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Wednesday, December 13, 2017
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“The media is in crisis”: Jonah Peretti lays out his vision for a more diversified BuzzFeedThe Facebook-Google duolopy has become an intractable problem for media companies today. BuzzFeed thinks more diversified revenue streams are a partial solution. By Ricardo Bilton. |
 | Self-help as a publishing strategy“There is no blueprint for these sorts of projects, because they are built on personality and trust. One size does not fit all. They require building a content feedback loop that requires dedication and resources.” By Manoush Zomorodi. |
 | The end is already here“Better to be consumed in the nuclear blast than to live rummaging among the ruins. Those of us still left in the business are the poor survivors. We’ve peered into the cannibals’ cellar.” By Luke O'Neil. |
 | The return to now“Gone from our feeds is the feeling of now-ness that made the real-time web so enthralling for many of us in the early days of the social media boom. This does not seem to be lost on the major social platforms.” By Jake Levine. |
 | Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin“The web of undisclosed conflicts in the bitcoin world is almost impossible to disentangle, especially since one of the celebrated features of cryptocurrencies is that they can be held secretly.” By Felix Salmon. |
 | A responsible press criticism“I know there is a difference between, let’s say, sound political economy scholarship that describes the structure of ownership of commercial mainstream media outlets and angry tweetstorms that denounce the corrupt MSM.” By Juliette De Maeyer. |
 | Building the ecosystems for collaboration“This is the year when we develop the infrastructure, protocols, and processes to support and facilitate effective collaboration where and when it's needed, quickly and effectively initiated.” By Heather Bryant. |
 | Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor“As an industry, and as individuals, we’re realizing that we need to invest in organizational change, personal growth, and the human connections that will get us there.” By Adam Thomas. |
 | Filler killers“Reach is down for most publishers already (a cursory look at CrowdTangle will illustrate this clearly), and eventually, we’re all going to break up with Facebook — or at least cool things off a little bit.” By Neha Gandhi. |
 | Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for“Those still putting digital advertising ahead of paid digital subscriptions are in danger of extinction.” By Jim Moroney. |
 | Stop talking trash about young people“As with all things media these days, the fate of the space is decided on the platform level. And as with all things media these days, the rest of us have to figure out ways to avoid the falling debris.” By Nicholas Quah. |
 | Moving fake news research out of the lab“If we want real-world solutions, we need real-world data, however. We need to learn how people actually consume fake news and fact checks when they encounter them in their everyday life, or when they look them up to prove (or disprove) an argument.” By Alexios Mantzarlis. |
 | No, no, no“In 2017, parts of our industry long asleep woke up to some of the insidious consequences of saying “yes” to the status quo too often. In 2018, by saying “no” to the right things, we can make room to say “yes” to awakened opportunities.” By Kelsey Proud. |
 | Passive partnership is in the rearview“Instead of jumping onto every new platform, ask yourself: Why should we be here? Can we make it better? Add more value? Be more useful? Can we provide a unique experience?” By Christopher Meighan. |
 | The social media apocalypse“In the new world slowly emerging by the end of 2018, people begin to read long 18th-century English novels, go to the symphony, and watch 12 to 14 hours of terrestrial television a day. They also play board games as a family.” By C.W. Anderson. |
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Obits? As it grows, watchdog nonprofit VTDigger is taking on more of local newspapers’ jobsIt’s become unusually ingrained into the local news ecosystem for a statewide nonprofit news outlet. “Every time we get two nickels rubbed together, I hire another reporter.” By Christine Schmidt. |
 | Too tired to tap“I predict our readers are going to get more tired — and that means they’re going to stop responding to this insane, frantic mass of news we’re throwing at them by the minute.” By Ariana Tobin. |
 | Building a news video experience native to mobile“Just as people choose music for different settings — chill workout, hardcore workout, cooking dinner, putting the children to bed — users could tailor the news content they want to hear or read based on mood or situation rather than, say, politics or locale.” By Kathleen McElroy. |
 | The year of self-improvement“2016 and 2017 have been the years of news organizations fitting our content into other companies’ boxes in the quest for The Answer To All Of Our Problems — only to realize that tech giants get bored quickly and have no qualms leaving us holding a dozen additional mini-problems.” By Alastair Coote. |
 | Standing up for us and for each other“We'll stop using objectivity as an excuse for a weak and lazy narrative and step forcefully into giving voice to those who are perpetually harmed and ignored. We'll be brutally fair and speak up, especially against bullies.” By Jennifer Choi. |
 | Fun with subscription products“Some may be free, some may be premium. At theSkimm, we think of all of our products as subscription — all users are subscribing to a point of view or a value proposition, even if they aren’t paying.” By Dheerja Kaur. |
 | The year journalists become digital security experts“To tell stories, they will need to understand the digital security dynamics of the subjects they write about. To preserve their own security, they will need to implement hardened digital security tools and practices in their own work.” By Justin Kosslyn. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times
The New York Times’ Alabama live results has been viewed more than 13 million times →
It’s already one of the most popular Times pieces this year.
Poynter / Daniel Funke
This Bosnian fact-checking outlet was launched to go after fake news →
“An outgrowth of Istinomjer, a website owned by nongovernmental organization Zasto Ne that's been fact-checking politics since 2010, the new platform aims to check statements from sites ranging from mainstream to completely falsified, which have been among the biggest culprits spreading misinformation in the region.”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
Facebook plans to stop paying publishers to make news feed videos →
"They don't want to pay the minimum guaranteed monthly license fee for producing a certain number of minutes," said an exec at one publisher that has been paid by Facebook since 2016. "They want everyone to go into the mid-roll [ad breaks] program."
Digiday / Jessica Davies
British GQ and Universal Music test shareable podcast formats →
The new podcast formats are designed to be
broken down into chunks for sharing and include images and graphics to accompany each chapter, rather than full 30-minute or hourlong shows.
The New York Times / Farhad Manjoo
How 2017 became a turning point for tech giants →
“Because this year, for the first time, tech giants began to grudgingly accept that they have some responsibility to the offline world. The scope of that responsibility, though, is another matter entirely.”
Journalism / Catalina Albeanu and Madalina Ciobanu
Google awards €20.4 million to media projects in Europe as part of the fourth round of its Digital News Initiative →
Projects from 26 European countries will get the cash. This is the fourth round of the DNI, but the first to have a theme: monetization.
The New York Times
The New York Times has developed its own native audio player →
The in-app version of player (which will also appear on the web version of the Times) will let users listen to audio even if they navigate away from the app or turn off their phone screens.
Medium / Alex Norton
From speech to text: four applications of automated transcription in the newsroom →
How BBC Labs is experimenting with transcription tech to save journalists time.