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Wednesday, June 14, 2017
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India’s The Ken publishes one longform story each weekday. So far, subscribers are willing to payThe digital business reporting outlet — think The Information for India — isn’t yet a year old and has paying subscribers in “the low to mid-1,000s.” By Shan Wang. |
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With its new Reader Center, The New York Times wants to forge deeper connections with its readers“We want to do everything we can to hear more of those voices and amplify them.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
What We’re Reading
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
How the U.K.’s Gay Times is growing its e-commerce business, from vacations to clothing →
In six months, e-commerce has grown from zero to one-fifth of the publisher's total revenue. CEO James Frost predicts it will provide one-third of Gay Times' revenue by year's end, buoyed by launching commerce capabilities in the U.S. and a dedicated shopping app that will debut in the next few months.
Source / Harlo Holmes and Erin Kissane
Harlo Holmes, the Freedom of Press Foundation’s director of digital security, on the biggest risks newsrooms face →
“Every day is a new bowl of scorpions.”
Journalism.co.uk / Madalina Ciobanu
The Bureau Local held a hack day in five cities to investigate voter power ahead of the UK election →
“The bureau’s final and most significant push before the election consisted of a hack day, held simultaneously in five cities around the UK. Its core team of four, which includes Lucero, two investigative reporters and a developer, worked alongside 65 people in Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cardiff, London and Glasgow, to investigate voter power”
CNNMoney / Dylan Byers
Time Inc. cuts 300 positions through layoffs and buyouts →
“The move, which President and CEO Richard Battista described as “difficult but necessary,” will reduce Time Inc’s global staff by 4% and comes as the magazine industry struggles to cope with declines in print circulation.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Bryan Borzykowski
Canada’s largest newspaper chain is in trouble →
“Even more concerning than the National Post folding is that its owner, Postmedia, could go under. It's the largest newspaper chain in the country, with more than 200 brands under its umbrella, including numerous community and local papers. Outside of Toronto, Winnipeg is the only one of Canada's 10 largest cities where you can get a non-Postmedia, English language daily delivered to your home. In some big cities, like Vancouver, the company controls more than one major paper. For comparison, in the US market, a Postmedia failure would be as if Gannett, Tronc, and McClatchy all simultaneously went bust.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
As audience development grows, publishers question who should own it →
“Revenue needs to understand what is being worked on editorially, and editorial needs a feedback loop to understand what content drove what revenue."
Poynter / Daniel Funke
WSJ union report shows persistent gender pay gap at Dow Jones →
“Even when accounting for differences in age and location, female Dow Jones employees make less than men, according to the study. On average, women in New York City make nearly $10,000 less than their male counterparts and more than $13,000 less in Washington, D.C. Women make less than men at every single age except 66 years old, with the largest disparities occurring among older employees — some in excess of $30,000.”
Digiday / Ross Benes
Bleacher Report gets people to spend 5 minutes on its app each day →
“To speed up load times, over the past year Bleacher Report started natively uploading tweets, GIFs and Instagram posts within its app, rather than pulling them from the mobile web. For now, Bleacher Report's articles still load from the mobile web, but the publisher is looking into adopting Google AMP for its in-app articles to get another speed boost. In April, the sports publisher also launched its own mobile video player and redesigned its app to include tabs and focus more on national sports coverage.”
BuzzFeed / Steven Perlberg
Layoffs to hit HuffPost this week →
“It's unclear how many newsroom jobs might be affected. Verizon, which owns HuffPost’s owner AOL, is preparing to make broader cuts at the company in the wake of Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, a deal which closed on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that about 15% of employees, or 2,100 people, will lose their jobs at Yahoo and AOL, which have become a combined entity called Oath.”
Medium / Matt Danzico
NBC is launching a new digital video unit, NBC Left Field →
“[I]t's my belief that broadcasters need to begin viewing these hubs as digital cities. So in the same way that it's clearly important NBC have local bureaus to serve news and information for, about and within the actual cities their audiences live, it's now imperative that we erect working hubs within our digital municipalities as well.”