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Thursday, August 29, 2019
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“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. |
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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.”