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Thursday, February 22, 2018
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After years of testing, The Wall Street Journal has built a paywall that bends to the individual readerNon-subscribers visiting WSJ.com now get a score, based on dozens of signals, that indicates how likely they’ll be to subscribe. The paywall tightens or loosens accordingly: “The content you see is the output of the paywall, rather than an input.” By Shan Wang. |
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This TV station took a “marvelous” Facebook fast — and thinks other media companies should too“What we took away was that we can easily live without Facebook.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Bloomberg / Justina Vasquez
In one tweet, Kylie Jenner wiped out $1.3 billion of Snap’s market value →
“sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
Fake news is part of a bigger problem: automated propaganda →
"This ability to have mass distribution at extremely low cost enables propaganda at an entirely different scale, one we've never seen before. And it uses all of the information that we as users are consciously and unconsciously providing, to produce individualized propaganda."
Twitter / Yoel Roth
Twitter cracks down on some automation across multiple accounts →
“Today, we're also introducing changes to TweetDeck's multiple account functionality to reflect this guidance. Users of TweetDeck will no longer be able to select multiple accounts through which to perform an action such as Tweeting, Retweeting, liking, or following.”
Select All / Brian Feldman
It’s time to end “Trending” →
“When we sort through our feeds, ‘latest’ has an obvious chronological sorting mechanism; even ‘popular’ has a fairly clear and agreed-upon definition. ‘Trending,’ however, does not…Automated trending systems are not equipped to make judgments; they can determine if things are being shared, but they cannot determine whether that content should be shared further.”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
Snapchat is enlisting more publishers to make video shows →
“Snapchat plans to double the amount of Snapchat video shows it releases this year to roughly 80 shows, including what could be its first serialized, scripted shows. In doing so, the company has also widened its sources for shows to include digital and legacy publishers, in addition to existing TV network partners.”
The Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Tony Haile’s Scroll signs on publishers for an ad-free-experience service →
“Business Insider, Fusion Media Group, the Atlantic, MSNBC and Slate are among the news organizations that have signed up to join Scroll, a subscription service for consumers who are willing to pay $5 a month to get rid of ads on participating publishers' sites.”
Knight Institute / Jameel Jaffer
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia gets $6.5 million in new funding →
” Democracy Fund and First Look Media (both associated with the Omidyar Group) have pledged a total of $3.25 million over five years in general operating support. The Charles Koch Foundation has pledged $3.25 million over five years to the Institute's endowment, and this contribution will trigger an equal contribution from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation under a matching challenge that was announced when Columbia University and Knight Foundation established the Institute.”
The Stranger / Steven Hsieh
Newsweek retracts a story reporting that bots forced Al Franken’s resignation →
“After being contacted by a reporter from Snopes, Oluo tweeted that her Franken piece was actually published after the former Minnesota senator announced that he would resign. Newsweek also reported, incorrectly, that bots tweeting Oluo’s headline did so before congressional Democrats called for Franken’s resignation. In fact, it was after.”
Poynter / Daniel Funke
Facebook’s tool for fact-checking partners only lets them flag links, not videos or memes →
“When asked to comment on the inability of fact-checkers to flag memes, a Facebook spokesperson told Poynter in an email that they are working with their partners to understand how to improve the tool — concerns that were aired during a meeting at the tech company's Silicon Valley headquarters.”