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Monday, March 5, 2018
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Could local news driven by residents who pay fees in a special service district…work?It’s how many communities fund libraries, build airports, or pay for hospitals. Could it also pay for local news? By Christine Schmidt. |
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Apologies for the clickbait, but: Public media archives. Gamified transcription. Go ahead and clickIt might not be the sexiest journalism innovation, but WGBH is hoping to keep public radio and public television’s massive archives alive and useful by harnessing the power of dopamine. By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Journalism.co.uk / Madalina Ciobanu
Women’s Advancement Deeply is using WhatsApp to let readers experience the lives of women in developing countries →
“Women’s Advancement Deeply, the News Deeply platform focused on covering efforts to secure economic equality for women around the world, is launching a WhatsApp story experiment to let readers experience the decisions and challenges faced by women working in developing countries. The experiment will run on 8 March for International Women’s Day and the team will broadcast regular updates about a day in the life of three women.”
Monday Note / Frederic Filloux
Why a ‘Spotify for News’ can’t fly →
“Periodically, I hear someone say, ‘What the news industry needs is a Spotify-like platform!’ In fact, it is far from certain that the news industry could pull out a profitable model based on Swedish streaming. [A]fter ten years of operation, Spotify's future is still uncertain, and a news version of would face the same issues. But it’s the giant platforms control a large chunk of news distribution, capture all the advertising growth, are technologically way ahead, and can up-sell across all their product lines, and withstand any loss necessary.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Hearst Newspapers is replacing its one-size-fits-all paywall with a customizable one →
The newspaper group, with 24 daily and 64 weekly papers, including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle, has been tinkering with a paywall whose permeability changes depending on who's visiting and what they're reading. (The Wall Street Journal is another publisher that’s recently turned to a paywall that responds to readers’ behaviors.)
Poynter / David Beard
How this librarian-turned-senior researcher and writer helped turn the Daily Beast into a ‘scoop factory' →
“At the Daily Beast, Brandy Zadrozny showed reporters myriad tools, such as how to get domain name notifications, which was critical to its scoop on the lewd, creepy internet domains that Trump associate and convicted mobster Felix Sater took out on his enemies. About half of her time was mentoring reporters, she says; the other half working collaboratively on news stories or writing late at night on her features.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Rare, Cox Media’s Facebook-driven conservative site, is shutting down →
“Rare.us, the viral content site launched by Cox Media in 2013 to take on the ever-evolving digital landscape from a right of center lens, will shut down at the end of the month, according to Facebook posts by its top editors.”
The New York Times / Michael J. de la Merced
Google will sell Zagat to review site The Infatuation →
Google bought Zagat for $151 million in 2011. The Infatuation didn’t disclose the price it paid.
Facebook
Facebook will let some publishers label stories as breaking news →
“People in the U.S. engage more with posts that are labeled as breaking news. From December 8th to January 14th there was a: 4% lift in clickthrough rate, 7% lift in Likes, 4% lift in Comments, 11% lift in Shares.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Zoe Beery
Edit tests are out of control, say journalists in search of jobs →
“Edit testing has become excessively burdensome for candidates. These journalists find themselves taking on multiple tests a year, sometimes simultaneously, amounting to 20 or more unpaid hours of work per test that often yield no results — in many cases, like Shah's, not even a note informing them they're no longer being considered.”
The Guardian / Agence France-Presse
Switzerland votes overwhelmingly to keep its public broadcaster →
“Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to cut taxpayer funding to public broadcasters, after a campaign that stirred debate about the media's role in fostering national unity.”
Outside Online / Scott Rosenfield
Outside Magazine is launching paid newsletters with Substack →
“As a first step, we'll be sending out a weekly newsletter: Dawn Patrol, which will contain in-depth and honest reviews of women’s gear. For $5 a month, you'll be able to access these stories through the newsletter or through Substack's website. You'll also be able to send us questions about the products we're reviewing and receive personalized answers from Outside editors. Over time, our intent is to increase our publishing frequency and use subscriber payments to fund more free stories on Outside.”