“The Onion has been the most correct newspaper of my lifetime”

The Weekly Wrap: April 26, 2024

“The Onion has been the most correct newspaper of my lifetime”

“My friends and I now own and run The Onion. I’ll be the CEO,” journalist Ben Collins tweeted on Thursday evening. We haven’t seen a lot of happy media acquisition stories recently, much less ones involving G/O Media, The Onion’s now-former owner. But here’s one of those rare happy stories. (The friends Collins mentioned in the tweet: Leila Brilson; Jeff Lawson, former Twilio cofounder and CEO; and Danielle Strle.) “The Onion has been the most correct newspaper of my lifetime,” Collins, formerly a senior reporter at NBC News, told me. “I know that sounds like a joke but it’s actually true.” The Onion currently has 13 employees (down from 100 at its peak when it was part of Fusion Media Group), but many of them are lifers, Collins noted; editor-in-chief Chad Nackers, for instance, has been there more than 20 years. When the staff found out about their new owners on Thursday, Collins said, “It was like freeing a pet store…they were just so happy to be able to think forward and dream big and we are excited to dream big with them. We want them to do crazy stuff and try to make their wildest dreams possible.” (Get ready for the return of the print paper and more video; say goodbye to G/O-mandated slideshows.)

— Laura Hazard Owen

From the week

Seeking “innovative,” “stable,” and “interested”: How The Markup and CalMatters matched up Nonprofit news has seen an uptick in mergers, acquisitions, and other consolidations. CalMatters CEO Neil Chase still says “I don’t think we’ve seen enough yet.” By Sarah Scire.

“Objectivity” in journalism is a tricky concept. What could replace it? “For a long time, ‘objectivity’ packaged together many important ideas about truth and trust. American journalism has disowned that brand without offering a replacement.” By Jonathan Stray.

From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam Within days of visiting the pages — and without commenting on, liking, or following any of the material — Facebook’s algorithm recommended reams of other AI-generated content. By Renee DiResta, Abhiram Reddy, and Josh A. Goldstein.

What journalists and independent creators can learn from each other “The question is not about the topics but how you approach the topics.” By Neel Dhanesha.

Deepfake detection improves when using algorithms that are more aware of demographic diversity “Our research addresses deepfake detection algorithms’ fairness, rather than just attempting to balance the data. It offers a new approach to algorithm design that considers demographic fairness as a core aspect.” By Siwei Lyu and Yan Ju.

What it takes to run a metro newspaper in the digital era, according to four top editors “People will pay you to make their lives easier, even when it comes to telling them which burrito to eat.” By Sophie Culpepper.

A new Mozilla report exposes major flaws in social media ad libraries Highlights from elsewherePuck / Dylan ByersJim VandeHei on the new breed of media companies →“What I like about all of them is that they’re staying smaller, longer. They’re much more focused on revenue. All of them are very focused on a very specific audience and produce high-quality content and figure out more ways to make money off of it … I think anything that is kind of niche works.”The Information / Erin Woo, Qianer Liu and Juro OsawaByteDance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok without its algorithm →“One scenario under discussion involves ByteDance selling more than 50% of TikTok U.S. but retaining a minority stake. ByteDance could retain 20%, the limit that the law puts on Chinese ownership…The sale options being discussed wouldn’t include the algorithm that powers TikTok, but it would include the TikTok brand. China would probably block the sale of the algorithm anyway. In 2020, when ByteDance last considered selling TikTok, China changed its export control rules to include technology such as the algorithm.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin and Jeremy W. PetersInside the crisis at NPR →“Internal documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with more than two dozen current and former public radio executives show how profoundly the nonprofit is struggling to succeed in the fast-changing media industry. It is grappling with a declining audience and falling revenue — and internal conflict about how to fix it.”Nieman FoundationHenry Chu named deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard →Chu joins the Nieman staff after a distinguished journalism career spent primarily at the Los Angeles Times. Chu has taken on a series of overseas postings for the Times, reporting from more than 30 countries while serving as bureau chief in Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, and London. Most recently, he served as the newsroom’s deputy news editor in London, overseeing breaking news coverage and shepherding the homepage in the middle of the Los Angeles night as well as editing correspondents in other parts of the world.

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