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Tuesday, May 29, 2018
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How the Middle East’s Al-Hudood eases even its haters into reading its irreverent satireIts Facebook chatbot asks angry readers what insults they want to level at the publication, then ends up looping them into a conversation. It’s also building a network of satire writers by training members of its community, who then train others. By Isam Uraiqat. |
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How Venezuelan satire site El Chigüire Bipolar stays funny in a country whose leader is tightening his grip“I wouldn’t say we give hope with humor. That's a stretch. But at least we’re helping bridge a gap with the censorship that’s happening on TV and radio.” By Juan Andrés Ravell. |
What We’re Reading
The Daily Beast / Erin Biba
What it’s like when Elon Musk’s Twitter mob comes after you →
“[There] is an army — mostly young, mostly white, almost entirely men — that marches behind him. These MuskBros, as we call them, make it their mission to descend on women who criticize Musk, and tear them to pieces. I know, because it has happened to me. More than once.”
Virginian-Pilot / Robyn Sidersky
Tronc buys Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot for $34M →
“The Virginian-Pilot is the largest daily paper in Virginia. It was founded in 1865 and has a print Sunday circulation of 132,000. The Virginian-Pilot has won three Pulitzer Prizes and was a 2018 Pulitzer finalist in investigative reporting.”
Medium / Richard Gingras
Google’s Richard Gingras on journalism in a digital age →
“None of us involved in this pursuit, whether news organization or technology platform or journalist or journalist-to-be, should assume someone else will play the role of educating our societies about journalism's purpose, of maintaining the ethics of the profession, and above all, maintaining the trust of the citizens we serve.”
The Guardian / Eleanor Ainge Roy
Papua New Guinea bans Facebook for a month to root out “fake users” →
“Dr. Aim Sinpeng, an expert in digital media and politics from the University of Sydney, said the ban raised some troubling questions, because when Facebook had been banned in other countries it was usually in the run-up to elections, or banned indefinitely, like in China. ‘One month is an interesting time limit for a ban, I am not exactly sure what they think they can achieve, and why a ban is necessary. You can do Facebook analysis without it. And what data are the government collecting? If they are concerned about fake news there are many ways to do it without issuing a ban on a platform,’ she said.”
The Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
Elon Musk wants to fix media mistrust with a dopey rating system. There’s a better way. →
“An ill-conceived rating system — Musk says smirkingly he would call it Pravda, Russian for ‘truth’— can never begin to touch the value of roughly 1,300 daily newspapers that are now gasping for breath. Local philanthropy and eventual nonprofit status are probably a part of the solution — if there is one.”
Digiday / Max Willens
How The New York Times plans new subscription products →
“Four criteria are used to assess new product ideas: the market opportunity, the potential to build a subscription business, unmet needs in the market and whether the Times has an advantage in meeting that need. The Times uses qualitative and quantitative data. In the case of parenting, it found that Times readers got parenting coverage and content elsewhere and wanted the publisher to cover it more.”
The Verge / Russell Brandom
Facebook and Google hit with $8.8 billion in lawsuits on day one of GDPR →
“The lawsuits, which seek to fine Facebook 3.9 billion and Google 3.7 billion euro (roughly $8.8 billion in dollars), were filed by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, a longtime critic of the companies' data collection practices.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Why The Salt Lake Tribune fell so far so fast →
“The Deseret News site is free. Even with a different viewpoint that will appeal to readers who want an independent take on city and state news, that’s a killer price to compete against when the offerings of local news are bound to be often the same.”
Bloomberg.com / Shoko Oda
A look at JX Press Corp., a Japanese news-breaking startup →
“Tokyo-based JX Press has 24 staff with an average age of 29, two-thirds of which are engineers. The company has two main products: subscription-based breaking news service Fast Alert and a free mobile news application called NewsDigest.”
Monday Note / Frederic Filloux
Dear publishers, if you want my subscription dollars, here is what I expect →
“Publishers can't have both ways; people paying for content should be spared advertising, period. OK, some super-premium or branded content ads could be tolerated. Also, like it or not, consumers expect flexibility in their expense allocations. They hate the idea of being hooked with no exit. And always, many digital publications have unbearable technical flaws. Fact is, the most robust growth in subscription segments are from news outlets that invest the most in technology.”
The Guardian / Mark Sweney
Discovery is shutting down its European TV hub as it mulls a post-Brexit plan →
“Discovery broadcasts more than 100 TV channels across Europe from its headquarters in west London, making the pay-TV giant the biggest broadcaster to use the UK as a hub for the continent. Now it’s moving to a U.S.-based transmission system.” European playout hub for broadcasting its channels, affecting up to 100 jobs, as it moves to a US-based transmission system.
Digiday / Max Willens
How The New York Times plans new subscription products →
“Four criteria are used to assess new product ideas: the market opportunity, the potential to build a subscription business, unmet needs in the market and whether the Times has an advantage in meeting that need.” For its new subscription product for parents, the Times felt it had a market advantage in the coverage area, and also conducted “focus groups and one-on-one interviews about things like what parents need, which will inform a prototype to be released later this year.”