The New York Times / Daisuke Wakabayashi and Su-Hyun Lee
Martial law didn’t silence South Korea’s news outlets. It empowered them. →“But when faced with censorship by the military, the Korean press did not acquiesce. News organizations spanning the political spectrum — even right-leaning publications more aligned with Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party — stood united in criticism of his actions and any efforts to limit a free press.”
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Gretel Kahn
The Guardian / Julie Posetti
Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the threat to press freedom →“Journalists in the U.S. — a country long at the forefront of global press freedom advocacy — now find themselves facing threats more familiar to their colleagues in the Philippines, Hungary or Venezuela. And it is from journalists in such countries that the US press must now learn how to defend press freedom and fight for facts.”
The Wall Street Journal / Drew FitzGerald
Giving up on the media business has been excellent for AT&T’s stock price →“Shares of the telecommunications giant have rebounded — including a 35% gain so far this year — since Chief Executive Officer John Stankey reversed course and spun off its Warner Bros. unit and unloaded satellite company DirecTV. On Tuesday, Stankey and his team will outline new long-term financial goals powered by its wireless and broadband services as it works to wind down its legacy landlines.”
Business Insider / Peter Kafka
BuzzFeed could be on the hook for $124 million this week. Does it have a plan? →“Earlier this year, BuzzFeed was shopping First We Feast — its business that owns ‘Hot Ones,’ the viral hot-chicken-wing interview show (Yup! I just typed that!) — for a reported $70 million. In September, Bloomberg reported that BuzzFeed was in talks with Netflix about some kind of deal. I’ve asked Netflix for an update on those chats, which it has never publicly acknowledged.”
Political Communication / Curd Knüpfer, Sarah J. Jackson, and Daniel Kreiss
Political communication research is unprepared for the far right →“Our discipline is fundamentally shaped by and within post-World War II Western liberal democratic systems, giving shape to conceptual frameworks based on an idealized view of political engagement. The field assumes a general adherence to democratic norms and practices. Yet, we now face a political landscape where historically dominant illiberal formations are resurging across democratic systems, challenging not only specific forms of politics but the consensus within which these take place.”
The Washington Post / Erik Wemple
Who still trusts legacy media? Fox News, that’s who. →“Nowhere is the influence of major news providers more robust, after all, than on the airwaves of Fox News. Across the daily schedule of the No. 1 cable news network, that influence is inescapable, with host after host citing stories from The Post, the New York Times, Reuters, CNN, Politico, Axios and so on — all outlets heavy with reporters who bring scoops to bear on topics dear to Fox News viewers.”
The Verge / Jess Weatherbed
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Ofcom: The BBC is one of the challenges U.K. local news publishers face →“In the past two years, the BBC has cut the amount of bespoke programming at its local radio stations and created new jobs online instead. Rival commercial publishers banded together to warn that their reporting could not compete with licence-fee funded stories that can carry no advertising, providing a better user experience and often getting picked up as a result in search.”