Tuesday, January 9, 2024 |
| “Instead of giving a list of URLs that the user can access — which requires more work for the user — we can answer the question they asked.” By Hanaa' Tameez. |
What We’re ReadingLos Angeles Times / Meg James
L.A. Times executive editor Kevin Merida to step down →“Soon-Shiong said that he and Merida had ‘mutually agreed that his role as executive editor of the L.A. Times will conclude this week.’ Soon-Shiong said that he and his family were immediately launching an internal and external search for Merida’s successor.”Boston Globe / Andrew Brinker
How the Crimson, Harvard’s student paper, documented a historic controversy →“The Crimson is fundamentally a local news outlet that serves a specific community. If we’re doing our jobs well, we should be getting the story first.”The Intercept / Adam Johnson
Coverage of the Gaza war in The New York Times and other major newspapers heavily favored Israel, according to a new analysis →“Major U.S. newspapers disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict; used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis, but not Palestinians; and offered lopsided coverage of antisemitic acts in the U.S., while largely ignoring anti-Muslim racism in the wake of October 7.”Platformer / Casey Newton
Substack says it will remove some Nazi publications from the platform →“The company will not change the text of its content policy, it says, and its new policy interpretation will not include proactively removing content related to neo-Nazis and far-right extremism. But Substack will continue to remove any material that includes ‘credible threats of physical harm,’ it said.”Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
The post-election battle for Poland’s state-run media →“…putting state-run media on a sustainable independent footing—making it less like RT and more like the BBC—will be a fraught longer-term project, however the wrangling resolves.”Current / Gregory Wakeman
NPR’s new executive editor Eva Rodriguez is scouting new paths for audience growth →“As we see coverage in other areas and local newsrooms are struggling, our mission is to provide the kind of information that folks can rely on and decide on for themselves. We want to make sure we’re there as a network for local, regional, national and potentially international audiences.”The Wall Street Journal / Julie Jargon
Instagram and Facebook will stop treating teens like adults and impose content restrictions for users under 18 →“This marks the biggest change the tech giant has made to ensure younger users have a more age-appropriate experience on its social-media sites. The new content restrictions come as more than 40 states are suing Meta, alleging the tech company misled the public about the dangers its platforms pose to young people.”Press Gazette / Clara Aberneithie
Online news paywall inflation is running at 20% in the UK →“Online news price rises are well ahead of inflation which stands at around 5% in the UK and 3% in the US. The prices tracked by Press Gazette are just the full-rate offers and do not take into account discounts which vary widely for different customers.”The Guardian / Emma Graham-Harrison
How Israeli TV is covering the war in Gaza →“In general, the Israeli media is drafted to the main goal of winning the war, or what looks like trying to win the war. If you want to try to find some similarities, it’s along the lines of the American media after 9/11,” said Raviv Drucker, one of Israel’s leading investigative journalists.The Verge / Mia Sato
YouTube is cracking down on AI-generated true crime deepfakes →“The platform’s harassment and cyberbullying policy will prohibit content that ‘realistically simulates’ deceased children and victims of crimes or deadly events.”A Media Operator / Jacob Cohen Donnelly
What’s next for The Messenger? →“What’s unbelievable about this is how badly it hasn’t worked. When The Messenger initially launched, the expectation was that it would hit 100 million users in 2024 to support the expected goal of $100 million in revenue. To be fair, it is only January, so I guess that’s still possible—hint: it’s not—but to get there, you actually need cash.”Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
A brief history of 2024 →“History and the news serve different functions. The former can cool the heat of the latter by bringing the depth of perspective, and interrogate our blind spots. It can also forget, misremember, editorialize, and mistake hinge moments for inevitabilities—again, it depends on who’s writing it.”International Journalists' Network / Laura LaPlana
How independent media is navigating Hong Kong’s closing press freedom environment →“It’s the media’s duty to ensure that if something is falsely stated we call it out, working with facts. I know not all news outlets find that easy but we’re not here to give a megaphone to the authorities.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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