YULI AHMADA: Agustus 2019

Jumat, 30 Agustus 2019

“At 7,000 members our lives are already changed for the better”: How the Daily Maverick developed its membership program

Thursday, August 29, 2019

“At 7,000 members our lives are already changed for the better”: How the Daily Maverick developed its membership program

“Our weekly Insider meetings are attended by the editor-in-chief, CEO, membership manager, product manager, support manager, developer, marketing and design team, with occasional drop-ins from finance and events team reps. Of the 10 regular attendees, only three of those positions existed before the decision to move into membership.” By Styli Charalambous.

People are lining up on the street to get free copies of The New York Times’ 1619 Project

“The feeling on line was electric; ppl of all races shared their stories of trying to find this magazine.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

What We’re Reading

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

KCUR is leading a $1.9M project to infuse more local perspectives into public radio’s 2020 election coverage →

The grant will help the Kansas City station bring on seven full-time staffers over the next 18 months: “They will coordinate collaboration among public media stations and existing journalism collaborations to hold community convenings, listening sessions, surveys, and engagement practices, as well as ambitious reporting efforts that will elevate stations' capabilities.”

Digiday / Max Willens

How life has (and hasn’t) changed at unionized digital media companies →

“Like nearly everything else in digital media — programmatic, video, subscriptions — unions are no panacea. What they have done, according to those at newly unionized shops, is change the frenetic nature of these businesses as they mature.”

Philadelphia Inquirer / Jason Nark

Pennsylvania’s smallest daily newspaper finds success with happy news, sports rivalries, and hordes of feral cats →

“In Tyrone, crime news rarely makes it above the fold on the front page. More often than not, the headlines are happier stories or items directly from meetings, like ‘Tyrone man starts mobile food business’ or ‘Supervisors support hospital contingent on road completion.'”

The Verge / Ashley Carman

Podcasts are getting sabotaged with one-star reviews →

“Apple's service is the biggest name in podcasting, and it's one of the few major platforms that allows listeners to leave public reviews. While hosts abused that feature in the past to beat the system with fake positive reviews, others have used it to inundate hosts they don't like with a barrage of one-star marks, making the shows look like a bust.”

OpenNews / Erika Owens

After five years and 33 journalism-code fellows, the Knight-Mozilla Fellowship has officially concluded →

“During their terms, fellows developed tools that became widely adopted, and worked on award-winning projects, graphics, and research—all the while writing and speaking and sharing about their work, ensuring that what they were learning could help other folks in their host newsrooms and beyond.”

Local Media Association

Branded content for local news: Is it worth it? →

“Education and training are vitally needed to help the industry define and better market the benefits of branded content to advertisers to allay concerns about budget, ROI measurability and creative control.”

WBUR Biz Lab / Ted Fuller

How WBUR experimented with affiliate marketing for news →

“An example of an affiliate revenue generating page is the article ‘These Are The Best Cookbooks Of 2018, According To Chef Kathy Gunst,’ by Here & Now resident Chef Kathy Gunst, spotlighting the best cookbooks of 2018. This single page generated over $1000 in affiliate revenue commissions. Book links led to approximately $10,000 in annual revenue in fiscal year 2019.”

Journalism.co.uk / Jacob Granger

Apply here for resources to do solutions journalism — with photojournalism →

“For 65 years, we have run an annual photo contest and what is often selected as the best, particularly for say, Photo of the Year, often deals only with the problem.” We wrote about steps for writing a solutions-focused story last week.

Splinter

A judge has ruled in favor of Gizmodo Media Group in a former Trump spokesman’s lawsuit →

“In her ruling granting summary judgment to Splinter, Krueger, and GMG, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga—citing New York state's fair report privilege—agreed [that the reporting on Jason Miller was fair and accurate], writing, ‘…the material facts of record show the Article is a fair and true report as a matter of law.'”

TechCrunch / Ingrid Lunden

Berlin-based startup Inkitt is crowdsourcing book publishing — with $16M just raised →

“With this, Inkitt selects the stories that perform the best on its first app — most readers, most often completed reading, best feedback, most recommended, and so on — and its in-house team of editors and developers reformat them for Galatea as short-form, bite-sized ‘mini episodes’ that come with specific effects attuned to each page you read to make the experience more immersive.”

Wired / Nicholas Thompson

A recap of Wired’s website design (and now it’s ADA compliant!) →

“To put it another way: We want the damn thing to be easier to read.”

Kamis, 29 Agustus 2019

How publishers are cutting print days — and not losing (too many) subscribers

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

How publishers are cutting print days — and not losing (too many) subscribers

“The key is the consumer will let you know when they're done with the print product. Don't prematurely yank it from them.” By Christine Schmidt.

“We realized Spotify for news was exactly the wrong thing to do.” Here’s what Kinzen is doing instead

“We can give more power to the user to tell the publisher what they really want.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

What We’re Reading

Membership Puzzle Project / Emily Goligoski and Jay Rosen

How to make your journalism more memberful →

“A simple example of a memberful way of working is maintaining a database of members and their expertise that is routinely tapped to provide technical proofreading of articles and investigations. It might take time, but it also adds value. The value includes the added ‘stickiness’ of the member who is consulted about things that member knows a lot about.”

Reuters / Alison Bevege

Australia will block internet domains hosting extremist content during terror attacks →

“In addition to extremist violence, domains hosting any abhorrent violent material — defined as content showing murder, attempted murder, rape, torture, or kidnapping — that is recorded by anyone involved in the conduct also would be blocked, the government said.”

Digiday / Lucinda Southern

EU regulators take aim at tech platforms’ use of audio →

“‘Hamburg's data protection authority's probing is a step in the right direction, but we need a more unified response from European data protection authorities,’ said [Privacy International researcher Eva] Blum-Dumontet. She pointed to the U.K.'s Department of Health which has signed a deal with Amazon for health advice to be delivered by Alexa as an example of areas that could lead to more privacy troubles.”

Poynter / Kristen Hare

How local journalists uncovered a sex cult years before Hollywood (and The New York Times) paid attention →

“The Albany (New York) Times Union's coverage of Raniere and his alleged cult, Nxivm began in 2003. It included Raniere's attempt to build a headquarters, countless lawsuits against detractors and defectors, his questionable business, his history of preying on minors and the group he built around himself. A reporter working at Metroland, an alt-weekly in Albany, uncovered Raniere's tactics for persuasion, how he silenced critics and his obsession with a former girlfriend. But nothing stopped Raniere or the group until that 2017 New York Times story.”

BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman

Facebook has to provide data it promised to academic researchers by Sept. 30 or funders will pull out →

“Facebook said in April 2018 it would share data with academics to help them research the effects of social media on democracy. BuzzFeed News revealed last week that funders and researchers were beginning to lose patience with the company because it had not yet provided all of the necessary data, and had said it would not provide some of the data it initially promised.”

Washington Post / Tony Romm

Facebook will require political ad buyers to share more info about who’s paying for them →

“Facebook also said it would more aggressively monitor for, and remove, ads that seek to suppress voting. While Facebook took action against such content during last year's mid-term elections, Harbath said the company hadn't had until now an explicit policy against ads encouraging people not to vote.”

Recode / Peter Kafka

YouTube’s CEO says it’s “more important than ever” to let people upload anything they want →

“Wojcicki and YouTube have discussed much of this in public before. Had she showed any sense of backing away from an open ideology, that would constitute real news. But the fact that one of the most powerful tech executives in the world needs to defend the ideological and legal principle at the foundation of her company is something we wouldn't have imagined just a few years ago.”

The Verge / Bijan Stephen

YouTube says it won’t negotiate with the YouTubers Union, but Google Germany is meeting with the group →

“YouTube has little incentive to respond to those demands so long as most major creators aren't behind them and ready to take action. But the company's willingness to take a meeting shows that, at the very least, the YouTubers Union now has the company's attention.”

Online Journalism Awards

The Journalists of Color Slack admins have won the ONA Community Award →

“This year's ONA Community Award recognizes the dedication and industry impact of the JOC Slack administrators: Aaron Williams, Sisi Wei, Tauhid Chappell, Erik Reyna, Julia B. Chan, Lam Thuy Vo and Lo Bénichou. As volunteers, this group has helped to create a community that puts journalists of color in the same "room," forming a support network that travels with them throughout their careers.”

Folio / Greg Dool

Male magazine editors still earn significantly more money than female ones →

“A sample of 64 female and 59 male editors-in-chief indicated that women in such roles earned $0.83 for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. Across 79 respondents at the managing-editor level, that figure was $0.86, while at the associate level it dropped to $0.76, based on a smaller sample of 42 respondents.”

Rabu, 28 Agustus 2019

Podcasters now have three plots of land to prospect for gold, where they used to have just one

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Podcasters now have three plots of land to prospect for gold, where they used to have just one

Plus: Some borderline bad behavior by podcasters, and New York Public Radio gets a new CEO. By Nicholas Quah.

How writing off the working class has hurt the mainstream media

“Today there are just six full-time labor reporters in the top 25 newspapers across the U.S., none in network or cable news, none at NPR or PBS, and just a few at digital news organizations and magazines on the left. What happened?” By Christopher R. Martin.

What We’re Reading

PolitiFact / Daniel Funke

In the weeks after El Paso and Dayton, mass shooting rumors spread on Snapchat and iMessage →

“Unlike a lot of hoaxes about mass shootings, which gain steam through shares on Facebook and Twitter, rumors about additional shootings have spread on private messaging apps like Apple iMessage and Snapchat over the past few weeks. Many of those hoaxes were screenshotted and posted to more public social media platforms, where they got more attention.”

Washington Post / Scott Nover

How reporters for niche publications conquered Capitol Hill →

“Trade publications, which cater specifically to business people or government officials, are often more financially viable these days than writing for a general audience — because unlike average readers, those who want trade news are willing to pay for it. Sometimes, this can lead trade reporters in laughably specific directions: Michael Doyle, now a reporter for an online energy and environment news publication called E&E News, told me he once wrote a few pieces for Onion World, a magazine covering the onion industry (not a global edition of the satirical newspaper the Onion).”

Columbia Journalism Review / Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders’ proposed policy for rebuilding journalism →

“When we have had real journalism, we have seen crimes like Watergate exposed and confronted, leading to anti-corruption reforms. When we have lacked real journalism, we have seen crimes like mortgage fraud go unnoticed and unpunished, leading to a devastating financial crisis that destroyed millions of Americans' lives.” Andrew Yang also has a plan for journalism.

The Guardian / Jim Waterson

BBC to launch Alexa rival that will grasp regional accents →

“While some US-developed products have struggled to understand strong regional accents, the BBC will this week ask staff in offices around the UK to record their voices and make sure the software understands them.”

Self / Casey Gueren

Stock photos for vaccines are notoriously bad, so Self created its own (and they’re free to use) →

“The stock photography commonly used in stories about vaccines are often medically inaccurate in a range of ways, from showing the wrong syringes to showing shots being administered incorrectly. In addition to that, you typically see a lot of crying babies, anxious-looking patients, and close-up shots of oversized needles.”

Columbia Journalism Review / Stefania D'Ignoti

In Sicily, a summer camp for anti-mafia journalism →

“For two weeks, 11 aspiring journalists hailing from various EU countries gathered in Catania, at the former residence of a Mob boss, to learn the basics of field reporting on corruption and crime.”

Slate / Dahlia Lithwick

“Investigative reporting started #MeToo. We're now asking it to do too much.” →

“Even as we compulsively participate in endless debate enabled by our lizard brains and also Twitter, we should pause to recognize that our current reliance on journalism as a stand-in for due process has ended up meaning that accused men — who might have been subject to real rules of evidence, and procedure, and credible testimony — are being punished according to their own thresholds for shame and their best guesses about what behaviors the public will tolerate and for how long. This helps nobody: It does not serve the accused, and it does not serve the victims well, either.”

Facebook

Facebook is expanding local alerts to more local governments and first responders in the U.S. →

“If you manage a Facebook Page associated with a city or county government, local emergency management or fire department, or local law enforcement in the US and you'd like access to local alerts, please fill out this form.”

Axios / Sara Fischer

The Athletic is launching 40 new podcasts; one episode a week will be free →

This brings The Athletic to a total of 80 podcasts, with plans to reach 120.

Selasa, 27 Agustus 2019

Every crime map needs context. This USC data journalism project aims to scale it

Monday, August 26, 2019

Every crime map needs context. This USC data journalism project aims to scale it

“When we do a story looking at 18 different commuting routes, we've created 18 different stories, in a way — we've created a story with 18 distinct audiences.” By Christine Schmidt.

“The tragedy of digital media…is that the people posing as the experts know less about how to make money than their employees, to whom they won't listen.”

What We’re Reading

Wall Street Journal / Lukas Alpert

After making an annual profit of $10M, The Atlantic is now losing money — but planning a paywall for this fall →

“The Atlantic declined to divulge details on how the paywall would be structured. Ms. Powell Jobs, who owns 70% of the magazine through Emerson Collective, her philanthropically minded investment firm, declined to be interviewed for this article. She has made it clear that her investment in the Atlantic needs to be financially viable and isn't to be considered charity, according to people familiar with the situation.”

The New York Times / Kenneth P. Vogel and Jeremy W. Peters

Conservative operatives are targeting journalists reporting on Trump with dossiers of their social media posts →

The Times’ publisher A.G. Sulzberger responded: “No organization is above scrutiny, including The Times. We have high standards, own our mistakes and always strive to do better. If anyone — even those acting in bad faith — brings legitimate problems to our attention, we'll look into them and respond appropriately.”

Wired / Zeynep Tufekci

The Internet has made dupes — and cynics — of us all →

“At some point, the typical response to this onslaught of falsehood is to say, lol, nothing matters. But when so many of us are reaching this point, it really does matter…. The internet is increasingly a low-trust society—one where an assumption of pervasive fraud is simply built into the way many things function.”

Engaged Journalism Accelerator

How Civio’s energy subsidy checker helped readers and supported its membership drive →

Reminiscent of the Equifax data breach settlement: “The team worried that elderly people would miss out because BOSCO, the software created by the Spanish Ministry for Green Energy Transition, was very complex. Civio tried to lobby the authorities to simplify the application process, but nothing was done.” We wrote about Civio’s model here.

Quartz / Noah Weiss

What almost everyone misunderstands about product managers →

“PMs are responsible for the pace and quality of decision-making. That does not, however, mean they should make even a small fraction of decisions themselves. They should be the ultimate facilitators: pulling the best ideas from their teams, coordinating with cross-functional partners, and getting executive context. … Only in rare situations should they actually ‘make the call.'”

International Journalists' Network

9 worldwide journalism opportunities with September deadlines (!) →

Including our own NIeman Foundation visiting fellowships, grants for investigative journalism, and support for women journalists.

High Country News / Brian Calvert

Can climate fiction can help us understand the impacts of climate change better than science journalism? →

“How, we wondered, can we help people understand the importance of all these facts, if the facts aren't enough to speak for themselves? One possible answer is this issue, a departure from our usual rigorous, fact-based journalism, and a foray into the world of imagination. Call it science fiction, or, if you prefer, speculative journalism. We took the projections of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, interviewed scientists, pored over studies — then imagined what the West would look like 50 years from the release of the report.”

The Atlantic / Adam Willis

Bureaucrats are squeezing college newspapers →

“I never ran into as [many] roadblocks as I did as a student journalist,” said one now-New York Times reporter.

Jumat, 23 Agustus 2019

Three years into nonprofit ownership, The Philadelphia Inquirer is still trying to chart its future

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Three years into nonprofit ownership, The Philadelphia Inquirer is still trying to chart its future

Buyouts, rebranding, good journalism, and a vision still in progress: The Philadelphia Inquirer has had quite a summer. The metro newspaper business is still tough, even without a hedge fund or private equity pulling the strings. By Christine Schmidt.

People avoid consuming news that bums them out. Here are five elements that help them see a solution

“It is important that journalists take the time to fully explain the issue and the response before exploring implementation, results, and insights.” By Christine Schmidt.

The Boston Globe continues its regional expansion experiment, with students in a suburb

“Investigative reporting is great to have, but first we need the basics — and we're no longer getting them.” By Christine Schmidt.

What We’re Reading

ABC News / Rhiannon Hobbins and Flip Prior

Here’s how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is fixing the absence of women in its reporting →

“Teams record the gender of interviewees. They measure what they can control. In News, for instance, we would not count someone, such as the Prime Minister, who is critical to a particular story but we would count an expert commentator, as we can choose whether we hear from a male or female expert. The data then forms part of the regular editorial meetings.”

Scientific American / Claire Wardle

“Misinformation has created a new world disorder” →

“Bad actors who want to deepen existing tensions [design] content that they hope will so anger or excite targeted users that the audience will become the messenger. The goal is that users will use their own social capital to reinforce and give credibility to that original message. Most of this content is designed not to persuade people in any particular direction but to cause confusion, to overwhelm, and to undermine trust in democratic institutions from the electoral system to journalism.”

The Atlantic / Ken White

Don’t use these free speech arguments ever again →

“…when you smugly drop ‘You can't shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater’ in a First Amendment debate, you're misquoting an empty rhetorical device uttered by a career totalitarian in a long-overturned case about jailing draft protesters. This is not persuasive or helpful.”

The Information / Alex Heath

Facebook pushes Instagram to earn its keep →

“Some executives in the room saw Instagram's success as a threat to Facebook itself…In the roughly 11 months since Mosseri took over, most of Instagram's senior leadership team has been replaced, Facebook has ordered Instagram to roughly double the number of advertisements in the app…employees from Instagram and WhatsApp were also told recently that their corporate email accounts will be switched to addresses that end with fb.com.”

Digiday / Jessica Davies

Google says news publishers lose 62% of ad revenue when users block cookies →

(Of course, you may have heard Google makes a little money from digital advertising too.)

CJR / Jeremy Gordon

Can music journalism transcend its access problem? →

“Across the industry, celebrity journalism has waned, thanks to the emergence of the internet as a promotional tool — it is possible to share your story directly, without the mediation of a mildly depressed writer — and the ongoing fragmentation and resource-depletion of publications across America.”

Current / Tyler Falk

Alaska public broadcasters lose state funding →

“The governor's office said in a press briefing about the vetoes that it recognizes public broadcasting's ‘important role in Alaska, especially in our rural communities that have limited or no access to other forms of media.’ But funding for public broadcasting ‘can no longer be sustained,’ the briefing said.”

Columbia Journalism Review / Simon Parkin

Reporting the abstract issues of climate change — through games →

“There's lots of data out there. We thought there was a clear story that could walk people through climate cuts and help them discover what's needed to really meet emissions targets. When you play…you realize pretty quickly we need to make much more drastic cuts than one might assume.'”

MIT Technology Review / Andy Wright

Why are products for older people so ugly? →

“They are the Longevity Explorers, part of Caro's experiment to improve the way technology is developed for older adults. They've been meeting here since 2014. Throughout most of the meeting Caro sits quietly at the head of the table, hands clasped together, and just listens. He wishes more people—especially entrepreneurs—would do the same.”

Reynolds Journalism Institute / Jennifer Nelson

The Associated Press plans to study push alerts (and how to make them less annoying) →

“During the fellowship, the team plans to experiment with various alerting features on the AP's news site and mobile app to test different delivery methods, topics and timing. They will measure various metrics, which may include open, follow and uninstall rates as they study user preferences. As they seek to learn users' preferences, they will also conduct user research.”

Digiday / Lucinda Southern

Insider is reorganizing its editorial teams into two brands and three divisions →

“Last year, Insider was profitable for the first time for the whole year and reached $100 million (£82 million) in revenue. Over time, the publisher has been diversifying into video production, events, licensing shows to platforms like Facebook, and commerce. The publisher has also had the benefit of being fully owned by Axel Springer, which bought the company in 2015 for $343 million (£282 million).”