Wednesday, September 4, 2024 |
| The first daily newspaper in the U.S. to become a nonprofit has published a refreshingly readable and transparent annual report. By Sarah Scire. |
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| In the four countries studied, each with its own unique technological, political, and social environment, understanding of algorithms varied across different sociodemographic groups. By Myojung Chung. |
What We’re ReadingWriters Guild of America East
Union members at Vox Media’s Thrillist and The Dodo are on a one-day strike today →“Only employees in The Dodo and Thrillist unions have had raises withheld. All other Vox employees did receive raises. Vox management is trying to force us into remaining separate, weaker unions by withholding our pay. As more than 95% of Vox Media Union, Thrillist Union, and The Dodo Union have already voted, we are one union.”Inbox Collective / Simon Linde
The News might be the most successful newsletter you’ve never heard of →“If you’re familiar with Morning Brew, the format for The News will seem familiar. Every morning, they summarize a handful of top stories, using bullet points and bold font to make the emails easy to skim. They pitch the newsletter as a quick way to catch up on the biggest stories. (‘Mais inteligente em 5 minutos’ is their tagline — even a non-Portuguese speaker can probably translate that.)”Status / Oliver Darcy
CNN is having “serious conversations” with Josh Tyrangiel for a senior management role →“Tyrangiel, currently a columnist at The Washington Post, previously served in senior roles at Bloomberg and Time magazine. His most recent role was at Vice News, where he was the driving force behind the Emmy-award-winning Vice News Tonight before it was canceled.”NewsGuard / Dimitris Dimitriadis
A massive pro-Narendra Modi network is using AI and fake accounts to undermine Pakistan →“NewsGuard could not definitively identify the people responsible for the network, which includes at least 1,409 accounts on Facebook and X using AI to generate content. However, the network exhibits characteristics that point to a link to the Indian Army, including frequent promotion of pro-government narratives and posts aligned with military interests.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
Brian Stelter, ousted by the old regime, returns to CNN as its chief media analyst →“The network’s Sunday morning round table of media criticism that he had hosted, also called Reliable Sources, will not return. In his new role, Mr. Stelter will serve as an on-air analyst in addition to writing his newsletter and reporting for the network.”The Economist Group
The Economist is making its short-form app Espresso free for students →“The updated Espresso app is part of a broader effort by The Economist to make its journalism more accessible to audiences around the world. The Economist today launches Al-translated videos on its social platforms, using large-language and other foundational models to transform English-speaking Economist journalists into fluent French, German, Mandarin or Spanish speakers.”The Guardian / Mark Sweney
A hedge fund tycoon is poised to buy the conservative British mag The Spectator →“[Sir Paul] Marshall, who is leading the bid as part of a consortium backed by Ken Griffin, the U.S. billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund, is one of about four prospective buyers in the running.”Columbia Journalism Review / Richard J. Tofel
The saga of Sarah Palin and The New York Times →“There’s very little risk of this case undermining the precedent established by Sullivan, no matter how ugly the courtroom gets.”Bloomberg / Aisha Counts
Snap’s CEO is trying to explain why their stock has tanked →“‘You may be wondering why, with all of the progress we’ve made in our business over the last year, our share price performance has lagged the overall market,’ [Snap CEO Evan] Spiegel wrote Tuesday in the letter. ‘The answer is simple: our advertising business is growing slower than our competitors.'”Axios / Sara Fischer
Outside is buying its way into the fitness app business →“‘I think from a consumer perspective, it’s becoming more important to think about spending downtime in nature and experiencing the outdoors,’ [Outside CEO Robin] Thurston said. ‘I think for brands, we’re a pretty safe place to go to not have a lot of that other noise.”Global News / Keith Doucette
Postmedia says more layoffs are needed to stabilize its new papers in the Canadian Maritimes →“The purpose of the newsroom cuts, MacLeod added, is to find efficiencies in the SaltWire operations that can provide a stable future for the newspapers, including the Cape Breton Post in Sydney, N.S., The Guardian in Charlottetown, and The Telegram in St. John’s, N.L.”Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
U.K. journalist’s detention for nearly 24 hours under terror law condemned →“Freelance foreign affairs reporter Richard Medhurst says he was arrested under Section 12 of Terrorism Act 2000 and told he was accused of ‘expressing an opinion or a belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.'”Wired / Meghan Herbst
The AI wars have come to the people who write novels in 30 days →“…last Friday, the 25-year-old nonprofit, known as NaNoWriMo for short, shocked many in the writing community when it published a controversial statement detailing its position on AI. In it, NaNoWriMo asserted that the ‘categorical condemnation’ of artificial intelligence has ‘classist and ableist undertones.'”Civil Eats / The Civil Eats Editors
Nonprofit newsroom Civil Eats is taking down its paywall →“We’ve always wanted to remove our paywall in order to make our journalism free and accessible to everyone. And in our surveys, we heard that sentiment from members, too. Because the membership program provided a significant amount of our budget, removing the paywall has been a constant concern. Until now.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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