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Friday, April 6, 2018
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How can local independent news orgs build successful membership programs?“Don’t substitute the word ‘interest’ for ‘value.’ People might be interested in a car crash, but don’t value it enough to pay for it.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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Tweetstorms are better with friends: How three papers are tweeting together over 4-plus daysThe Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Chicago Tribune, tweeting together. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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“A place of clashing priorities, mistrust, and suspicion”: Guess what this refers toHint: Facebook is involved. Plus: Sketchy government efforts against fake news (or “fake news”) in India and Malaysia. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Columbia Journalism Review / Alexandria Neason
A reporter reveals the 'luckiest break' in the investigation of the cult behind Netflix's Wild Wild Country →
“In 1985, The Oregonian ran the team's 20-part series over 20 consecutive days, telling the story of Bhagwan's ascent to the the helm of a wealthy international cult, of the group's clashes with Indian authorities and tracing their arrival in Oregon. Twenty-five years later, in 2011, Zaitz published a five-part update that featured new documents, and he appears in the Netflix series.”
The Verge / Chris Welch
Twitter might wreck third-party apps in June →
“The people behind third-party Twitter clients Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Talon, and Tweetings are warning users that their apps could lose important features like push notifications and an auto-refresh timeline in June. The problem is that after June 19th, Twitter will be removing the ‘streaming services’ that have enabled developers to implement these functions in their apps.”
Medium / Adriana Gallardo
How moderating Spaceship Media’s The Many conversation across divide has taken over her life →
“I love the ladies. I am in a deep and meaningful relationship with nearly 90 women. They're all from Alabama. These ladies are the first thing I check on in the morning, the final thought in my head at night, I dream about them. Heck, I have effectively killed my crossword addiction because them. They have 99.9 percent of my attention.” (We covered Spaceship Media’s The Many last year.)
Democracy Fund / Melinda Szekeres and Destiny Wiley-Yancy
Need some inspiration? Here’s a collaborative spreadsheet with over 100 ideas and examples of local innovation →
“Many of these case studies have made splashes online but disappeared as soon as people refreshed their Twitter feeds. The issues local newsrooms have been innovating in — be it increasing engagement, new forms of expressing gratitude, or shifting to membership models — don't have expiration dates.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
People spend 11 minutes per day on Norwegian news aggregator app Sol →
"Machine learning is reviving news aggregators all over the world," said Sol CEO Jan Thoresen, adding that Sol's app took inspiration from Toutiao, a Chinese aggregator app. "We wanted to test it out in a local market."
BBC / Andrew Leimdorfer
The interactive game training the next generation of news reporters →
“The iReporter game aims to give players the chance to take on the role of a journalist in the BBC newsroom. The game was commissioned by the BBC News School Report team, who’s mission is to help 11-18 year olds develop their media literacy skills, and is part of a set of resources to use in classrooms across the UK.”