Selasa, 31 Juli 2018

“Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?: The latest from Ni

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

“Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?

“There is no Wirecutter for low-income individuals.” Fiona Morgan and Jay Hamilton talk about their research into information ecosystems and the media market. By Christine Schmidt.

Newsonomics: Now it’s Facebook that’s facing unwanted attention

As we see hatred and division multiply across North America and Europe, instigated by malicious use of the technology that was supposed to make us freer and better, we’re paying a different kind of attention. Late, but better than never. By Ken Doctor.
What We’re Reading
Mcclatchy / Staff
McClatchy growing digital ad revenue, but still seeing losses →
“McClatchy today reported a net loss in the second quarter of 2018 of $20.4 million, or $2.62 per share. In the second quarter of 2017 McClatchy reported a net loss of $37.4 million, or $4.91 per share”
Pew Research Center / Elizabeth Grieco
Newsroom employment dropped nearly a quarter in less than 10 years, with greatest decline at newspapers →
“…Even though digital-native news outlets have experienced some recent growth in employment, too few newsroom positions were added to make up for recent losses in the broader industry.”
IJNet / Sherry Ricchiardi
Resources for covering migration and refugees →
“While the separation of children from parents was new, the story of desperate families trying to enter the United States was not. One thing that has now changed, however, is that more Americans have been moved to act on behalf of these families," Georges wrote. "It will be crucial for journalists to continue to be at the border, to see the events firsthand — and to share stories and pictures with the world."
The New York Times / Mark Landler
Sulzberger’s statement and discussion with Trump: contextualized →
“President Trump and the publisher of The New York Times, A. G. Sulzberger, engaged in a fierce public clash on Sunday over Mr. Trump's threats against journalism, after Mr. Sulzberger said the president misrepresented a private meeting and Mr. Trump accused The Times and other papers of putting lives at risk with irresponsible reporting.”
The New York Times / A.G. Sulzberger
Statement from A.G. Sulzberger, publisher, The New York Times, in response to President Trump’s tweet about their meeting →
“I told him that although the phrase "fake news" is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists "the enemy of the people." I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.”
Mailchimp / Mary Walter-Brown
Another newsletter to subscribe to from the News Revenue Hub →
“If you're a news organization committed to finding a path to sustainability … If you're a funder who wants to make a significant, long-term impact on multiple news organizations … And if you're a thought leader who has ideas or wants to better understand what we're learning, I encourage you to get in touch.”
Digiday / Mark Weiss
Digiday Research: Mobile commerce shows promise for publishers →
“73 percent of publisher executives surveyed by Digiday say at least at least 25 percent of their commerce revenues now come from mobile devices.”
AP News / Jill Colvin
White House defends decision to bar CNN reporter from event →
"To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone be respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House," [Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders] said.

Sabtu, 28 Juli 2018

Twitter’s not “shadow banning” Republicans, but get ready to hear that it is: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Twitter’s not “shadow banning” Republicans, but get ready to hear that it is

Plus: Infowars’ Alex Jones is suspended from Facebook, eyes on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, and anti-vaccine Facebook groups. By Laura Hazard Owen.
What We’re Reading
Reuters
Facebook deletes hundreds of posts under German hate-speech law →
“The social network received 1,704 complaints under the law, known in Germany as NetzDG, and removed 262 posts between January and June, Richard Allan, Facebook's vice president for global policy solutions, said” (in a German-language blog post here.
Recode / Jason Del Rey and Rani Molla
This is the Amazon everyone should have feared — and it has nothing to do with its retail business →
“Amazon Web Services and the ad business are showing little sign of slowing down. AWS revenue growth accelerated in the second quarter, rising 49 percent year over year. And for the second quarter in a row, Amazon's ‘other’ business segment — which primarily consists of money it generates from selling ad space on its websites — rose well over 100 percent from the prior year, as well.”
Free Press / Alicia Bell, Mike Rispoli
What journalists can learn from organizers: A guide →
“Organizing is fundamentally about listening to people tell you what they need and what kind of world they want, and working collaboratively to make it happen. The principles and practices organizers use can be powerful tools when adapted to the newsroom, but it's an approach most journalists aren't familiar with.”
Philly.com / Valerie Russ
New publisher of Philly’s Scoop USA keeps a black-owned newspaper going with faith and own funds →
“Since purchasing Scoop, she's spent almost $12,000 a month of her own savings to keep it going, and says she's running out. She does not draw a salary.”
Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo
The Daily was the most-downloaded new show on Apple Podcasts last year →
“It’s up to 5 million listeners a month, at the latest count. The show will reportedly book ad revenue in the low eight figures this year.”
Gizmodo / Kashmir Hill
When a stranger decides to destroy your life →
“Monika Glennon, a real estate agent at Re/Max, woke up one morning to a post about her on her employer’s Facebook page: a link to a story on She's A Homewrecker, whose author claimed she walked in on Glennon having sex with her husband on the floor of a home the couple had been scheduled to see. The story was completely fabricated. Eventually, after $100,000 in attorney's bills, Glennon was able to unmask the culprit. It turned out to be a complete stranger who had been offended by a comment Glennon had made about a news article on Facebook.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Bloomberg Media takes a stab at overhauling the display ad →
“Standard banners don't perform the way anyone would like them to.”
Eater / Daniela Galarza
The New York Times takes its digital recipes back to print with a customizable cookbook →
“Dinner: What to Cook Tonight is a trial run for what could become a completely customizable cookbook. In this itineration, recipes are limited to a theme — dinner — and just 192 of the Times' 19,000 recipes are available as options.” BuzzFeed’s Tasty did something similar.
The Atlantic / Taylor Lorenz
Teens are debating the news on Instagram →
“Specifically, they've turned to ‘flop’ accounts — pages that are collectively managed by several teens, many of them devoted to discussions of hot-button topics: gun control, abortion, immigration, President Donald Trump, LGBTQ issues, YouTubers, breaking news, viral memes.”
TechCrunch / Greg Kumparak

Jumat, 27 Juli 2018

Today in the Future of News: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest
What We’re Reading
Wall Street Journal / Shalini Ramachandran and Benjamin Mullin
Clashing egos and feuds over the company's future have engulfed Univision, the U.S.'s largest Spanish-language broadcasting outlet →
“The magnitude of the closely held company's financial woes became clear to the board late last year when executives cut 2018 earnings forecasts by $275 million, or 20 percent, potentially shaving billions of dollars off Univision's valuation, people familiar with the matter said. On Wednesday, Univision began laying off about 6 percent of its workforce, or around 270 people.”
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism / Joseph Lichterman
The Boston Globe and WBUR experimented with a daily sports podcast. In the end, it wasn’t worth the scramble →
“WBUR wouldn't share statistics about listenership, but in order for a podcast to be sustainable, it typically needs more than 1 million downloads per month, according to Iris Adler, executive director for programming, podcasts, and special projects. Three WBUR staff members worked on the podcast. In comparison, most of the station’s daily radio shows have six to 20 people working on them. The New York Times' successful daily podcast The Daily has a full-time staff of eight working to produce each episode.”
Washington Post PR
The Washington Post is looking for a host for its forthcoming daily news podcast →
“We are looking for an accomplished journalist with extensive experience who has a proven record of reporting and writing on a variety of subjects. This person will be the voice and personality of a daily podcast and will need to lead a show by engaging listeners both on air and on social media.”
Poynter / Rachel Schallom
A list of resources for mentoring, sourcing, invoicing, reporting, self-care, and more →
More than a dozen women contributed to the list below of services and sites they wish others knew about. Have something to add? Tweet at The Cohort newsletter writer Rachel Schallom here.
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Is Facebook invincible? Apparently not! →
Facebook finally missed revenue expectations — its first revenue miss since 2015 — and coupled that with a warning to investors, that its revenue growth would slow noticeably in the second half of 2018. Its earnings call Wednesday illuminated a few other reasons for the decline: GDPR, uncertain monetization opportunities for the ephemeral Stories feature, plateauing or declining user growth.
BuzzFeed News / Charlie Warzel
Trump tweets that Twitter is “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. It’s not →
A Vice story had claimed that the platform was limiting search results for conservatives but not liberals, and @realdonaldtrump caught on Thursday morning, tweeting: “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.” But according to Twitter, the issue of some accounts not populating in search is just a bug — one it’s actively working to correct.

Kamis, 26 Juli 2018

Want to support journalism with cryptocurrency on Civil? First you must pass this really hard quiz: The latest from Nieman Lab

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Want to support journalism with cryptocurrency on Civil? First you must pass this really hard quiz

The Nieman Lab staffers failed. So did Manoush Zomorodi, a cofounder of one of the new Civil-backed newsrooms that’s leaning on the promises of the company’s forthcoming cryptocurrency sale in August. By Shan Wang.

News Counts is a collaborative project to protect the 2020 Census (and help journalists get the best stories out of it)

“Our pitch is: Journalists, this isn’t a one-off phenomenon. It’s an ongoing, living record of our communities.” By Laura Hazard Owen.
What We’re Reading
NewsMatch
Hey nonprofit news outlets — NewsMatch 2018’s application deadline is in one week →
“NewsMatch is the largest grassroots campaign for nonprofit news. A matching-gift campaign now in its third year, NewsMatch has helped nonprofit newsrooms raise more than $5 million and show tens of thousands of new donors the value of nonprofit journalism.”
The New York Times / Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Gwyneth Paltrow’s controversy-ridden ‘wellness’ brand Goop is hiring a fact-checker →
“After a few too many cultural firestorms, and with investors to think about, Paltrow made some changes. Goop has hired a lawyer to vet all claims on the site. It hired an editor away from Condé Nast to run the magazine. It hired a man with a Ph.D. in nutritional science, and a director of science and research who is a former Stanford professor. And in September, Goop, sigh, is hiring a full-time fact-checker. Paltrow chose to see it as ‘necessary growing pain.'”
WGBH / Dan Kennedy
“The [Boston] Globe cannot ever seem to meet budgets — on either the revenue side or the expense side” →
“…and I am not going to continue that,” says Globe owner John Henry. “This has always been about sustainability rather than sizable, endless, annual losses. That is frustrating and due to a combination of mismanagement and a tough industry.”
CNNMoney / Oliver Darcy
The media’s fascination with Breitbart has faded — and that could spell trouble for the site →
“”The story of Breitbart’s rise and fall is a lot like that of Icarus who arrogantly flew way beyond his station in life, got too close to the sun, and had his wings of wax melt, causing him to fall from the sky,” said John Ziegler, a conservative talk show host who writes for Mediaite and was a friend of Andrew Breitbart’s.
ASNE / Staff
Participate in 2018 ASNE diversity survey →
“Without question, embracing diversity is the right thing to do, but it’s also a business imperative in a multicultural society. Diversity of thought is part of the solution. It inspires more creativity that drives innovation. It leads to more robust community conversations that may lead to positive change.” Submit your survey by August 1.
Washington Post / Tony Romm
Trump criticizes FCC for moving to block Sinclair-Tribune merger →
"Liberal Fake News NBC and Comcast gets approved, much bigger, but not Sinclair. Disgraceful!"
BuzzFeed News / Ryan Mac and Charlie Warzel
“We need to be willing to pick sides,” says Facebook’s (outgoing) chief security officer Alex Stamos →
“We need to listen to people (including internally) when they tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world. We need to deprioritize short-term growth and revenue and to explain to Wall Street why that is ok. We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues. And we need to be open, honest and transparent about our challenges and what we are doing to fix them.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Bill Adair
The creator of PolitiFact on why it’s time to move beyond the Truth-O-Meter →
“I think the Truth-O-Meter's ratings (which now range from True to Pants on Fire) are still effective for many readers. But I have come to realize that in our polarized environment, the meter I invented is not reaching everyone, and not reaching conservatives in particular.”

Rabu, 25 Juli 2018

12 prototypes, eight weeks, and lots of tapping: What’s worked (and hasn’t) in the BBC’s quest for new storytelling formats: The latest from Nie

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

12 prototypes, eight weeks, and lots of tapping: What’s worked (and hasn’t) in the BBC’s quest for new storytelling formats

A highlight in an article that reveals context when it’s clicked. A video with a scrollable transcript that speeds up or reverses the video, too. A movie trailer–like intro, drawing readers into the setup of the story. Which ones worked? By Christine Schmidt.

Netflix helped propel this podcast from a canceled show to a six-figure success

Plus: A big fat Leonard Lopate debacle at WBAI, “podcasts by women, for everyone, no creeps allowed,” and publishers are building teams around smart speakers. By Nicholas Quah.
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Paul Mozur and Sheera Frenkel
Facebook, trying to move forward in China, registers a Chinese subsidiary →
“Yet late Tuesday, in a sign of possible complications, the corporate registration was taken down from the Chinese government website and some references to the new subsidiary appeared to be censored on social media in the country.”
the Guardian / Jim Waterson
The Guardian Media Group says its digital revenues now outstrip print for the first time →
“GMG, which also owns the Observer, said it had a total of 570,000 members who give regular financial support to the organization, up from 500,000 at the end of last year. Income was further boosted by 375,000 one-off contributions from readers in the past 12 months. Digital revenues grew 15 percent to £108.6 million, as income from the print newspaper and events business fell by 10 percent to £107.5 million.”
Washington Post / Paul Farhi
The city that never sleeps is losing reporters to report on it →
"It's astonishing that this is happening in the media capital of America. Local news is a direct link between a community's safety and preservation, whether it's putting a spotlight on the need for a new stoplight on the corner or on a corrupt city council person. We don't have the legs to do that in New York anymore. The community doesn't have the watchdogs it once had."
Medium / Don Day
So what’s the plan? Corporate media is looking out for shareholders, so who’s looking out for readers? →
“Instead of getting bogged down in the problems of the current situation — we as an industry and as a society — must start to think about what comes next.”
Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott
The Economist shares what works (and doesn’t) on Instagram →
“As well as a mix of images and videos on its feed, the news organization regularly posts Instagram stories, not only pushing out its content, but asking its followers to engage with them and tell them about themselves — something the publisher has only started doing this year. But when the team tried a new format where journalists spoke directly to camera about different issues and asked people to get involved, it bombed.”
Quartz / Thu-Huong Ha
Forbes ended up deleting a misinformed op-ed arguing Amazon should replace libraries →
Though the much-ridiculed, now-deleted piece didn’t come from someone who paid to write for the site, as Felix Salmon briefly claimed in a popular Tweet on Tuesday.
BuzzFeed News / Jane Lytvynenko
A doctored video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is spreading on Facebook →
The fake interview branded as CRTV’s took real moments from Ocasio-Cortez’s interview with PBS’s Firing Line and edited them to look like she was giving nonsensical responses to basic questions. (CRTV is a conservative television station owned by pundit Mark Levin who has also written a book called Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism.)
International News Media Association (INMA) / Jasper Fulcher
While Snapchat growth slows, The Telegraph is still seeing returns →
“With 313,000 subscribers and counting, we're now looking ahead to developing the channel further, with a raft of new format and content ideas in the pipeline. The project has proven that The Telegraph brand has impact across age demographics.”
Poynter
A (regularly updated) guide to anti-misinformation actions around the world →
From Belarus to Indonesia to Uganda, many governments are cracking down on fake news, to varying levels of severity and with mixed results. Cambodia, for instance, which will see a national election at the end of July, has expanded its crackdown on fake news in the weeks leading up to the elections. (It’s unclear how the government is even defining “fake news.”)
Columbia Journalism Review / Amanda Darrach
A wake for the Daily News →
Seeking to shield young innocents from the harsh reality of the day, interns had been sent off to a mid-morning screening of Jurassic Park.
MM.LaFleur / Charlotte Cowles
Chalkbeat CEO Elizabeth Green knows a good story when she sees it →
“Everyone, especially my former colleagues, thought I was crazy to walk away from offers at established publications to work on this thing that no one had ever heard of. But to me, there wasn't great job security anywhere; it seemed just as safe to strike out on my own as it would be to take a full-time job where I could be laid off at any minute. Also, I couldn't see a newspaper wanting to support the kind of coverage that I cared about, because it wasn't particularly commercially viable.”