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6/30/15

Need to Know: June 30, 2015

Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism

OFF THE TOP

You might have heard: Driven by younger generations, ad blockers are growing in popularity, and the next version of Safari will allow iPhone and iPad users to block ads as well

But did you know: Ad blockers can also prevent publishers from collecting reader data (Digiday)
The common concern with the rise of ad blockers is the hit it can serve to advertising revenue, but it can also hurt publishers’ ability to collect data about their readers. Most ad blockers prevent sites from loading elements from certain domains and subdomains, which blocks the advertisements but also the tracking cookies from ad networks. The information gathered is valuable for both advertisers and publishers, who hope to charge higher CPMs by collecting and packaging that data.

+ Noted: AOL will take over the majority of Microsoft’s advertising business, and will sell display, mobile and video ads on Microsoft properties in the U.S. and eight other markets (Wall Street Journal); MediaShift officially spins off from PBS, and looks to a future with more collaborations with other organizations (MediaShift); Southern Education Desk, a collaboration between public media outlets, gets a second chance with funding from Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and will narrow its focus within education (Nieman Lab); Poynter, Dallas Morning News, L.A. Times and other organizations will partner with the Pulitzer Prizes to hold events for its centennial anniversary (Poynter)

TRY THIS AT HOME

Washington Post’s Greg Barber: Know when to abandon an idea in favor of a better one (Journalism.co.uk)
Greg Barber, director of digital news projects at The Washington Post, says it’s important in a newsroom to know when you need to hold a line on an idea. But Barber says it’s also important to know when to put your ego aside and be ready to tweak or abandon an idea entirely. Barber says: “If you’re not pushing past what’s available and asking what else is possible, you’ll stagnate pretty quickly.”

+ Why journalists should care more about media’s business models: Revenue models are constantly evolving, and understanding the change will help you find new opportunities and influence your organization (TheMediaBriefing)

OFFSHORE

How two projects are taking on immigration in Europe through crowdsourcing and data journalism (Journalism.co.uk)
Two projects in Europe are covering the influx of African migrants into Italy, one through crowdsourcing and one through data journalism. Italy’s Migranti collects and publishes “positive stories of integration and solidarity,” and anyone can submit articles, photos or videos to the project. The Migrants Files, a pan-European project, is taking a data-driven approach by tracking migrants’ deaths along continental borders over the last 15 years. All of the data collected by The Migrants Files are released in an open format and are designed to let journalists and other interested parties explore and re-use the data.

OFFBEAT

How an ‘Americorps for Journalism’ could support local journalism (Inc.)
Amy Vernon, co-founder of Predictable.ly, says an idea like Report for America, a corps of early or mid-career journalists who will cover important local news that’s being missed, could help support quality local journalism. Vernon says local news is becoming harder for readers to find, but readers care more about local news and it’s more important to their daily lives. An Americorps-style program for journalism would not be as dependent on advertising dollars for funding, leaving the journalists free to focus on the stories.

UP FOR DEBATE

The problem with Huffington Post’s platform strategy: It’s trying to do the same thing everyone else is (Fortune)
With The Huffington Post’s plan to add 900,000 contributors through a self-publishing platform with little or no editing, Mathew Ingram says Huffington Post has the same issue it has with its video strategy: Everyone else is trying to achieve the same thing, and taking similar measures to do so. Ingram says when Huffington Post launches, there were few alternatives that could offer the same reach and distribution that it did, but the landscape is crowded now. Ingram says: “It may have 200 million unique monthly visitors, but it is no longer top of mind when it comes to platforms or publishers.”

+ WPP founder Sir Martin Sorrell: Traditional media is too “stuffy” for younger audiences, because they look at different sources and trust them in different ways (Guardian)

SHAREABLE

To get more women in media, elect more women (Huffington Post)
Barbara Lee says the issue of getting more women in media is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg problem: If there are more women writing, will they seek out stories and sources that concern women, or are more women newsmakers needed to spur change? Lee says the solution is electing more women, and covering more issues that women are worried about, which will lead to more women in media. Lee says: “The more we have women at the center of political and policy conversations, the more we will see them in news.”

+ Facebook is making changes to how it shows videos to users: It will be measuring how people interact with the video in ways such as un-muting a video or expanding to full screen, rather than just likes, play counts or shares (Digiday)

The post Need to Know: June 30, 2015 appeared first on American Press Institute.



from American Press Institute http://ift.tt/1JuowlI

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