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Wednesday, April 3, 2019
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Why did Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund offer up to €50,000 to a mouthpiece of Hungary’s authoritarian government?“How Origo, a website staffed by pro-government flunkies, will help Hungarian journalism ‘thrive’ is hard to imagine.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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Does Google meet its users’ expectations around consumer privacy? This news industry research says noA significant majority of consumers do not expect Google to track their activities across their lives, their locations, on other sites, and on other platforms. By Jason Kint. |
What We’re Reading
The Hollywood Reporter / Jeremy Barr
Shani Hilton is leaving BuzzFeed News for the Los Angeles Times →
“Hilton, who has been with BuzzFeed since 2013, will serve as deputy managing editor for news. Her last day as BuzzFeed’s vice president of news and programming is May 2, and she starts at the Times on June 3.”
BBC News Labs / Roo Hutton
How BBC News is experimenting with semi-automated journalism →
“Our team of two developers, myself and Tamsin Green, developed a pipeline that can generate over 100 unique stories every month, allowing our audience to learn about their local hospital's A&E performance right on the Live pages where they get local news every day.”
USA Today / Nathan Bomey
Digital First Media asks Gannett’s shareholders to vote for its board of directors nominees →
“The latest development comes after Gannett disclosed last week that before attempting a hostile takeover of Gannett, MNG representatives repeatedly floated the idea to Gannett officials that Gannett should acquire MNG’s newspapers. … MNG has also nominated six people to join the Gannett board, which, if elected, would give the company control of Gannett.”
Bloomberg / Joe Mayes
The BBC’s Brexit plan: It’s moving some broadcast licenses to the Netherlands in case of no-deal →
“The BBC joins international broadcasters such as Discovery Inc., Viacom Inc. and Comcast Corp.'s NBC Universal in relocating licenses elsewhere in the EU.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution / James Salzer
A group of Republican lawmakers in Georgia filed legislation to create a journalism ethics board →
“First I thought this was an April Fools joke, but this is clearly an effort to rein in those who have been scrutinizing what's been happening at the Legislature.”
BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman
How an aging population fed on lies will reshape the internet →
“Although many older Americans have, like the rest of us, embraced the tools and playthings of the technology industry, a growing body of research shows they have disproportionately fallen prey to the dangers of internet misinformation and risk being further polarized by their online habits. While that matters much to them, it's also a massive challenge for society given the outsize role older generations play in civic life, and demographic changes that are increasing their power and influence.”
WordPress
Here are the 12 newsrooms chosen for WordPress’s Newspack CMS pilot →
Baltimore Jewish Times, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Brooklyn Eagle, The Chicago Reporter, The Hechinger Report (New York), The Lens (New Orleans), Oklahoma Watch, The Rivard Report (San Antonio), El Soberano (Chile), Transitions (Prague). Here’s more context on the toolkit WordPress and the News Revenue Hub are building for local newsrooms.
The New York Times / Edmund Lee
Apple News+ reportedly received 200,000 signups in its first 48 hours →
That’s “more than Texture had amassed at its peak, according to two people with knowledge of the figures who asked not to be named to discuss confidential information. (Texture's subscribers have not been counted toward Apple's subscribers.)”
The Washington Post / Manuel Roig-Franzia
Inside the spectacular fall of WorldNetDaily, the granddaddy of right-wing conspiracy sites →
“Interviews and documents show an organization that existed in almost constant crisis mode, chronically late in paying its employees and vendors, and wrestling with internal allegations about questionable spending by its founders and claims they were withholding information from the company's board and using company funds to support a comfortable lifestyle in the Washington suburbs.”
CNN / Rishi Iyengar
WhatsApp now has a tip line for Indian election misinformation →
“The Facebook-owned messaging app has developed the tip line, known as Checkpoint, in partnership with an Indian startup. It will be available in English and four Indian languages — Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
The Guardian is aiming for 2 million readers who support it financially by 2022 →
In a memo, executives said “costs had been reduced by 20% in the last three years, a period during which the number of people employed at the Guardian fell, while revenues had grown at a steady pace.”