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Thursday, January 24, 2019
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In the latest sign things really are dire, BuzzFeed is laying off 15 percent of its staff“The restructuring we are undertaking will reduce our costs and improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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It doesn’t take a ton of nasty comments to sink a reader’s perception of a news site“This research suggests people make judgments about a news site based on the predominant tone of the comments, not on whether the first comments are civil or uncivil.” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
CNN / Tom Kludt
Layoffs are underway at HuffPost a day after Verizon, its parent company, announced cuts →
“In all, the media industry lost about 1,000 jobs nationwide this week.”
TechCrunch / Lucas Matney
Twitter is testing an “Original Tweeter” tag to distinguish who started a thread →
“This solution obviously only helps users distinguish the ‘owner’ of the thread they are viewing, but it's a worthwhile start. As the company verifies more accounts but still allows users to easily change their names or profile pictures, this could avert some imitation issues.”
Twitter / Jarrod Dicker
Jarrod Dicker, who left the Washington Post for blockchain startup Po.et, rejoins the Washington Post →
“The reality is that we're facing a long road to adoption & need to be sensitive to a market that has speed limits. What does 100MPH really accomplish other than tickets, accidents, and extra gas?” Here’s the Post’s announcement on his rehire, as vice president of commercial technology and development.
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Rasmus Kleis Nielsen and Meera Selva
Five things to know about the future of journalism →
“5. News is more diverse than ever, and the best journalism in many cases better than ever, taking everyone from the most powerful politicians to the biggest private companies.”
The New York Times / Farhad Manjoo
Is Twitter ruining American journalism? →
“But Twitter is not that carefree clubhouse for journalism anymore. Instead it is the epicenter of a nonstop information war, an almost comically undermanaged gladiatorial arena where activists and disinformation artists and politicians and marketers gather to target and influence the wider media world.” (Remember, Farhad spent time “away” from Twitter before.)
Columbia Journalism Review / Joshua Carroll
A Reuters article — paid for by Thailand’s military junta — highlights ethical issues with native advertising →
“It's not very likely that the typical reader would understand that this is a sponsored story,” Bartosz Wojdynski, director of the Digital Media Attention and Cognition Lab at the University of Georgia, says. “Typically somewhere between a tenth and a quarter of readers get that what they read was actually an advertisement.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
“The industry can’t say it hasn’t been warned”: Media execs react to Google’s $57M GDPR fine →
“This is the regulators going for the most public — and arguably prolific — name in town when it comes to the use of consumer data,” said Jon Slade, chief commercial officer of the Financial Times. “But publishers and anyone handling data would be crazy not to look at this strong enforcement of GDPR and double-check themselves.”
New York Post / Keith J. Kelly
The dullest parts of Hearst — like its financial and aviation safety data companies — are growing the fastest →
“The newspaper group, with titles such as the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle, which once formed the backbone of the company, is now the fifth-largest division in terms of revenue. But [CEO Steve] Swartz points out that it is still profitable. And as The Post reported Monday, the group is still in expansion mode, kicking the tires on some of the newspapers at Tribune Publishing.”
The Guardian / Alex Hern
Facebook is setting up an anti-scam project (as part of a dropped lawsuit from a consumer finance journalist) →
“The first time my attention was drawn to this was a man who accused me of scamming him out of £19,000. I don't do adverts, full stop. Any advert with me in it is a lie, it's a scam. That's where the anger came from.”
Variety / Janko Roettgers
Patreon will pay as much to creators this year as it has paid since its launch six years ago →
“Patreon now has more than 3 million patrons who pay to support any of its over 100,000 creators every month, the company announced Wednesday. It's also on track to pay more than $0.5 billion to creators this year.”
RTDNA / Michelle Billman
How Reno’s public radio station plans for bilingual work (and won a Murrow Award through it) →
“In under five minutes, Stephanie was able to tell a story that resonates far beyond any soccer team or sporting event. She gave voice to a struggle many children and their families are experiencing in this country by doing what the best reporters do—cultivating understanding and empathy through personal storytelling.”