 |
Thursday, October 18, 2018
 |
Fewer mugshots, less naming and shaming: How editors in Cleveland are trying to build a more compassionate newsroom“I didn’t see how we could justify standing on tradition when it was causing that kind of suffering…It really comes down to: How long does somebody have to pay for a mistake?” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
 |
Did Facebook’s faulty data push news publishers to make terrible decisions on video?Publishers’ “pivot to video” was driven largely by a belief that if Facebook was seeing users, in massive numbers, shift to video from text, the trend must be real. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin
Publishers say Facebook’s bad metrics *aren’t* to blame for their pivots to video →
“‘Mic's decision to build out a premium video journalism newsroom in 2016 was a result of growing digital video consumption, which has only accelerated across all platforms including social, mobile, web and streaming. It did not have to do with Facebook's average watch-time metrics,’ a Mic spokeswoman said.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Reader payments now make up 12 percent of The Guardian’s revenue →
“Anna Bateson, chief customer officer at The Guardian, said she sees that 12 percent figure rising to around 20 percent of the publisher's total.”
Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott
Financial Times launches a new tool to help “knowledge-hungry” subscribers track their reading →
“The tool will track the articles that subscribers read, giving them an indication of the amount of information they have read on a topic, and suggesting further reads to them. It aims to offer subscribers a more ‘satisfying read’, making it easier to find the content they need more quickly.”
WFTS / The E.W. Scripps Company
Digiday / Lucia Moses
Slate jumps into the daily news podcast arena with “What Next” →
“Slate's weekday podcast, ‘What Next,’ starting Oct. 17 and like the morning ‘The Daily,’ lasts 20 or so minutes and tackles the news of the day. Slate is trying to differentiate ‘What Next’ by designing it for the evening commute with a 5 p.m. post time.”
Public Radio Business Laboratory
WBUR is looking for stations to test revenue ideas (with financial support up to $15,000) →
“Through a collective of multiple stations simultaneously experimenting, we can uncover new avenues for revenue generation that will benefit all of public radio, as well as establish a process for generating and evaluating ideas for new revenue.” Deadline is October 31.
Columbia Journalism Review / Amanda Darrach
The challenge of reporting the Khashoggi story →
“The struggle to double check evidence when the only sources of information—the Turkish government and closely intertwined Turkish media—are politically biased has been a challenge for journalists reporting the Khashoggi case.”
the Guardian / Margaret Atwood
A year after her murder, where is the justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia? →
“At 3pm on 16 October 2017, as she drove away from her family home, a bomb placed under her car was detonated. She was 53 years old. The last words she wrote were: ‘There are crooks everywhere, the situation is desperate.'”
Poynter / Daniel Funke
Fake news is making college students question all news →
“According to the report, when middle school students were asked to distinguish between an ad and a news story, they often couldn't. High school students did not consistently notice that a chart on gun violence was created by a political action committee and college students did not go out of their way to research sites with .org URLs.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Shelley Hepworth
What just happened at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation? →
“But it soon emerged that the impetus for Guthrie's removal wasn't as straightforward as replacing an ineffectual manager. Emails obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that Guthrie had been standing up to the chairman of the ABC's board, Justin Milne, to protect the broadcaster's legislated editorial independence. The possibility of political meddling at the ABC sparked outrage, and Milne soon resigned as well.”
Variety / Janko Roettgers
The New York Times and e-book service Scribd are launching a dual subscription for $12.99 per month →
“Scribd and the New York Times first teamed up in 2017 for a student bundle. The two companies aren't the only ones looking to boost subscriber numbers with discounted bundles: Spotify teamed up with Hulu for a joint $12.99 subscription plan earlier this year, and subsequently boosted its $5 student subscription plan to include both Showtime and Hulu.”