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Friday, January 19, 2018
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Publishers claim they’re taking Facebook’s News Feed changes in stride. Is the “bloodletting” still to come?“Let's put the nail in the coffin of chasing clicks and likes.” By Shan Wang, Christine Schmidt, and Laura Hazard Owen. |
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What (if anything) do Facebook’s News Feed changes mean for fake news?Plus: Lessons from Bolivia and Slovakia, and what’s the reach of fake news in the EU? By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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Newsonomics: NPR’s Ross Levinsohn scoop delivers a double blow to TroncThe Tronc rollercoaster continues: Just as it tries to unveil a familiar strategy (“gravitas with scale”!), its top digital leader’s past catches up with him. By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
HuffPost / Lydia O'Connor
The Los Angeles Times votes to unionize →
The announcement comes a day after an NPR report uncovered allegations of sexual misconduct against the Times' publisher and CEO, Ross Levinsohn. Ken Doctor has more on the rising tensions between the newsroom and corporate leadership here.
Digiday / Lucia Moses
As Facebook retreats from publishers, Snapchat is rolling out a publisher charm offensive →
“We're going to push harder and be more proactive with helping you succeed on Snapchat. This means finding more ways we can work together, more ways to support your business goals, and being more proactive with sharing insights and best practices to help your teams improve content quality and reach more of your audience, while continuing the support the team has already been providing.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Natalie Jarvey
Vox is bringing its explainer style to Netflix in a new show →
“The untitled series will take Vox.com’s explanatory journalism conceit and turn it into a multi-part series that explores the big questions of today. Each episode will focus on a new topic — from science to politics to pop culture — and will feature interview from experts in the field. Vox co-founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein is executive producing.”
The New Yorker / Jia Tolentino
The end of the Awl and the vanishing of freedom and fun from the internet →
“Blogs are necessarily idiosyncratic, entirely about sensibility: they can only be run by workhorses who are creative enough to amuse themselves and distinct enough to hook an audience, and they tend to publish like-minded writers, who work more on the principle of personal obsession than pay.”
Center for Media Engagement / Emily Van Duyn, Jay Jennings, Natalie Jomini Stroud
Chicagoans are more likely to donate $10 to a free news site than pay a fee of $10 to access news →
The report from the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement and City Bureau also found that despite feeling poorly represented by Chicago news media, South and West Side residents are more interested in volunteering to report on a public meeting than North Side/Downtown residents are.
Cheddar / Alex Heath
Snap threatens jail time for leakers →
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for those who leak Snap Inc. confidential information. This applies to outright leaks and any informal ‘off the record’ conversations with reporters, as well as any confidential information you let slip to people who are not authorized to know that information. If you leak Snap Inc. information, you will lose your job and we will pursue any and all legal remedies against you. And that's just the start.”
The Splice Newsroom / Manuel Quezon
With the order to shut Rappler, the Philippine government puts its new weapon against the media on full display →
“Rodrigo Duterte had accused the broadcast network ABS-CBN and online news site Rappler of circumventing domestic ownership requirements for mass media when they offered Philippine Depositary Receipts, an investment vehicle that allows foreign investments without the actual sale of shares of stock.”
Mumbrella / Josie Tutty
Australia’s only children’s newspaper Crinkling News set to close →
“We are very sorry to say we cannot keep publishing the newspaper with the resources we have," adding "it will need a much bigger business, government or philanthropy to take all the amazing things we have done together and keep the momentum going." Our previous story about the paper here.