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Tuesday, January 15, 2019
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Spotify says it’s getting serious about podcasts (yes, again) and there are lots of questionsPlus: Fiction podcasts’ next phase, poetry on the radio, and the “Dollar Shave Club for disaster emergency kits.” By Nicholas Quah. |
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Facebook is committing $300 million to support news, with an emphasis on localCampbell Brown: “We are going to continue our work with head publishers. We're not backing away from that, but it is a shift to local and an emphasis on local that is new for us.” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
Digiday / Kerry Flynn
Roku adds Infowars six months after other platforms ban channel →
“On Jan. 14, Roku users tweeted their concerns at the company. One tweet from @DanielMadison78 asked, ‘Hey @Roku, what's with you adding Infowars to your platform?’ In a now-deleted tweet, Roku's support account replied with a link to the channel.”
Northwestern Local News Initiative / Joe Mathewson
Why are local news organizations slow to invest in neighborhood economics reporting? →
“Sometimes nothingness is news. Especially if it continues. News reflects change, and languishing storefronts may signal a problem — for the landlord and for the community. How does a neighborhood newspaper or website grasp it? Rents too high? All retailers are under pressure. Is it Amazon? At some point should a once-healthy but lagging commercial building be replaced by affordable housing or some other modern structure? How much would that cost? Would the nearby bank, likely just a branch of New York or Cincinnati or Charlotte or Toronto, be willing to take on the risk of a loan? Might local people be employed? In other words, what are the economics?”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
How the Financial Times is building brand loyalty among young readers →
“The program, which began in the U.K. in 2017, has rolled out to 2,300 schools globally. While around 75 percent of those schools are in the U.K., there are around 100 involved in the U.S. and other schools are participating in countries where English is a second language, like China.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
The New York Times will build custom Alexa skills for advertisers through its branded content studio →
“Longer-term plans are to look for partners to build skills for as it expands its newsroom skills experiments into more categories, like travel, music, books, sports and news.”
Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo
Amid the Bezos divorce, The Washington Post tries to sift between the tawdry gossip and the real news →
“There has been some effort to figure out what's the threshold for us to write about this. It's the first test case, and in the most uncomfortable and salacious territory possible. It's, like, can't you just give us a good old-fashioned tax evasion?”
The New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum
Adam Moss is leaving New York Magazine; a new editor-in-chief will be announced soon →
Moss was editor-in-chief for 15 years.