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You might have heard: News organizations including Reuters and The Verge have ended the comment sections, with Vice’s Motherboard saying “the problem is a matter of medium”
But did you know: Seeing that only a small number of its readers were using the comments, NPR is discontinuing story-page comments in favor of more interaction on social media (NPR)
When NPR introduced comments to its website eight years ago, many of our current tools for engaging with readers didn’t exist, Scott Montgomery writes. Now, NPR will discontinue story-page comments on Aug. 23, opting to engage with its readers in other spaces, such as social media. Montgomery writes that while NPR’s digital audience has grown dramatically to between 25 and 35 million unique visitors each month, only 1 percent of those readers are commenting. The number of regular commenters is even smaller, Montgomery says: Only 2,600 people have posted a comment in each of the last three months — or 0.003 percent of the 79.8 million visitors to NPR’s website in that time.
+ NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen says the decision shouldn’t come as a surprise if the goal of the comment section is to foster constructive conversations: “The number of complaints to NPR about the current comment system has been growing—complaints that comments were censored by the outside moderators, and that commenters were behaving inappropriately and harassing other commenters” (NPR)
+ Chris Cillizza praises NPR’s decision to end the comment section and calls for other news organizations to do the same: “What the comments section actually is in this supercharged partisan media environment is a mudpit where the only rule is there are no rules. And, by definition when fighting in a mudpit, no one comes out clean. So, good on you, NPR for taking a stand against comments sections. I hope everyone in the media space follows your lead.” (Washington Post); The Coral Project’s Greg Barber on the decision: “News orgs’ mismatching a tool with a task isn’t the tool’s fault. We need to spend the time to choose the right tool for the job.” (@gjbarb, Twitter)
+ Noted: Gannett has privately increased its bid for Tronc, and a response from Tronc could come by the end of the week (Wall Street Journal); Univision is hoping to reach a group of younger digital readers through its acquisition of Gawker before its potential IPO (Variety); Sarasota Union-Tribune employees move to unionize (Poynter); A new group for “developers, designers, UXers, data analysts and product managers who work in the media” is launching, called Chapter Two (Medium); Instagram is starting to suggest videos around events for its users through its “Explore” section (Recode)
Strategies for sharing metrics within your newsroom (MediaShift)
Metrics are only useful if they’re shared in a helpful and understandable way, Tim Cigelske writes. To help your newsroom understand your metrics better, Cigelske recommends ranking your metrics to help people understand which metrics are most important your organization. Cigelske also recommends not sending metrics by email, because inboxes are where “metrics reports often go to die” — instead, trying displaying them prominently in your newsroom, such as on a poster or a well-placed screen.
While IBT Media is cutting its staff in the US, it’s expanding its newsroom in Europe and opening a branded content studio (Digiday)
IBT Media may be scaling down in the United States, but it’s doing the opposite in Europe: IBT Media is expanding its staff in Europe, opening a branded content studio, and building out an events business. In the past six months, IBT Media’s staff in Europe has grown by 20 percent to 120 employees; in the U.S., it cut nearly three-quarters of its staff just a month ago. COO Greg Witham explains that IBT Media is seeing steady growth in the EMEA regions, something it’s not seeing in the U.S.
How to stop leadership issues from obstructing innovation (MIT Sloan Management Review)
When an organization is taking on changes, innovation has to include a lot of people from across an organization working together — but sometimes, those groups of people don’t always agree on who’s in charge, Tuck School of Business’ Ron Adner says. Adner argues that “innovation ecosystems” need to include partners who agree on a common goal and value proposition — and common leaders. Adner talks to MIT Sloan Management Review about how to prevent leadership problems from stalling innovation.
Ben Smith: Trump’s partnership with Breitbart’s Steve Bannon shows the blurring lines between journalism and media activism (BuzzFeed)
Donald Trump’s campaign and Breitbart News are effectively merging, Ben Smith writes, now that Trump has hired Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon to serve as CEO of his campaign. That makes sense, Smith says, because Trump’s campaign has “always been, to a degree greater even than the usual model campaign, almost entirely a media product,” but merging political power with media power is a potentially powerful force that could even be the legacy of Trump’s campaign. “An owned-and-operated media has been a politician’s dream since the internet made it technically possible … Every American politician has this fantasy. And it can work as long as it works — when you’re popular, riding high, in control of your own narrative,” Smith writes.
What’s missing from investigative journalism right now: Time and funding (Mother Jones)
“Stories that truly reveal something about the way power works” can’t happen in our current framework, Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery write. Investigative journalism requires time for reporting — and time costs money. To that end, Mother Jones is calling for its readers to make a tax-deductible, recurring gift to supplement foundation funding, which Bauerlein and Jeffery say comes with limits in terms of time and scope. Bauerlein and Jeffery argue that “monthly contributions represent our best shot — and, we believe, your best shot — at ensuring a stable foundation for the watchdog reporting our democracy desperately needs.”
The post Need to Know: Aug. 18, 2016 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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