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Basketball and Greenpeace (and how to pitch Nieman Lab)
Among the stories we ran this week, you’ll see two very different freelance stories:
Jordan Teicher wrote for us about NBA insider Jake Fischer. “While insiders typically work for established media companies like ESPN, Jake Fischer operates out of his Brooklyn apartment and publishes scoops behind a paywall on Substack,” Teicher noted. “It’s not even his own Substack.” Fischer writes for The Stein Line, a newsletter run by veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein. From the story:
Insider reporting can be a ruthless, zero-sum game. There are only so many scoops to go around, and journalists can be extremely protective of their sources. That makes Stein and Fischer an interesting team. Fischer refers to Stein as his “work dad” and keeps his contact info pinned to the top of the Messages app on his computer. They share intel and co-byline stories.
As Stein says, “We have access to more sources who can help with confirmations if we join forces on a given story.”
Most articles containing in-depth reporting sit behind the paywall, but they periodically publish free stories on Substack in addition to revealing scoops on social media. They also have more room to experiment on Substack; for example, they host exclusive chats on the platform, where they take questions from paid subscribers about the latest NBA rumors and theories.
And Miranda Green reported on the role a “pink slime” newspaper may have played in a North Dakota trial brought by a pipeline company against Greenpeace.
Last fall residents of Mandan, North Dakota woke up to an unfamiliar newspaper at their doorsteps. The broadsheet Central ND News, printed on newsprint, had columns, standard-sized articles, and headlines….
The papers bear the tagline “Real data. Real value. Real news,” but their articles are largely anonymous, echo conservative talking points on key culture war issues, and frequently opine on the destructive nature and lawlessness of the pipeline protests in the rural community between 2016 and 2017….
The return address posted on distributed papers matches the Chicago business mailing address for companies within the Metric Media network.
Metric Media is a conservative-leaning digital media conglomerate. It operates roughly 1,300 sites that researchers have categorized as “pink slime” journalism — stories that appear to be news but have a partisan agenda.
On Wednesday, the jury reached a verdict, ordering Greenpeace to pay $600 million in damages to the pipeline company.
What we look for in freelance stories
Our pitch guide is here.
— Laura Hazard Owen
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There’s another reason the L.A. Times’ AI-generated opinion ratings are bad (this one doesn’t involve the Klan)At a time of increasing polarization and rigid ideologies, the L.A. Times has decided it wants to make its opinion pieces less persuasive to readers by increasing the cost of changing your mind. By Joshua Benton. |
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The NBA’s next big insider may be an outsiderWhile insiders typically work for established media companies like ESPN, Jake Fischer operates out of his Brooklyn apartment and publishes scoops behind a paywall on Substack. It’s not even his own Substack. By Jordan Teicher. |
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Wired’s un-paywalling of stories built on public data is a reminder of its role in the information ecosystemTrump’s wholesale destruction of the information-generating sectors of the federal government will have implications that go far beyond .gov domains. By Joshua Benton. |
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New York Times bundles give European publishers a subscription boost“There’s no reason to think this shouldn’t work in most markets where subscription-based payment is already well advanced.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
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A pipeline company is suing Greenpeace for $300 million. A pay-to-play newspaper is accused of tainting the jury poolThough Central ND News promises to “fill the void in community news after years of decline in local reporting by legacy media” with “100% original reporting,” no staff are listed on the site and few stories have bylines. By Miranda Green. |