 |
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
 |
Billy Penn, Denverite, and The Incline are all going after members. Can they become predominately reader-supported?The three sites together are “just south of 1,500 paying customers,” 60 percent of whom are signed up as recurring contributors (of these, the average annual contribution is around $115 or $120). Denverite, which launched its program first, has around 900 members. By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
The Intercept / Ryan Gallagher
14 organizations, including Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect Journalists, tell Google to cancel its censored Chinese search engine project →
Google search engine chief Ben Gomes: “This is a world none of us have ever lived in before. We need to be focused on what we want to enable, and then when the opening happens, we are ready for it.”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
BuzzFeed launches its own Reviews, like Wirecutter →
“A job posting on LinkedIn for the managing editor of the new BuzzFeed site said the position would have ‘a dotted line to teams across BuzzFeed, from tech to sales to affiliate to editorial.'”
The Incline / Colin Deppen
Pittsburgh is now the largest city in America without a daily print newspaper →
“Post-Gazette Executive Editor David Shribman wrote that eliminating two print issues allows it to focus more on ‘undertaking a full-throttle commitment to the digital delivery of news….’ In a subsequent letter to readers and subscribers, the PG said print editions would be eliminated on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but it will continue publishing e-editions on those days.”
The Verge / Nilay Patel
The Verge is publishing an interim edition of Sarah Jeong's The Internet of Garbage →
“After a year on The Verge's staff as a senior writer, Sarah recently joined The New York Times Editorial Board to write about technology issues. The move kicked off a wave of outrage and controversy as a group of trolls selectively took Sarah's old tweets out of context to inaccurately claim that she is a racist. This prompted a further wave of unrelenting racist harassment directed at Sarah, a wave of coverage examining her tweets, and a final wave of coverage about the state of outrage generally. This is all deeply ironic because Sarah laid out exactly how these bad-faith tactics work in The Internet of Garbage.”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Quartz is launching its first paid product, a crypto newsletter, since being acquired by Uzabase →
“For $15 a month or $150 a year, readers will have access to a twice-weekly newsletter that summarizes and analyzes the rapidly shifting world of cryptocurrencies and the decentralized accounting technology that supports them.”
Washington Post / Isaac Stanley-Becker and Brian Fung
Trump's economic adviser: “We're taking a look” at whether Google searches should be regulated →
“In a pair of tweets posted before 6 a.m., the president said the results included only ‘the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media.'”
Lenfest Institute
18 news organizations are splitting $100,000 in funding to use Hearken and GroundSource →
“This CLEF cohort will use Hearken and GroundSource to cover a diverse range of topics, such as the employment boom in Racine County, Wisconsin thanks to a new plant being built by Taiwanese telecom giant Foxconn (Racine County Eye) and the upcoming midterm elections (City Limits, The Colorado Independent, The Day, etc.).”