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Monday, July 2, 2018
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Newsonomics: What’s next for the L.A. Times, and a few other questions of the moment for the news businessWarren Buffett may not have sold his newspapers, but he sure looks to be throwing in the towel. By Ken Doctor. |
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As The New York Times extends its reach across countries (and languages and cultures), it looks to locals for guidance“What I'm trying to figure out is, what are the proxies for deeper engagement — what are the proxies for repeated use and habituation in a place like this?…Readers are not going to read 100 Australia stories. So what’s the right mix?” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
BuzzFeed / Jon Christian
Pay for play: A contributor to Forbes and Entrepreneur has been promoting clients in his articles for years →
“‘I’m on a mission to demystify and simplify online marketing for entrepreneurs,’ reads his bio for Forbes, which also notes that he is the CEO of a marketing company called AudienceBloom. What's missing from that bio, and from all of his articles, is the disclosure that AudienceBloom offers clients a service in which it secures ‘brand mentions’ about them in ‘major media publications’ — often thanks to DeMers himself promoting clients in his articles.”
Free Press
New Jersey dedicates millions to strengthen local news coverage →
“The historic bill creates the Civic Information Consortium and will invest the $5 million in projects designed to meet the information needs of residents around New Jersey, especially in underserved communities, low-income communities and communities of color.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
Facebook hires Spiegel exec (and sometimes critic) to strengthen relations with publishers in Europe →
“Jesper Doub, CEO of German media giant Spiegel Online, [will] head up a new news media partnerships team that focuses specifically on news publishers and media owners. His job title will be director of news partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and he will recruit a team, the size of which isn't yet known.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Nicholas Diakopoulos
There are a lot of rote tasks a good AI interviewer could do for you →
“The technology is potentially useful in journalism wherever simple information solicitations are required (and where there is an obligation to answer, for instance, from public officials) or where the incentives of an interviewee are aligned with honestly answering a question or providing data. While this represents a narrow slice of the conversations that reporters have on a day-to-day basis, there are still some opportunities there.”
The New York Times / Jaclyn Peiser
Hard news. Angry administration. Teenage journalists know what it’s like. →
“In a statement, the school district said: "While this particular issue of the paper did not live up to the journalistic standards we expect, it was, nevertheless, printed, published and distributed freely at the school in classrooms and throughout the campus." But not all student papers experience the same level of press freedom.
Wall Street Journal / Jeffrey Trachtenberg
Rolling Stone is relaunching as a monthly magazine, $9.99/single copy →
“We want to set ourselves up for long-term success. You can't do that if you are creating a fake audience for your magazine and are buying tons of traffic online.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
American news sites continue to block European visitors more than a month after GDPR took effect →
"’We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism,’ a message on the Los Angeles Times homepage reads to visitors it detects as being from the EU. Lee Enterprises, The Dallas Morning News and local news network Patch are also blocking EU visitors.”
Quartz / Kevin J. Delaney and Jay Lauf
Quartz has been acquired by Japanese firm Uzabase for up to $110 million →
As part of the deal, Quartz will take over responsibility for the English-language version of the business news app NewsPicks on behalf of Uzabase, while continuing all of its current activities. Uzabase will be paying between $75 million and $110 million for Quartz in cash and stock, tied to the site hitting certain financial goals, according to the Wall Street Journal.