May 2016

What news app publishers can learn from gaming apps: One-click purchases are essential, and rely on the metrics (Monday Note)
News publishers have a lot to learn from the gaming industry about how to create better apps, Frederic Filloux writes. Filloux says there’s at least five lessons for the news industry to draw from the gaming industry, including: Everything should be thoroughly tested, metrics should be available to everyone, and one-click purchases are essential for the top grossing apps.

+ What CNN has learned from Facebook Messenger bots: The experience needs to feel less automated and some specific topics such as politics and conflict stories are more successful on Messenger (Digiday)

OFFSHORE

Swiss publisher Tamedia’s new paid app repackages the best stories from its publications (Nieman Lab)
Swiss media group Tamedia’s new paid app 12-App collects and repackages the 12 best stories from Tamedia’s 20 publications. With 12-App, Tamedia is trying to build a younger subscriber base, but it’s also using the app as a way to experiment with data: Tamedia is developing an algorithm to predict which stories will be the most successful in 12-App.

OFFBEAT

How a diverse Twitter network leads to better ideas (MIT Technology Review)
New research from MIT Technology Review shows that people with more diverse Twitter networks tend to generate more innovative ideas. Those Twitter networks “expose them to people and ideas they don’t already know,” especially from fields other than their own. And because “good ideas emerge when the new information received is combined with what a person already knows,” social networks are an important way that people can expose themselves to new ideas today.

Gawker Media is facing five other defamation-related lawsuits, in addition to Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit (New York Times)
Gawker Media is currently facing five defamation-related lawsuits in addition to Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit, The New York Times reports, with plaintiffs ranging from “an individual who claims he invented email to the website of the British tabloid The Daily Mail.” In comparison, The New York Times says it is currently facing two libel cases. Several of the lawsuits against Gawker criticize its practice of linking coverage across several websites, “opening up the stories for reader discussion and, in some cases, online harassment.”

+ While Paypal founder Peter Thiel is funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media is funding Gawker’s appeal and reaching out to other news organizations for friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Gawker (NY Post)

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How even journalists can fall prey to fake news sites (Columbia Journalism Review)
“In striving for traffic, prolific output, and social media hype, some newsrooms have prioritized the quick and provocative, while undervaluing reporting,” Jack Murtha writes. “This system has allowed fake news sites to essentially develop best practices to fool journalists. Facebook now lets users flag fake news stories, which then appear less frequently, or with an attached warning, in newsfeeds. But without a top-down cultural shift in journalism, garbage stories will continue to enter the mainstream.”

+ A look at how many staff-written stories news websites publish each day: The Washington Post publishes 500, The New York Times publishes 230, and BuzzFeed publishes 222 (The Atlantic)

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Need to Know: May 27, 2016

johan brown 08:57 American Press Institute No Comments

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

You might have heard: Billionaire Peter Thiel spent about $10 million to fund Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, setting a dangerous precedent that could be emulated by others

But did you know: In an open letter, Nick Denton questions the ultimate intent of Peter Thiel’s decade-long campaign against Gawker (Gawker)
After Gawker wrote a story outing Peter Thiel nearly 10 years ago, it would seem that he’s been on a decade-long campaign to get back at Gawker. In an open letter to Thiel, Nick Denton questions what Thiel’s ultimate goal is with bankrolling Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker. Challenging Thiel to a public debate, Denton writes: “However philanthropic your intention, and careful the planning, the details of your involvement will be gruesome. … The best regulation for speech, in a free society, is more speech.”

+ Weighed down by the legal costs of fighting Hogan’s lawsuit, Gawker Media could be looking into a potential sale of the company (Wall Street Journal)

+ But Thiel is far from the only billionaire going after news organizations, the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Will Evans writes: Jeff Greene filed a $500 million libel suit against the Tampa Bay Times, Donald Trump is threatening to “open up our libel laws” to make it easier to sue journalists, and Frank VanderSloot sued Mother Jones over an article about his company’s contributions to Mitt Romney’s campaign (Center for Investigative Reporting)

+ Noted: New research from the Pew Research Center finds that 62 percent of adults in the U.S. gets news on social media (Pew Research Center); After launching in the U.S. in March, Blendle’s iOS and Android apps are now available in the U.S. (The Verge); Facebook expands targeting for its Audience Network to all users, regardless of whether they’re a Facebook user (Marketing Land); Politico Media drops its paywall and will no longer be a separate website from the rest of Politico (Politico); SB Nation releases Vox Media’s review of the Daniel Holtzclaw story, and promises an increased focus on staff diversity, changes to its long-form program, and improved editorial processes (SB Nation)

API UPDATE

The week in fact-checking
As part of our fact-checking journalism project, Jane Elizabeth and Poynter’s Alexios Mantzarlis highlight stories worth noting related to truth in politics and on the Internet. This week’s round-up looks at topics outside of elections that can be fact-checked, including vacations, bus ads, and hairspray.

Tips for a successful crowdfunding campaign: Make the benefits of donating clear and use your personal connections (Poynter)
Sharing lessons from crowdfunding their 40 Better Hours project, Poynter’s Ren LaForme explains how the project successfully raised $10,000. Among his advice: Personal connections are crucial for a strong start to a campaign, make sure the benefits of donating are clear to potential donors, and crowdfunding is ultimately more successful in getting people talking about your project than raising money.

+ Earlier insights on crowdfunding journalism: How to use crowdfunding to expand your reach and how to use crowdfunding to reduce risk when launching a new product

OFFSHORE

With 18,000 paying readers, 40 percent of Eldiario.es’ revenue comes from readers who want to support its mission (Nieman Lab)
Spain’s Eldiario.es is a free online publication with a progressive viewpoint, and its deputy editor Juan Luis Sánchez says it’s getting its readers to pay to support its mission of indepdent journalism. Eldiario.es has 18,000 readers paying about 5 euros per month (about $67.31 USD per year) for perks that include early access to stories, a special newsletter, access to Eldiario.es reporters and an ad-free version of the site. But Sánchez says most of these readers are primarily paying because they believe in Eldiario.es’ mission: After high-profile coverage (such as the Panama Papers), Sánchez says they see more people signing on to support the site.

OFFBEAT

The most valuable tools at work are the ones that make it easier for employees to collaborate, a McKinsey survey finds (McKinsey Quarterly)
Social tools are becoming more common in businesses, but not all of these tools are created equally. The latest McKinsey Global Survey found that employees say the most useful tools at work are those that make collaboration easier: Respondents rated real-time interactions, ability to collaborate with specific groups of individuals, and accessibility across multiple platforms as the most important features for a social tool at work and as the features that would most improve how they work.

+ First Amendment attorney Kevin Goldberg says Thiel’s involvement in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit could have a chilling effect, especially as cash-strapped news organizations struggle to finance lawsuits in defense of their journalism (Poynter)

Media organizations are writing a lot about Trump, but data shows readers aren’t really that interested in reading about him (Parse.ly)
Analyzing 1 billion page views across 100,000 articles, Parse.ly found that while news organizations are writing about Trump a lot, readers aren’t especially interested. While 50 percent of the articles analyzed on presidential candidates were about Trump, articles about Trump received fewer page views than articles about Hillary Clinton and a similar number of pageviews to articles about Ted Cruz. Parse.ly concludes that while some have said Trump is a “necessary evil” leading to more pageviews and money for publishers, the data show that idea isn’t true, and the huge volume of Trump coverage might not be necessary.

SHAREABLE

There’s a better question to ask than whether we should give the audience what they want or what they need (Medium)
Asking whether we should give the audience what they want or what they need is the wrong question, Hearken’s Jennifer Brandel writes. A better question is, “What does our community not know that we could help them find out and understand?” To start to answer to that question, newsrooms have to listen to their audiences, and start stories with that information in mind, ensuring that stories are relevant to the readers before they’re even published.

FOR THE WEEKEND

+ “What (Facebook has) is a disproportionate amount of power, and that’s the real story. It’s just concentrated in a way you’ve never seen before in media” (New York Times)

+ Which new media organizations are controlled by old media organizations? A chart from Bloomberg breaks down which traditional media organizations either own or have invested in new media organizations (Bloomberg)

+ Howard W. French explains what he’s learned from three decades in journalism about persisting racism in the U.S.: “The intersection between America’s age-old race problem and the crisis of race in journalism takes two forms. The first is a simple failure of integration: the news organizations that have traditionally comprised ‘mainstream’ journalism have done little to welcome or encourage African-Americans, who are substantially underrepresented by comparison to their numbers in the overall population. … But the second and more subtle issue is a persistent problem of typecasting — a deeply embedded view that regards certain topics as ‘black’ and the rest as ‘white.’” (Guardian)

+ More on what newsrooms can learn from the Knight Foundation’s report on mobile news: News organizations should reach for ways to engage their audiences both offline and online and a more nuanced approach to addressing the diversity of audiences is needed (Medium)

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Felix Salmon: By funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, Peter Thiel set a dangerous precedent that could be emulated by other billionaires

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Peter Thiel acknowledged Wednesday that he funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media, spending about $10 million to help “victims” of Gawker in an act of “deterrence.” That sets a dangerous precedent, Felix Salmon writes: “If Thiel’s strategy works against Gawker, it could be used by any billionaire against any media organization. Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump, the list goes on and on. Up until now, they’ve mostly been content suing news organizations as plaintiffs, over stories which name them. But Thiel has shown them how to go thermonuclear: bankroll other lawsuits, as many as it takes, and bankrupt the news organization that way.”

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The Week in Fact-Checking: Offbeat

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Quote of the week
“If you already believe that immigrants are stealing your jobs and your money, you are more likely to nod when Donald Trump says the same thing, even if his face is obscured by the cloud of smoke coming from his flaming pants.” — Elizabeth Renzetti of the Globe and Mail, explaining the concept of motivated reasoning

Fact-checking: It’s not all politics
Just another reminder that there are plenty of other things besides election campaigns that need fact-checking. This week, we have journalists scrutinizing quirky, offbeat topics including…

…bananas
Some people just can’t stop talking about bananas in the European Union debate. The Spectator found some of that talk is just wrong.

…the side of a bus
False messages don’t only just fall from a politician’s mouth. Sometimes, they’re on a bus. The Guardian checks a questionable statement-on-wheels.

…your vacation
Are you adding to the housing shortage by renting out your home on Airbnb? The Voice of San Diego investigates.

…hairspray
And another fact-check on unintended consequences: Are you hurting the environment with your hairspray? FactCheck.org’s SciCheck explains.

…and that ‘Berning’ feeling
Have you seen the recipe for the “Bernie Sanders glowstick”? Yes, someone is trying to hurt you. A Nebraska reporter fact-checks the recipe’s basic chemistry.

Live fact-checking
Ojo Publico In Peru fact-checked the presidential debate live. Check it out.

Annotation is the future of fact-checking (maybe)
Will Climate Feedback’s attempt to “peer review” the world’s climate journalism breathe new life in the hopes that annotation will turbo-power fact-checking? Annotation experts and fact-checkers share pros and cons of the instrument as used specifically for fact-checking. Read about it on Poynter.org .

The Post’s post-fact era
Is the U.S. living in an era of “post-fact” politics? The issue has inspired a cottage industry in media commentary (ICYMI). The latest in this space from Anne Applebaum on The Washington Post.

Fact-check of the week
Africa Day was May 25th; Africa Check celebrated by publishing 5 blunders about the continent (which is not a country, Kanye).

Quick fact-checking news & views
(1) Africa Check is hiring a researcher, deadline June 13 (2) In Sarajevo on Wednesdayfact-checkers from the region held a workshop with producers from some of the best TV fact-checking efforts in Europe (3) ABC colleagues lament the shuttering of the Fact Check unit.

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Need to Know: May 26, 2016

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

You might have heard: As it reshapes its newsroom, The New York Times is offering voluntary buyouts to newsroom employees (New York Times)

But did you know: The video, graphics and digital design departments are not eligible for buyouts, showing NYT’s commitment to making its newsroom less print-centric (Politico Media)
The New York Times announced Wednesday that it’s offering voluntary buyouts to newsroom employees, though it didn’t specify how many buyouts were sought and didn’t rule out the possibility of layoffs. But staff in the video, graphics and digital design departments aren’t eligible for buyouts, a detail that Joe Pompeo and Peter Stern write is consistent with previous statements NYT has made about a need to make its newsroom less print-focused. As part of that effort, NYT just began a $50 million investment in developing digital products to attract more readers abroad, and ultimately convert those readers to subscribers.

+ Noted: Business Insider launches a website for its lifestyle vertical Insider, which has been posting exclusively to social media for the last 10 months (Wall Street Journal); The Washington Post reduced its page load time from 1.7 seconds to 80 milliseconds with its new progressive web apps (Poynter); Another big investor is urging Tribune to make a deal with Gannett: Towle & Co says Tribune has abandoned its “responsibility of maximizing shareholder value” by not accepting Gannett’s deal (Poynter); Taboola makes a pitch to media companies, offering to save journalism from “Facebook’s death grip” (Mashable); Warren Buffett says “we haven’t cracked the code yet” as far as a viable business model for newspapers (USA Today)

By converting its desktop site to HTTPS, Wired thinks it can help fight ad blocking (Digiday)
Wired is in the processing of switching its desktop site over to HTTPS, and it’s hoping the switch will give users one less reason to ad block. HTTPS is designed to prevent tampering with a site’s content and spying on users’ reading habits, and privacy is one big reason people use ad blockers. With 20 percent of its audience using ad blockers, Wired is hoping that the switch to HTTPS will motivate some readers to turn the blockers off.

+ Earlier: Wired is helping other publishers make the shift to HTTPS by sharing its insights from the process

OFFSHORE

Daily Mail’s parent company reports that its profits fell 29 percent so far in 2016, driven by a decline in print advertising (Guardian)
The Daily Mail’s parent company Daily Mail & General Trust is warning investors after it reported that its profits fell 29 percent in the first half of 2016. That drop was driven by a decline in print advertising revenue: Across all of the company’s titles, print advertising declined 13 percent between October 2015 and March 2016, with the declines worse in the first quarter of 2016. But outside of the print advertising declines, DMGT CEO Martin Morgan says its financial performance was in line with expectations, but “the reduced print advertising revenues had an adverse impact on DMGT’s operating profits.”

OFFBEAT

Twitter ends the development of a ‘buy’ button, showing the slow growth of social commerce (BuzzFeed)
In another sign that Twitter is shifting its focus back to its core product, Twitter is disbanding its commerce team and ending the development of a “buy” button and product pages. BuzzFeed News’ Alex Kantrowitz writes that this decision says a lot about the slow growth of social commerce: “Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have all embarked on major product initiatives in this area. Twitter backing away from social commerce suggests that it’s not quite the low-hanging fruit some had hoped for.”

Felix Salmon: By funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker, Peter Thiel set a dangerous precedent that could be emulated by other billionaires (Fusion)
Peter Thiel acknowledged Wednesday that he funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media, spending about $10 million to help “victims” of Gawker in an act of “deterrence.” That sets a dangerous precedent, Felix Salmon writes: “If Thiel’s strategy works against Gawker, it could be used by any billionaire against any media organization. Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump, the list goes on and on. Up until now, they’ve mostly been content suing news organizations as plaintiffs, over stories which name them. But Thiel has shown them how to go thermonuclear: bankroll other lawsuits, as many as it takes, and bankrupt the news organization that way.”

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Denverite is the first in a new line of city-focused news sites from longtime media execs (Nieman Lab)
Under a new, unnamed media company, three former media executives are taking a stab at local news online. Founded by former WSJ publisher Gordon Crovitz, Business Insider founder Kevin Ryan, and former Journal executive Jim Friedlich, a news site called Denverite will launch in June, starting out as a newsletter. With a model mixing aggregation, curation and original reporting, Denverite will expand to include a website by the end of June. Once Denverite has been in operation for about a year, sites will be launched in eight to 10 other U.S. cities.

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The business value of BuzzFeed’s journalism is coming into question, and some say BuzzFeed could curtail news to focus on video and entertainment

johan brown 08:35 American Press Institute No Comments

You might have heard: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti says BuzzFeed is in the business of news because “it’s good for the world, it’s good for business, and it’s good for our company culture”

But did you know: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote an essay last summer about why BuzzFeed does news, but some are questioning the business value of BuzzFeed’s news operations now. BuzzFeed announced this week that it was building a team in NYC to work on news video, described as the “center of a Venn diagram” between BuzzFeed News and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. CNN Money’s Dylan Byers reports that some in the industry believe that BuzzFeed could eventually “curtail or even jettison” its news division to focus on more profitable areas such as video and entertainment.

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How to get your audience talking to you on social media: Use visuals and respond to your readers

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Social media platforms are a natural place for publishers to interact with their readers, but it can be challenging to get those readers to start talking in a meaningful way. Poynter’s Vicki Krueger outlines tips for motivating readers to start sharing with you on social media, including: Use a visual in your post, ask a question, and respond to your audience’s comments.

+ Earlier: Our Strategy Studies on how local news organizations can develop a voice on social media and how to involve your audience in your reporting

+ What’s the value of a “like” on Facebook? It may not directly translate to revenue, but David Higgerson writes that a like is “an online currency which readers value,” and journalism should value it as well to ensure revenue “flows in our direction too” (David Higgerson)

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The Washington Post will expand into Europe through its Opinions section

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Led by Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post is planning an expansion into Europe with a new Global Opinions section. Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt says the objective of Global Opinions is to “tap into the debates and discussions happening in countries around the world and offer a variety of perspectives that explore how the international community views U.S. policy and how U.S. policymakers view the international landscape.” More regions outside of Europe will be added to Global Opinions over the next few months, Politico Europe’s Alex Spence reports.

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For those getting started on Snapchat, two tools can help you find more interesting users to follow

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There’s no good way within the Snapchat app to discover new accounts to follow, which can be a challenge for publishers trying to get started on Snapchat and build an audience there. But two new tools are trying to fix that problem. GhostCodes and Peek help Snapchat users find interesting users to follow, and help other users discover their own profile in turn. Fast Company’s Ryan Holmes describes GhostCodes as “cheat-sheet for following the right people and learning how to use Snapchat effectively,” which can be useful for publishers working to get started on Snapchat.

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The media industry needs to focus on relevance and value, rather than the volume of work produced

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“We still treat the public we serve as a mass, all the same, delivering a one-way, one-size-fits-all product that we fill with a commodity we call content,” Jeff Jarvis writes. “Rather than continuing to try to maintain our content factory, whose real business is selling eyeballs by the ton, imagine instead if news were a service whose aim is to help people improve their lives and communities by connecting them not only to information, but also to each other, with a commercial model built on value over volume.”

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A roadmap for reinventing legacy news organizations is starting to emerge, with a focus on not being everything to everyone

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Taking a look at newsroom re-organizations around the country at legacy news organizations such as The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, we can start to see a roadmap for reinventing legacy organizations start to emerge, Poynter’s Kristen Hare writes. In terms of coverage, these news organizations are not trying to be everything to everyone, and focusing on the areas they can and should cover best instead. And when it comes to organization of the newsroom, these news organizations are opting to organize its teams around topics, rather than traditional desks.

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Need to Know: May 25, 2016

johan brown 08:20 American Press Institute No Comments

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

You might have heard: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti says BuzzFeed is in the business of news because “it’s good for the world, it’s good for business, and it’s good for our company culture”

But did you know: The business value of BuzzFeed’s journalism is coming into question, and some say BuzzFeed could curtail news to focus on video and entertainment (CNN Money)
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote an essay last summer about why BuzzFeed does news, but some are questioning the business value of BuzzFeed’s news operations now. BuzzFeed announced this week that it was building a team in NYC to work on news video, described as the “center of a Venn diagram” between BuzzFeed News and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. CNN Money’s Dylan Byers reports that some in the industry believe that BuzzFeed could eventually “curtail or even jettison” its news division to focus on more profitable areas such as video and entertainment.

+ Noted: Indiana public radio station WBAA reverses its decision to cancel This American Life after “considerable listener feedback” (Current.org); Soon Twitter will no longer count @names and media attachments as characters within tweets, will allow users to retweet and quote themselves, and will show new tweets that begin with a username to all followers (Twitter); Pittsburgh Post-Gazette launches a vertical called Aging Edge targeted to its older readers (Columbia Journalism Review); Vice is reorganizing its news division: Josh Tyrangiel will oversee the entire news division, and about 15 Vice News staff members will be laid off in NYC and LA (Politico)

How to get your audience talking to you on social media: Use visuals and respond to your readers (Poynter)
Social media platforms are a natural place for publishers to interact with their readers, but it can be challenging to get those readers to start talking in a meaningful way. Poynter’s Vicki Krueger outlines tips for motivating readers to start sharing with you on social media, including: Use a visual in your post, ask a question, and respond to your audience’s comments.

+ Earlier: Our Strategy Studies on how local news organizations can develop a voice on social media and how to involve your audience in your reporting

OFFSHORE

The Washington Post will expand into Europe through its Opinions section (Politico Europe)
Led by Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post is planning an expansion into Europe with a new Global Opinions section. Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt says the objective of Global Opinions is to “tap into the debates and discussions happening in countries around the world and offer a variety of perspectives that explore how the international community views U.S. policy and how U.S. policymakers view the international landscape.” More regions outside of Europe will be added to Global Opinions over the next few months, Politico Europe’s Alex Spence reports.

+ The Wall Street Journal is running its first major native ad campaign in the U.K.: “An honest history of hacking” is a campaign for antivirus software Bitdefender with 10 articles, videos and graphics on cybercrime and its impact on society (Digiday)

OFFBEAT

For those getting started on Snapchat, two tools can help you find more interesting users to follow (Fast Company)
There’s no good way within the Snapchat app to discover new accounts to follow, which can be a challenge for publishers trying to get started on Snapchat and build an audience there. But two new tools are trying to fix that problem. GhostCodes and Peek help Snapchat users find interesting users to follow, and help other users discover their own profile in turn. Fast Company’s Ryan Holmes describes GhostCodes as “cheat-sheet for following the right people and learning how to use Snapchat effectively,” which can be useful for publishers working to get started on Snapchat.

The media industry needs to focus on relevance and value, rather than the volume of work produced (Medium)
“We still treat the public we serve as a mass, all the same, delivering a one-way, one-size-fits-all product that we fill with a commodity we call content,” Jeff Jarvis writes. “Rather than continuing to try to maintain our content factory, whose real business is selling eyeballs by the ton, imagine instead if news were a service whose aim is to help people improve their lives and communities by connecting them not only to information, but also to each other, with a commercial model built on value over volume.”

+ Kelly McBride: Saying “we stand by our story” isn’t a good enough response today, because audiences expect more precision and clarity in news organizations’ responses to criticism (Poynter)

SHAREABLE

A roadmap for reinventing legacy news organizations is starting to emerge, with a focus on not being everything to everyone (Poynter)
Taking a look at newsroom re-organizations around the country at legacy news organizations such as The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, we can start to see a roadmap for reinventing legacy organizations start to emerge, Poynter’s Kristen Hare writes. In terms of coverage, these news organizations are not trying to be everything to everyone, and focusing on the areas they can and should cover best instead. And when it comes to organization of the newsroom, these news organizations are opting to organize its teams around topics, rather than traditional desks.

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Facebook says its investigation found no systematic bias in the trending news section, but it can’t rule out unintentional bias

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You might have heard: The US Senate Commerce Committee has launched an inquiry into Facebook’s news curation after former news curators said they regularly suppressed conservative news from the site’s trending news section

But did you know: Responding to Sen. John Thune’s letter on its trending news section, Facebook says its own investigation found no systematic bias in the curation of the section. But the investigation couldn’t fully rule out unintentional bias or isolated instances of bias. Now, Facebook plans to put a number of changes in place to prevent possible bias in the future. Those changes include updating terminology in its guidelines for trending news curators, eliminating a list of websites it used to verify or determine importance of a story, and refresher training for curators on content decisions.

+ “As much as we may care about Facebook’s alleged manipulation of news feeds, we should be concerned about this federal intrusion into an independent organization’s editorial process even more. Congress doesn’t have to explain itself, but three possible explanations might justify its demands: Facebook doesn’t qualify for First Amendment protection; the inquiry doesn’t involve First Amendment–protected activity; or Facebook’s editorial process is an appropriate subject for Congress to probe. None of these remotely hold water.” (Slate)

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7 ideas for how publishers can deal with ad blockers

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At an event in late April, publishers, platforms and other industry groups gathered at an event in NYC hosted by PageFair and Digital Content Next to talk about ad blocking. The participants, which included ESPN, Google and The Guardian, are now sharing their recommendations for how publishers can better deal with ad blockers. Among their ideas: Users need the ability to reject and complain about bad advertising, publishers and advertisers need to agree on a maximum page load time, and publishers need to move away from advertising as their means of collecting info about readers.

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A Swedish podcasting platform is offering podcasters the option to charge listeners in exchange for no ads

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Swedish podcasting platform Acast launched a new product on Monday that offers podcasters a new way to generate revenue. Called Acast+, the platform now offers podcasters the option to sell their product directly to listeners without advertising. Podcasters can set their own price, and revenue is then split with Acast. Listeners will have the option to buy a monthly “show pass,” ranging in price from $2.99 to $6.99 per month, or they can purchase podcasts individually.

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By designing its products to be accessible for those with disabilities, Google’s products become better for all its users

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“Accessibility is a basic human right,” says Google’s senior manager of accessibility engineering Eve Andersson. “It benefits everyone.” Though Andersson’s team focuses on how to make Google’s products just as usable for those with disabilities as those without, that focus creates a better product for all users. For example, autocomplete and voice controls are features we all use now, but originally started as features designed to help people with disabilities use computers, Andersson says.

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The Washington Post’s union says women make on average 86 percent of what men make

johan brown 08:49 American Press Institute No Comments

After it was asked by members to look into pay disparities at the Washington Post, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild says that women earn on average 86 percent of what men at the Post earn. Broken down by job, male reporters earn $7,000 more, male columnists earn $23,000 more, and male producers earn $4,000 more than their female counterparts. The disparities also go beyond gender, the union says: It found assistant editors who identify as people of color earn 15 percent less than their white counterparts.

+ But Washington Post deputy managing editor Tracy Grant disputes the union’s methodology for analyzing pay: “I think it’s unwise to look at the simple average or even the median because it doesn’t take into account such factors as experience … Furthermore the broad median figures don’t account for the nature of the positions. Without examining experience and role, it’s hard to draw any conclusions from these numbers” (Washington Post)

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Tribune’s new investor wants to save print with ‘machine vision’ technology

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Tribune Publishing’s new second-largest investor Nant Capital has a plan to save print: With “machine vision” technology developed by CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong, he says the experience of reading a print newspaper will be brought to life. For example, if a reader focused their smartphone camera on a picture of Kevin Durant, they could see Durant dunking a basketball; if the reader focused on a picture of Donald Trump, they could hear Trump talking.

+ Experiments at bringing print to life through augmented reality have been around since at least 2011, when a Dublin newspaper used it to make content and ads interactive (TheNextWeb), and has since been tried in many other places without much effect (J-Source)

+ Though Tribune rejected Gannett’s latest offer, Rick Edmonds says the two companies could still be negotiating (Poynter)

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Need to Know: May 24, 2016

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

But did you know: Facebook says its investigation found no systematic bias in the trending news section, but it can’t rule out unintentional bias (Facebook Newsroom)
Responding to Sen. John Thune’s letter on its trending news section, Facebook says its own investigation found no systematic bias in the curation of the section. But the investigation couldn’t fully rule out unintentional bias or isolated instances of bias. Now, Facebook plans to put a number of changes in place to prevent possible bias in the future. Those changes include updating terminology in its guidelines for trending news curators, eliminating a list of websites it used to verify or determine importance of a story, and refresher training for curators on content decisions.

+ Noted: The Washington Post’s latest ad product Fuse aims to speed up load times for Web advertisements (Wall Street Journal); BuzzFeed is building a team in NYC to work on news video, the “center of a Venn diagram” between BuzzFeed News and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures (Nieman Lab); Billy Penn’s parent company Spirited Media is starting to hire for its latest outpost in Pittsburgh (Billy Penn)

7 ideas for how publishers can deal with ad blockers (PageFair)
At an event in late April, publishers, platforms and other industry groups gathered at an event in NYC hosted by PageFair and Digital Content Next to talk about ad blocking. The participants, which included ESPN, Google and The Guardian, are now sharing their recommendations for how publishers can better deal with ad blockers. Among their ideas: Users need the ability to reject and complain about bad advertising, publishers and advertisers need to agree on a maximum page load time, and publishers need to move away from advertising as their means of collecting info about readers.

+ Why you can’t just rely on people you know for sourcing stories: “We also have a tendency to stick with people who went to the same schools as we did, or work in the same cities, or have similar lifestyles or political views. And that’s fine if you’re having a dinner party, but way too self-limiting for pretty much anything else, especially professional work” (LWJ Noted)

OFFSHORE

A Swedish podcasting platform is offering podcasters the option to charge listeners in exchange for no ads (Wall Street Journal)
Swedish podcasting platform Acast launched a new product on Monday that offers podcasters a new way to generate revenue. Called Acast+, the platform now offers podcasters the option to sell their product directly to listeners without advertising. Podcasters can set their own price, and revenue is then split with Acast. Listeners will have the option to buy a monthly “show pass,” ranging in price from $2.99 to $6.99 per month, or they can purchase podcasts individually.

OFFBEAT

By designing its products to be accessible for those with disabilities, Google’s products become better for all its users (Fast Company)
“Accessibility is a basic human right,” says Google’s senior manager of accessibility engineering Eve Andersson. “It benefits everyone.” Though Andersson’s team focuses on how to make Google’s products just as usable for those with disabilities as those without, that focus creates a better product for all users. For example, autocomplete and voice controls are features we all use now, but originally started as features designed to help people with disabilities use computers, Andersson says.

The Washington Post’s union says women make on average 86 percent of what men make (The Cut)
After it was asked by members to look into pay disparities at the Washington Post, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild says that women earn on average 86 percent of what men at the Post earn. Broken down by job, male reporters earn $7,000 more, male columnists earn $23,000 more, and male producers earn $4,000 more than their female counterparts. The disparities also go beyond gender, the union says: It found assistant editors who identify as people of color earn 15 percent less than their white counterparts.

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Tribune’s new investor wants to save print with ‘machine vision’ technology (Bloomberg)
Tribune Publishing’s new second-largest investor Nant Capital has a plan to save print: With “machine vision” technology developed by CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong, he says the experience of reading a print newspaper will be brought to life. For example, if a reader focused their smartphone camera on a picture of Kevin Durant, they could see Durant dunking a basketball; if the reader focused on a picture of Donald Trump, they could hear Trump talking.

+ Though Tribune rejected Gannett’s latest offer, Rick Edmonds says the two companies could still be negotiating (Poynter)

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Need to Know: May 23, 2016

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

You might have heard: The Las Vegas Review-Journal was purchased at the end of 2015 under mysterious circumstances by casino owner Sheldon Adelson, and some staff say that they’ve been told to ease up on the coverage of their new owner

But did you know: Sheldon Adelson says he hasn’t interfered with the Las Vegas Review-Journal newsroom, but staff members continue to depart (New York Times)
Since casino owner Sheldon Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a divide has been created in the newsroom between editors who see it as their duty to review the paper’s coverage of Adelson and staff who feel that Adelson has interfered with the newsroom. At least a dozen staff members have quit, been fired, or made plans to leave soon since Adelson purchased the paper, with many citing “a strained work environment and untenable oversight” as their reason for leaving. But despite that, Adelson still claims that he hasn’t interfered with the newsroom: “I have never spoken to anybody in the newsroom, nor have we called them to establish news-gathering policies.”

+ Noted: Tribune rejects Gannett’s latest offer of $15/share and announces a new $70.5 million investment from Nant Capital, making Nant Tribune’s second-largest shareholder (Tribune Publishing), but Tribune could agree to share confidential financial information with Gannett (Reuters); The New York Times’ plan for “journalistic dominance” includes more “only-in-The New York Times” coverage, a new plan for covering NYC, and more visual stories, Dean Baquet says in a memo to staff (Poynter); Nuzzel launches what it calls the “first network of newsletters,” with a newsletter-building tool where users can select content from Nuzzel feeds (Marketing Land); Planning an extensive relaunch, Village Voice hires former Adweek executive Suzan Gursoy as its next publisher (Politico Media)

ProPublica’s thinking behind its new app: The key principle is timeliness instead of completeness (ProPublica)
When ProPublica started working on its new apps, it set out to answer two key questions: “1) How do we build a modern, genuinely useful experience for our most active users, and; 2) how do we maintain it without creating a pile of new work for ourselves?” To answer those questions, David Sleight says ProPublica shifted the app’s organizing principle from completeness to timeliness. Sleight writes: “[The new app] puts the new stuff front and center and pares down the complexity we need to support it. Subsections, archives, and all their associated back-end tools were axed,” helping readers find the stories they’re interested in.

OFFSHORE

A Colombia-based nonprofit network is connecting journalists in Latin America countries to produce investigative journalism (Nieman Lab)
Connectas is a nonprofit network that connects journalists in Latin American countries to produce investigative journalism, often in the form of multi-part stories that look beyond a single country. Connectas was also a partner on the Panama Papers. Connectas director Carlos Eduardo Huertas explains: “Connectas is a journalistic platform. The idea, though, is that we don’t just develop traditional media. We are a hybrid model. Our focus is producing stories, but within the journalism community we provide support in ways that we can — training, fellowships, every kind of action in the support area — that go toward journalistic production.”

OFFBEAT

Food content is becoming an essential traffic driver for organizations such as BuzzFeed and Vice (Financial Times)
Food videos are growing fast online: In 2015, food-related videos were viewed 23 billion times, a growth of 170 percent from 2014, according to Tubular Labs. For digital companies such as BuzzFeed and Vice, these food-related videos are becoming an increasingly important driver of traffic. BuzzFeed’s food channel Tasty received 2.2 billion views in March alone, Financial Times reports.

+ Despite that growth, the BBC will cut its food section and more earlier insights on food coverage: How NYT thinks of its Cooking app as a service to readers and the publishers that found early success with Facebook video were food publishers

Serving readers advertisements when they’re also paying for a subscription is a flawed business model (Medium)
Responding to a Motherboard story on online tracking by news organizations, Ira Michael Blonder writes: “These publishers have decided they can’t compete with the ‘human brainless’ likes of Google News/Bing News/Facebook News without pumping up an advertising business model with a little bit of paid subscription sauce. The end result is a bad experience for subscribers, advertisers, and the web surfing public. I don’t think I am getting my money’s worth from the subscription since I have to suffer through the interminable page loads, forced attention to meaningless full page ads, etc of online news in 2016.”

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Margaret Sullivan’s first Washington Post column: For those interested in saving journalism, it’s a great time to become a journalist (Washington Post)
In her debut column for the Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan says young journalists are actually lucky to be coming into the industry now. Sullivan writes: “[These young journalists] have a chance to make a real difference in a high-stakes game. … Given the challenges, what’s needed most are journalists — of every age — who are willing to help figure out the future with passion, smarts and integrity. Yes, we’ve got some big problems, but it’s far from crazy to try to be part of the solution.”

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Need to Know: May 20, 2016

johan brown 08:19 American Press Institute No Comments

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

You might have heard: Gannett is bidding for Tribune Publishing, and upped its offer earlier this week to $15/share, valuing Tribune at $864 million

But did you know: Tribune’s Michael Ferro says he’s working on a bid to take over Gannett (Politico Media)
Gannett has bid to take over Tribune Publishing, but Tribune chairman Michael Ferro told a group of Los Angeles Times staffers that he’s working on a bid to take over Gannett. Ken Doctor reports that Ferro has a group of attorneys working independently of Tribune on the bid. Gannett’s market value on Thursday was $1.84 billion, which doesn’t include any premium that would-be bidders would have to include, Doctor writes.

+ Noted: Facebook launches an interactive map for live video, showing where current live streams are happening around the world (Engadget); Verizon and other bidders are expected to bid between $2 billion and $3 billion for Yahoo’s core business, less than the range of $4 billion to $8 billion that was previously reported (Wall Street Journal); PRX is creating a new company called RadioPublic to focus on mobile audio (Nieman Lab)

API UPDATE

The week in fact-checking
As part of our fact-checking journalism project, Jane Elizabeth and Poynter’s Alexios Mantzarlis highlight stories worth noting related to truth in politics and on the Internet. This week’s round-up includes how to reach the right audience with your fact-checking, whether readers trust fact-checkers more than traditional media, and how to help voters deconstruct political ads.

Minneapolis Star Tribune’s recipe for revenue growth: Think about circulation differently and execute revenue initiatives well (Poynter)
Minneapolis Star Tribune revenues are up slightly this year, but it didn’t depend on any “silver bullet” for that revenue growth, Rick Edmonds writes. The keys to the Star Tribune’s revenue successes are starting early, diversifying revenue, and not abandoning print, CEO and Publisher Mike Klingensmith says. Klingensmith, who was previously at Time Inc., also brought in a new way of thinking about revenue from the magazine industry, thinking about circulation as a profit center rather than a number for advertisers.

OFFSHORE

A new project called Diamond will track media diversity in the UK (Journalism.co.uk)
The Creative Diversity Network is partnering with U.K. broadcasters including BBC and Sky News for a new project called Diamond to track diversity in the media industry. The project will look at the diversity of newscasters and actors, as well as the diversity of people working behind the scenes. The project will examine diversity from several different angles, including gender, age and disability, executive director of the Creative Diversity Network Amanda Ariss says. Data from the project will be available online, allowing the public to “track whether there’s any change in the industry.”

OFFBEAT

Differentiation isn’t just about setting your product apart, but about differentiating your entire company (Harvard Business Review)
There’s a problem with the way businesses think about differentiation, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi write, leading to missed opportunities. “To [most businesses], the unit of differentiation is an individual product, service or brand. … But differentiation needs to be sustainable; it shouldn’t live or die with individual offerings. The heart of differentiation therefore is your company’s ability to develop and promote distinctive products, services, and branded experiences on a consistent basis. It’s not the output that sets you apart, but the way that everything you do supports the product and gives it context.”

‘Trends are not the same as news, but Facebook kinda wants them to be’ (Nieman Lab)
“Trends” is a powerfully vague word, Tarleton Gillespie writes, lending itself to a wide range of definitions as to what’s being measured. In principle, Facebook’s trending news is an “expression of interest” on the platform, not news value. Gillespie writes: “Facebook users are talking about some things, a lot, for some reason. This has little to do with ‘news,’ which implies an attention to events in the world and some judgment of importance. Of course, many things Facebook users talk about, though not all, are public events. And it seems reasonable to assume that talking about a topic represents some judgment of its importance, however minimal.”

+ Glenn Beck’s thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg’s meeting with conservative leaders: “It was like affirmative action for conservatives,” with questions about Facebook’s hiring practices and diversity training (Glenn Beck)

SHAREABLE

Publishers contrast Snapchat Discover vs. Stories: Discover has a bigger built-in audience, but Stories are easier to experiment with (Digiday)
Snapchat Discover is built for capturing big audiences, Digiday’s Garett Sloane writes, taking a look at the differences between Discover and Stories on Snapchat. But though Stories may reach a smaller audience, there’s still value there: “Personal accounts are a true labor of love and fun to experiment with, where our brands can express themselves in cool ways,” says Vox Media’s (which has a Discover channel and personal accounts for its brands) director of platform partnerships Choire Sicha.

FOR THE WEEKEND

+ Journalism is losing sight of its mission to “give voice to the voiceless,” Aly Colón says: “We give more voice to the voiceful than to the voiceless. We need to walk the streets of our communities. We need to see people. We need to hear them. We need to hear their voices.” (Columbia Journalism Review)

+ Facebook is biased, but not necessarily in the ways we’ve been talking about: “The social network’s powerful newsfeed is programmed to be viral, clicky, upbeat or quarrelsome. … The trending topics box is a trivial part of the site, and almost invisible on mobile, where most people use Facebook. And it is not the newsfeed, which is controlled by an algorithm.” (New York Times)

+ Tinius Trust’s annual report on the future of journalism includes essays from Emily Bell on the relationships between platforms and publishers, Alan Rusbridger on the economics of independent media, and Cory Haik on the rise of distributed content (Tinius Trust)

+ Taking a look at female journalists on the campaign trail: Hillary Clinton’s 12-person press corps is all women, showing a “remarkable” shift in political journalism (Vogue)

+ “Capitol Hill publications like The Hill, Roll Call and National Journal were for decades a Beltway staple, strewn across desks on K Street and in Congress. With a captive audience and a strong advertising base, they were protected from broader economic forces and less concerned about competition from more nationally focused newspapers. Now these publications are scrambling to find their footing in a political landscape that is more competitive and almost unrecognizable from the one they chronicled for decades.” (New York Times)

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The Week in Fact-Checking: Reach

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More than ever, journalists are furiously fact-checking politicians and government officials. So why are some still lying and why do some people still believe the lies? Maybe those fact-checks aren’t reaching the right audiences. We’ve got some thoughts on infiltrating those groups, and we’d like to hear yours. Tweet us at #FactCheckAPI.

Quote of the week
“All the hate going around is because people are being misinformed. Voters have to take the time to research the candidates and somebody has to let us know when candidates are making false statements.” — Carlos Lopez, 17

Fact-checking, trust and the readers
Readers trust fact-checkers more than traditional media, but not blindly, a new analysis finds. The study included a survey and interviews with readers of Argentinian fact-checking website Chequeado after a heated election. Read the key findings on Poynter.org.

Fact-checking football
“I came like a king, left like a legend,” tweeted iconic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic before his last match for Paris Saint Germain. But did he really? Libération checked the facts.

Share the facts
The fact-challenged presidential campaign is seeing increasing collaboration among top U.S. fact-checkers. Under the aegis of Duke Reporters’ Lab, they are piloting a widget called Share the Facts, which will be made available to more fact-checkers this summer.

Tips for better fact-checking
Research on tactics used in bullying and domestic violence can also help voters deconstruct political attack ads, according to The Repository. The Canton, Ohio, newspaper offers readers some tips.

Beware the faux check
It’s not fact-checking if you’re on the payroll to represent one side of the story. Watch out for politicians who start their own stealth “fact-checking” efforts, warns a political writer.

Fact-checking images
With Dilma Rousseff suspended from office, Vice President Temer was sworn in as acting president of Brazil. His government’s logo featured the country’s flag prominently — but Lupa noted something was amiss.

Some fact-checking fun
Watch the rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie’s video in which he fact-checks his own Wikipedia entry. Bonus fun: Does the U.S. Army owe Captain America $3 million in back pay?

Quick fact-checking news & views
(1) Full Fact’s Wikipedia edit-a-thon on the EU referendum resulted in two new pages and 19 improvements to existing ones; (2) Australia’s ABC seems set to close its Fact Check unit, despite strong criticism; (3) NPR covers Brazilian fact-checking site Aos Fatos.

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Need to Know: May 19, 2016

johan brown 08:21 American Press Institute No Comments

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

You might have heard: After former Facebook news curators say they regularly suppressed conservative news from the site’s trending news section, Mark Zuckerberg planned to meet with a dozen conservative leaders

But did you know: After meeting with conservative leaders, Mark Zuckerberg says he wants open conversations about how Facebook can build trust (CNN Money)
Mark Zuckerberg met with conservative leaders on Wednesday, and called for more discussion about how Facebook can build trust after Gizmodo reported that former news curators suppressed conservative news. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook after the meeting: “I know many conservatives don’t trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias. I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust. I want to do everything I can to make sure our teams uphold the integrity of our products.”

+ A poll by Morning Consult of 2,000 voters under age 45 found that a quarter of respondents read about Facebook’s trending news controversy on Facebook itself, and 31 percent said “reader interest” should determine what stories are shown on social media (Morning Consult)

+ A new tool from the Wall Street Journal provides a side-by-side look at Facebook’s political bubble for conservatives and liberals (Wall Street Journal), providing “an eye-opening, likely uncomfortable peek at another reality” (Nieman Lab)

+ Noted: Tribune’s No. 2 shareholder Oaktree Capital warns that delaying a deal with Gannett could “destroy enormous shareholder value” (Poynter); Google reveals its new virtual reality platform Daydream, which has partners including NYT and WSJ (The Verge); The MacArthur Foundation announces $25 million in new unrestricted, 5-year general operating grants for grantees including Center for Public Integrity and NPR (MacArthur Foundation)

A fantasy sports site’s criteria for using Facebook Live: It needs to be timely and allow the viewer to dictate the broadcast (Digiday)
Dream Team, The Sun’s fantasy soccer site, started using Facebook Live several weeks ago, and it’s prioritizing view time as its key metric. The nine person video team has established a set of four criteria before live streaming something on Facebook: It has to be “timely, atmospheric, put the viewer where they want to be, and allow the viewer to dictate the broadcast.” Dream Team encourages viewers to post in the broadcast’s comments what they want to see next, putting the viewers in charge of where the live stream goes next.

+ Digital agency Postlight created a free tool for converting articles to Google AMP called Mercury: All that’s needed is dropping a line of code into your template page, and Mercury works with any CMS (Postlight)

OFFSHORE

The Guardian may soon break up its investigative reporting team (PressGazette)
As The Guardian tries to cut costs and around 250 jobs, PressGazette reports that The Guardian may soon break up its investigative reporting team. The six people on the team will likely be asked to move elsewhere in the newsroom, PressGazette reports. A Guardian spokesperson said: “We are currently reviewing the way we run our news and investigations teams to make sure we have the right people in the right roles.”

+ From last week: Former editor Alan Rusbridger is being made the “fall guy” for the Guardian’s financial problems, but “losing money on digital and hemorrhaging print revenue is not something that is unique to the Guardian” (Fortune)

OFFBEAT

How Journal Media Group editors planned to lead its newsrooms through change (Poynter)
When changes come to a newsroom, “whether you are a top newsroom leader or a mid-level manager, your team is looking to you for information, for guidance and for the answer to that critical, personal question,” Mizell Stewart III writes. Stewart, who is a news executive at Gannett and former chief content officer for Journal Media Group, explains how Journal Media Group editors planned to lead its newsrooms through a sale to Gannett. Among their ideas: Have open conversations and share what you know, consider how readers are perceiving the change, and focus on helping staff develop skills that can help them in the future.

+ Lessons for the news industry from music business: The value proposition for audiences needs to change, and the reading experience for users needs to improve as well (MediaShift)