Monday, August 14, 2023 |
| Expect the biggest media companies to use their market power to cut better deals with OpenAI and its peers. By Joshua Benton. |
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| “I’ve been trying to think of the Bold Links as action items, and the other links as supporting materials.” By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re ReadingThe New York Times / Steven Lee Myers and Benjamin Mullin
A police raid of a small Kansas newspaper raises major press freedom concerns →“Raids of news organizations are exceedingly rare in the United States, with its long history of legal protections for journalists. At The Record, a family-owned paper with a circulation of about 4,000, the police seized computers, servers and cellphones of reporters and editors. They also searched the home of the publication’s owner and semiretired editor as well as the home of a city councilwoman.”The Block / Frank Chaparro
Crypto news site CoinDesk has laid off nearly half of its editorial staff →“The company, which was founded in 2013, announced the layoffs internally on Monday, according to a memo reviewed by The Block…’This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk Inc,’ [CEO Kevin Worth] added.”Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Why BBC News’ flagship podcast is running a Discord server →(Related: We wrote recently about the
BBC’s movement onto Mastodon.)Vox / Christian Paz
Is Pop Crave the future of political journalism? →How two celebrity news accounts on Twitter turned into the internet’s wire service. Variety / Todd Spangler
The IRS claims Vice Media owes nearly $41 million in back taxes for Refinery29 →“A rep for Vice Media Group did not respond to a request for comment on the IRS claim. Vice Media completed the acquisition of Refinery29, for a reported $400 million price tag, in November 2019.”The New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters
Fox News’ top lawyer, Viet Dinh, is out →“Mr. Dinh, a former official in the George W. Bush White House who amassed considerable power inside Fox, will advise the company after his exit, Fox said in an announcement on Friday. Mr. Dinh gave what some inside the company considered flawed advice during the Dominion suit, which exposed a pattern of deceptive coverage by Fox News after the 2020 presidential election.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
CNN overhauls its programming lineup, aiming to lift sagging ratings →“Abby Phillip, a senior political correspondent and anchor of “Inside Politics Sunday,” will be the new host of the network’s 10 p.m. hour on weekdays. Laura Coates, an anchor and chief legal analyst at CNN, will host the network’s 11 p.m. hour.”The Washington Post / Dana Milbank
The country has come apart. Rural America has the cure: a weekly newspaper. →“At a time when hooligans have hijacked the national discourse with disinformation and paranoia, the Rappahannock News operates in a calmer place where the slow rhythms of rural life are newsworthy — and where, regardless of political views, its readers are unified by a powerful sense of community. In tiny Rappahannock County, the newspaper still serves as the hymnal of our civic religion. It’s a tradition that we need to rescue in rural America — and emulate in our cities.”Associated Press / Megan Janetsky
As a free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power →“Guzmán is part of an expanding network of social media personalities acting as a megaphone for the millennial leader. At the same time [President Nayib] Bukele has cracked down on the press, his government has embraced those influencers. As the president seeks to hold onto power, he has harnessed that flood of pro-Bukele content slowly turning his Central American nation into an informational echo chamber.”The Verge / Jay Peters
The video call revolution is dead →“…the actual experience of video chat is maybe in its most boring state ever. Now that many people are gathering as they did before the pandemic started (even Zoom is demanding that some employees come back to the office), the market is largely run by tech giants and the pace of new and interesting features has slowed to practically nothing.”The Ankler / Claire Atkinson
The president of CBS News is stepping down amid an investigation into his interactions with women →“A source confirmed to The Ankler that CBS brought in an outside law firm, Kauff, McGuire & Margolis, to investigate [Neeraj] Khemlani’s behavior after complaints from women. It is unclear however if the investigation played any role in Khemlani’s departure from his position at CBS News…More than 30 women spoke to the law firm involved, one person said.”The Guardian / Jim Waterson
London’s Evening Standard long-term sustainability is in doubt, auditors say →“Revenues at the Evening Standard increased to £31m in 2022, up from £28m in 2021, according to accounts filed at Companies House. But losses grew from £14.4m to £16.4m. This took cumulative losses to £84.5m in the last six years, with the company now carrying twice its annual revenue in debt.”Canadian Press / Mickey Djuric
Satirical websites get caught up in Meta’s quest to block news in Canada →“I don’t want to be too dramatic, but in a world where Facebook completely cuts us off, I mean, there’s a very real chance we do not survive that.”Engadget / Sarah Fielding
YouTube is fighting spam by making it harder to link to anywhere else →“Because abuse tactics evolve quickly, we have to take preventative measures to make it harder for scammers and spammers to mislead or scam users via links.”NBC News
The L.A. Times is only one of the news orgs that got taken by the Lil Tay death hoax →So did Insider, TMZ, and Barstool Sports. And don’t miss this blast from the recent past: “Liltay Token, a yet-to-be-launched cryptocurrency project in Lil Tay’s name.”Teen Vogue / Fortesa Latifi
Illinois just passed America’s first law protecting child influencers →“The Illinois law will ‘entitle influencers under the age of 16 to a percentage of earnings based on how often they appear on video blogs or online content,’ AP reports. The money must be held in a trust which the child can access when they turn 18. Currently, there are no laws that protect child influencers, or children whose parents post them online for monetary gain.”Similarweb / David F. Carr
Threads usage is down 79% after one month (on Android, at least) →“The Threads Android app peaked at 49.3 million daily active users worldwide on July 7, according to Similarweb estimates. But on August 7, the app was down to 10.3 million daily active users. In the U.S., peak usage for Threads was 2.3 million daily active users on July 7, compared with about 576,000 as of August 7.”The Verge / Wes Davis
Mark Zuckerberg says it’s “time to move on” from the Elon Musk fight →“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious.”Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
BuzzFeed says its AI strategy is working →“We have prioritized resources aimed at growing engagement on our owned-and-operated properties through new AI-powered content formats. In doing so, we are reducing our dependence on the major tech platforms and leaning into our rare combination of voice and scale in a fragmented media environment.”Press Gazette / Bron Maher
News Corp’s news orgs in the U.S., U.K., and Australia have about 6 million digital subscribers →That’s 3.4 million at The Wall Street Journal, 1 million at Barrons, 565,000 at The Times of London, and 1 million for its Australian newspapers.
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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