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Thursday, August 17, 2017
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Brazil’s Nexo Jornal sticks to its founding principles: Explanatory journalism, subscribers, and no ads“We realized that context and explanation, we should take those things to an almost radical level.” By Shan Wang. |
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Press Patron is getting readers to pay what they want for news — with an average one-time contribution of nearly NZ$50This crowdfunding startup wants to be the bridge between declining advertising revenues and paywalls with low conversion rates. By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Current / Tyler Falk
New study dives into public radio habits of millennials →
“Several interviewees said they use the NPR News app; awareness of NPR One, ‘tends to be low,’ the report said. Many of the millennials use apps from local stations, but only for streaming, with less awareness of other features offered by the apps.”
CNNMoney / Brian Stelter
‘Vice News Tonight’ has breakout moment with Charlottesville coverage →
“Thanks to HBO, YouTube and major television networks, the footage has now been seen by tens of millions of people. Some, like my mom, have been introduced to the Vice brand for the first time.”
The Verge
Facebook will soon purge video clickbait from the News Feed →
"Publishers that rely on these intentionally deceptive practices should expect the distribution of those clickbait stories to markedly decrease," says Facebook.
Mashable / Jason Abbruzzese
Cheddar inks distribution deals with iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, TuneIn, and Amazon Alexa →
“This puts us in every connected car in the United States. We are now like the cable news network legacy players with full audio simulcast. Except we are on all the top internet platforms for doing this. You can drive to work and listen to Cheddar,” says CEO Jon Steinberg.
Fast Company
Why the Amazon Echo Show won’t bring up Charlottesville (or bad news in general) →
“For those who are glued to the news, the aloofness of these "trending topics" might seem strange or even off-putting, as if Amazon prefers blissful ignorance to an informed public. You don't see Apple, Google, Microsoft, or Facebook shying away from serious stories in their own news products, so why is Amazon doing it?”
Business Insider / Maxwell Tani
Mic is laying off staff as it prepares for a pivot to video →
Several staffers have already taken to Twitter to announce their layoffs.
Poynter / Benjamin Mullin
In a few hours, The Marshall Project raised a five-figure sum from its new membership program →
Some background here on how it approached building out its membership program, which seeks to unite readers around a specific issue, criminal justice.
VentureBeat / Stephanie Chan
A new virtual reality fake news game from grad students at Carnegie Mellon →
Project Axon was built to raise awareness about how people’s behaviors on social media platforms can contribute to the spread of fake information.
IJNet / Shenaz Kermalli
How this new Iranian fact-checking site encourages accountability →
“Fact Nameh picks significant statements made by high-ranking Iranian officials or politicians each week and ranks them on a ‘truth’ meter. Ratings range from 100 percent accurate to half true (or misleading) to downright false. Each rating is accompanied by an article explaining how the statement's truthfulness was assessed. To add a humorous, visual element to their fact-checking, Fact Nameh accompanies their posts with an illustrated character who acts as an impartial ‘judge’: Mirza.”
Digiday
How Fusion Media Group plans to expand its commerce content →
“Using reader trust as a foundation, executive editor of commerce Shane Roberts is looking to expand in two different directions. The first, a Facebook group in which readers can share and discuss deals they find across the internet, is all about nurturing the community of deal-conscious people that have been drawn to Kinja Deals.”
The New York Times
The New York Times’ live events series is expanding to D.C. →
“We're thrilled to bring TimesTalks to a new audience by extending our live journalism to the Beltway…Attendees will experience the Times in a new way as our journalists lead provocative, unscripted conversations with newsmakers about today's complex political climate.” Tickets are 25 bucks.
Medium / Rouven Leuener
What Swiss daily NZZ learned from developing its personalized news app →
People need time to get used to personalized content: “While in the beginning of the beta test around 45 percent of users read articles in the Companion-Stream, this number rose to 61 percent in the final month.”