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Tuesday, August 14, 2018
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I want bad news and I want it fast: That’s the business model for Factal, a business-focused company from the founders of Breaking NewsA consumer product is on the roadmap, but for now, Factal is aimed at businesses and will cost several thousand dollars a month. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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American podcasters are starting to pay more attention to their international audiences (and their pounds, loonies, and euros)Plus: Slow Burn returns for Season 2, the new class of podcast apps plays around with paid models, and figuring out podcasting’s Audible future. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
The owner of New York magazine is considering a sale →
The New York Media family includes Vulture, a website that tracks the entertainment industry; Grubstreet, a food and restaurant site; SelectAll, a vertical dedicated to technology; The Cut, a fashion and lifestyle site; and The Strategist, a vertical that makes recommendations for a variety of products. Earlier this year, it acquired Splitsider, a comedy website, from The Awl Network. (The Wasserstein family-helmed company doesn’t make its finances public.)
CNN / Donie O'Sullivan
Meet the Indiana dad who moonlights as a Russian troll hunter →
“Josh Russell is part of a growing network of online sleuths using public information to conduct open source investigations into Russian accounts posing as Americans. Officially, their work is called open-source intelligence, or OSINT, and it often identifies trolls before the platforms do. Russell’s work in particular has helped journalists at CNN, NBC News, The Daily Beast, and other outlets cut through the lies and disinformation.”
Reuters / Richard Martin
Facebook buys the rights to show La Liga football games across the Indian subcontinent →
All 380 league matches for the Spanish soccer division’s new season, which begins on Friday, would be available at no cost to viewers in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. (Facebook and La Liga declined to give financial details of the deal, which sees the social network giant unseat Sony Pictures Network as the rights holder in the region.)
Digiday / Max Willens
Conde Nast’s turnaround plan is facing hurdles →
“Condé said it expects to add 150 new roles in the next two years as it pursues five new areas of revenue, including video, creative services, consumer revenue, data licensing and events. The crux of Condé's plan is a continued push into video. But there will also be layoffs later this fall and three Condé titles — W, Brides and Golf Digest — have been put up for a strategic review.”
Business Insider / Will Martin
Turkey is blaming social media and ‘fabricated news’ for the collapse of its currency →
“The TCMB said it will seek prison sentences of two to five years for people who use news or social media to try to ‘affect the prices and valuations of capital market vehicles or investors’ decisions through their statements, reports, news stories, and analysis.'”
Washington Post / Avi Selk
Antifa protesters couldn't find any fascists at Unite the Right — and harassed the press instead →
“‘Are you going to report how many people they tear gassed?’ a self-described Antifa member screams at two reporters, as seen in video published by the right-wing website Breitbart. ‘Of course I will,’ a photographer replies. ‘That's what I'm doing.’ A man in a bandana lunges into the camera frame, screaming expletives at the journalists. ‘Ask questions!" the woman scolds them. "Don't just keep taking pictures.’ ‘We do both!’ says a woman who identified herself as a USA Today reporter. ‘I'm just trying to do my job, man.'”
Medium / Simon Owens
The Penny Hoarder started as a one-man personal finance blog. Now it generates millions in revenue →
“Where we are striving is to have effective monetized content. Those are posts you'll see on thepennyhoarder.com that have our disclosure explaining that some of these links are being sponsored. It's on those that we're making our money. But we have a broad variety of content, and most of it is not directly monetized.”
AAJA Voices / Elaine Chen, Cecilia Lei, Annie Ma, and Jonathan Ng
Mind the gap: Uncovering pay disparity in the newsroom →
“We reviewed pay studies commissioned by unions at the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle, in addition to the Journal, and we spoke with 29 journalists across the country to find out what they thought. All seven studies alleged that men made more than women and that whites made more than people of color. “
Fast Company / Cale Guthrie Weissman