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Monday, July 9, 2018
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More than 11,000 people are paying (yes, paying) for email newsletters on Substack’s platformOn average, they’re paying just under $80 per year. About 40 or so indie publishers with paid offerings are making what Substack calls “meaningful money.” By Shan Wang. |
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A couch to crash on: PressPad aims to tackle one small part of journalism’s class diversity problemIt’s a longstanding quandary for aspiring journalists: How can I get housing in the big city for just a few weeks, while I’m paid nothing or close to it? PressPad wants current journalists to help out the next generation. By Marlee Baldridge. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Edmund Lee and John Koblin
AT&T wants HBO to be more mass-market →
“…a future in which HBO would substantially increase its subscriber base and the number of hours that viewers spend watching its shows. To pull it off, the network will have to come up with more content, transforming itself from a boutique operation, with a focus on its signature Sunday night lineup, into something bigger and broader.”
Press Gazette / Freddy Mayhew
The New European publishes 100th issue after starting as ‘pop-up’ paper only planned for four-week run →
“The launch came just two weeks after Britain had voted to leave the European Union, with the title declaring itself ‘the new pop-up paper for the 48 per cent’ of Remain voters under the masthead. Since then its statement front pages – all of which are collected in its latest and 100th edition – have become a hallmark of the brand under former Mirror man Kelly.”
Media Update / Aisling McCarthy
Print versus digital: Four reasons why print is still around →
“Over the past few years, the digital age has made a major impact on how business is done and how consumers are engaged. However, in the age-old battle of print versus digital, why is it that print still comes out on top?”
Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
The ongoing difficulty of keeping attention on the border →
“Speaking with Brian Stelter on CNN's Reliable Sources yesterday, Vox Editor-at-Large Ezra Klein, for example, complained that the media over-indulged repetitive attacks emanating from Trump's rally in Montana last Thursday. "Whenever Donald Trump wants to change a subject, he just sets up a rally and goes and says a bunch of crazy stuff," Klein said. "What are we crowding out, when we let him decide what we cover?" “
Fast Company / Jori Ford
A lesson from the tech world on diversifying the newsroom hiring pool →
Step One: “Ditch the quotas. You're setting yourself up for failure if you're merely working toward filling an equal employment opportunity quota. Those benchmarks do little more than minimize individuals' value in the organization, and by chasing a goal like "raise proportion of women on the engineering team by 10% this year," you risk embracing a mind-set that makes it harder to see how every engineer–no matter who they are–is contributing to the team's collective goals.”
Poynter / Daniel Funke
WhatsApp on its misinformation problem: “Fact-checking is going to be essential” →
“There seems to be an overall recognition of how this platform has evolved in India, and that they need to do something about it and start working on it. If I was discouraged in the past that they were ignorant, I do get a sense now that they are pretty reasonably clued in and working to fix whatever they can fix.”
TechCrunch / Brian Heater
Univision is reportedly mulling the sale of Fusion Media Group →
“All of this comes less than two years after Univision purchased Gawker Media, picking up the large suite of sites for $135 million, after the brand was felled by a Hulk Hogan lawsuit partially bankrolled by Peter Thiel. The brand was then folded into Fusion Media Group, a created four months prior when Univision bought out Disney's stake in Fusion TV.”
Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
A journalist’s conscience leads her to reveal her source to the FBI. Here’s why →
“It’s not a decision I regret.”
The Drum / Bennett Bennett
WhatsApp and Facebook are turning to academics to help deter misinformation issues →
The Whatsapp Research Awards are now a real thing.
Washington Post / Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin
Twitter is sweeping out fake accounts like never before, putting user growth at risk →
“The extent of account suspensions, which has not previously been reported, is one of several recent moves by Twitter to limit the influence of people it says are abusing its platform. The changes, which were the subject of internal debate, reflect a philosophical shift for Twitter. Its executives long resisted policing misbehavior more aggressively, for a time even referring to themselves as ‘the free speech wing of the free speech party.'”