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Thursday, August 8, 2019
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Pacific Standard is shutting down, cut off from its major foundation funder“We’ve been told repeatedly that the amount of funding that came from SAGE was going to be the same for the long term every year and we were responsible for raising additional revenue…and we’ve done that.” By Christine Schmidt. |
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Social media is distorting the representation of women in Africa. Here’s what can be done about it“The new media continues in the ways of the old conventional media — that is, it supports patriarchy and negative portrayal of women.” By Sharon Adetutu Omotoso. |
Google Search will now show you podcast episodes (but it won’t have to link back to Google Podcasts)
What We’re Reading
Governing / Mark Funkhouser, Zach Patton, and Elizabeth Daigneau
Governing Magazine is shutting down after 32 years →
“For the past several years, Governing and our parent company, e.Republic, have made continued investments in the magazine, in governing.com and in the numerous events we host throughout the country. Ultimately, however, Governing has proven to be unsustainable as a business in today's media environment. We will cease publication of the monthly print magazine after September, and we will be ramping down our web presence and the rest of our operations over the next few months.”
Reynolds Journalism Institute / Ebony Reed
How LAist crowdfunded its way back to life at KPCC →
“It’s more than just dollars gained. It’s also about communities engaged. All of our strength comes from the community. We are a radio station. So, we have the on air fundraisers, but we acquired LAist, which is a completely digital news property. It’s been an interesting journey to learn about this new audience and also introduce our on air audience to this.”
Forbes / Jonathan Berr
The New York Times’ stock dropped 12 percent after its earnings were affected by slow digital advertising →
“Even with today's share decline, the New York Times stock has gained more than 40 percent since January. The shares have outperformed the S&P 500, which is up 15 percent in 2019, even with its recent volatility.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Some publishers are making more money on Apple News →
“A second magazine publisher, requesting anonymity about its commercial operations, has seen an increase in ad revenue from the platform of 145 percent from June to July. A third news publisher, also requesting anonymity, reported that weekly pageviews jumped to over 1 million in July, the first time to reach that level.”
Pew Research Center / SARA ATSKE, MICHAEL BARTHEL, GALEN STOCKING AND CHRISTINE TAMIR
More black adults than white in the U.S. see the media’s watchdog role as necessary →
Black adults also stand out for their trust in local news organizations, are more likely to feel connected to their main source of news, and also are underrepresented in U.S. newsrooms, this Pew roundup shared ahead of NABJ’s conference.
Lenfest Local Lab / Sarah Schmalbach
The Lenfest Local Lab built a local restaurant app for The Philadelphia Inquirer →
“Our latest experiment improves local food-finding by giving people access to hundreds of professional recommendations from trusted local food writers, and we're looking for feedback from early adopters.”
Mother Jones / Tommy Craggs
“This shithole made me”: 4 very online writers on how the internet broke our brains and how we can unbreak them →
“An online chat about logging off, with Jenny Odell, Jia Tolentino, Mike Isaac, and Ashley Feinberg.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Old Gannett may have a surprisingly big role in running new Gannett →
“They're saying the right things in a way that makes sense. They're emphasizing the unique combination of national with local markets. They're looking for growth and see consumer revenue — reader revenue — as a key growth area.”
BuzzFeed News / Craig Silverman
The Philippines offers a preview of the disinformation tactics the U.S. could see in 2020 →
“Three years after Duterte's 2016 campaign rode a wave of false stories, paid trolling, and the resulting Facebook engagement to victory, opposition candidates who once lambasted the president and his legions of digital disinformation agents have adopted some of the same tactics. The result is a political environment even more polluted by trolling, fake accounts, impostor news brands, and information operations, according to a new study.”
Los Angeles Times Guild
The Los Angeles Times Guild invites readers to get involved in the bargaining process →
“The journalists of The Times began negotiating our first-ever union contract more than a year ago… If you have space in your messages, please let our new owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, know that you support a fair contract that ensures job security and a better quality of life for our journalists — and be sure to thank him for investing in the future of The Times.”
Journalism.co.uk / Daniel Green
HuffPost UK launches two new sections that will pay contributors →
“Unlike the former Blogs section, both new sections [Personal and Opinion] will pay contributors. The website had attracted some criticism when it first launched in 2005, with its content-sourcing model that was not offering the authors much more than a byline.”
International Center for Journalists
One out of every 11 comments on this Brazilian men’s news outlet thanked the site →
“Burgos analyzed 12 years of reader comments to examine Sao Paulo-based PapodeHomem's impact on its community. The analysis identified at least 850 times that a reader said the site helped them, or even changed their lives.”
Medium / Jennifer Brandel
Hearken is experimenting with the journalism conference experience →
“There is an absurd abundance of inspiring and effective engagement work happening outside of journalism. We should not limit ourselves to case studies from within the industry, but explore how others dedicated to informing their communities and driving change are approaching this work.”