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Monday, August 26, 2019
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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. |
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.