 |
Thursday, December 6, 2018
 |
Google is launching a voice-driven version of Google News for smart speakers and phones“News on smart speakers is not living up to the promise of what it could be.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
 |
“Fake flus!” When it comes to health, battling misinformation requires strategic thinkingPolitics isn’t the only place where countering misinformation is tricky business: “The best evidence suggests that a more effective way of dealing with misinformation is not spreading it in the first place. That means avoiding repeating various myths — even if you’re debunking them.” By Matthew Motta, Dominik Stecula, and Kathryn Haglin. |
 |
Digital-native publishers settle in to face legacy constraints, with a side of reader revenue“It's like we're farmers…that's not a scalable start-up business, but it's a very steady, very sustainable, and very honest business based on relationships.” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Center for Cooperative Media / Heather Bryant
A database of 175 collaborative journalism projects now has full translations in Spanish and Portuguese →
“Whether it's the next Paradise Papers, covering stories with global impact like climate change or the industry's collective need to address disinformation efforts, cross-border collaborations are only going to become more common and more important.”
BuzzFeed News / Ryan Broderick
The riots in France are what happens when Facebook gets involved with local news →
“So, in less than two weeks, what you end up with is this: A Change.org petition with fewer than 1,500 subscribers gets talked about on a local radio station. The radio appearance is written up by a local news site. The article is shared to a local Facebook page. Thanks to an algorithm change that is now emphasizing local discussion, the article dominates the conversation in a small town. Two men from the same suburb then turn the petition into a Facebook event. A duplicate petition goes viral within the local Facebook groups. Then a daily newspaper writes up the original petition. This second article about the petition also goes viral. So does the original petition. And then the rest of French media follows.”
Mother Jones / Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery
How Facebook became the primary source and destroyer of news →
“The toxic combination of Facebook's anti-democratic effect, Donald Trump's authoritarian presidency, and the rise of a bolder class of propagandists is the story that in many ways defined this year, and will probably define the next two years too. It's a complex tale (and an interesting one) in which Facebook is neither the only villain nor only a villain. Let's try to unravel it.”
Reuters / Robin Emmott
Here’s the European Commission’s plan for combatting disinformation campaigns during elections →
“The European Union's executive proposed on Wednesday spending more money to counter fake news on the Internet, establishing an early warning system to alert governments and pushing tech companies do more to stop disinformation before next year's EU elections.”
NBC News / Claire Atkinson
Are media mega-mergers under threat with Democrats leading the House? →
“Democrats have already started to circle their wagons around Nexstar's proposed purchase of Tribune Media, with Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, saying in a statement Monday that the merger ‘would undoubtedly lead to mass layoffs in newsrooms at a time when our free and diverse press is already under assault.'”
USA Today / Philana Patterson and Mike Snider
Gannett CEO Robert J. Dickey will retire in May 2019 →
Gannett is also examining possible layoffs: “Maribel Wadsworth, president of USA Today Network and publisher of USA Today, told employees during a company-wide conference call Tuesday that digital revenue is not replacing declining print revenues, and some belt-tightening will be coming in the new year.”
The New York Times / Steve Lohr
“The worst place to be is in a place where there is no access to the technology everyone else is benefiting from.” →
“Over all, Microsoft concluded that 162.8 million people do not use the internet at broadband speeds, while the F.C.C. says broadband is not available to 24.7 million Americans. The discrepancy is particularly stark in rural areas. In Ferry County, for example, Microsoft estimates that only 2 percent of people use broadband service, versus the 100 percent the federal government says have access to the service.”
Digiday / Shareen Pathak
Ad buyers: Don’t blame us for the death of the publishing middle class →
“We have a market that penalizes long-term relationships. If I have been working with a publisher year after year, you'd think they could raise prices. If I'm working with a client for years, I should be able to charge more. But I have to give a better deal to those clients. Basically, we grind down the publishers.”