Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Lost on the Frontlines wants to memorialize (and count) the health care workers who’ve died from coronavirus

The joint Guardian–Kaiser Health News project also wants to include other hospital staff, home health aides, and nursing home workers. “This data set is the first of its kind in its comprehensiveness, and it’s not tracked anywhere else.” By Hanaa' Tameez.

This new newsletter looks to inform the black community about the coronavirus

“There’s still a huge lack of widespread daily coverage focused on the ways in which the disease and pandemic are disproportionately impacting the black community.” By Adriana Lacy.
BuzzFeed News shuts down AM to DM, its morning news show, after Twitter pulls funding
What We’re Reading
Apple Podcasts
‎BuzzFeed is launching a daily news podcast called News O’Clock next week →
“Bringing the world outside your apartment straight to your ears. Top headlines, television, books, the election, music, pop culture, the coronavirus, it’s all here.”
Press Gazette / Freddy Mayhew
The Guardian’s owner expects a £20 million decline in revenue over the next six months →
“In new measures taken to keep its short-term costs ‘under control in a period of great uncertainty,’ the group will furlough 100 non-editorial staff in the UK whose workloads have been greatly reduced or stopped….GMG said furloughed staff would still receive their full salary, as it will top up the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme which pays out 80 per cent of salaries for furloughed workers.”
Piano
How TechCrunch built its premium subscription offering, ExtraCrunch →
“Use dashboards and reports to create a feedback loop to your newsroom; they need to learn a new set of metrics — conversions per article instead of page views — and what drives success in subscriptions compared with advertising…A membership is a broader offering then a subscription. Membership means premium content plus perks plus knowing that you’re in there with likeminded people.”
Axios
The small-business-loan stimulus fund has already run out →
“While it’s a sign that more than 1.6 million small businesses (and some larger ones) will eventually get desperately needed cash, it’s now officially a sign that more is needed.” (Many local news outlets were counting on this fund to meet payroll.)
Dow Jones News Fund
The Dow Jones News Fund’s summer internships will operate remotely →
“The Fund’s board of directors believes that requiring the interns to work remotely is the optimum way to protect the health and safety of both the interns and employers participating in this year’s program amid the fierce coronavirus pandemic.”
Reuters / Aditya Kalra
Hit by sharp ad decline, India’s newspapers cut jobs and salaries →
“The Times of India, among the world’s largest circulating English-language dailies, has shrunk to around 16 pages with supplements, compared with 40 plus pages previously, as ads from companies have stopped, said one Times employee.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Advance newspapers announce pay cuts, furloughs, and suspended 401(k) matches →
“Her letter to staff emphasized the distinction between furloughs and layoffs, saying Advance hopes to bring the employees back ‘when the country starts returning to some semblance of normalcy.’ However, in two stages, Advance has let go of nearly all remaining unionized employees at the Cleveland Plain Dealer print operation.”
The Guardian / Luke Ottenhof
Inside the leftist, worker-owned streaming service “Means TV” →
The pair behind Means TV, a new self-described “post-capitalist” streaming service, made Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s viral Courage To Change campaign video.
American Journalism Project
The American Journalism Project has named Sarabeth Berman its first CEO →
“Most recently, Berman served as Global Head of Public Affairs at Teach for All,” the network of Teach For America and similar programs worldwide. Berman: “The American Journalism Project is determined to help shift the trajectory from decay to growth. Most of all, that means reimagining how we finance and sustain these organizations.”
Coronavirus Newsroom / Elizabeth Shilpa
A Sri Lankan publisher introduced “anti-microbial” ink to assuage readers’ fears about coronavirus →
“Liberty’s daily newspaper circulation started dropping in March. The team then consulted the chemical and polymer experts of their local ink supplier [who] came up with the proposal to make anti-microbial ink out of chemical biocides and herb extracts…The new ink increased their ‘ink and chemical’ costs by around 50 percent, but Thanaweera says the sales of the newspapers picked up after they started using the ink.” Hmmmm.
NBC News / Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins
Facebook will start steering users who interact with coronavirus misinformation to WHO →
“The new alert will not identify the specific post containing harmful misinformation, according to a Facebook spokesperson, who said the company was relying on research that shows repeated exposure — even in fact checks — can sometimes reinforce misinformed beliefs.”