YULI AHMADA

Jumat, 05 Mei 2017

Jimmy Wales on Wikitribune’s business model and why it might cover not just politics but also dog breeding: The latest from Nieman Lab

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Jimmy Wales on Wikitribune’s business model and why it might cover not just politics but also dog breeding

“Political news, I think, is of the most interest right now, and so I think that that’s where we’ll focus at first.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

Hands across America: How to make local/national journalism collaborations work

Working together doesn’t always come easy to news organizations. Here are the hurdles — and how best to get around them. By Tim Griggs.

Here are some takeaways from Electionland, a 1,000-person effort covering Election Day voting issues

What We’re Reading

Digiday / Ross Benes

Outside Magazine built its own recommendation widgets to replace Outbrain →

“With Outbrain's widgets, about 1 percent of its total visitors clicked through, while Outside's own recommendation boxes have about a 1.3 percent click-through rate, said Todd Hodgson, director of product management at Outside. That adds up quickly, he said. Outbrain had been supplying 10 percent of Outside's digital ad dollars.”

Wall Street Journal / Shalini Ramachandran

Media companies from NBCUniversal to CBS to Fox line up to make shows for Snapchat →

“Snapchat hopes to have two to three new episodes of original shows airing each day by the end of the year in the ‘stories’ section of the app, which displays collections of snaps from friends, as well as stories from media outlets. The shows will be three to five minutes long.”

Wall Street Journal / Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

Airbnb is teaming up with Hearst on a print magazine guided by the travel site’s data →

The new print publication will roll out May 23 with a $3.99 cover price. Stories will be sourced from anonymous data points Airbnb collects. Editors will use the data to assign stories for an audience curious about local hot spots. For instance, Savannah, Ga., is one of Airbnb's top search destinations, so one piece in the first issue includes barbecue recommendations from a Savannah barbecue pit master.

Bloomberg.com / Devin Leonard

Pitchfork grows up →

“Much has changed since 1996. Today, [Pitchfork founder Ryan] Schreiber employs 51 people, runs music festivals in Chicago and Paris, and has Fortune 500 advertisers. In 2015, Condé Nast, publisher of the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, bought Pitchfork for an undisclosed sum, and now Schreiber works in a comfortable office at Condé's headquarters in One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.”

Medium / Matt DeRienzo

In local journalism, death by 1,000 papercuts →

National outlets are seeing a so-called “Trump bump,” with new resources flowing into supporting better journalism. But Gannett, which on Wednesday eliminated newsroom jobs across as many as 37 local newspapers, is moving in the opposite direction.

The Drum / Seb Joseph

Axel Springer just struck a deal with AppNexus that could see it turn its back on Google’s DoubleClick →

The transition starts in 2018 when sites like BILD.de and businessinsider.de will gradually adopt AppNexus' technologies, including its ad server. Axel Springer's switch from Google DFP to AppNexus is the latest in a string of instances where publishers are turning to independent partners that can help them acquire, engage and monetize audiences across the open web.

Journalism.co.uk / Madalina Ciobanu

With P24, Público is experimenting with personalized audio catch-ups for its readers →

Each audio package has a duration of about eight minutes, and is featured on the Público website only, at the top of the homepage. A couple of months before the launch in April, the team started producing around 40 news audio pieces per day, and P24’s engine combines anywhere between five and ten of these items to create a personalized package based mainly on readers’ interests.

The New York Times / Jacqueline Williams

Journalists at 2 of Australia’s biggest papers strike over job cuts →

“On Wednesday morning, the company sent an email to staff members saying it would cut 125 full-time positions at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne, with cuts also expected at The Australian Financial Review. Last month, Fairfax management said that the company would need to trim 30 million Australian dollars, or about $22.5 million, representing nearly one-quarter of its editorial budget.”

Kamis, 04 Mei 2017

Schibsted is creating new editorial formats — from messaging to personalized homepages: The latest from Nieman Lab

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Schibsted is creating new editorial formats — from messaging to personalized homepages

“This is not a reorganization that is forced upon a publisher. It’s a joint realization that if we join forces we can do more than by operating on our own.” By Joseph Lichterman.

Philly’s Lenfest Institute has raised $26.5 million and could get another $40 million from its namesake

The institute, which owns the two Philadelphia dailies, also plans to introduce a fellowship program and award grants to help sustain local journalism. By Joseph Lichterman.

The New York Times just had a pretty stellar first quarter, thanks to The Wirecutter and 2.2M new digital subs

What We’re Reading

BuzzFeed / J. Lester Feder and Edgar Mannheimer

BuzzFeed investigates white nationalist digital media in Sweden →

“It was natural for Spencer to turn to Swedes as partners in the new enterprise, given the country's history as an exporter of white nationalist ideas.”

Ear Buds: The Podcasting Documentary

The trailer for “Ear Buds,” a documentary about podcasts →

“Ear Buds: The Podcasting Documentary.”

BuzzFeed / Steven Perlberg

Former Jared Kushner employees are trying to create ‘the Breitbart of the left’ →

“Elizabeth Spiers, previously the editor-in-chief of the New York Observer and the founding editor of Gawker, and media and politics researcher Peter Feld are attempting to fundraise for the effort, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

BuzzFeed / Steven Perlberg

How ESPN became a conservative cause →

“Once a profit powerhouse, ESPN has become a business in crisis as it struggles to navigate the eroding pay-TV industry. Some conservative critics attribute this to a newly politicized network. Other conservatives say they recognize that ESPN's business problems are deeper — and that the political aspect to ESPN is merely an attempt to generate heat amid that decline. The gleeful reaction, some say, is mostly just schadenfreude. Either way, in the parlance of trolls abusing sportswriters' Twitter mentions, conservatives say ESPN should ‘stick to sports.'”

The Guardian / Emily Bell

Wikitribune venture will not address journalism’s underlying issues →

“Is the problem with news that we are doing it wrong? Or is the problem that the institutions that are doing it right are too few and far between? Or that they don't have enough sustainability and enough reporters to do more? Or is it that actually the broken parts of news are sometimes the journalism, but they are other things too – like the commercial structure of larger organisations such as Facebook and Google?”

J-Source / H.G. Watson

Canada is getting its own edition of The Conversation →

To be edited by Scott White, former longtime editor-in-chief of the Canadian Press.

Digiday / Hilary Milnes

How Teen Vogue is maintaining its “woke” momentum in the Trump era →

“U.S. traffic to TeenVogue.com has grown to 8 million unique visitors as of March, up from 3.5 million in 2016, according to ComScore.”

Poynter / Benjamin Mullin

An offshoot of Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program strikes a deal with Amazon to produce over-the-top video →

“If you step way back, what we’re talking about is commercializing the research that’s being done at the university.”

Folio / Becky Peterson

The Economist’s digital subscriptions are up 19% since the U.S. election →

“North American digital subscribers have come to represent 35 percent of annual subscription volume. This number, pulled from the period between December 2016 and February 2017, is a 30 percent increase year on year.”

WGBH

WGBH, a closed-captioning pioneer, is launching free video captioning software →

“The new tool, funded in part by a grant from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's Office, will allow users to affordably produce high-quality caption files that are compatible with any media player that supports the display of captions and any web browser.”

The Globe and Mail

The owner of the Toronto Star reports $24.4-million loss, plan to cut 110 positions →

“The company continued to cut costs on the Toronto Star's tablet edition, known as ‘Star Touch.’ The quarter saw a decline of $3.7-million in net investment in that project, which was initially a multimillion-dollar bid to reshape the media company for the future. In his final earnings call in March, outgoing CEO David Holland said that his successor would need to ‘reflect hard’ on the future of Star Touch. The company has planned to invest $2-million to $4-million in Star Touch this year, ramping down its spending and cutting costs.”

Rabu, 03 Mei 2017

Newsonomics: Can a master blacklist choke off fake news’ money supply?: The latest from Nieman Lab

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Newsonomics: Can a master blacklist choke off fake news’ money supply?

The Open Brand Safety framework is an attempt to create a master list of fake news sites so advertisers can learn to avoid them. By Ken Doctor.

Three things to watch around the launch of Mogul, Spotify’s latest exclusive podcast

Plus: A new crop of studios, the growing prospects for podcasts for kids, and Nashville throws a “podcast party.” By Nicholas Quah.

Subject expertise, social cues, and promotions are the three big reasons people pay for news

What We’re Reading

Univision / Alejandro Fernández Sanabria, Andrés Fernández, and Daniel Salazar

How Univision and seven other Latin American partners investigated public defender records in the region →

“The investigation of Costa Rica's public defense system was born from a single question: Is there a link between the type of lawyer that defends a criminal case and the probability that a defendant will be convicted? For the analysis, Univision Data used a statistical method common in social sciences but practically unexplored in newsrooms, called logistic regression.”

The Information / Cory Weinberg

Media executives are wary of Facebook’s video ad plans →

“Among the concerns is the question of whether ad rates will be high enough and frustration that Facebook insists on selling the ad space itself rather than letting media firms sell their own ad space. Executives also worry that viewers will tune out once the ad break hits — something for which there is evidence.”

Digiday / Ross Benes

Confessions of a fed-up ad fraud researcher: ‘Prevention is always behind’ →

“Agencies have perverse incentives when it comes to picking verification firms and a poor understanding of statistical sampling,” according one ad fraud researcher.

First Monday / Philip M. Napoli and Robyn Caplan

Why media companies insist they’re not media companies, why they’re wrong, and why it matters →

“There are fundamental legal and policy implications associated with how [Google, Facebook, and Twitter] define themselves and are defined by policy-makers and the public.”

The Atlantic / Derek Thompson

ESPN is not doomed →

“But the network's recent layoffs are a preview of major shifts to come in the television industry, American sports, and all of digital media.”

Boston Magazine / Chris Sweeney

Boston Herald reporters are boycotting Twitter after a reporter was suspended for tweeting a scoop →

“It was a legitimate scoop in the highly competitive national news cycle that followed [Aaron] Hernandez's suicide, and it got noticed: Villani's message was retweeted 219 times and liked 246 times. Other outlets later reported the same news. But because Villani didn't seek approval from editorial brass to tweet out the news, which was attributed to an unnamed source, he's now out three days pay.”

Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

Combating fake news: an agenda for research and action →

“As a research community, we identified three courses of action that can be taken in the immediate future: involving more conservatives in the discussion of misinformation in politics, collaborating more closely with journalists in order to make the truth "louder," and developing multidisciplinary community-wide shared resources for conducting academic research on the presence and dissemination of misinformation on social media platforms.”

The New York Times / Katrin Bennhold

London tabloids, champions of ‘Brexit,’ loom large →

“In Britain after the so-called Brexit vote, the power of the tabloids is evident. Their circulations may be falling and their reputations tarnished by a series of phone-hacking scandals. But as the country prepares to cut ties with the European Union after a noisy and sometimes nasty campaign, top politicians court the tabloids and fear their wrath. Broadcasters follow where they lead, if not in tone then in topic.”

The New York Times / Malachy Browne

How The New York Times used forensic mapping to verify a Syrian chemical attack →

“In combination with graphics and on-the-ground reporting, our video forensic work also showed conclusively that the attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun took place hours before Syria — and its Russian allies — say that it occurred and cast doubt on the official account of the attack that Russia provided.”

Digiday / Lucia Moses

‘The audience there is huge’: A guide to the most popular publisher Facebook video hacks →

The growth hacks include using GIFs, running prerecorded videos as “live,” and using other people’s content.

Slate Magazine / Will Oremus

Should you really cancel your New York Times subscription over one bad column? Maybe →

“The fact that canceling strikes some people as an extreme response to a column about climate change is just the point: It speaks to just how seriously activists take the media's portrayal of climate science.”

Digiday / Max Willens

After 18 years, About.com is rebranding as Dotdash →

“The new name is supposed to work on multiple levels. About CEO Neil Vogel said the dot is a nod to the period that was core to the publisher's old logo, while a dash is a typographic symbol used to move things toward what's next.”

Selasa, 02 Mei 2017

Here’s how this Norwegian publisher built a successful digital subscription model for local news: The latest from Nieman Lab

Monday, May 1, 2017

Here’s how this Norwegian publisher built a successful digital subscription model for local news

“When we started out, I'm sure a lot of people were worried about cannibalization, and people moving from print to digital, but that hasn't really happened at all.” By Joseph Lichterman.

Amid the wreckage of fallen startups, Longreads is increasing the original reporting it funds

A lot of startups have wanted to be “a great place for writers.” Longreads appears to actually be succeeding at this. By Laura Hazard Owen.

The New York Times’ popular morning news podcast The Daily is coming to weekends and to Spotify

Bloomberg is launching a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week news channel that streams exclusively on Twitter

What We’re Reading

Recode / Peter Kafka

After laying off reporters last week, ESPN is reportedly hiring Yahoo’s star basketball reporter Adrian Wojnarowski →

“Sources familiar with ESPN's plan say Wojnarowski will begin working for ESPN in time to cover the June 22 NBA draft. I'm told the network also intends to bring aboard some of the staff of The Vertical, the NBA site Wojnarowski launched for Yahoo 2016.”

The New York Times / Marc Tracy

Claims of liberal bias in media now include sportscasters, too →

“An unusual strain of partisanship — at least in the sports corner of the media — emerged last week after ESPN announced it was laying off dozens of employees. The public reaction included jeers at the network for what some viewers perceived as a leftward slant in ESPN's coverage, a reflection of how the country's raw political nerves and cultural divisions have spilled over into a world that many value as a pristine redoubt from worldly concerns: sports.”

Washington Post / Michael Cavna

Bob Mankoff named humor editor for Esquire one day after exiting the New Yorker →

“Esquire has a rich history of publishing cartoons, but that dedication began to wane a half-century ago. Mankoff plans to curate humor at Esquire much the same way he did for two decades at the New Yorker.”

Democracy Fund / Angelica Das

A useful report on community engagement practices in different newsrooms →

The Democracy Fund report is full of community engagement ideas in practice. Check out also a related report on understanding “communities of practice,” and how newsrooms can reframe their thinking around ideas of shared identities.

YouTube

Here are videos of NYC Media Lab’s Machines + Media conference →

The event focused on how “data is changing the way media is produced, distributed and consumed.” It featured speakers from The New York Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, BuzzFeed, and more.

Poynter / Kristen Hare

How a Wisconsin couple grew an idea from a basement office into an investigative institution →

“Since launching in 2009, WCIJ has produced 300 major projects, which have been published, broadcast or cited by more than 500 news organizations, including state radio, print and TV outlets and The New York Times.”

SB Nation / Elena Bergeron

Vox Media’s SB Nation just launched a redesigned site →

“What you're seeing on SB Nation is pretty. There's brains behind that beauty. Everything from the revamped logo to the layout to the color palette was chosen to reflect the heart of SB Nation, the content we do everyday and the democracy of voices we want to invite to do sports with us.”

Associated Press / Jonathan Lemire and Maureen Linke

AP and MIT analysis shows declining engagement with Trump’s tweets →

“Men are more likely than women to retweet Trump. Left-leaning users are more likely than right-leaning ones to reply — often with commentary. Even with the recent tapering off, bursts with exclamation points or capital letters get more favorites and retweets. Tweets mentioning ‘Russia’ or ‘fake news’ spark far more interaction than those that don’t.”

Politico / Joe Pompeo

Univision’s Fusion.net is getting a new name and URL →

“Employees were informed of the change on Friday, and now they're brainstorming ideas about what the publication should be called. Now, the Miami-based Fusion TV gets a digital property to call its own where it can highlight its broadcast programming, and the New York-centric publication known as Fusion gets a fresh start.”

Poynter / Alexios Mantzarlis

How has political fact-checking changed after Trump’s first 100 days? Not much. →

“Even some of the claims he’s making are the same he was making in the campaign.” (Interest in fact-checking appears to have remained high: PolitiFact’s newly launched membership program has collected almost $200,000, including recurring pledges.)

The New York Times / Mark Scott

In Europe’s election season, tech vies to fight fake news →

“European countries have different languages, and their media markets are smaller than those in the United States. That means groups that set up fake news sites in the United States, seeking to profit from online advertising when false claims were shared on social media, are less prevalent in Europe. But with fake news already swirling around Europe's forthcoming elections, analysts also worry that technology on its own may not be enough to combat the threat.”

Ad Age / Garett Sloane

Facebook’s connected TV ambition meets a reluctant industry →

“Facebook has come in to give the ad tech pitch, but at the end of the day they want us to dump our ad tech and back-end system for theirs,” said one top media executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

CNN / Brian Stelter

Time Inc. backs away from plans to sell itself →

“Morale at the company is likely to take a hit as well. Staffers at Time’s magazines are bracing for further cuts to the company’s portfolio — and its workforce. Time Inc. CEO Rich Battista and chief operating officer Jen Wong declined to comment on the prospect of layoffs, but Wong said ‘we believe there’s a path’ to sustained profitability ‘even as print declines.'”

The Financial Times / Matthew Garrahan

Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is in talks with Blackstone to launch a joint bid for Tribune Media →

Sinclair is also eyeing Tribune (not to be confused with the now separate Tribune Publishing aka Tronc), which owns a portfolio of U.S. TV stations. Fox and private equity firm Blackstone are hoping to trump Sinclair’s offer, according to sources.

Digiday / Sahil Patel

NewFronts publishers see an opening with recent YouTube, Facebook ad crises →

“Whether it's overt or not, the message will be consistent: There's no risk to your brand when working directly with a publisher.”

NOLA.com

The New York Times and The Times-Picayune form a coastal reporting partnership →

“Stories will appear jointly in both companies’ newspapers and on their digital platforms, NOLA.com and nytimes.com, this year. In addition, the partnership plans to produce a documentary film and host a conference that brings international thought leaders in climate change and coastal erosion to New Orleans during its tricentennial year of 2018.”