Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Google News Initiative grants in Africa and the Middle East yield mixed results, study finds

A study found many Google News Initiative projects in Middle East and Africa struggle to become more than makeshift versions of the original idea. By Sarah Scire.
Please enjoy this video of news outlets as glass jars rolling down the stairs
What We’re Reading
Missouri Independent / Derek Kravitz
How journalists investigated the St. Louis region’s 75-year history with nuclear waste →
“Many of the documents have either been newly-declassified or never before reviewed.”
City Bureau / Darryl Holliday
City Bureau founder Darryl Holliday to step down →
“City Bureau began in 2015 as a team of volunteers, and we dubbed ourselves ‘a civic journalism lab.’ We were not a safe bet; we were an ongoing experiment, ‘a kind of j-school of the streets,’ according to our local alt weekly, the Chicago Reader.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Zainab Sultan
A new documentary tells the story of India’s news crisis →
“My ambition was to focus on just how lonely it’s becoming for idealists to continue in their professions. This film is about adult loneliness.”
the Guardian
Belarus has arrested a prominent journalist amid a wider crackdown on opposition figures →
Journalists and activists in Belarus have faced large-scale repression since the August 2020 vote that handed a sixth term to president Alexander Lukashenko.
the Guardian / Martin Brunt
Why are we so addicted to the dark side of humanity? →
“A YouGov poll last year concluded that half of Americans enjoy true-crime content, and one in three consume it at least once a week.”
WAN-IFRA / Brian Veseling
With 700,000 paying subscribers, digital becomes more profitable than print for Argentina’s Clarín →
Clarín was founded 80 years ago but “the truth is that in the last eight years, our business was reinvented,” says COO Emilio Basavilbaso.
Hell Gate NYC