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Tuesday, June 19, 2018
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Could Google’s new podcast app change the way we understand the Average Podcast Listener?“It’s pretty damn hard to listen to a podcast, so the kinds of folks who listen to them regularly must really love the thing enough to walk on coals. Google’s new AI-assisted features are designed to cut down the necessity of that intensity.” By Nicholas Quah. |
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How to end misogyny in the news industry: An open letter to the international journalism community“We are done pandering to the egos of change-resistant influential men in the hope that our gentle lead will eventually encourage them to join us on a meander toward gender equality in the news business.” By An Open Letter. |
What We’re Reading
CNBC / Michelle Castillo
Facebook plans to introduce more types of content to Watch, adding polls, quizzes — and maybe more YouTubers →
“The company announced at an event for Facebook video creators on Tuesday it would allow more content to be eligible for its Watch program. By doing so, it opens up the doors for both the company and social media stars to earn more advertising revenue. Facebook also announced Brand Collabs Manager, a platform that will connect video creators with sponsorship opportunities.”
HuffPost / Sara Boboltz
The New York Times agreed not to use on-the-record audio for The Daily after the White House objected →
“Michael Barbaro, who hosts ‘The Daily’ podcast for the Times, said in Tuesday's episode that he intended to play the audio for a segment on the immigration crisis until Davis heard that the White House was ‘not at all comfortable’ with Miller's voice being featured on the podcast.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Vox Media is folding Racked from a standalone site into a Vox vertical →
“Sources say Vox Media has struggled to find a considerable voice or growth model for Racked — which was a part of Vox Media’s acquisition of Curbed Network in 2013. On the other hand, two other sites that came with the Curbed acquisition — Eater, a food guide site and Curbed, a real-estate site — have been able to develop as sustainable standalone brands.”
Democracy Fund / Lea Trusty
How does philanthropic support impact newsroom diversity initiatives? →
“From 2009 to 2015, there were 1,105 grants totaling $105.6 million from 274 funders to 294 recipients pertaining to either racial and ethnic groups, women and girls, or LGBTQI populations. There has been significantly less investment in gender-related news and staffing compared to racial and ethnic groups. Funding serving LGBTQI populations in journalism remains extremely limited.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
How Swiss news publisher NZZ built a flexible paywall with machine learning →
“For instance, heavy users who have registered but not yet subscribed tend to convert higher when they see an offer for an annual rather than a monthly subscription. NZZ has also linked article metadata with user journeys, so someone who has read a high number of articles on banks in Zurich, for instance, will receive a payment message on the next relevant article they read. Adding personalized greetings to landing pages increased conversion by 25 percent.”
Business Insider / Rob Price
The Onion is on a crusade against Mark Zuckerberg because it says Facebook is choking its traffic →
“‘I know I screwed up, and I understand why you’re all upset, but if you were a morally corrupt megalomaniac hell-bent on manipulating society to your twisted whims, you would have done the exact same thing,’ said Zuckerberg, suggesting that people should put themselves in the shoes of a self-absorbed asshole with a warped perception of humanity who justified the exploitation of personal connections as a means of amassing unfettered influence and profits to truly comprehend why he made every completely fucked-up decision.”
American Press Institute / Jane Elizabeth
What journalists can learn from their local TV weather forecast (yes, really) →
“We believe that if stories are built differently — using forms that follow a philosophy of ‘show me’ rather than "tell me" with their audiences — journalists could build news consumers' confidence in media and media savvy at the same time. There have been examples of this for a while: Meteorologists and weather reporters have understood for years, decades even, how to engage their audiences with a topic that can be full of science jargon and fraught with uncertainty.”
ProPublica / Jeremy B. Merrill, Ariana Tobin
Follow-up: Facebook actually isn’t even that good at screening for political ads →
“The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news outlet, [was]promoting one of its articles about financial aid for college students. … For the ad to run, The Hechinger Report would have to undergo the multi-step authorization and authentication process of submitting Social Security numbers and identification that Facebook now requires for anyone running "electoral ads" or "issue ads." “