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Tuesday, January 29, 2019
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Why won’t The New Yorker keep you logged in? Mystery: Solved (kind of)“Right now, there isn’t actually a specific bug that is happening. That’s what’s driving us a little crazy.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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Has Bill Simmons’ The Ringer figured out the model for podcast success?Plus: What will happen to the podcasting sector when the next recession hits, Gimlet bets again on true crime, and “a pickle jar of listener malcontent.” By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
The Logic / Murad Hemmadi
Canada is spending $7 million to fight disinformation online ahead of this year’s federal election →
“The money will be split between organizations conducting digital-literacy programs to help voters assess online information better and groups running specific campaigns to increase understanding of disinformation and misinformation.”
New York / Madison Malone Kircher
This Michigan teen wrote 692 quizzes for BuzzFeed (and all she got was this lousy t-shirt) →
“I saw a tweet earlier saying they hoped the college student who caused people to get laid off gets ‘depression and stuff.’ That's not the nicest thing to read. I just hope now that my name is out there I can find a job. Maybe not at BuzzFeed, but still a job.”
Twitter / Joshua Benton
The found poetry of BuzzFeed quizzes →
Do you have a lot of Starbucks lovers? / Do you remember? / Don’t forget the jazz hands. / Don’t turn off the lights. / Don’t you just love love?
Kickstarter / Lewis Wallace
A Kickstarter for Lewis Wallace’s “The View from Somewhere: A Podcast about Journalism with a Purpose” →
“The podcast features journalists from marginalized and oppressed communities who have pushed back on the ‘objective’ framework, or attempted new ways of thinking about and practicing journalism.”
Mother Jones / Tim Murphy
The inside story of Beto O’Rourke’s short-lived alt-weekly →
“His target was the city's only major English-language newspaper, the Gannett-owned El Paso Times. ‘Too often we have heard the lament of our fellow El Pasoans who feel neglected and uninspired by the daily paper, beholden to a corporate board that meets in McLean, Virginia, where they don't know the word adelante and they've never heard of Pat O'Rourke.'”
The Guardian / Amanda Meade
BuzzFeed loses 11 staff in Australia amid global job cuts →
“It is unclear how many of the jobs lost will be in news, but every member of the 14-strong team received a letter. There are 40 employees in Australia across editorial and commercial roles in Sydney and Canberra.”
New York / Brian Feldman
BuzzFeed’s experimental era is over →
“All BuzzFeed ever got from Facebook is some high praise and the corporate equivalent of a free tote bag. Now BuzzFeed appears to be taking the same approach, turning to unpaid users to make more of its content — and hundreds of employees are out of work.”
The Verge / Jon Porter
GDPR makes it easier to get your data, but that doesn’t mean you’ll understand it →
“II decided to test the ‘Right of Access’ offered by four of the biggest tech companies operating in the EU: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. What I found suggested that while you can certainly get the raw data, actually understanding it is another matter, which makes it harder to make informed decisions about your data.”
CNN / Oliver Darcy
After backlash, BuzzFeed says it will pay out earned PTO to laid-off employees →
“BuzzFeed will pay recently laid off employees for the paid time off they had earned but not used, it said Monday, reversing course after hundreds of current and former staffers signed an open letter demanding that it do so.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Bloomberg’s TicToc expands out of Twitter with its own site →
“It’s hoping that the next generation of news consumers that are drawn to its pithy format will discover its original content beyond their social feed directly on TicToc’s site, now that it’s developed some brand recognition.”
The Fresno Bee / Joe Kieta
Readers asked The Fresno Bee questions and the editor answered →
“Q. I wish The Bee would highlight and focus on stories that directly impact our community. We can consume only so much national news via social media and TV.”
Digiday / Sahil Patel
Sinclair is building a streaming video bundle by focusing on local →
“The centerpiece of the streaming service is the Stirr City channel, which Sinclair said will offer a custom, 24-hour programming lineup based on where the viewer lives. This programming, which will include daily morning and evening news shows, regional sports broadcasts and city-focused lifestyle shows, will come from the local Sinclair TV station in that city or the Sinclair station that's closest to the market a user is in.”