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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
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News n00bs: The quest for new audiences has taken The Washington Post to the streaming platform Twitch“It’s like a version of C-SPAN for a younger audience.” By Marlee Baldridge. |
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Wilson FM, which aims to “elevate podcast aesthetics,” is the first exciting podcast app in a long while“I’ve always had a soft spot for print design and aesthetics that have a point of view or opinion. But I’ve been working in tech for quite some time and am just tired of this A/B-tested, data-proven, metric-driven design.” By Nicholas Quah. |
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Dog-eared MP3s: The podcast and book publishing industries are finding new ways to cross-pollinatePlus: S-Town gets sued, Spotlight goes audio, and a remarkable new podcast player named Wilson FM. By Nicholas Quah. |
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Amazon Prime Day is the bad-news-free news event we’ve been waiting for this summerA day where clicking to refresh is fun, not panic-inducing. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
The Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Publishing executives argue Facebook is overly deferential to conservatives →
[BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith] “said that the number of conservative publications in attendance indicated that Facebook had bought into the idea, promoted primarily by conservatives, that mainstream outlets such as The New York Times are liberal and should be counterbalanced by right-leaning opinion outlets, said people familiar with his remarks.”
American Press Institute
API is hiring a director of accountability journalism to help newsrooms report on people and institutions in power →
This person would work from API’s office in Arlington, Virginia.
Variety / Anna Marie de la Fuente
Isaac Lee is leaving Univision, where he was chief content officer →
“Lee is concluding nearly eight years with Univision where he led Univision News, Univision Digital and eventually all content including websites the Onion and Gizmodo Media Group, which encompassed brands such as Deadspin, Jezebel, the Root, Splinter, and Lifehacker. He was named Univision chief content officer in January 2017.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Snapchat’s data is coming to NewsWhip, Storyful, SAM Desk and TagBoard →
“News organizations with subscriptions to these tools will now have full access to all publicly available Snaps, the same way they have access to publicly available Facebook and Twitter data through those vendors.”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Vox Media to begin licensing its publishing technology, Chorus →
“According to one Vox Media executive, the company plans to sell Chorus at different pricing tiers depending on the demands of each customer with fees in the six and seven-figure ranges.”
Cosmopolitan / Patti Greco
The CNN baby boom: How 8 pregnant journalists have covered this relentless news cycle →
“In December, when [CNN Newsroom anchor Poppy Harlow] was eight months pregnant, a spokesperson for anti-choice Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore told her that Moore would protect ‘babies like yours in the womb,’ as opposed to his opponent, Doug Jones, who would support ‘killing them.’ ‘Let's leave my child out of this,’ Harlow told her.”
IJNet.org / Natalia Smolentceva
For journalists interested in cross-border collaborations, Hostwriter offers opportunities and resources →
"How can we cover global climate change or migration from a national perspective?" asks Grzeszyk, explaining the natural shift toward collaborative, cross-border journalism. Collaborating is different than hiring a fixer, which is why Hostwriter wants to promote the relationship of co-authorship.
Journalism.co.uk / Marcela Kunova
HuffPost experiments with “listening circles” in Birmingham to go beyond the London bubble →
“By opening up a public-facing newsroom in the Bullring shopping centre, we wanted to be transparent about how the news is made and build trust among local audiences, but also show that as journalists we are listening and reflecting the lived realities of people across the UK, not just London or the south of England.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Kristen Chick
Is this photojournalism’s moment of reckoning? →
“These men are behaving badly, but there are also publications that harbor them,” says Polina V. Yamshchikov, a documentary photojournalist who lives in New York. “There is a calculus there, unconscious or not, of who is valuable and who is not in our industry.”
The Logic / Sean Craig
Facebook’s algorithm changes have led to layoffs and plummeting traffic at viral publisher Diply →
“Web traffic to Diply has declined for two years, with total visits falling over 85 percent from January 2016 to June 2018. According to SimilarWeb, an internet research firm, Diply generated 110 million visits in July 2016, falling to just over 50 million by March 2017, 32 million in January 2018 and finally to 13.7 million last month.”
Instapaper
Instapaper is going independent →
Pinterest had bought Instapaper in 2016. Now it’s giving it up.
Politico / Margaret Harding McGill
FCC likely dooms the Sinclair mega-deal →
“FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Monday he has ‘serious concerns’ about Sinclair Broadcast Group’s acquisition of Tribune Media, saying he would send the transaction through a lengthy administrative process often viewed as a deal-killer.”
The Outline / Oscar Schwartz
Targeted advertising has become so uncanny, it feels like we're being surveilled. Two artists want to hear these stories →
“New Organs collects first-hand accounts of these seemingly paranoiac moments. The website is comprised of a submission form that asks you to choose from a selection of experiences, like; my phone is eavesdropping on me’ to ‘I see ads for things I dream about.’ You're then invited to write a few sentences outlining your experience and why you think it happened to you.”
The Information / Sarah Kuranda
Facebook scrutiny is slowing approval of Messenger apps →
“The Information spoke to nearly a dozen developers frustrated by significant recent delays to get new apps approved..The developers, who work for retailers and others who want to interact with customers on Facebook Messenger, said the delays have cost them business and credibility with customers. At least one developer decided to stop building applications on Facebook altogether.”