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Tuesday, October 9, 2018
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What is up with Apple’s screwy (and seemingly scammy) podcast charts?Plus: Spotify opens up its podcast section to everyone, Google bets on small producers, and The New York Times goes roundtable. By Nicholas Quah. |
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Stat, with subscriptions nearing 50 percent of revenue, looks to big companies for more members“We’ve become focused a little more on the paying subscribers.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Twitter / James Poniewozik
MediaPost / Alex Weprin
43% of mobile video apps are abandoned after one month →
“The new prime real estate is the home screen. If the consumer does not derive real value from an app shortly after using it, the app will either be deleted or abandoned on a page far from the device home screen, where it is far less likely to be used again.”
The New York Times / Daisuke Wakabayashi
R.I.P. Google Plus, 2011-2018 →
The cause of death was a security vulnerability after a long bout of inessentialness, according to a family representative. It is survived by millions of G+ buttons on long-unupdated websites.
Nieman Reports / Steve Myers
The great disconnect: How journalists at local and national outlets are evolving different skill sets →
“When I meet with these aspiring journalists in New Orleans, I lay out their options: Compete for one of the few local news jobs against people who have internships and deep resumes, or move to New York or Washington, where there's a relative abundance of entry-level jobs.”
Nieman Reports / J. Brady McCollough
Sports journalists battle for relevancy →
“For now, old and new sports media coexist, albeit uncomfortably at times. But, long term, how will serious sports journalism survive when entertainment dressed up as journalism is the only proven way to subsidize work that matters?”
Poynter / Doris Truong
ASNE’s 40-year-old diversity survey stillll needs responses before it can be released →
“According to ASNE, less than 14 percent of newsrooms surveyed (234 of about 1,700 newspapers and digital media outlets) submitted their data on time; as a result, news leaders now have until Oct. 12 to send in their information. Last year's numbers were released with about 40 percent of surveyed newsrooms participating.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Politico’s London Playbook email newsletter has 30,000 subscribers one year in →
“The newsletter's rate of growth has been higher than its Brussels counterpart, which launched in 2015 and now has over 80,000 subscribers. (Full disclosure: it inherited 38,000 when it launched). The U.S. edition, launched in 2007, has nearly 200,000 subscribers.”
Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
The planet is on a fast track to destruction. The media must cover this like it’s the only story that matters →
“In short, when it comes to climate change, we — the media, the public, the world — need radical transformation, and we need it now. Just as the smartest minds in earth science have issued their warning, the best minds in media should be giving sustained attention to how to tell this most important story in a way that will creates change.”
Abacus News / Xinmei Shen
How China’s biggest social network fights fake news →
“Here's how the mini program works: The front page shows a feed of articles that have been debunked recently, with a search box at the top where you can search for terms and see if there are any debunked articles related to it. The second section (‘Related to Me’) compiles all the fake news articles that you have either read or shared. The last section shows the number of articles debunked and who the fact checkers are.”
Fast Company / Steven Melendez
MIT and Qatari scientists are training computers to detect fake news sites →
“When presented with a new news outlet, the system was roughly 65 percent accurate at detecting whether it has a high, medium, or low level of factuality and 70 percent accurate at detecting whether it leans to the left, right, or center.”
Washington Post / Erin Cunningham and Kareem Fahim
Journalist Jamal Kashoggi has reportedly been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey; President Erdogan demands Saudis prove he left their consulate alive →
“Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, 59, a critic of the Saudi leadership and a contributor to The Washington Post's Global Opinions section, was killed by a team of 15 Saudis flown in specifically to carry out the attack. Saudi authorities have called the allegation ‘baseless.'”
The Atlantic / Alexis Madrigal
YouTube’s entertainment for children is weirder — and more globalized — than adults could have expected →
“But whereas Disney has long mined cultures around the world for legends and myths—dropping them into consumerist, family-friendly American formats—ChuChu's videos are a different kind of hybrid: The company ingests Anglo-American nursery rhymes and holidays, and produces new versions with subcontinental flair. The characters' most prominent animal friend is a unicorn-elephant. Nursery rhymes become music videos, complete with Indian dances and iconography. Kids of all skin tones and hair types speak with an Indian accent.”
Medium / Siobhan O'Connor
New York Post / Keith J. Kelly
Tribune Publishing and McClatchy are inching closer to a potential merger →
“One source said the parties are ‘trying to fast-track it’ now that billionaire LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is offering to sweeten a pending deal by kicking up to $150 million in cash into the pot.”
Wired / Molly McKew
Brett Kavanaugh and the information terrorists trying to reshape America →
“This is an operational unit of information terrorists helping to transform the way Americans consume news in the age of Trump—some of the central nodes that give order to the information deluge and around which bot armies and human amplification networks can be organized, wiped out, reconstituted, and armed for attack.”
BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman
Facebook’s hyperpartisan publishers have deepened divisions around Kavanaugh’s confirmation →
“Daily Wire's top story about Kavanaugh confirmation was published Oct. 1 with the headline ‘Prosecutor Who Questioned Ford Shreds Her Case In Five-Page Memo.’ It's generated more than 205,000 engagements. The site also received just under 180,000 engagements for the story, ‘Bill Clinton Rape Accuser Juanita Broaddrick Crashes Kavanaugh Hearing, Slams Dems For “Biggest Double Standard.”‘”
Cheddar / Alex Heath
Snap sets out plans for profitability in 2019, with the CEO admitting Snapchat “rushed our redesign” →
“Spiegel's memo to Snap employees surfaces at a time when the company's stock is trading at all-time lows. Snapchat's widely-panned redesign sparked outcry from users and ultimately led to the company's first-ever decline in daily active users last quarter. On Thursday, Snap shares dipped below $8 for the first time after a Wall Street analyst said that Facebook’s ($FB) Instagram is "irreversibly reducing" Snap's ability to meet investor expectations.” The full memo is in the link.