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Wednesday, December 5, 2018
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There isn’t one best way to map local news ecosystems. But can we do it better?“Despite the volume of research currently under way about news ecosystems, there is no gold standard.” By Sarah Stonbely. |
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Get rid of the content no one reads. Offer surprises and “candy.” And other tricks for retaining subscribers.“I am not saying we shouldn’t do vegetables. But for the financial health of our organizations, the rewards are candy. If we’re not taking the vegetables and dipping them in caramel, we’re making some hard choices.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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Teens support the First Amendment but largely don’t trust traditional media (do they have reason to?)Virtually half of high school teachers don’t trust traditional media either, but 72 percent of students say journalism “keep[s] leaders from doing things that shouldn't be done.” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
New York Times / Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser
Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser were Twitter enemies. Then they met. →
“The odd thing about social media is that it's made me emotionally immune to the worst abuse — an anti-Semitic misogynist threat doesn't get to me in the same way someone who agrees with me 90 percent of the time insulting me does.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Elizabeth Anne Watkins
Display, branded, targeted, programmatic: Here’s a journalist’s guide to ad tech →
“That journalistic institutions, which have decreed a commitment to informing citizens in a free democracy, willingly participate in advertising's technical stack—which has reportedly violated reader privacy—is a serious ethical quandary. Technology and society are embedded in and construct each other, and journalists need a grip on both to do the storytelling that our democracy demands.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
A slew of new laws could help quality digital content “break through a sea of online garbage” →
“Disputes over the value of good content — and the definition of good content — are becoming more prevalent and complicated in the digital era.”
Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo
“Everyone’s for sale”: A generation of digital media darlings prepares for a frigid winter →
“BuzzFeed, Vice, and Vox share some common challenges. In an environment that values either enormity or monetizable premium appeal, they are somehow in the middle. They were also forged in an era of rapid-succession strategy pivots—first display advertising, then native, then video, and now broad diversification through things like subscriptions and events and other potentially promising remedies.”
Reuters / Pei Lei and Adam Jourdan
You read, you earn cash: This Chinese news app gains users by literally paying them →
“With its unusual pay-your-user strategy, Tencent-backed Qutoutiao Inc – pronounced "chew-tow-ti-ow" – has drawn in 20 million daily readers. A leaderboard shows the top-earning user has raked in more than $50,000. Digital gold coins are earned by playing games that involve reading stories or by convincing others to join up. The current exchange rate is 1,600 coins for 1 yuan, with strong players receiving the title of 'master'.”
The Wrap / Jon Levine
Thomson Reuters is slashing 3,200 jobs by 2020 — 12 percent of its workforce →
“The news comes after TheWrap reported Monday that the company had trimmed more than a dozen staffers from the Reuters news service. Among them were several senior editors from the U.S.-based Americas desk, including editor Toni Reinhold, her deputy, Clive McKeef, and U.S. public finance editor Daniel Bases.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Elon Green
The future of men’s magazines, as Jim Nelson leaves GQ after 15 years →
“Each month, we had to show the issue to the executives. One said, ‘There are two things that this magazine can never be seen as: too black or too gay.’ I knew what he was saying: This is an agenda piece, Mr. Gay Man. And I got so upset, and I had to defend everything. I felt like, at that moment, I had to push back and say, ‘You're crazy. This is a legitimate news story, and GQ can cover all these things and be stronger and better, because it's reflecting reality.'”
The New York Times / Rachel Abrams and Edmund Lee
Lee Moonves reportedly obstructed CBS’s investigation into his misconduct →
“The lawyers who conducted the inquiry wrote that they had spoken with Mr. Moonves four times and found him to be ‘evasive and untruthful at times and to have deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct.'”
CNN Business / Oliver Darcy
The Weekly Standard’s fate is uncertain, its editor tells staff →
“Ryan McKibben, the chairman of MediaDC, asked to meet with Hayes in a meeting tentatively scheduled for late next week, the people said. McKibben, they said, also requested the entire staff of The Weekly Standard be made available following the meeting. That request, coupled with MediaDC’s Monday announcement that its other conservative news organization, The Washington Examiner, would be expanding its magazine into a weekly publication, has left The Weekly Standard’s leadership worrying about the future of the magazine.”