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Tuesday, May 30, 2017
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Newsonomics: In Norway, a newspaper’s digital video startup is now generating more revenue than printVGTV, an offshoot of the tabloid Verdens Gang, has benefited from Schibsted’s strategy for innovation: separate the new business from the mothership until it is well established, and then reintegrate it back with the whole. By Ken Doctor. |
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The New York Times’ The Daily vs. NPR’s Up First: Which morning news podcast is better at what?Plus: A new podcasting convention launches (with a YouTube pedigree), Radiotopia readies Ear Hustle for launch, and the Trump budget formally proposes kills off the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By Nicholas Quah. |
“The accurate belief that people love consuming video doesn't mean people love consuming news video”
What We’re Reading
The Street / Ken Doctor
The New York Times’ will be debuting a paid Cooking product this summer →
“That three-year-old free app and site has pulled in a large digital audience of 10 million monthly. Now, true to its subscription-first business strategy, the Times will convert the product from an audience-building free model to a harvest-reader-revenue model, with Cooking becoming freemium. Unlike the digital news subscription, this pay model won’t be a metered one, allowing readers some number of free articles (generally 10 per month for the Times) of their choice before having to pay up.”
Poynter / Alexios Mantzarlis
Repetition boosts lies — but could help fact-checkers, too →
A new study suggests that detailed explanations and more repetition can be useful ways for fact checkers to combat false reports.
Bloomberg.com / Selina Wang
The Chinese are paying for content that Americans won’t →
Back in early 2016, Li Xiang was just another overworked magazine editor in Beijing. Then along came an opportunity to produce a business newsletter on a brand-new app called De Dao. In just a few months that app attracted millions of users looking for daily advice and to learn everything from music to economics. Within months, Li had close to 100,000 subscribers paying about $30 a year — which works out to almost $3 million in annual revenue.
The Guardian / Mark Sweney
European publishers call for a rethink of proposed changes to online privacy laws →
More than two dozen leading publishers have signed a letter to the European parliament — which is deliberating proposals to tighten up how data is gathered and used by web companies — arguing that new regulations relating to cookies could cut off their ability to build digital revenue.
BuzzFeed / Craig Silverman
Create-your-own-fake-news sites are booming on Facebook →
“At least 30 websites invite people to make up a fake news story and share it on Facebook. Over the past 12 months the articles have generated more than 13 million engagements on the social network.”
Wall Street Journal / Lukas I. Alpert
The Ringer is leaving Medium for Vox Media’s publishing platform →
“While Mr. Simmons will maintain ownership of the site he launched last summer, the Ringer will become part of the portfolio of brands Vox offers to marketers alongside its own properties like SB Nation, the Verge and Eater.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Publishers renew focus on search optimization — and find new tricks →
“Publishers of news and evergreen content both see big opportunities to gain from search. Google's algorithm may be as mysterious as ever, but publishers feel like they more control than they do with Facebook because they can see how their strategy is working in real-time.”
WWD / Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke
Here’s how top women’s magazines are doing online →
One winner: Teen Vogue, whose traffic increased 176 percent year over year to 9.1 million in April 2017.
Journalism / Caroline Scott
The Washington Post is using augmented reality to let audiences explore iconic buildings with their iPhone →
“By pointing their iOS device at the ceiling, viewers activate the story’s 3D visuals and audio narration, which, in the first site in the series, studies the famous ceiling of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany.”
Digiday / Max Willens
The New York Times now has 13 million subscribers to 50 email newsletters →
President Trump's election played a role in a spike in newsletter signups. Product innovation has played a role too. The Times recently started featuring a signup widget for one of its most popular newsletters, Morning Headlines, on its homepage, and a few months ago, it started embedding a newsletter signup widget in Interpreter columns, which changes its offer based on who reads it on a desktop computer.