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Friday, May 12, 2017
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“Anger is a useful metric” and other evil tips for making money off hyper-partisan contentPlus: A quick way to make money off other people’s content, an invitation to fact-check U.K. local news, and BuzzBeed vs. BuzzFeed. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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These Slovak journalists quit their paper and built an independent rival with 23,000 digital subscribers“We were scared to start a newspaper. We started small…We started with people who were ready to act very honestly and bravely. And then we realized there is a place for us.” By Rob Sharp. |
What We’re Reading
Recode / Jason Del Rey
NBCUniversal spent around $230 million to buy the video tutorial site Craftsy →
“The media giant didn't disclose the price, but sources have told Recode that NBCU paid around $230 million in cash for the seven-year-old website. A few Craftsy executives can earn a bonus on top if they stay with the company for four years. Craftsy had revenue of between $60 million and $65 million in 2016, according to multiple sources, and was around break-even.”
TechCrunch / Josh Constine
Facebook Groups can now screen new members with a questionaire →
“Now Group admins can establish up to three questions for people requesting to join their Group to answer. This lets admins screen potential members to ensure they're the right fit for the group and will add constructively to the discussion, not just spam or troll the Group.”
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press / Jennifer R. Henrichsen and Hannah Bloch-Wehba
What journalists need to know about electronic communications surveillance →
“This guide has two aims. First, in light of the Justice Department's revised news media guidelines, we attempt to clarify the scope of U.S. government authority to obtain information about journalists' communications. Second, we outline how some common journalism tools expose reporters and sources to risks in light of this framework. It is our hope that a better understanding of the legal architecture that facilitates government access to communications records will help journalists make informed decisions about the types of security tools they use.”
BuzzFeed / Scaachi Koul
Prominent journalists funding an "Appropriation Prize" tells you everything you know about diversity in Canadian media →
“Canada publishes a laughably low number of books by people of colour, namely black and Indigenous writers, and the discrepancy is just as bad in journalism. You don't get to check off a box for diversity for allowing your white writers to invent the lives of POC people. That's not enough. You have to actually find people who write and speak and live from different perspectives, and promote them. And pay them, because historically and currently, they're not getting work, and they're not getting money. White writers using their very histories and cultures, naturally, get their dues.”
The Washington Post / Julia Carpenter
Teen magazines have always covered more than fashion. You just didn’t notice. →
“The intense conversation Teen Vogue has inspired is the latest flare-up in a decades-long history of teen girl magazines pushing the envelope, embracing serious subjects and expanding their audience beyond, well, teens. Devoted readers remember Sassy, Jane and other titles that published reporting on politics, feminism, identity and more alongside fashion spreads throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.”
Poynter / Benjamin Mullin
Mother Jones is launching a $500,000 crowdfunding campaign to go after the Trump-Russia connection →
“Mother Jones has had success with crowdfunding before, but this is the first time the San Francisco-based magazine has launched a reader appeal to fund a special project.”
Digiday / Ross Benes
How HuffPost cut page-load time by 8 seconds in its app →
“We thought the most important experience we could change was improving load times.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Spanish publisher El País drove nearly 1,000 bot subscribers over French election →
“What we want is to mix the print edition and the phone.”
Current / April Simpson
WGBH finds authenticity, strong visuals boost response to Facebook Live fundraising →
“WGBH tested the platform in June and December 2016 by bringing viewers behind the scenes with live pledge segments of up to 30 minutes. The station didn't track which donations came in specifically due to Facebook Live, but did see a higher increase in digital donations overall in December, according to WGBH staff who directed the pilots.”
Vox Product Blog / Sanette Tanaka and Yesenia Perez-Cruz
All of Vox Media’s sites now have redesigned homepages →
“Six of our brands—The Verge, Curbed, Vox, Polygon, SB Nation, and as of last night, Eater—are running on our homepage product designed last summer. Recode and Racked are running on an earlier, though still unified, version of the homepage. Once we move SB Nation's team sites over in a few weeks, all of our brands' websites will share the same roots.”