Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: Arianna Huffington is stepping down as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post to run her new health and wellness startup Thrive Global full-time (Wall Street Journal)
But did you know: There may be debates about Arianna Huffington’s legacy, but there’s little doubt that she was a media pioneer at HuffPo (Fortune)
As Arianna Huffington leaves The Huffington Post, there’s inevitably going to be debate about what her legacy will be, Mathew Ingram writes, but there’s also little doubt that Huffington was (and remains) a media pioneer. The idea behind HuffPo was unlikely to succeed, but Huffington made it successful using the power of her own personal network, along with harnessing the fact that there were people out there who were willing to write for free. Ingram writes: “Despite the flaws in the model, there is no question that Arianna Huffington was a media pioneer — as much as her critics would rather not admit it.”
+ Why is Arianna Huffington leaving HuffPo now? Peter Kafka reports that it could be in part due to Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, which will bring a different power structure to the company (Recode)
+ Noted: After Facebook said it would serve users ads that can’t be blocked, AdBlock Plus released an update to block those ads (AdBlock Plus), but hours later, Facebook said it would roll out another update to nullify AdBlock Plus’ workaround (TechCrunch); After spinoffs, newspaper companies tend to lag behind their broadcast counterparts, new research from the Pew Research Center finds (Pew Research Center); Turner and Scripps are investing $45 million in Refinery29, bringing Refinery29’s value to about $500 million (Recode); The New York Times may be considering ending the print edition of its Sunday magazine, New York Post reports (New York Post)
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 fact-checkers are covering the Olympics, how to get kids into fact-checking, and why not everything needs to be two-sided.
How to use your homepage to determine how a story will do on social media (Parse.ly)
According to new research from Parse.ly, a publisher’s homepage is one of the best ways to predict whether a story will do well on social media. Post an article in the top spot on your homepage, and after 500 pageviews, examine where referral traffic is coming from — homepage referrals or social referrals? If a higher ratio of those views are coming from social, it’s a good sign that the story will continue to receive most of its traffic from social, Parse.ly explains. And conversely, if after 500 pageviews, less than one-third of those views are coming from social, there’s a high chance that the post will continue to get most of its traffic from the homepage.
Brexit led to an increase in print sales and online traffic for British media (Politico Europe)
British publishers are seeing a “Brexit bump” this summer, Alex Spence writes. In the wake of Brexit, print sales are up and online traffic is at record highs for many publishers, but the question remains, how long will it last? According to ABC circulation data, British consumers bought an average of 90,000 more newspapers per day in June than they did in May. Fred Spence, editor of conservative weekly newspaper the Spectator, explains what’s leading to the “Brexit bump”: “Brexit, with all of its stunning drama, has meant a whole new bunch of people who were never really interested in politics now is. It’s a seismic event that means people want to learn more.”
Burnout isn’t the result of your workplace — it’s a result of the choices you’re making, and it’s your responsibility to unplug (Poynter)
“I’m finally starting to realize that the burnout isn’t a result of the workplaces I’ve chosen,” Poynter’s Katie Hawkins-Gaar writes about how she’s dealt with burnout in her past and present jobs. “It’s a result of working habits and beliefs that I’ve built up over time. My boss isn’t telling me I need to check my email first thing in the morning or keep plugging away at work in the evenings. It’s my choice to work those hours. It’s ultimately on me to stop blaming work and start taking responsibility for my own well-being.”
A Daily Beast reporter used a gay dating app to out gay Olympians, a ‘sleazy, dangerous and wildly unethical’ stunt (Slate)
“The offensive purpose of [Nico] Hines’ article is really the least of its problems,” Mark Joseph Stern writes. “Far worse is the actual damage it will likely cause to real, live human beings — inevitable consequences that Hines blithely ignored. Several athletes who are closeted at home (and possibly to their own teammates) will wake up on Thursday morning to the news that the Daily Beast has outed them. Their teammates could ostracize and alienate them; their families could disown them; their countries could imprison them. And for what? A homophobic article about how a straight guy conned gay Olympians from anti-gay countries into hitting on him through Grindr? Hines’ article is a dangerous disaster, a wildly unethical train wreck that should be taken down immediately for the sake of its duped subjects.”
+ The Daily Beast removed the article entirely on Thursday night and published an apology (The Daily Beast)
Facebook is changing its algorithm again: Now, it will show people more ‘personally informative’ stories (Facebook Newsroom)
Just over a month after Facebook announced it was making changes to the news feed to rank friends and family higher, it’s announcing that it’s making a few more changes to the news feed algorithm. This time, Facebook is aiming to show people more “personally informative” stories — meaning, people will see more informative stories, shown to them based on what Facebook thinks is relevant to their interests. Facebook says some publishers will see a small increase in referral traffic from the change, while others may see a slight decrease.
FOR THE WEEKEND
+ After John Oliver’s segment on local newspapers, Ken Doctor says “the you-get-what-you-pay-for imperative has never been clearer”: “It’s not experimentation that is most needed. It’s execution, and execution based on the value of smarter, rather than dumbed-down, local journalism” (Nieman Lab); Rick Edmonds says after being interviewed by Oliver’s show that “Last Week Tonight” is indeed journalism: It’s “deeply reported and meticulously checked,” while being presented in an entertaining format (Poynter)
+ BuzzFeed News reports on Twitter’s decade of failing to deal with harassment on the platform, talking to 10 Twitter employees about its failures on that front (BuzzFeed); Twitter is facing a watershed moment as it deals with a shrinking user base and executives leaving, Nausicaa Renner writes, and how it deals with harassment will determine its future (Columbia Journalism Review)
+ The Information’s Jessica Lessin on how subscription models make connecting with readers even more important: “In general, media companies have lost sight of building relationships with their end users that will bring them in directly, as opposed to just posting links on social networks and hoping people will click. I think publishers that do that are shooting themselves in the foot. Media companies in general are way too focused on being where our readers are, as opposed to being so necessary to our readers that they will seek us out.” (Fortune)
+ Instagram Stories is a smart idea, Brittany Hoffman writes, because it’s going to bring in the audience of older Millennials who may not have gotten into Snapchat: “It’s Snapchat Lite, which may make people who weren’t interested before, more willing to try snapping” (The Mission)
The post Need to Know: Aug. 12, 2016 appeared first on American Press Institute.
from American Press Institute http://ift.tt/2bcEqr5
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment