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Monday, July 29, 2019
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In Australia, a new women’s site is using a charitable pitch to try to break throughStarted by former magazine editors, Primer blends editorial work and social impact for women: “I think it’s the perfect time to build a website for women that is a real community as well, where people feel that they’re making a real difference.” By Eleanor Dickinson. |
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Putting a leash on Google and Facebook won’t do much to save the traditional news model“Social media and search give advertisers better tools to target messages to more precise groups of potential consumers. It is a phenomenally better mousetrap.” By Amanda D. Lotz. |
What We’re Reading
Twitter / John Glidden
The Vallejo Times-Herald now has 1 reporter to cover a city of 120,000 →
“Tough breaking news to report but the Vallejo Times-Herald has eliminated a news reporter position leaving just one (1) news reporter (myself).” (You’ll be shocked the Times-Herald is a MediaNews paper, which means it is owned by Alden Global Capital.)
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
British regulators want to make broadcasters protect the “welfare, wellbeing and dignity” of interviewees →
“The changes could upend how reality TV, which often thrives on showing embarrassing moments that participants may later regret, is made and the extent to which broadcasters can push boundaries in the search for ratings…news reporters and documentary creators will be explicitly required to consider the impact of including members of the public in their broadcasts, with potential implications for investigative journalism.”
Media Nation / Dan Kennedy
The Lowell Sun sports editor’s farewell column was taken down. Here’s every word of it. →
“Corporate cost-cutting is the culprit. Apparently I was making too much money to suit the suits, even with years of frozen wages. I didn't realize I was making so much. I would have spent more.”
Pew Research Center / Carroll Doherty and Jocelyn Kiley
Americans have become much less positive about tech companies’ impact on the U.S. →
“Four years ago, technology companies were widely seen as having a positive impact on the United States. But the share of Americans who hold this view has tumbled 21 percentage points since then, from 71% to 50%. Negative views of technology companies' impact on the country have nearly doubled during this period, from 17% to 33%.”
The Washington Post / Daphne Keller
The stubborn, misguided myth that Internet platforms must be “neutral” →
“CDA 230 isn't about neutrality. In fact, it explicitly encourages platforms to moderate and remove ‘offensive’ user content. That leaves platform operators and users free to choose between the free-for-all on sites like 8chan and the tamer fare on sites like Pinterest.”
Bloomberg / Ira Boudway
The Athletic now has 500,000 subscribers and plans to hit 1 million by the end of 2019 →
“The site's average annual revenue per subscriber is roughly $64, Mather said. Since launching in Chicago three years ago, the Athletic has expanded to nearly 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada and hired hundreds of sports reporters and editors, often from local newspapers. It covers roughly 270 teams from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and college sports.”
EFF / Cory Doctorow
“Adblocking: How about nah?” →
“Predictably, industry responded with ad-blocker-blockers, which prevented users from seeing their sites unless they turned off their ad-blocker. You’ll never guess what happened next. Actually, it’s obvious what happened next: users started to install ad-blocker-blocker-blockers.”
Variety / Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud
Inside Spotify’s attempt with TV and hardware →
“Every time you waste a byte, God kills a kitten.”
Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
How a 10-person news outlet’s investigative reporting took down Puerto Rico’s governor →
“But CPI didn't merely publish the chat messages, as appalling as many of them were. There also were investigative stories revealing ‘the corruption behind the chat’ — the ways in which the Rosselló administration, Minet said, was misusing its public role to benefit their private interests.”
The New Yorker / Susan McKay
The incredible life and tragic death of Lyra McKee →
The journalist and Mediagazer editor was shot while reporting during a riot in Northern Ireland earlier this year and died. “A mural showing Lyra laughing was painted on the wall of the Sunflower Public House near her old home in Belfast. She'd written about the bar in a piece, talking about how dangerous the streets used to be. "Now," she wrote, ‘it's safe.'”
Engaged Journalism Accelerator / Ben Whitelaw
Here’s how the Bureau Local, as a small team, assessed its options for making money →
“The Bureau Local is currently dependent on foundation and major donor funding. Yet we realise that this is not enough to respond to the full scope of the challenge. Going forward, we believe that sustaining our mission and output needs a diversified, hybrid revenue model. The goal of this process is to create additional diversified income streams for the core operating budget of the Bureau Local.”
New York Post / Keith J. Kelly
Newsday is offering voluntary buyouts →
“Dolan, whose brother James runs Madison Square Garden, appears to be cutting costs at the paper generally. Last week, Newsday announced it was moving down the road from its present 40-year-old headquarters at a former sod farm at 235 Pinelawn Road in Melville on Long Island to a new, smaller location in an office park just down the street.”
Medill Local News Initative / Mark Jacob
How Gannett is cutting its content “to be less overwhelming” →
“He said the bottom half of Gannett content used to account for only about 6 or 7 percent of overall readership. ‘What that tells you is, half of your efforts are going for almost no dividend.'”
Rolling Stone / Brian Hiatt
How Media Matters for America became Fox News’ biggest watchdog →
“The guy with the nuclear codes isn't taking advice from Don Lemon.”
Poynter / Susan Smith Richardson
“Are you calling me a racist?” Um, no, it’s not about you →
“Nearly 30 years after sitting in my first newsroom diversity session, I can understand why the facilitator talked about institutional racism. It's simpler to identify robed bigots as the problem than it is to fathom a system of interlacing policies, practices and laws that marginalize entire groups.”