Selasa, 23 April 2019

How The Seattle Times is working with the Seattle Foundation to raise millions for its investigative work

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

How The Seattle Times is working with the Seattle Foundation to raise millions for its investigative work

Hint: It starts with impactful, inclusive journalism. By Christine Schmidt.

Here’s what The New York Times’ The Upshot looks like five years in

“You look all over the paper, in all kinds of different ways, and it's clear that readers had a demand for this sort of journalism. This funny mix of really substantive on really big, complicated topics, but presented in a really approachable way.” By Christine Schmidt.

What the EU’s copyright overhaul means — and what might change for big tech

The reform seeks to ensure publishers and other copyright holders are paid their fair share when their work appears online. But critics fear it could have broader implications. By Marcello Rossi.
What We’re Reading
The Verge / Ashley Carman
$100 million startup Luminary launches tomorrow without Reply All or The Daily →
“By withholding their shows, the Times and Spotify are setting Luminary up to fail — or at least struggle to get off on the right foot with users.”
The Guardian / Rory Carroll and Caroline Davies
Lyra McKee, a meta-media friend, was killed reporting in Northern Ireland →
“As family, friends and supporters gathered on Friday at a vigil to mourn the 29-year-old investigative journalist and activist, police said dissident republicans from a group known as the New IRA were likely to be responsible for the killing and launched a murder investigation.”
The New York Times / Sheera Frenkel and Ben Hubbard
How militant groups are still active on social media despite the platforms’ bans →
“Hamas and Hezbollah, in particular, have evolved by getting their supporters to publish images and videos that deliver their message — but that do not set off the alarm bells of the social media platforms.”
Washington Post / Jennifer Hassan, Niha Masih, and Tony Romm
Sri Lankan government blocked social media access following deadly blasts to stop misinformation →
“Analysts, meanwhile, question whether shutting down social media is effective at defusing strife. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists has said there is no ‘substantive’ evidence to show that such bans, which are common in South Asia, can ‘scale down violence.'”
Bloomberg / Saritha Rai
How 11 people are trying to stop fake news in the world’s largest election →
“The small team appears capable and hardworking almost to a fault, but given the scale of the problem, they might as well be sifting grains of sand from a toxic beach.”
Quartz / Annaliese Griffin
What the coded, sexist language used to describe Pinterest tells us about the company going public →
“But rather than treating its demographics as straightforward fact, or even as an advantage that has led to solid growth and near-profitability (unlike many of the company's tech peers), much of the reporting around the company has framed its female audience as rather off-putting.”
Quartz / David Yanofsky
Scribd’s algorithms took down the Mueller Report, thinking it was copyrighted →
“The company identified 32 copies of the document, all of which were removed and then reinstated.”
Recode / Eric Johnson
Why is LinkedIn producing original journalism? →
“Most of those 50 editors are not writing stories like Hempel is, or working on her podcast, Hello Monday. Instead, they're summarizing big news stories and surfacing public discussions among people who are affected or interested by that news; for example, editor-at-large Jessi Hempel said, LinkedIn provided a unique window into the substantial layoffs at SpaceX earlier this year.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
Inside Axel Springer’s war with AdBlock Plus →
“The publisher hopes to get ABP on a technicality. The claim is that ABP changes the programming code of websites in order to block inventory, and that this is illegal and infringes publisher copyright.”

Jumat, 19 April 2019

Newsonomics: Bryan Goldberg wants to build Bustle into the “Meredith of the digital age”

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Newsonomics: Bryan Goldberg wants to build Bustle into the “Meredith of the digital age”

“I think the hard part for something like Esquire or Harper’s Bazaar in digital — even to some extent Vogue — is that you get into the scale game. Digital demands greater scale. I just don’t know how many men are trying to figure out if corduroy is back in fashion.” By Ken Doctor.

Newsonomics: The newspaper industry is thirsty for liquidity as it tries to merge its way out of trouble

Newspaper company CEOs will be the first to tell you a new round of consolidation won’t solve their problems. But it might give them another year or two of breathing room. By Ken Doctor.
What We’re Reading
MuckRock / Michael Morisy
MuckRock wants you to help read through the Mueller Report →
“Getting started is easy: Just go to the Assignment page and answer the questions that are presented along with the page you're shown. You can answer as many or as few as you'd like, and we'll review and compile the data you submit to total up the most important insights.”
Twitter / Kurt Wagner
Washington Post / Sarah Ellison
The National Enquirer is being sold for $100 million to the CEO of airport newsstands Hudson News →
“The decision to sell came after Anthony Melchiorre, the hedge fund manager whose firm controls AMI, became disillusioned with the reporting tactics of the Enquirer, which is overseen by David Pecker, Trump's confidant dating back many years. AMI has been under intense pressure because of the Enquirer's efforts to tilt the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Apple is looking to beef up its staff for Apple News(+) →
“The listings, some of which Apple has been trying to fill for a while, would give Apple resources to forge strategic marketing partnerships with platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat; a point person to lead collaborative marketing campaigns with publishers participating in Apple News; and a leader who can work across Apple's marketing, product, engineering, data analytics, design and business development teams.”
Time / Hillary Leung
For the first time, the U.S.’s media climate is “problematic” in the World Press Freedom Index →
“The U.S., Venezuela, Brazil, Iran and China saw their rankings drop. Of those five, China — which a separate report by RSF said is ramping up its interference and spread of propaganda not just locally, but in international media — is ranked lowest at 177… On the flip side, Ethiopia has climbed 40 places from near the bottom to 110.”
Poynter / Daniel Funke
The Atlantic / Taylor Lorenz
Digital media unionization comes to Instagram memers →
“They generate the engagement that helps keep Instagram growing—but, they argue, the multibillion-dollar platform doesn't pay them for their work, or give them any control. So they're fighting back. And before you write off IG Meme Union Local 69-420 as a joke, the organizers of the collective would like you to know that they are very serious… ‘Seize the memes of production.'”
The Guardian / Alex Hern
Facebook permanently bans far-right groups under its “dangerous individuals and organizations” policy →
“The ban, which came into effect at midday on Thursday, extends beyond the groups and individuals specifically cited as hate organizations: posts and other content that ‘expresses praise or support’ for them will also be banned, as will users who coordinate support for the groups.”
BuzzFeed News / Karsten Schmehl
WhatsApp has become a hotbed for spreading Nazi propoganda in Germany →
“BuzzFeed News has catalogued more than 200 different WhatsApp stickers that show inciting, violent, or anti-Semitic content. Some stickers show symbols prohibited by German law, including SS runes, the SS insignia, certain flags and swastikas.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Facebook adds two new fact-checking partners — including one owned by The Daily Caller, Inc. →
“CheckYourFact.com arguably leans right, as it’s a for-profit subsidiary owned by The Daily Caller, Inc., although editorially independent. Science Feedback fact-checks news and information primarily based on whether it is rooted in science.”

Kamis, 18 April 2019

With corgis, chickens, and kitchen reveals, the NYT Cooking Community Facebook group is a “happy corner of the internet”

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

With corgis, chickens, and kitchen reveals, the NYT Cooking Community Facebook group is a “happy corner of the internet”

“It’s useful to us to see what people keep on their counters. Do they have their pots and pans hanging or tucked away? It’s a neat window into their lives.” By Laura Hazard Owen.

Is it okay for a journalist to block a critic — not a troll, just a critic — on Twitter?

The latest round in the eternal fight over social media boundaries. By Joshua Benton.

A cognitive scientist explains why humans are so susceptible to fake news and misinformation

“We might like to think of our memory as an archivist that carefully preserves events, but sometimes it’s more like a storyteller.” By Julian Matthews.
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Daisuke Wakabayashi
YouTube is a cesspool of chaos, with a CEO who has faced much less scrutiny than other platforms →
“Last year, when other social media executives were summoned to Congress for a scolding, [Susan Wojcicki] was not invited. She stayed home and campaigned against a new European Union law that could hold services like YouTube liable if their users upload copyrighted content…. For every minute Ms. Wojcicki spent discussing [taking down a viral challenge video], users uploaded to the site an additional 500 hours of footage.”
Washington Post / Jonathan O'Connell
Alden Global Capital faces a federal probe after investing $250M of newspaper workers’ pensions in its own funds →
“Thousands of former newspaper reporters, editors, photographers and printing press workers — some of whom lost their jobs because of staff cuts at Alden papers — became again beholden to the hedge fund because it controlled their retirement savings.”
The Conversation / Anjana Susarla
The new digital divide is between people who opt out of algorithms and people who don’t →
“The savvier users are navigating away from devices and becoming aware of how algorithms affect their lives. Meanwhile, consumers who have less information are relying even more on algorithms to guide their decisions.”
Common Dreams / Michael Winship
Former commissioner Michael Copps thinks Trump is trying to put the FCC “out of business” →
“They're trying to get rid of every rule and regulation they ever had that had to do with broadcast…I think we're in danger and a lot of that goes back to the federal policy of encouraging all of these mergers, the big media giants, half a dozen of them, coming in and buying up community stations, closing the newsroom, shuttering it, throwing reporters out on the streets.”
Vox / Sarah Kliff
After Vox’s ER bill stories, Zuckerberg Hospital is overhauling its aggressive billing tactics →
“The hospital has for years made the rare decision to be out of network with all private health insurance plans. This created an acute problem for patients like like Nina Dang, 24, who made an unexpected trip to the hospital's emergency room, the largest in San Francisco. An ambulance took Dang to the trauma center after a bike accident last April. She is insured by a Blue Cross plan, but she didn't know that the ER does not accept insurance. She received a bill for $20,243. After the Vox story ran, the hospital reduced Dang's bill to $200, the copay listed on her insurance card.”
Medill Local News Initative / Mark Jacobs
Why the Chicago Tribune made a quiz for readers on which mayoral candidate they aligned most with →
“The feature was a major winner in converting readers into subscribers, and was also popular among our existing subscribers.”
Business Insider / Lucia Moses
The Information may introduce ads, on top of its high-priced subscriptions, this year →
Founder Jessica Lessin “said she sees an opportunity to match The Information’s readers with advertisements in its newsletters for things like jobs and events, information that the audience is interested in, just not ‘flashing banner ads.'”
Reuters / Aditya Kalra and Sudarshan Varadhan
Chinese app TikTok (megapopular in many markets, including the U.S.) is removed from Google and Apple app stores in India →
“A court in southern Tamil Nadu state asked the federal government on April 3 to ban TikTok, saying it encouraged pornography and warning that sexual predators could target child users.”
Thinknum Media / Joshua Fruhlinger
Hiring is up 208% at BuzzFeed since its layoffs →
“It’s the first sign that BuzzFeed has its new move-forward strategy in place after having shucked the employees that were no longer part of its future…. Of the 77 openings, 12 are tagged as ‘Editorial’, behind only ‘Sales’ with 16 open headcounts.” Three are at BuzzFeed News.

Rabu, 17 April 2019

Is Mailchimp ready to dive back into podcasts in a big way?

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Is Mailchimp ready to dive back into podcasts in a big way?

Plus: How independent podcasters make money, Snap Judgment expands to a new platform, and Macs are getting a separate Podcasts app. By Nicholas Quah.

As Notre Dame burned, an algorithmic error at YouTube put information about 9/11 under news videos

A reminder that even efforts to limit misinformation can end up spreading it instead — and that human editors watching over the algorithms can be a pretty good thing, too. By Joshua Benton.
What We’re Reading
NBC News / Olivia Solon and Cyrus Farivar
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were on board with selling access to Facebook users’ data →
“In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps…Facebook ultimately decided not to sell the data directly but rather to dole it out to app developers who were considered personal ‘friends’ of Zuckerberg or who spent money on Facebook and shared their own valuable data, the documents show.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Eriq Gardner
Will it soon be legal to say curse words on broadcast TV? →
“Since Pacifica, the Supreme Court has refused to extend the indecency bar beyond ‘a situation in which a listener does not want the received message,’ and with a proliferation of options to access media, one might wonder if Pacifica is somewhat outdated.”
HuffPost / Lydia Polgreen
HuffPost is launching a membership program with three tiers, including a free one →
“Our membership program is not a paywall because we believe our journalism should remain freely available to everyone ― not just those who can afford to pay.” Paid tiers are $5.99/month or $99.99/year (which comes with a t-shirt).
Journalism.co.uk / Damian Radcliffe and Payton Bruni
5 trends to know about social media in the Middle East →
One third of the population is below age 15, and almost two thirds say they first turn to Facebook and Twitter for news (compared to just a quarter three years ago). And in three years, the number of MENA YouTube channels grew by 160 percent.
Axios / Sara Fischer
The Trump campaign is spending 44 percent of its Facebook ad budget targeting users over 65 →
“Other data points pulled from the Facebook ad archive show that the President is using most of those ads targeted towards older people to talk about immigration… In total, the Trump campaign is only targeting voters 18-35 with 4.3 percent of his total ad budget.”
Recode / Eric Johnson
If Congress cancels federal funding for PBS, rural areas will be hurt the most, PBS CEO says →
“Some in urban centers like New York and Washington, DC, might be able to get by with the money they get from other sources, including corporate underwriters and individual donations. But the threat is a more ‘existential’ threat for stations in rural areas that ‘are not going to make it … unless there is some federal support.'”
Wired / Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein
15 months of fresh hell inside Facebook, based on interviews with 65 current and former employees →
“Heated emails flew back and forth between Switzerland and Menlo Park. Solutions were proposed and shot down. It was a classic Facebook dilemma. The company's algorithms embraid choices so complex and interdependent that it's hard for any human to get a handle on it all…. It's ultimately a story about the biggest shifts ever to take place inside the world's biggest social network. But it's also about a company trapped by its own pathologies and, perversely, by the inexorable logic of its own recipe for success.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Schibsted becomes the latest publisher to back Spotify’s feud with Apple →
“Apple is acting today as a whimsical feudal lord who either doesn't understand — or simply doesn't care — what its actions are impacting,” Schibsted editors wrote in an open letter decrying the platform’s 15-30 percent cut of in-app subscription revenues.
The Hollywood Reporter / Natalie Jarvey
Vox Media acquires Epic Magazine, creating a new studios division →
“Founded six years ago by journalists Josh Davis and Joshuah Bearman, Epic was designed to create a pipeline of sorts for magazine articles to become feature films or TV shows…. Bearman’s 2007 Wired story about a CIA scheme to rescue American diplomats from Tehran became the Ben Affleck film Argo, which won the Oscar for best picture in 2012. And Warner Bros. bought the rights to Davis’ Wired investigation on John McAfee.”
International Center for Journalists
Here’s a new accelerator with $1.5M to invest in Latin American media startups →
“Called Velocidad (‘Velocity’ in English), the accelerator program will provide both funding and expert consulting for news startups operating in Latin America. Velocidad is funded by Luminate and run by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and SembraMedia.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Natalie Jarvey
Bryan Goldberg says he expects Bustle Digital Group to edge into profitability this year →
“…with revenue topping $100 million, which would represent more than 30 percent growth compared with the $75 million the company clocked in 2018…. The idea is to create a modern-day CondĆ© Nast, one untethered from the baggage of a legacy print business.”

Selasa, 16 April 2019

What will journalism do with 5G’s speed and capacity? Here are some ideas, from The New York Times and elsewhere

Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

What will journalism do with 5G’s speed and capacity? Here are some ideas, from The New York Times and elsewhere

Always-streaming reporters, a searchable past, and new internal tools and external products: 5G will have a big impact on news, just as previous-generation networks did. By Joshua Benton.

Courting future business models: Are public media and scrappy startups the next trend for mergers?

NJ Spotlight and NJTV News may be onto a trend: “Really the quality of the journalism and business model made it viable for us and make it viable for the other legacy stations around the country.” By Christine Schmidt.
What We’re Reading
Pew Research Center / Elizabeth Grieco
For many rural U.S. residents, local news media mostly don’t cover the area where they live →
“Despite feeling that the local news media are less connected to their communities, rural residents express the same level of desire as urban and suburban residents for getting news from journalists who are personally engaged in their communities.”
Fast Company / Cale Guthrie Weissman
Quartz’s editorial staff is unionizing →
“The group of about 60 editorial employees—including writers, editors, and social media and video producers—have been working on this pursuit for nearly two years.”
WHYY / Avi Wolfman-Arent
Spirited Media’s third site, Billy Penn, lands at Philadelphia’s public radio station WHYY →
“WHYY has 122,000 members and hosts about 75 events each year. Billy Penn has roughly 600 members.”
USA Today / Nathan bomey
Digital First Media signals it would cut costs and consolidate operations if it takes over Gannett →
“MNG Enterprises’ letter came in response to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s recent request for information on the company’s bid to acquire Gannett, including its newsroom staffing plans. Schumer wrote Thursday to MNG in a publicly released letter that he was ‘troubled’ by MNG’s response, including what he called the company’s failure to ‘make commitments regarding newsroom staffing, and how you would address potential regulatory concerns.'”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
The European Comission’s GDPR head on why Google and Facebook need to do GDPR compliance better →
“I don't believe [Google and Facebook] are orientated to introduce big changes in terms of a balance of power. In 2017 we received a lot of declarations from businesses including Google, saying they were ready to respect it [GDPR]. But last May, the tsunami of privacy notices sent, often in obscure language, were clearly orientated to protect data controllers, not citizens.”
Reuters / Fanny Poktin and Agustinus Beo Da Costa
How factcheckers in Indonesia are trying to counter hoax peddlers in its April 17 election →
“The Cekfakta (‘checkfacts’ in Indonesian) initiative brings together the non-profit fact-checking organization Mafindo and 24 news organizations that normally compete fiercely with each other during election campaigns.”
Bloomberg / Mark Bergen and Lucas Shaw
YouTube is now trying to reward “quality” content, not just what keeps people glued to their phones →
“The Google division introduced two new internal metrics in the past two years for gauging how well videos are performing…. One tracks the total time people spend on YouTube, including comments they post and read (not just the clips they watch). The other is a measurement called ‘quality watch time,’ a squishier statistic with a noble goal: To spot content that achieves something more constructive than just keeping users glued to their phones.”
Colorado Sun / John Ingold
How the media — including him — unwittingly helped create a Columbine narrative that has inspired murderers ever since →
And this idea of empowerment through murder can spread like a virus, with media attention potentially serving as a vector that carries it from killer to killer. The concept of mass shooting contagion, little studied until just a few years ago, is now gaining momentum in academic circles.
BuzzFeed News / Katie Notopoulos
A transparency tool on Facebook provides a window into the maze of companies you’ve never heard of who appear to have your data →
“The list of Advertisers, a feature Facebook added for transparency, is incomprehensible to anyone who isn't an expert in advertising (and even some who are!), and leads to the unsettling realization that, fuck, man, our data is out there and trafficked without our consent and being used by advertisers in ways we have no clue about.”
Bloomberg / Gerrit De Vynck and Sarah Frier
Procter & Gamble Co., one of the most important advertisers for Google and Facebook Inc., ramped up criticism of internet platforms →
“We've been tolerant for too long,” P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard said in prepared remarks. “It's not acceptable to have brands showing up where opioids are being offered, where illegal drugs are promoted, where abhorrent behavior is present or where violence is seen. The apologies are heartfelt and appreciated, but that's not good enough.”
Freakonomics / Stephen J. Dubner
Spotify founder Daniel Ek on building the company and going into podcasts →
“So we started seeing it resonating really well into people's lives, and they thought of Spotify not just as a music service but as a service where they can find audio. And it played really well into our strategy of ubiquity — i.e., being on all of these different devices in your home, whether it's the Alexas or TV screens or in your cars or whatever as just another source where you could play your audio.”