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Friday, January 11, 2019
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“Here’s what else you need to know today”: The New York Times launches a flash audio briefing and other voice stuff for Alexa“We’re trying to create an engaging experience that feels more narratively driven, not just like someone reading some headlines for a few minutes.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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Fighting information overload instead of contributing to it: Some 2019 predictions about business models for news“Subscriptions are not salvation. But a diversified digital revenue mix for publishers, with quality advertising and reader monetization at its core, might be.” By Joshua Benton. |
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Old people are most likely to share fake news on Facebook. They’re also Facebook’s fastest-growing U.S. audience.So if you think you have a “solution” for misinformation, it had better not be something that only targets digital natives. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Reynolds Journalism Institute / Hannah Rodriguez
A case study of community-funded journalism at The Seattle Times →
“You have a lot of journalists who aren't happy about the idea that government would sponsor journalism, so to have big billionaires' philanthropic organizations fund us isn't natural.”
Thinknum / Joshua Fruhlinger
Vox Media ramps up hiring, but mostly for contractors and freelancers →
“This comes after the company agreed to recognize a union of roughly 400 creative professionals employed by the company. It also comes a year after a period of slowing its hiring practices and layoffs.”
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is launching an online opinion section in Arabic →
“This online destination will host high-quality translations of Global Opinion columns, editorials and op-eds that are relevant to the Arabic-speaking audience…’The importance of this has become more evident since the murder of our own colleague Jamal Khashoggi, who saw very clearly the need for a forum such as this.'”
Politico / Daniel Lippman
Storyful has closed its Hong Kong bureau and laid off staff →
“Cost cutting was the justification but that comes as a surprise given recent hiring and executive spending on business class flights and other travel.”
TechCrunch / Sarah Perez
Spotify’s increased focus on podcasts in 2019 includes selling its own ads →
“People who consume podcasts on Spotify are consuming more of Spotify — including music.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Nicholas Diakopoulos
What a report from Germany teaches us about investigating algorithms →
“Two nonprofits, the Open Knowledge Foundation and Algorithm Watch, initially partnered to collect data. They crowdsourced thousands of personal credit reports from consumers, which were then passed on to and analyzed en masse by investigative journalists.”
VentureBeat / Emil Protalinski
Chrome’s ad blocker will go global on July 9 →
“In six months, Chrome will stop showing all ads on sites in any country that repeatedly display ‘disruptive ads.'”
BuzzFeed / Mark Di Stefano
BBC journalists have been told to stop saying “BBC understands” →
“A slightly pompous distancing phrase.”
The New York Times / Paul Mozur
China is cracking down on the country’s Twitter users →
“Twitter may be banned in China, but the platform plays an important role in political debate and the discussion of issues in the country. To access the service, a small but active community uses software to circumvent the government's controls over what people can see online.”
Washington Post / Amy Westervelt
How the fossil fuel industry got the media to think climate change was debatable →
“By demanding ‘balance,’ the industry transformed climate change into a partisan issue.”
The Guardian / Alex Hern
Facebook partners with Full Fact for fact-checking in the UK →
The independent charity Full Fact will be the first British publisher to review and rate the accuracy of content on the social network.