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Monday, November 19, 2018
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Why covering the environment is one of the most dangerous beats in journalism“In both wealthy and developing countries, journalists covering these issues find themselves in the cross-hairs. Most survive, but many undergo severe trauma, with profound effects on their careers.” By Eric Freedman. |
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The Boston Globe seeks a contact high from the spread of marijuana legalizationWith its new vertical on cannabis, the Globe joins a budding list of local news outlets seeking to build audience via legal pot. By Joshua Benton. |
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If you hate the media, you’re more likely to be fooled by a fake headlineYou’re also more likely to confuse news and opinion — but more likely to think you never need any help finding accurate information online, thankyouverymuch. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
Poynter / Doris Truong
A seat at the table: American newsrooms still don’t represent their diverse communities →
“A half-century ago, the Kerner Commission investigated the racial unrest that tore at the fabric of the nation in 1967. The panel laid some of the responsibility on journalists for the deadly summer of violence: ‘The media report and write from the standpoint of a white man's world.'”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales wanted to let readers edit the news. What went wrong? →
“Wales tells CJR he hasn't given up, and that the layoffs were part of a strategy to make the site more user driven. But he admits WikiTribune has also used up the money it raised from a crowdfunding campaign and a group of investors, including a $100,000 matching grant from the CUNY-based News Integrity Initiative and $500,000 from Google's Digital News Initiative. (For the time being, Wales is funding the project himself.)”
The New york Times / Edmund Lee
Jonah Peretti floats a BuzzFeed-Vice-Vox Media-Group Nine-Refinery merger →
“Mr. Peretti extolled the logic of combining forces: A larger entity could lobby for better business terms from Facebook and Google, and in turn supply them with videos and articles safe for users and friendlier for advertisers. He pointed to how Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have had to answer for the latest content crisis plaguing social media.”
BuzzFeed News / Steven Perlberg
Using op-ed pages and lobbyists, the media wants Congress to let it gang up on Facebook and Google →
“News companies are barred from negotiating together without an exemption, or they could face steep penalties. In 2012, the Justice Department went after large book publishing houses for their effort to team up with Apple to fix e-book prices against the growing power of Amazon. News publishers believe they deserve to have the antitrust rule temporarily lifted.”
Global Editors Network
Q&A’s with executives from LaterPay, SatoshiPay, and Facebook on how to make digital readers want to pay →
“As continuous media publishers announce paywalls for their premium content, so are consumers becoming more aware and demanding of the content they read online. This has created a debate, covering a user-willingness to prioritise, and pay for, digital news. Though lately, it seems, the focus has slightly shifted. No longer is the debate asking 'will consumers pay for quality content?', but rather 'how many different subscriptions can a consumer put up with?'”
Behind Local News / Nick Wrenn and Sian Cox-Brooker
Why Facebook is investing £4.5 million in local U.K. news →
“The Community News Project is a £4.5 million (USD $6 million) fund designed to support local journalism in the UK. This investment will enable the NCTJ to oversee the recruitment of around 80 trainee 'community journalists' and place them at the heart of local newsrooms on a two-year scheme. The goal is to encourage more reporting from towns which have lost their local newspaper and beat reporters.”
Digiday / Mark Weiss
Ad buyers plan to buy more from Instagram and Amazon in 2019 →
“In a November 2018 survey of 469 media buyers from Digiday+'s propriety research panel of media and advertising executives, 79 percent say they plan to increase their spending on Instagram in 2019 and 73 percent expect the same for Amazon.”
Bloomberg / Gerry Smith
BuzzFeed’s commerce division has generated $50M in sales this year, developing millennial-targeted product inventions for firms →
"Companies make a thing, then tell media companies, 'Please tell the world about this,"' BuzzFeed’s commerce head Ben Kaufman said. "It should work in a more collaborative fashion. We should say, 'Here's what we think the world needs. Can you make this?' And go back and forth."
Columbia Journalism Review / Lyz Lenz
Meditations on Axios’s smart brevity longform →
“If you are still confused, let me venture an explanation: It's a Wikipedia article in newsletter form for the ruling class. Or, Mike Allen's not-so Tiny Letter.”
Washington Post / Eli Saslow
“Nothing on this page is real”: How lies become truth in online America →
“She had spent a few hours scrolling one afternoon when she heard a noise outside her window, and she turned away from the screen to look outside. A neighbor was sweeping his sidewalk, pushing tiny white rocks back into his rock garden. The sky was an uninterrupted blue. A mailman worked his way up the empty street. There were no signs of ‘Sharia Law.’ The migrant caravan was still hundreds of miles away in Mexico. Antifa protesters had yet to descend on Pahrump. Chapian squinted against the sun, closed the shades and went back to her screen.”
The Atlantic / scott nover
The ruling on Jim Acosta’s press pass was not the end of the battle →
“The ruling signals that Acosta is likely to prevail on the merits of his Fifth Amendment case, as the White House did not properly give notice, explanation, and an opportunity for rebuttal, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had said was necessary in a similar case decided more than 40 years ago. Kelly explicitly did not rule on Acosta's claim that his First Amendment rights had been violated.”
the Guardian / Jim Waterson
Google News may shutter in Europe over EU plans to charge tax for links →
Richard Gringas, Google’s vice president of news, said “the last time a government attempted to charge Google for links, in 2014 in Spain, the company responded by shutting down Google News in the country. Spain passed a law requiring aggregation sites to pay for news links, in a bid to prop up struggling print news outlets. Google responded by closing the service for Spanish consumers, which he said prompted a fall in traffic to Spanish news websites.”
LION Publishers / Steve Beatty
LION Publishers is broadening its membership criteria and outreach →
“Going forward, LION will work intentionally to build the capacity and sustainability of ethnic media, public media, niche publications and university-based local news initiatives.”