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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
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So some people will pay for a subscription to a news site. How about two? Three?New York magazine and Quartz both now want readers to pay up. How deep into their pockets will even dedicated news consumers go for a second (or third or fourth) read? By Joshua Benton. |
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Pandora wants to map the “podcast genome” so it can recommend your next favorite showPlus: SNL pokes fun, Conan O’Brien tackles a new medium, and why we need more podcast transcripts. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus has been bought by its senior staff →
“Baseball Prospectus was one of the early examples of the subscription model of [online] publication, and with sites like The Athletic, the rest of the sportswriting world is slowly coming around to our point of view. Quality baseball writing and analysis depends on an environment where consumers pay for their content, just as it always has.”
Associated Press / Lauren Easton
The AP says its new election projection system worked well →
“In races for Senate and governor, AP VoteCast correctly projected the winner in 92 percent of races at 5 p.m. In the others, AP VoteCast had two as a tossup, with a projected difference between the candidates of less than one percentage point; three races remain too close to call a week after Election Day; and one incorrect winner was projected.”
ABC News / Kellie Riordan
True crime podcasts are as popular in Australia as everywhere else →
And other takeaways from the OzPod conference.
The Information / Tom Dotan
Patreon wants to expand from donations to services →
“The long view, though, is somebody’s got to solve the art-on-the-web problem from the point of view of the creator. Somebody’s got to be a force that’s fighting for creators all the time and looking at the world through the lens of a creator, not through consumer.”
Marketing Land / Amy Gesenhues
“WhatsApp ads will likely be personally cued and highly interactive” →
“The key for brands that do eventually decide to advertise on WhatsApp will be to strike a delicate balance with users. They will need to make sure they don't contaminate the experience with ads that make users feel like someone uninvited has invaded their private conversations.”
Recode / Eric Johnson
The Daily Beast says it now has “thousands” of paid subscribers →
The paid membership launched this summer. “We’ve got thousands and thousands of subscribers already,” says Noah Schachtman.
Reuters / Mathieu Rosemain
France to “embed” regulators at Facebook to combat hate speech →
“From January, Macron's administration will send a small team of senior civil servants to the company for six months to verify Facebook's goodwill and determine whether its checks on racist, sexist or hate-fueled speech could be improved.”
Wired / Emma Grey Ellis
Welcome to the age of the hour-long YouTube video →
“Those blocks of time should seem familiar, because they mirror the conventions of television.”
The New Yorker / Rebecca Mead
How podcasts became a seductive — and sometimes slippery — mode of storytelling →
“Until the podcast boom, nobody entered the field of narrative audio thinking that it might be a route to fortune or fame. Public radio, in which many narrative podcasters got their start, is not for profit, and aims at producing programming in the service of a better, and better-informed, society. Now a thrilling sense of possibility exists among the kinds of people who once might have tried magazine freelancing or blogging: that someone with talent can make a living, or even become rich, by podcasting. “
The Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
The media’s eagerness to discount the “blue wave” feeds a dangerous problem →
“By giving in to the impulse to analyze immediately, journalists and pundits feed the notion that the election should be over on election night.”
Recode / Rani Molla
19 percent of NPR’s live listening hours now come from smart speakers, up from 4 percent last year →
“This listening is accretive, as NPR hasn't seen declines on other platforms.”
BBC News
Nationalism is driving fake news in India, and other findings from the BBC’s research into fake news →
“Participants gave the BBC extensive access to their phones over a seven-day period, allowing the researchers to examine the kinds of material they shared, whom they shared it with and how often.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
The Financial Times sees podcasts leading to paying subscribers →
“To to have a fertile hunting ground [for conversions] of highly engaged people, many of whom listen to 70 to 80 percent of the podcasts, is good. You'll see a lot more of us trying to refine that. There is a big opportunity in using it to drive subscriptions.”
Medium / Nikitonsky
Medium is a poor choice for blogging →
“Every Medium article will greet each person who opens your link with a huge full-page banner every time.” (This article was posted to Medium.)