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Wednesday, January 16, 2019
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The New York Times politics editor is building trust by tweeting context around political stories“I wanted to start engaging with readers about our intentions behind our stories.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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Here are 12 principles journalists should follow to make sure they’re protecting their sources“We're being forced to act like spies, having to learn tradecraft and encryption and all the new ways to protect sources. But we are not an intelligence agency. We're not really spies. So, there's going to be a time when you might make a mistake or do something that might not perfectly protect a source.” By Joshua Benton. |
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Take these email templates and go build a beautiful (monetized, useful, tested, efficient) newsletter“Who's your audience? How will you serve that audience? Why do we care about that audience? No, really, what's the payoff?” By Christine Schmidt. |
What We’re Reading
The Wrap / Jon Levine
After its layoffs and firesale, Mic.com is quietly publishing again →
“As of mid-January, the site had begun producing a steady stream of new material from two new writers, Lauren Rearick and Emma Sarran Webster. The posts are mostly innocuous service journalism like how to stick to a budget and tips before applying for a credit card.”
Twitter / Slate Union
Slate’s new union has a three-year contract →
“Our contract is built on principles of equity and diversity. We've agreed on annual percentage increases, salary floor increases, severance pay, just cause, paid time off, non-discrimination rules, and a robust commitment to diversity.”
RJI / Judd Slivka
Look up to see the coming battle of privacy vs. access →
“Terrestrial photojournalism has well-established laws and ethics and guidelines. Aerial journalism wants to have those — the National Press Photographers Association has developed some — but media photography with drones is a unique animal. “
Digiday / Jessica Davies
After cutting off post-GDPR ad exchanges in Europe, The New York Times’ ad revenue grew →
“The New York Times has 2.9 million paying digital subscribers globally, and 15 percent of the publisher's digital news subscribers are from Europe. Digital advertising in Europe also remains an important revenue stream for the publisher. The publisher's reader-revenue business model means it fiercely guards its readers' user experience. Rather than bombard readers with consent notices or risk a clunky consent user experience, it decided to drop behavioral advertising entirely.”
Twitter / Washington Post PR
Someone is trying to fake out would-be Post readers with fraud print copies in D.C. (and a copycat website) →
“There are fake print editions of The Washington Post being distributed around downtown DC, and we are aware of a website attempting to mimic The Post's. They are not Post products, and we are looking into this.”
IRIN / Heba Aly
IRIN is rebranding as “The New Humanitarian” →
“In a nutshell: we produce news for an upended world (and those who want to improve it). Our mission remains the same: to inform the prevention of and response to humanitarian crises. But we seek to build on our historical audience of decision-makers and practitioners in the humanitarian sector by taking the urgency and importance of these issues to a much wider audience.”
Columbia Journalism Review / James Ball
No, tech companies shouldn't fund journalism →
“Tying the future of journalism to a tech or social media levy shackles the two even closer together, making a already dangerously codependent relationship even less healthy—and potentially compromising journalism in the eyes of readers. It would also let tech off the hook: one of the main justifications for corporate tax is making companies contribute towards the societies they live in, the infrastructure they rely on, and to offset the harms that they cause.”
The Wall Street Journal / Cara Lombardo, Benjamin Mullin, and Lukas I. Alpert
Gannett is one of a few serious bidders remaining in an auction of Gizmodo Media Group →
So how does this square with Digital First Media’s bid for Gannett? “In a sign of at least some shareholder support for Digital First's bid or a similar deal, Gannett's stock jumped 21% on the news Monday, which could make it harder for the company to justify turning its back on the offer and plowing ahead with a purchase of Gizmodo. Gannett shares closed Tuesday at $11.40, down 3.6%.”
Axios / Joe Uchill
Hackers on a Russian-language forum are offering to sell access to news sites’ CMSes →
“The U.S. site package, listed in October, started bidding at $600 with a buy-it-now option of $1,200…. The hackers in both cases were well-established enough on the forum that the listings appear credible,” an intelligence expert said.
Variety / Rachel Yang
Roku removes Infowars channels after a backlash →
“The company originally responded to the controversy by saying Infowars wasn't currently violating its terms of use. Digiday first reported that Roku added Infowars six months after major platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Apple's app store, removed Jones and his outlet from their services.”
Vox / Constance Grady
What Jill Abramson’s book scandal tells us about publishing’s fact-checking problem →
“Abramson's highly anticipated new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, is scheduled to publish at the beginning of February, but advance copies have begun to circulate through the media. And more than one of the people featured in the book have disputed the facts and truth of Abramson's writing about facts and truth.”
The Verge / Julia Alexander
YouTube changed its guidelines to prohibit dangerous (stupid) pranks →
“YouTube creators have a history of participating in dangerous challenges — including Jake Paul driving blindfolded to participate in the Bird Box challenge, teens eating poisonous Tide Pods for the Tide Pod challenge, and even some creators alluding to drugging their girlfriends on camera with natural sexual enhancement pills — all in the name of content.”