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Wednesday, February 14, 2018
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Connecting reporters with experts, Sciline wants to improve the quality of today’s science reporting“There’s so much pressure right now that it’s very tempting, more than ever, to just go with something…Often, it's only your conscience and sense of journalistic responsibility that prevents you from hitting publish.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
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Comfortable in its first language, this German business publisher hopes to build a global audience off its English editionPart of Handelsblatt Global's strategy is trying to be ruthlessly practical about its position in the market: "If you get an American reader, nobody would ever switch from The New York Times for us.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
The Democracy Fund / Josh Stearns
The NewsMatch program raised $4.8 million for nonprofit newsrooms in 2017 →
“Local newsrooms raised even more on top of NewsMatch: in total, more than 202,000 donors contributed $33 million to local, nonprofit newsrooms. Of those 202,000 donors, 43,000 were new donors giving to an organization for the first time.”
NBC News / Ben Popken
NBC News is publishing its database of 200,000 tweets from Russian trolls →
NBC News is open sourcing its data “to help shine a light on this persistent threat to democracy.”
Poynter / David Beard
A Q&A with Jarrod Dicker about Po.et and cryptocurrency’s potential for news →
“The most exciting part about this space is that it’s so new, there is no right or wrong way to do it. So we’re figuring it out as we go, having the right conversations and really thinking about how to build to better the entire media ecosystem. I often say it’s dangerous to assume anything, because when you assume something is the way it is then you are afraid to challenge it. This space has shown, and evolution of media has shown, in fact, that we need to be questioning everything.”
Journalism.co.uk / Mădălina Ciobanu
With its latest series The Upside, the Guardian will focus on solutions journalism in five key areas →
“The initiative, which is partly supported through a grant from the Skoll Foundation, builds on a constructive journalism pilot project the Guardian began in the summer of 2016. Over the last 18 months, the organisation found that its solutions stories attracted, on average, 10 per cent more readers, and that almost one in 10 people tends to share positive news on social media.”
The Information / Tom Dotan
Apple News can drive crazy traffic to publishers →
“Apple News has generated half of Vox.com's daily traffic at times, according to a person familiar with Vox's numbers. An executive at the website of a major TV network said Apple News has accounted for as much as 60% of traffic for some stories…The Washington Post, for instance, gets hundreds of people subscribing every day through Apple News…”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
How Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reached 250,000 digital subscribers →
“The newspaper, owned by Scandinavian media giant Schibsted, has amassed 250,000 digital subscribers (at $7-$12 a month) since launching its digital subscriptions program in 2003, a lofty figure given Sweden's population of 10 million. Aftonbladet made 255 million Swedish krona ($32 million) in profit in 2017, driven by both advertising and subscriptions, according to its latest financials released last week.”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Forbes will pay all of its contributors, but purge the worst →
Forbes is “putting each of its 1,500 contributors on a contract that guarantees them a minimum of $250 a month beginning immediately. This new plan also calls for Forbes to review its roster of contributors periodically and cut 10% of the worst performers every year.”
Flipboard
Flipboard donates 0.1 percent of the company’s stock to the News Literacy Project →
“This is the first time Flipboard has donated stock to a non-profit. We've chosen this moment because not only is understanding the news important, but also the ways that we stay informed have radically changed. Having an organization like NLP help teachers stay on top of the shifting landscape in a neutral, factual way is a huge service to educators and students.”
Google / Aakash Sahney
Google is bringing AMP to Gmail →
“This new spec will be a powerful way for developers to create more engaging, interactive, and actionable email experiences…By bringing AMP to email, we're opening up new possibilities for companies to engage with their audiences, and we can't wait to see what developers will build.”