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Wednesday, November 28, 2018
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Canada’s new subsidies for news will warp the market and hurt innovation — unless they’re done right“Necessity breeds innovation, and the government’s intervention removes that necessity for Canadian journalism.” By David Skok. |
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CrossCheck launches in Nigeria, with 16 newsrooms working together to fight misinformationCrossCheck Nigeria builds on what First Draft and its partners learned about misinformation on WhatsApp from the Comprova project in Brazil. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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35 prototypes, one year, and lots learned: The BBC puts its mobile storytelling plan in action In the BBC's final two experimental rounds, the R&D team focused on 1) tweaking the stories based on each reader's information needs and 2) breaking down the news into more digestible bits. By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Willamette Week / Matthew Singer
Uh, that Thrillist review that allegedly wrecked the cutesy burger bar might not have been the real trouble →
A reminder of local reporting’s importance: “[The owner’s] failure to live up to the terms of the divorce settlement he’d signed led to a December 2016 contempt-of-court charge, and he was ordered to pay $25,324. Six months after the contempt charge, [Thrillist’s] Alexander declared Stanich’s burger the best in the country.”
TechCrunch / Josh Constine
Facebook must police Today In, its local news digest launching in 400 cities →
“Facebook is hoping to fill a void after surveys found 50 percent of users wanted more local news through Facebook. It previously tested Today In with New Orleans, La.; Little Rock, Ark.; Billings, Mont.; Peoria, Ill.; Olympia, Wash.; and Binghamton, N.Y. The feature could give local outlets a referral traffic boost that could help offset the fact that Facebook has drained ad dollars from journalism into its own News Feed ads.”
Poynter / Kristen Hare
How the food team at the Times-Picayune transformed itself →
“The food team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune has its own Instagram account with more than 56,000 followers. It has a Facebook group, too, with more than 42,500 members. What they don't have? Their own dedicated social media editor.”
Twitter / Leon Neyfakh
Leon Neyfakh is leaving Slate and Slow Burn to launch Fiasco, a new podcast →
“The new show will be called Fiasco. It will be about the past — why the history we half-remember played out the way it did, and what marks it left on the world we live in.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Lyndsey Gilpin
What I’ve learned from two years trying to shift narratives about the South →
“Instead of asking Appalachians why they don't just move because of poor water quality, I ask them how they use the attachment to land in the region as a way to get people to care about taking action on these problems. Last year, when a popular story was the renewable energy boom, I wrote for InsideClimate News about conservative mayors leading the way on solar because of the economics.”
Medium / Sarah Schmalbach
HERE is Lenfest’s location-aware app that puts you at the center of local news discovery →
“Our first experimental app explores what's made possible by geotagging local news stories and delivering them when you're nearby.”
Washington Post / Amanda Bennett
Trump's “worldwide network” is a great idea — but it already exists →
“Seventy-six years ago, the world was a dark place. The radio broadcast that eventually became Voice of America was created to give people trapped behind Nazi lines accurate, truthful news about the war, in contrast with Nazi propaganda.”
BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman
How the FBI and tech industry took down a massive ad fraud scheme →
“At its peak, 3ve involved about 1.7 million PCs infected with malware, an array of servers that could generate mountains of fake traffic with bots, roughly 5,000 counterfeit websites created to impersonate legitimate web publishers, and over 60,000 accounts with digital advertising companies to help fraudsters receive ad placements and get paid. The indictment also alleges the fraudsters created their own advertising networks to help facilitate the fraud.”
The New York Times / Kara Swisher
Pop-Up Magazine Productions, The Atlantic, Gimlet Media: Can Laurene Powell Jobs save storytelling? →
“Ms. Powell Jobs has $20 billion from the stakes in Apple and Disney that she inherited from her husband, Steve Jobs. She also seems to have inherited his understanding that narrative moves people more than anything else.”
The Guardian / Amanda Meade
Judith Neilson, an Australian billionaire philanthropist, will fund a $100M institute for journalism in Sydney →
“Journalism doesn't just need critics, it needs champions – people and institutions with the resources to help educate, encourage and connect journalists and their audience in pursuit of excellence,” Neilson said.