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Tuesday, February 19, 2019
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It’s time for a “radical shift in the balance of power between the platforms and the people,” the British parliament saysFacebook acts like “digital gangsters,” “Mark Zuckerberg has shown contempt” toward governments, and the company’s “deliberate” strategy was to send uninformed executives to answer Parliament’s questions. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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So is Spotify now the inevitable next King of Podcasts? Or will it struggle, like everyone else, to get past Apple?Plus: The U.K. wants to open up funding for independent audio, Newt Gingrich gets his own World, and a new show about being a working mother. By Nicholas Quah. |
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“Rebuilding a local news ecosystem”: Knight pledges $300 million to local news, free speech, and media literacy organizationsAmong the grantees: The American Journalism Project gets $20 million, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press gets $10 million, and The News Literacy Project gets $5 million. And there’s more, lots more. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
The Verge / Sean Hollister
Samsung quits making new Blu-ray players →
Things aren’t looking great for physical media.
Wired / James Vlahos
Amazon Alexa and the search for the one perfect answer →
“Tunstall-Pedoe's vision of computers responding to our queries in a single pass — providing one-shot answers, as they are known in the search community — has gone mainstream. The internet and the multibillion-dollar business ecosystems it supports are changing irrevocably. So, too, is the creation, distribution, and control of information — the very nature of how we know what we know.”
The New York Times Company
New York Times access is now free in all California public libraries →
And library card holders can also get access away from their local branch — though only in the form of 24-hour passes.
TechCrunch / Josh Constine
Instagram is testing a way of letting users donate to nonprofits →
“Swipe up to give $10 to ProPublica” can’t be too far off. (Though this is really about Instagram getting your credit card info on file.)
Poynter / Daniel Funke
First Draft has left Harvard, citing problems with brand control →
“I hadn't thought through how challenging that would be. In startup terms, it's an acquisition, ultimately. Why should a university just provide you with space and allow you to continue? There's a huge question here about existing brands.”
Twitter / George Polk Awards
For the first time, a Polk Award has been given to a podcast →
To APM Reports for season 2 of “In the Dark.” Also winning a Polk today: The Baton Rouge Advocate, The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, ProPublica, Reuters, Undark, PBS NewsHour, The Arizona Republic, The Washington Post, WSOC in Charlotte, and the Netflix documentary “The Bleeding Edge.”
New York Times / Kevin Roose
YouTube unleashed a conspiracy theory boom. Can it be contained? →
“What if stemming the tide of misinformation on YouTube means punishing some of the platform's biggest stars?”
The Daily Beast / Will Sommer
Whimsical and annoying viral questions are taking over Twitter →
“Of the top five most quote-tweeted posts on the site in 2018, four of them were phrased as questions.”
The Guardian / Roy Greenslade
A look at the success of the Metro, Britain’s most-read (and free) national daily newspaper →
“Unlike most of its rivals, Metro makes a healthy profit based on a simple business model: advertising revenue. ‘Every issue must turn a profit,’ says Young. ‘There has to be 50 percent advertising, and that's how we decide the number of pages we produce.’ Profits over the past couple of years have been healthy, running at about £1m a month.”
BuzzFeed / Mark Di Stefano
The Economist’s editor says there aren’t enough black people working at the magazine →
“The Economist’s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes has responded to a Medium post calling out the British magazine’s lack of racial diversity, admitting that less than one per-cent of its staff is black and that ‘black people are under-represented’ at the publication.”
Folio / Beth Braverman
Magazine publishers race to capitalize on the paywall trend →
“We're finding that the Apples and the Amazons of the world are becoming much better agents for us. They're figuring out how to sell the magazines — both print and digital — in the right place at the right time.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mya Frazier
Rethinking foreign reporting at the AP →
“Current and former correspondents and bureau chiefs detail a litany of changes, including the shrinking of its global footprint as bureaus are quietly closed; the phasing out of the salaried ‘expat package’ for correspondents; and the reliance on local stringers and staffers, who often are paid far less than full-time American correspondents once were.”
Los Angeles Times / Ana Santos and David Pierson
Law used against journalist Maria Ressa stirs fears among Filipinos: It could target “all of us” →
“If the government pursues this line of thinking and ignores the statutes of limitations, it can use cyber libel to go after journalists, bloggers, anyone.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Vox Media now has more than 75 active podcasts →
It aims to grow them into a standalone business.