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Thursday, July 20, 2017
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This Danish startup evolved into a “newsletter company” because that was what its readers wanted“The website and the apps are based on the rhythm and structure of the newsletter now.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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First Look Media’s Topic.com is leaning on video and illustrations to tell stories (and break out of the news cycle)“It's not that I don’t think there’s validity in following the news cycle, but it’s a very competitive space. I don’t think we're interested in competing in it. We’re interested in creating an experience that’s reflective of the culture, but not reactive to it.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
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Chicas Poderosas is launching an accelerator in Latin America for digital news projects led by women“We are hoping to change the narrative in Latin America, where most media organizations are led by men.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
J-source / H.G. Watson
A Canadian network is experimenting with anchorless newscasts →
“What we've found is the audience trusts and responds to those working reporters even more profoundly than they do to an anchor who is in a studio who is doing little more than reading introductions to those reporters' stories.”
Internet Archive / Nancy Watzman
This Slack app alerts you whenever Trump and congressional leaders appear on cable news channels →
TV News Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, released Face-O-Matic, an experimental public service that alerts users via Slack whenever the faces of President Donald Trump and congressional leaders appear on major TV news cable channels (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the BBC). The alerts include hyperlinks to the actual TV news footage on the TV News Archive website, where the viewer can see the appearances in context of the entire broadcast, what comes before and what after.
Poynter / Al Tompkins
Drone journalists get very good news — instant waivers →
The FAA says that this year it will begin offering “instant authorization” for drone flights in controlled airspace. It will start what is called Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, or LAANC, in select cities. By the end of the year, 50 cities will be included.
The Verge / Casey Newton
Twitter says its anti-abuse efforts are working, citing internal data →
Twitter claims it’s taking action against 10 times more accounts this year than it did last year, amounting to "thousands more" every day. It’s also found that that 65 percent of accounts that were disciplined have not offended a second time. (Twitter didn’t release raw data behind these conclusions to reporters.)
Digiday / Jessica Davies
What MTV has learned from doing “hundreds” of Facebook Lives over the past 18 months →
“Despite part of Facebook Live's appeal to publishers being that it invites viewers to participate in a way that's not feasible on typical TV shows, there are limits to how much audiences are willing to do so.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
The Financial Times uses events to fight subscriber churn →
“The publisher's editorial team has hosted 10 FT Engage events in London over the last year, each with a core purpose: to build more direct relationships with subscribers, while also attracting new ones, by offering exclusive access to FT journalists. In the last few weeks, the audience engagement team has pulled data to examine the correlation between those who attended and their subsequent frequency of visits to FT.com, volume of articles consumed and the recency of their visits. Combined, this data yields an engagement score, by which the publisher judges its success. The results: Engagement scores of subscribers that have attended an event have spiked 300 percent on average, according to the publisher.”
SocialMediaToday / Andrew Hutchinson
Facebook is removing the ability to edit link previews — here are your alternatives →
“In response to complaints about the change, Facebook has now announced that publishers will be able to use a new option called 'Link Ownership' which will enable them to keep editing their links as normal.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Simon Galperin
Journalism is a public service. Why don’t we fund it like one? →
“During the past year, my colleagues and I at Community Information Districts worked to lay the foundation for a special service district model for local journalism. Journalists we spoke with were intrigued by the idea, though some become apprehensive when asked to view the proposal as a taxpayer. But we also spoke with taxpayers, who were generally receptive.”
Digiday / Max Willens
How Hearst is experimenting in commerce and content →
"The publisher of the future will have expertise in three places. It will have a database of content, a database of people, a database of products. We're really good at a global database of content. A database of products is what Best Products is for."
Variety / Andrew Wallenstein
Inside Jeffrey Katzenberg's plan to revolutionize entertainment on mobile screens →
“Katzenberg's plan involves nothing less than the creation of a whole new species of entertainment targeting 18- to 34-year-olds: short-form video series produced with budgets and production values you might expect from primetime TV, along with top-shelf creatives on both sides of the camera. For example, imagine a drama akin to "Empire" or "Scandal" but shrunk to 10-minute episodes made for mobile consumption. Or a five-minute talk show, or a two-minute newscast — all with high-profile talent attached.”
The Street / Leon Lazaroff
Facebook is launching subscriptions in Instant Articles this fall →
In addition to steering readers to a publisher’s home page to consider taking out a digital subscription, Facebook plans to erect a paywall which would require readers to become subscribers of the platform after they’d accessed 10 articles. Initial tests will begin in October.