Wednesday, April 17, 2024 |
| The legacy publication is leaning on AI for video production, a new breaking news team, and first drafts of some stories. By Andrew Deck. |
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| “I only make unimportant things now, but it’s all the unimportant things that really make up our lives.” By Neel Dhanesha. |
What We’re ReadingNew York Times / Steven Kurutz
From a tiny island in Maine, Today in Tabs serves up fresh media gossip →“Amid the economic gloom, Foster has what many media outlets crave: a devoted readership willing to pay for content. Around 10 percent of his 36,000 subscribers are paying readers, he said, who fork over $6 per month or $50 per year.”the Guardian
The Guardian has launched a cooking app called Feast →The new app can convert between U.K. and U.S. measurements and features a “cook mode” that prevents your phone from locking. (See: The New York Times hits 10 million subscribers by
using non-news products — including NYT Cooking — as an on-ramp.)Wired / Kate Knibbs
How one author pushed the limits of AI copyright →“The appeal built on Shupe’s argument about her disabilities, saying she should be granted copyright because she used ChatGPT as an assistive technology to communicate, comparing her use of OpenAI’s chatbot to an amputee using a prosthetic leg. The appeal claimed that the U.S. Copyright Office ‘discriminated against her because of her disability.’”CNN / Hadas Gold
News publishers group urges government to investigate Google for blocking California news outlets →“Google released no further details on how many Californians will be affected, how the Californians who will be denied news access were chosen, what publications will be affected, how long the compelled news blackouts will persist, and whether access will be blocked entirely or just to content Google particularly disfavors. Because of these unknowns, there are many ways Google’s unilateral decision to turn off access to news websites for Californians could violate [various] laws.”Rest of World / Rest of World
Rest of World launches a global AI election disinformation tracker →“As more than 2 billion people in 50 countries head to the polls this year, AI-generated content is now widely being used to spread misinformation, as well as to confuse and entertain voters. Throughout 2024, Rest of World is tracking the most noteworthy incidents of AI-generated election content globally.”The Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell
New York Times ends probe into leak over Gaza coverage without conclusive finding →“The New York Times ended its investigation into whether staffers leaked confidential information about its Gaza war coverage without any conclusive finding, Executive Editor Joe Kahn told staff Monday.”The Atlantic / Richard Stengel
Democracy dies behind paywalls →“In some ways, this creates a philosophical inconsistency. The paywall says, This content is valuable and you have to pay for it. Suspending the paywall in a crisis says, This content is so valuable that you don’t have to pay for it.”Financial Times / Daniel Thomas and Anna Nicolaou
CNN’s Mark Thompson wants the cable news network to embark on a digital overhaul →“I don’t think any broadcaster has cracked the code on how to be yourself in terms of digital products. We’ve tended all to go for executions in digital which are rather newspaper-like, [but] consumption of television is very strongly video-led and on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.” NPR / David Folkenflik
NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism →“NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had ‘lost America’s trust’ by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.”The New York Times / Kevin Roose
AI has a measurement problem →“Artificial intelligence is too important a technology to be evaluated on the basis of vibes. Until we get better ways of measuring these tools, we won’t know how to use them, or whether their progress should be celebrated or feared.”404 Media / Jason Koebler
The dystopian future of TV is AI-generated “FAST” garbage →“People will likely watch this for laughs, but this is the present and the future of a business model in which TVs have ceased being rectangles designed to let you watch ad-supported programming that costs a lot to make and have started to become rectangles designed to collect information about you so that you can be fed cheap content and targeted ads.”Axios / Sara Fischer
Dozens of Alden newspapers run editorials slamming Google →“The editorials are labeled differently by different outlets, obfuscating who is deciding to publish the editorial — the staff at the individual papers, their individual editorial boards, or the leadership from Alden’s two subsidiaries: MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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