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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
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.”
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.”
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.
The post Need to Know: May 26, 2016 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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