YULI AHMADA: April 2018

Sabtu, 28 April 2018

The five ways we read online (and what publishers can do to encourage the “good” ones): The latest from Nieman Lab

Friday, April 27, 2018

The five ways we read online (and what publishers can do to encourage the “good” ones)

New metrics specifically for news articles. By Laura Hazard Owen.

Explainers are tedious. Fact-checks can feel partisan. Is there a third way?

Plus: Problems with the First Amendment, fact-checking the fact-checkers, and how partisan newspapers’ circulations change depending on who’s in power. By Laura Hazard Owen.

What We’re Reading

Vox / German Lopez

The Joy Reid controversy, from homophobic blog posts to a hacking claim, explained →

“To understand how we got to this point…let's start with the original blog posts.”

Digiday / Tim Peterson

Apple News ramps up its video push while publishers wait on revenue →

“Apple is keeping 50 percent of the revenue from those ads and divvying up the remaining 50 percent among the publishers whose videos appear in the feed when an ad runs, according to three publishers. Based on a document published to Apple's developer site and dated ‘April 2018,’ the interstitial video ads are currently ‘only available as Apple inventory.'”

CNNMoney / Brian Stelter

‘Mass firing’ at conservative site RedState →

“Multiple sources told CNNMoney that they believed conservative critics of President Trump were the writers targeted for removal. ‘Insufficiently partisan’ was the phrase one writer used in a RedState group chat.”

Poynter / Alexios Mantzarlis

Here are at least 11 different things we're actually concerned about when lamenting the state of the online information ecosystem →

“The viral reach of misinformation. Increasingly sophisticated fabricated accounts and content. Low levels of digital literacy among social media users. Hate speech and trolling. The incentive structures of the major platforms as they relate to producing content. State-sponsored propaganda. Polarized online communities. Cambridge Analytica-style data skulduggery. The (lack of) financial incentives for quality information online. The monopolistic condition of search and social network platforms. Distrust in media organizations and the content they deliver.”

That's / Bridget O'Donnell

Tencent has launched its cloud-based document tool — and it’s exactly the same as Google Docs →

“Tencent Docs is the company’s new free online document platform that allows for multi-person collaboration. There’s also an app version for both iOS and Android, as well as a WeChat Mini Program, offering users the ability to easily edit, create or share documents from anywhere on the go. So, just like Google Docs. The enterprise service project had been put on the backburner while the Chinese tech giant worked on WeChat.”

Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott

The BBC goes for solutions journalism in its latest global series on the individuals and communities tackling divisions in our society →

“The project has been rolling out over the whole of this week, featuring a myriad of stories across BBC News outlets, on TV, radio, and digital, from why a Yorkshire Dales farmer is working with asylum seekers to how a Kenyan prison is using mindfulness to create a different relationship between prisoners and prison officers.”

BuzzFeed / Henry J. Gomez and Tarini Parti

Trump TV is live — and more on message than the president →

“Episodes range from a few minutes for Updates of what the president did over the past week, to 10 minutes or longer for Insights from supporters. Regulars, who join via a remote feed, include Trump spokespersons such as Katrina Pierson (who already is working for the reelection campaign), Kayleigh McEnany (who has a similar role with the Republican National Committee), and Trump loyalists Diamond and Silk.”

The Drum / Ian Burrell

The BBC is trying to crack down on its impersonators spreading misinformation on chat apps →

“The BBC last week felt obliged to issue a formal warning after a clip purporting to show the BBC reporting on the outbreak of nuclear war between Russian and NATO forces in the Baltic went viral on WhatsApp and other chat platforms as a piece of breaking news. Identifying the hidden hands behind these fake BBC news reports on chat apps is extremely difficult. The BBC does have the unique advantage of its BBC Monitoring division, which tracks, filters and translates news media coverage across 150 countries.”

Jumat, 27 April 2018

How much of what local TV stations post to Facebook is actually local? For many, right around half: The latest from Nieman Lab

Thursday, April 26, 2018

How much of what local TV stations post to Facebook is actually local? For many, right around half

Stations in our sample posted an an average of just over 50 percent local content, using an an extremely generous threshold for “local” content. By Shan Wang.

How do you monetize personality? Danish newsletter startup Føljeton has a few ideas

“When they wrote to us on Facebook Messenger to get the subscription, we got the feeling that this marked a big shift in their lives — going from teens to adults.” By Christine Schmidt.

Could you be more empathetic in your reporting? The answer is probably yes, and here are some concrete tips for how to do it

What We’re Reading

Bloomberg / Nate Lanxon

Lawmakers in the U.K. did not hold back their criticism in front of Facebook’s CTO →

“The CTO [Mike Schroepfer] said Facebook ads would be labeled as ‘political,’ and that all promotions would be available to be searched in an archive the social network will keep available for seven years. Data in the archive will also show how many people may have seen each ad, and how much was paid for their display.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

Unskippable six-second video ads are coming to Snapchat →

Digiday also reports that Viacom says it is working with Snap on a multiyear original content and ad deal that would include Snapchat influencers in new and existing shows.

Gothamist

Today, Gothamist is officially back →

“After getting shut down last November, Gothamist has been acquired by WNYC, a non-profit institution committed to strengthening local journalism. So far, eight former Gothamist staffers have rejoined the team to bring Gothamist back, and with your support, we hope to make Gothamist a more expansive, resilient publication.”

Bloomberg / Lucas Shaw and Mark Bergen

This is YouTube’s plan to clean up the mess that made it rich →

“For years, YouTube has bragged to marketers that its laissez-faire attitude toward video creators was a feature, not a bug. The company was pioneering a form of mass entertainment more democratic, diverse, and authentic than traditional TV, its argument went, because it was unfettered by producers, network executives, or regulators. Its legions of creators fly around the internet with minimal guidance or oversight: Here are the keys to the jumbo jet, kid—knock yourself out. The ensuing string of crashes has grown difficult for its 1.5 billion monthly users to ignore.”

Associated Press / Alexandra Villarreal

College newspapers across US are campaigning to secure their future →

"A lot of the time, there's not a lot of advocacy for student journalists. We want to make sure we're part of the conversation, too."

Recode Media / Peter Kafka

How the New York Times reported its Pulitzer Prize-winning story, according to the reporters that did it →

“On the podcast, Steel explained how she and Schmidt strategized before every phone call during their months of reporting on O'Reilly. They discussed who should make the call and exactly what to ask, to have the best chances of getting the true story.”

New York Review of Books / Jay Rosen

Why Trump is winning and the press is losing →

“I think our top journalists are correct that if they become the political opposition to Trump, they will lose. And yet, they have to go to war against a political style in which power gets to write its own story. There is a risk that they will fail to make this distinction.”

Poynter / Kristen Hare

Three questions for local news teams to ask before starting that membership program →

“If people can't afford to give money, how else could they contribute?”

Global Editors' Network / Freia Nahser

Metrics that matter: A look into what works for Deutsche Welle →

“Every broadcaster is interested in the reach and the size of their audience. At the BBC, we went one step further with responsible reach by tracking quarterly what the gender split looked like for each language service, how each service was performing against each other, and then what our gender split looked like overall.”

Kamis, 26 April 2018

Who’s who in local news: A guide to the biggest brains and bank accounts in the fight for local journalism: The latest from Nieman Lab

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Who’s who in local news: A guide to the biggest brains and bank accounts in the fight for local journalism

Local news consortiums, labs, associations, and more. By Christine Schmidt.

Netflix is launching a weekly BuzzFeed show in July

What keeps local journalists in Europe up at night? Consolidation, the duopoly, and retaining new staff

What We’re Reading

TechCrunch / Frederic Lardinois

Say hello to the new Gmail with self-destructing messages, email snoozing and more →

“The other major new feature in this update is "confidential mode." The idea here is simple: When you write an email, you can select for how long the recipient will be able to read the email. Recipients will not be able to forward, copy and paste, download or print the content. You can't stop anybody from taking a picture of the screen of course, but what's maybe more important here is that if anybody ever hacked the recipient's account, that email with your confidential information will be long gone.”

Columbia Journalism Review / Ricardo Gandour

As election looms, Brazil braces for fake news →

How Brazil is preparing for misinformation in its election.

Reporters Without Borders

U.S. falls to #45 in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index (from #43) →

“The climate of hatred is steadily more visible in the Index, which evaluates the level of press freedom in 180 countries each year. Hostility towards the media from political leaders is no longer limited to authoritarian countries such as Turkey (down two at 157th) and Egypt (161st), where "media-phobia" is now so pronounced that journalists are routinely accused of terrorism and all those who don't offer loyalty are arbitrarily imprisoned. More and more democratically-elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy's essential underpinning, but as an adversary to which they openly display their aversion.”

TechCrunch / Ingrid Lunden

Travel writing site Culture Trip, which uses a contributor model, raises $80M →

“The startup works with some 300 paid contributors globally, who write light stories, take pictures and make videos on everything under the bigger umbrella of local culture, just no politics and current affairs…There have been some 75,000 articles published since 2011, with the rate currently at 3,000 articles per month.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education / Dan Bauman and Chris Quintana

Drew Cloud, a student loans expert quoted in papers like the Boston Globe and Washington Post, is not a real person →

“After The Chronicle spent more than a week trying to verify Cloud’s existence, the company that owns The Student Loan Report confirmed that Cloud was fake. ‘Drew Cloud is a pseudonym that a diverse group of authors at Student Loan Report, LLC use to share experiences and information related to the challenges college students face with funding their education,’ wrote Nate Matherson, CEO of LendEDU. Before that admission, however, Cloud had corresponded at length with many journalists, pitching them stories and offering email interviews, many of which were published. When The Chronicle attempted to contact him through the address last week, Cloud said he was traveling and had limited access to his account. He didn't respond to additional inquiries.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

After years of chasing Facebook traffic, Mic goes for “deliberate distribution” →

“Before, we would have said to a platform, ‘What do we need to do?’ Now, we'll experiment, but less so.”

the Guardian / Mark Sweney

Guardian on track to break even as company halves its losses →

“Guardian News & Media reported a £19m loss in the year to the end of March, in the previous financial year. The publisher, which is now in the final year of a three-year plan to break even, has cut losses to a third of the £57m reported when the drive to reshape the business began.”

Wall Street Journal / Jonathan Randles

Peter Thiel agrees not to buy Gawker →

“Mr. Thiel has agreed to withdraw from the sale process and to provide the eventual buyer a legal release for articles in the Gawker archive.”

Rabu, 25 April 2018

Newsonomics: The new post-Tronc storylines to follow this year: The latest from Nieman Lab

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Newsonomics: The new post-Tronc storylines to follow this year

As much of Tronc’s turbulence looks to be clearing, new questions are emerging about who will next lead the big metro chain. By Ken Doctor.

How do HomePod’s meh sales affect Apple’s place in the podcast ecosystem?

Plus: Atlanta Monster racks up downloads, Google wants to double the podcast market, and Caliphate is absolutely amazing. By Nicholas Quah.

Goodbye to yet another digital publication: UK-based The Debrief shuts down as a standalone site

What We’re Reading

The New York Times / Daisuke Wakabayashi and Adam Satariano

Will looming privacy regulations only strengthen Google and Facebook? →

Europe’s GDPR laws, which “require tech companies to ask for users' consent for their data, are likely to hand Google and Facebook an advantage. That's because wary consumers are more prone to trust recognized names with their information than unfamiliar newcomers. And the laws may deter start-ups that do not have the resources to comply with the rules from competing with the big companies.”

Business Insider

Bloomberg is planning to launch a paywall →

“Bloomberg is finalizing plans to roll out a paid subscription offering for its Bloomberg.com property, according to people familiar with the matter. The paywall is set to roll out in May, according to the people, though the launch date could change. The launch of the paywall is set to coincide with a relaunch of the Bloomberg.com website, according to the people.”

Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg

How merchants use Facebook to flood Amazon with fake reviews →

Amazon.com bans paying for reviews. But “many of these fraudulent reviews originate on Facebook, where sellers seek shoppers on dozens of networks, including Amazon Review Club and Amazon Reviewers Group, to give glowing feedback in exchange for money or other compensation. The practice artificially inflates the ranking of thousands of products, experts say, misleading consumers.”

The Verge / Casey Newton

Flipboard introduces expanded tech coverage and private sharing features →

“Its new tech section, which Flipboard says could serve as a model for expanded coverage of other topics, will be available inside Flipboard's mobile apps, on the web, and through a new daily newsletter. Flipboard is betting that it can stand out by placing more emphasis on human curation — something that Facebook and Google have traditionally been loath to do. (Apple News employs human editors.)”

McClatchy

McClatchy’s newspapers are rolling out a streamlined subscription tool with the help of Google →

“When a Google user hits a paywall on any McClatchy news site, a subscription box will offer the option to subscribe directly with the local publisher, or with Google. Subscribe with Google also allows a user to access McClatchy's digital news content across platforms and highlights content in search.”

Facebook Newsroom / Monika Bickert

Facebook released its internal enforcement guidelines →

“The consequences for violating our Community Standards vary depending on the severity of the violation and a person’s history on the platform. For instance, we may warn someone for a first violation, but if they continue to violate our policies, we may restrict their ability to post on Facebook or disable their profile. We also may notify law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or a direct threat to public safety.”

Mediaite / Aidan McLaughlin

“We love confronting bullies, bigots and hypocrites”: How John Avlon reinvented The Daily Beast as a politics-and-pop-culture blend →

“‘Part of the way I built the team is looking for people who were hungry, but who also had a presence on air and a strong social media following,’ Avlon explained. ‘That's what I jokingly refer to as our advertising budget.’ He pointed to some of the hires the Beast has made this past year…. These new hires have more than 600,000 Twitter followers between them.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

Vanity Fair launches a $20-a-year digital paywall →

“Starting April 24, after people read their fourth article in a month, they'll be required to subscribe for $19.99 a year for either digital-only or print plus digital. (Video and slideshows will be exempt from the paywall.) To sweeten the offer, Vanity Fair also is rolling out a searchable archive of its articles, a subscriber-only newsletter and even considering giving subscribers access to its writers and editors.”

Selasa, 24 April 2018

Wellness apps, but for news: Can Neva Labs build a news reading experience that feels healthy?: The latest from Nieman Lab

Monday, April 23, 2018

Wellness apps, but for news: Can Neva Labs build a news reading experience that feels healthy?

"If you took away advertising from the platforms we have currently, if you took away the need to addict people and harvest their data and keep them refreshing their pages, what would that experience look like?" By Shan Wang.

Saying “I can just Google it” and then actually Googling it are two different things

Plus other findings from a new study’s interviews with that increasingly common creature, the “news avoider.” By Christine Schmidt.

Combine an “editorially responsible” algorithm + political news, and you have Current Status

“I see my role as a sort of reinforcement editor, ensuring that the good stuff is always percolating to the top. Sometimes the news isn’t as neat as an algorithm wants to make it.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

What We’re Reading

Data Journalism Awards / Marianne Bouchart

Get inspired with these 11 data journalism projects, from Argentina to South Africa →

Following the money, humanizing the data, examining high speed rail, gaming the vote, and more.

Poynter / Kristen Hare

Newsday wants to move from 'voice of God' editorials to convening conversations →

"The next chapter in opinion journalism is instead of dictating the conversation, we're convening the conversation," said Sam Guzik, editor for platform and strategies, opinion. "It's less about telling people what to think and more about saying ‘Let's come to a consensus and find the way forward as a community.’"

The New York Times / Nellie Bowles

Campbell Brown is helping Facebook remake its relationships with publishers — but who is she? →

“A year and a half into her tenure, Ms. Brown, who became a school-choice activist with close ties to conservative politics after her TV career, is emerging as a fiery negotiator for her vision of Facebook as a publishing platform, according to interviews with more than 30 people who work or who regularly interact with her.”

Digiday / Max Willens

Content recommendation services are trying to break out of their widget-shaped boxes →

“These new products all look and function differently: Revcontent's Engage.im ditches the traditional widget look in favor of an infinite scroll filled with partner publisher content, which can be personalized and partners can monetize however they want; Outbrain's Sphere looks similar to other widgets, but displays publishers' brand names very prominently, a move designed to distinguish it from Facebook.”

Wall Street Journal / Christopher Mims

Google gathers more personal data than Facebook does — so why aren’t we talking about it? →

“As justifiable as the focus on Facebook has been, though, it isn’t the full picture. If the concern is that companies might be collecting some personal data without our knowledge or explicit consent, Alphabet’s Google is a far bigger threat by many measures: the volume of information it gathers, the reach of its tracking and the time people spend on its sites…”

Columbia Journalism Review / Corey Hutchins

The Economic Hardship Reporting Project sets up a special fund for laid-off Denver Post staffers →

“The latest fund dedicated to former Denver Post journalists is something of a public statement, according to [the project’s executive editor, Alissa] Quart. ‘We've been sort of focused like a laser [on] supporting staff that are being laid off when there's a bad actor involved like Alden Global Capital,’ she says. Last fall, when billionaire Joe Ricketts shut down local news sites Gothamist and DNAinfo after staff voted to unionize, EHRP offered a $5,000 grant to writers displaced from the sites.”

The New York Times / Amanda Taub and Max Fisher

How Facebook’s News Feed can stoke outrage and violence in fragile democracies →

“A reconstruction of Sri Lanka's descent into violence, based on interviews with officials, victims and ordinary users caught up in online anger, found that Facebook's newsfeed played a central role in nearly every step from rumor to killing. Facebook officials, they say, ignored repeated warnings of the potential for violence, resisting pressure to hire moderators or establish emergency points of contact.”