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Monday, May 6, 2019
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Why Richland Source built a system for automating high school sports articles (and stopped selling apparel)“We spent six to eight weeks where a human being sat and edited every single piece before we felt comfortable that we could run this.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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NPR debuts a new Morning Edition theme, and the fact that people care shows the continued power of old-fashioned, non-Internet radioIt’s a fitting change to make near the end of Jarl Mohn’s time as NPR CEO, where he’s breathed new life into radio shows some thought had dim prospects for growth. By Joshua Benton. |
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This New Jersey project shows the power of collaboration — even at the student level“Anyone who works with students today in the news and public-affairs arena had better be ready to do as much learning as teaching.” By Mark Effron. |
What We’re Reading
Thinknum Media / Joshua Fruhlinger
Vice goes on a hiring spree after its $250M debt infusion →
“But after a year-long hiring slowdown that saw openings go from 80 to just 18, Vice appears to be turning things around a bit. The company has added roughly 50 new openings in early May, and early sign that the company is turning itself around with a new path forward.”
The Guardian / Emily Bell
How ethical is it for advertisers to target your mood? →
“How do you feel about this article? Distracted already? Here, have some Ritalin, the extremely unproblematic drug that helps you concentrate. I see you are yawning: time for a giant cup of tasty Nescafe, every bit as good as something that has been blasted out of a shiny Italian steam machine for £10 a cup. Ah yes, Italy, now is exactly the right time to visit Venice, before it fills up with tourists, because I know that by this stage in the paragraph you are feeling in need of a holiday.”
Wall Street Journal / Keach Hagey, Lukas I. Alpert, and Yaryna Serkez
See the sad decline of local newspapers — in charts →
“At three national papers, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post, circulation dropped an average of 29%. By comparison, the median drop at major metro papers with circulation of more than 200,000, like Hearst's Houston Chronicle and Tribune Publishing Co.'s Chicago Tribune, was a steeper 41% over that time frame.”
New York Post / Keith J. Kelly
161 staff members from The Times-Picayune are being laid off in New Orleans →
“Randy Siegel, chief executive of Advance Local, said the company does not intend to sell any other papers. ‘This was a one-off,’ Siegel told The Post. ‘We're all terribly sad about the outcome.'”
Columbia Journalism Review / Nina Jankowicz
Ukraine made a comedian its president. Here’s what US media can learn →
“Zelensky, like Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign, is a political novice and expert entertainer whose campaign made for gripping political television. Poroshenko, like Hillary Clinton, was hampered by his much longer record of public service, which the networks—at least those he does not own—scrutinized. And Ukraine itself, like the United States, has a sensationalist, ratings-driven and politically polarized news environment that requires viewers to consume content from multiple sources in order to piece together a version of the truth.”
Wall Street Journal / Lillian Rizzo
Vice Media raises $250M in debt from investors (including George Soros) →
“Earlier this week Vice combined much of its online verticals, like Munchies, Motherboard and Vice News, under the umbrella of a revamped Vice.com. The company said its digital footprint reaches more than 300 million people globally each month.”
The Guardian / Oliver Burkeman
Could an endless torrent of notifications be harming democracy as well as our wellbeing? →
“There are reasons to believe that a society in which so many people are so deeply invested in the emotional dramas of the news is far from the embodiment of an ideal democracy – that, on the contrary, this level of personal engagement with news is a symptom of the damage that has been done to our public life.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Madeleine Wattenbarger
The front line of Mexican media is DIY community radio →
“Many of the 51 community stations across the country are in poor rural and indigenous areas that lack other forms of media. They're often prominent advocates in local human rights struggles, giving voice to social movements not covered in the mainstream press. In a country where both journalists and activists face serious repression, community radios are at the nexus of the struggle for freedom of expression.”
TechCrunch / Catherine Shu
NBCUniversal will now display QR codes during some TV shows to take viewers directly to e-commerce →
“ShoppableTV is the latest initiative by NBCUniversal to remove points of friction that lower advertising conversion rates. Other ones include a partnership with Sky (which, like NBCUniversal, is owned by Comcast) to develop targeted advertising for TV and a machine learning tool named the Context Intelligence Platform that picks the best moments in a show to place specific commercials by scanning scripts, closed captions and visual descriptions.”
Nieman Foundation
Here are the 2020 Nieman Fellows →
Meet the 27 Nieman fellows in the class of 2020.