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Monday, April 16, 2018
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Newsonomics: The news world will miss Michael Ferro“To whom will we now turn to enliven the continuing conflagration that is the American newspaper industry?” By Ken Doctor. |
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Newsonomics: 8 questions as Michael Ferro leaves the stage ($100 million richer)What are the first challenges the new ownership faces? What happens to the Tribune name? And could Chicago see two locally owned daily newspapers? By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
Thinknum / Joshua Fruhlinger
Vox and BuzzFeed show drops in hiring activity, according to publicly available data →
“The trends we found include recent, first-time drops in hiring activity, plateaus (and dips) in individuals claiming employment by the two companies on LinkedIn, along with sagging ‘business outlook’ ratings on Glassdoor.”
Medium / Aron Pilhofer
MarketWatch / Max A. Cherney
A veteran Bay Area journalist acquires a San Francisco regional wire service →
“Katherine Rowlands confirmed the purchase and said she plans to continue the company's tradition of just-the-facts journalism, as well as establish a nonprofit arm to attract philanthropic support for the company's public service mission. BCN, which was founded in 1979, provides news feeds to about 100 radio stations, TV newsrooms and newspapers around the Bay Area, and is the only business that provides such a service in the region.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Google expands its tool for publishers to combat adblocking →
“The tool, launched a year ago in the U.S and a handful of other markets, is expanding to 31 other countries in Europe and Canada, Google is announcing today. Called Funding Choices, the tool works by asking or requiring users to turn off their adblockers after seeing a given number of articles.”
Business Insider / Kevin Loria
Does bunching smartphone notifications to send in batches during the day leave people happier and less stressed? →
Researchers analyzed the notifications that people got on their phones and found that the average person got between 65 and 80 notifications per day (people may check their phones more frequently, that’s just the number of notifications that show up). But three batches of notifications seemed to be the sweet spot, with people feeling more productive, positive, and in control.
Digiday / Jared Grusd
HuffPost’s Jared Grusd: Subscriptions won’t work for most publishers →
“HuffPost grew on the back of SEO. It figured out social and now is publishing well on all platforms. The challenge all of us are facing is the monetization on each of the platforms. We're seeing dislocation in the ad markets. Even if we found audiences, can monetization catch up with that?"
International Journalism Festival / Jay Rosen
Jay Rosen: What that phrase “optimize for trust” means in practice →
“Digital paywalls prevent journalism from seeking its natural public, and limit the spread of the best work. It’s hard to be a public service when you only speak to the portion of the audience that knows the product and is willing to pay for regular access.”
NBC News / Phil McCausland
GOP accuses Facebook of censorship but conservative media flourishes online →
A handful of Republicans laid into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during two days of hearings last week, accusing the company of liberal bias and the censorship of conservative Facebook pages. According to recent NewsWhip data, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The New York Times / Nellie Bowles
Report for America aims to support journalism where cutbacks hit hard →
Report for America, a nonprofit organization modeled after AmeriCorps, wants to install 1,000 journalists in understaffed newsrooms by 2022. Now in its pilot stage, the initiative has placed three reporters in Appalachia. It has chosen nine more, from 740 applicants, to be deployed across the country in June.
Associated Press / Ivan Moreno
U.S. publishers worry about pricier newsprint with new tariffs →
“The tariffs are a response to a complaint to the U.S. Department of Commerce from a hedge fund-owned paper producer in Washington state, which argues that its Canadian competitors are taking advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices. The tariffs, imposed in January and increased in March, are not permanent yet.”