Wednesday, May 3, 2023 |
| “All the editors I know wish they had more time to mentor their reporters, but they’re under so much pressure to produce that they just can’t do it.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
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| “Not to brag, but if there was an obvious way to make money here I feel like I would know about it.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re ReadingThe Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell
TikTok is launching an ad product for publishers — and letting them take home half the revenue →“The product, Pulse Premiere, allows creators to collect half the revenue from video ads that appear just after their TikTok posts. The new product will offer similar perks for accounts from select publishers, such as Condé Nast, BuzzFeed, and NBC. While Pulse is only available to the top 4% of its creators’ posts — based on metrics such as likes, watch time, and comments — the new product will sell ads against all posts from participating publishers, the company said.”LION Publishers / Lisa Heyamoto and Chloe Kizer
How about some good news? Median annual revenue for local digital newsrooms is up →According to a new report from LION Publishers: “The number of [member newsrooms] who rely on direct sold advertising as a primary revenue stream is 42% — down 20% from 2021…Around 34% of members now claim some form of reader revenue — either membership or subscriptions — as a top revenue source. And events have emerged as a popular earner, with 40% of publications saying they host some sort of public gatherings.”TechCrunch / Morgan Sung
For Bluesky to thrive, it needs sex workers and Black Twitter →“If Bluesky aspires to be a viable alternative to Twitter, it needs to be better than Twitter was at its peak — and safer for marginalized users.”N+1
The self-respecting Twitter user might feel like it’s time to search elsewhere for news and ideas. But where? →“One sometimes finds oneself in the debased position of opening a new article, immediately selecting all, and pasting the results into an unformatted Google Doc before the paywall finishes loading. This kind of subterfuge can only generate sheepishness — but then again, how many subscriptions can one person handle?”Local Media Association + Local Media Foundation
This newly formed nonprofit plans to buy most of Maine’s newspapers →“We had a sense that the current owner of Masthead Maine (the parent company of the Portland Press Herald and other regional papers) was getting ready to pass the baton to a new owner and we decided now was the perfect time to create a new model rooted in a nonprofit structure.”The Verge / Nilay Patel
What’s after the social media era in news? →Ben Smith: “Journalism is better than paid marketing. Big scoops are the best way to find people.”Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Reporters Without Borders says the “fake content industry” has increased “volatility” in its global press freedom rankings →“The World Press Freedom Index shows an enormous volatility in situations, with major rises and falls and unprecedented changes, such as Brazil’s 18-place rise and Senegal’s 31-place fall. This instability is the result of an increased aggressiveness on the part of the authorities in many countries and a growing animosity towards journalists on social media and in the physical world.”the Guardian / Lenore Taylor
The Guardian Australia at 10 years: Reader revenue accounts for more than half of income →“The Guardian had about 1 million unique Australian readers each month before we launched, people who liked our international coverage. That jumped quickly to 2 million a month. It’s now well over 7 million.”International News Media Association / Liv Moloney
The Economist’s head of social media on reaching new audiences with TikTok →“Other successful videos demonstrate the breadth of our journalism. ‘How did chickens get so big,’ a data-driven overview of the changing food and farming industries, delivered 6.6 million views; the science-backed ‘What happens when we sleep’ had 3.5 million; ‘Why are women still paid less than men,’ again heavily featuring our data visualizations, picked up 1.3 million views.”Washington Post
The Washington Post will launch a free 24/7 streaming channel →Washington Post Television will go live with “continuous coverage” of King Charles III’s coronation on May 6. The ad-supported channel can be viewed at Amazon Freevee without a subscription. CNN / Donie O'Sullivan and Yahya Abou-Ghazala
The AI political campaign is here →“The breakneck pace of AI development has largely allowed its use to remain unregulated, but campaigns that do exploit the technology still must steer clear of some restrictions. Texas has a law on its books that places some limitations on the use of so-called deepfakes in the weeks leading up to an election.”NPR / Bobby Allyn
Elon Musk threatens to re-assign @NPR on Twitter to “another company” →“As is often the case with Musk, it is not clear whether he will follow through on the threat.”AP NEWS / TRÂN NGUYỄN
A California bill requiring Big Tech to pay for news is advancing with bipartisan support →Chris Krewson, executive director of LION Publishers, said his group represents more than 50 local newsrooms in California, 80% of which are operations with five or fewer journalists. Most of those news outlets wouldn’t meet the requirements to benefit, he said.Grist / Rachel Glickhouse
Newly launched Rural Newswire offers stories for any newsroom to republish →“Editors can use the Rural Newswire to source stories to syndicate, and they can also upload links to their own coverage. As part of this project, together the Center for Rural Strategies and Grist are providing $100,000 in grants to report on rural America. The grants are open to both newsrooms and freelancers.”The Verge / Sarah Jeong
What’s it like on Bluesky right now, anyways? →“The question What’s it really like over there? is essentially what is driving user growth. From inside these garden walls, among the 55,000 users, I can tell you it’s absolutely wild. Yet within the madness, there’s an ongoing, increasingly weird struggle to establish norms, boundaries, and general vibes. Also, a lot of naked butts.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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