally launched video publisher that creates a handful of short videos each week. Mr. Zucker said the company purposefully didn't include CNN as part of its name so people didn't think it was going after breaking news. And Great Big Story is successfully drawing people who aren't CNN viewers.”

TechCrunch / Josh Constine

Instagram hits 700 million users, accelerating from 600M in December →

It’s more than twice the size of Twitter, which reported better-than-expected earnings today.

ESPN Front Row / Marie Donoghue, Stephanie Druley, Rob King, John Kosner, Burke Magnus, Connor Schell and Norby Williamson

Ahead of new layoffs at ESPN, here’s its ‘content evolution strategy’ →

“In short, given how fans' habits are changing, our focus continues to be providing high-quality, distinctive content at any minute of the day on any screen.”

Digiday / Sahil Patel

In the shadow of the duopoly, media rivals are becoming allies →

“If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. As digital media sellers compete for ad dollars in a fragmented world, they're betting it's better to work together than to individually lose out on ad dollars entirely.”

The Drum / Rebecca Stewart

Snapchat Discover launches in Germany with Vice and Sky Sports as publishing partners →

“To mark the launch, Snapchat is letting users in the country decorate their selfies with interactive Snapchat Lenses featuring the publishers’ mastheads.”

The Information / Alfred Lee

Facebook is testing new discovery tools for news →

“[One] idea, which would likely expand beyond news to other types of content, is a discovery tab within Facebook's app that would surface new articles or videos from pages that users don't already follow.”

Univision

You’ll soon be seeing more Nieman Lab stories translated into Spanish →

Thanks to our new partnership with Univision News! (You can find all of our Spanish-language stories here — many more to come.)

Rabu, 26 April 2017

Gabfest, explainer, local, The Daily: A taxonomy of news podcasts: The latest from Nieman Lab

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Gabfest, explainer, local, The Daily: A taxonomy of news podcasts

Plus: Edison offers up more podcast listener data, DeRay Mckesson teams up with Crooked Media, and Bill O’Reilly clings to his podcast. By Nicholas Quah.

This is a news publication all about the working life — but it’s housed within a job search company

14-year-old online job search company Ladders has hired journalists to bolster and burnish its editorial operation, which will try to cover everything from policy to pop culture (as it relates to work, of course). By Shan Wang.

Newsonomics: Lydia Polgreen’s ambitious HuffPost remake aims for “solidarity” among readers

“Mobility is a crucial factor in our identity. I believe that sort of fundamental optimism of American identity is running out of gas…That fundamentally shifts our national character.” By Ken Doctor.

In a redesign, The Huffington Post (now just HuffPost) doubles down on its “equalizing tabloid” roots

"The splash is really the best of our editorial voice…In thinking about who we are, this is the best reflection of it from a product perspective." By Shan Wang.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launches Wikitribune, a large-scale attempt to combat fake news

The crowd-funded news platform aims to combat fake news by combining professional journalism with volunteer fact checking: “news by the people and for the people.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

What’s holding back virtual reality news? Slow tech adoption, monetization, and yes, dull content

“I'm afraid that more and more people in news organizations use 360 for stories that are not interesting. Bad content will keep people away from watching it.” By Ricardo Bilton.

What We’re Reading

The Information / Cory Weinberg

Quora’s CEO says regulators could clamp down on Facebook and Twitter →

"You need to make readers of the platforms more aware of the true source of their news. They click a link and last time they went to that source, there's not enough information about what source you're going to. Government regulation at some point is a real option." (Also, Quora’s CEO pops up in the comments.)

Poynter / Alexios Mantzarlis

Google has strengthened the feedback tool that lets users alert the company to featured errors →

“Google also announced an update to the guidelines for quality raters — people asked to evaluate search results on an ongoing basis — that includes language on flagging hoaxes, misinformation and conspiracy theories as low-quality results. The most visible change for everyday users, however, is the expanded feedback option on autocomplete suggestions and the featured snippets.”

TechCrunch / Josh Constine

Facebook begins testing a related articles widget before you open a link, which includes articles by fact-checkers →

“If you saw a link saying ‘Chocolate cures cancer!’ from a little-known blog, the Related Article box might appear before you click to show links from the New York Times or a medical journal noting that while chocolate has antioxidants that can lower your risk for cancer, it's not a cure.”

Webby Awards

These are the winners of this year’s Webby Awards →

News-related winners include NPR, The Ringer, FiveThirtyEight, BuzzFeed, Gimlet Media, The New York Times, and Clickhole. (There are roughly ∞ Webby Award categories.)

Digiday / Ross Benes

Publishers say Facebook can save Instant Articles with better data and subscription tools →

“If IA monetization doesn't dramatically improve, high quality publishers will continue to pull out. There's just no reason for publishers to continue to lose money on IA this far after launch."

Adweek / Lauren Johnson

The Washington Post is guaranteeing that all of its online ads will load in under 2 seconds →

“The Post's technology identifies ads that are too heavy to load and instead serves a promo that doesn't gobble up data from a consumer's phone plan. Zeus can also detect how fast someone is scrolling so that ads only load when they're about to come into view. If someone is scrolling too fast, Zeus pulls back from serving an ad.”

Poynter / Kate Steiker-Ginzberg

Fact-checking booms in Brazil →

More than 40 journalists are now working full-time or part-time on dedicated fact-checking projects in Brazil, a dramatic expansion of resources compared to previous efforts.

The New York Times / Farhad Manjoo

Can Facebook fix its own worst bug? →

“Across the globe, Facebook now seems to benefit actors who want to undermine the global vision at its foundation. Supporters of Trump and the European right-wing nationalists who aim to turn their nations inward and dissolve alliances, trolls sowing cross-border paranoia, even ISIS with its skillful social-media recruiting and propagandizing — all of them have sought in their own ways to split the Zuckerbergian world apart. And they are using his own machine to do it.”

Politico / Jack Shafer and Tucker Doherty

The media bubble is worse than you think →

“Concentrated heavily along the coasts, the bubble is both geographic and political. If you're a working journalist, odds aren't just that you work in a pro-Clinton county—odds are that you reside in one of the nation's most pro-Clinton counties.” See also Josh Benton’s column on this from last year.

Ars Technica UK / Mark Walton

Google pushes fake news, hate-speech workshops (and YouTube) on UK teens →

“Google has announced a series of workshops designed to apparently tackle the spread of online hate speech and fake news. The ‘Internet Citizens’ workshops aimed at teenagers are intended to promote ‘tolerance’ and ’empathy’ and to raise ‘awareness’ of the plethora of social issues that plague online communities. The workshops come in response to a storm of criticism over YouTube’s restricted mode, which censored some LGBTQ+ content.”

BuzzFeed / Mariah Oxley

The Daily’s Michael Barbaro gets a BuzzFeed listicle treatment →

“In the show’s brief three months, Michael has transformed before our very ears. His journey from standard reserved radio-journalist to radio personality is well underway!”