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Wednesday, May 1, 2019
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Want to see what one digital future for newspapers looks like? Look at The Guardian, which isn’t losing money anymoreIt’s a remarkable turnaround for an institution that’s been losing money for what seems like forever, and there are lessons to be had for other digital publishers. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
Adweek / Kelsey Sutton
Vice is folding Broadly, Vice Sports, and its other brands into Vice.com; Motherboard, Munchies, and Vice News will have their own verticals →
“With the change, Vice's content will segment into channels like News, Identity, Entertainment, Music, Food, Tech, Games, Health and Drugs. It's a move ostensibly to give advertisers a more unified offering, which the company hopes will drive more engagement from users and give advertisers more opportunities to reach Vice's audience.”
AdWeek / Sara Jerde
Medium has hired four editors-in-chief to lead more verticals: power, personal development, business, and being a black woman →
Brendan Vaughn, Indrani Sen, Paul Smalera, and Vanessa DeLuca are on board. Here’s a timeline of Medium’s publishing efforts (and pivots).
Gay Mag / Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay’s newly launched Gay Magazine is “not disrupting online publishing. I don't have all the answers.” →
“What I do have is vision. I have a lot of heart. I am ambitious. I am going to capitalize on what I've learned after more than a decade of editing and many more years of writing. With Gay Magazine I am creating an online space where writers are afforded the time to produce their best work and the compensation they deserve for that effort. “
The New York Times / Mike Isaac
Here’s Facebook’s private communications-focused redesign →
“The revisions add new features to promote group-based communications instead of News Feed, where people publicly post a cascade of messages and status updates… The company also plans to continue emphasizing its Stories product, which allows people to post updates that disappear after 24 hours.”
Associated Press / Nick Perry
How New Zealand media plans to avoid ideology at the mosque shooting trial →
“The organizations said the commitment extended to coverage of Tarrant's 74-page manifesto and broadcasting symbolic images. That clause came after Tarrant made a hand gesture at his first court appearance, which is sometimes associated with white supremacists.”
The Wrap / Jon Levine
Gizmodo and The Onion’s new owner lays off 25 “from all facets of our operations”, including its top editors →
New CEO Jim Spanfeller noted “his goal was to ultimately expand the company significantly from its current staff of roughly 400 by the end of the year.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Mathew Ingram
The hiring spreadsheet and the clash at The Markup →
“Obviously I am guessing here,” Sue Gardner writes of the column for social class. The criteria are: “1) very poor family background, 2) working class, 3) middle class, 4) slightly upper middle, and 5) super rich, super privileged.”
Lenfest Institute / Joseph Lichterman
How the Detroit Free Press created a unique social media voice →
“While the Free Press has gained attention for its pithy tweets, only about 20 to 30 percent of the tweets are handwritten, Manzullo said. The rest are automated using Social News Desk.”
Charlotte Magazine / Emma Way
On their last day, student newspaper editors cover a campus shooting →
“At around 5:42 p.m., as she was sitting in the last class of her college career, she saw a message in a group chat for the Niner Times' college newspaper staff.”
KQED / Eden Stiffman
KQED gets a grant to study engaging millennial audiences with science journalism →
“Science journalists and producers confidently decide what to cover and how to cover it, McCann says. When it comes to audience behavior, they're good at having hypotheses but lack research tools that would allow them to draw conclusions. That's where the social scientists come into play.”