With the return of Continental and the emergence of the all-new 2018 Navigator as the defacto Lincoln flagship, it doesn't take a cryptographer to read the writing on the wall: Lincoln is re-embracing proper model names. During the 2018 Lincoln Navigator first drive press launch, Lincoln group vice president (and now also Ford's chief marketing officer) Kumar Galhotra confirmed that the switch to Continental from what had been the MKS in Lincoln's lineup has indeed been a positive one as increa
But did you know: Silicon Valley’s problem with Russian involvement in the election is connected to the rise of native advertising in journalism, Emily Bell argues (Guardian)
“In getting to grips with this problem, politicians and the media are realizing that the way we think and talk about different types of messages has been well and truly broken. Social media has made a practice — and a fortune — out of erasing traditional boundaries between different types of material,” Emily Bell writes. “Where once we had propaganda, press releases, journalism and advertising, we now have ‘content.’ Where once we had direct marketing, display advertising and promotions, now we have ‘monetization.’ … The inability to know what an ad is when you see one is more convenient for media companies than they would like to admit. The dwindling display advertising model propping up many publishers is giving way to a model of ‘native advertising.’ … Most publishers would reject the idea that their partnerships with companies and advertisers were part of the same problem as the democratic threat from overseas authoritarians. But the tools and techniques of political messaging and manipulation are exactly the same as those used by commercial publishers to create new types of advertising revenue.”
Here’s why publishers are giving micropayments another look in the attempt to expand reader revenue (Digiday)
As a whole, micropayments haven’t delivered on the promise to save the news industry — but publishers are giving them another look as they try to expand their revenue coming directly from readers. Max Willens explains, “Micropayments are a middle ground for someone who reads enough content to hit the paywall but isn’t necessarily a candidate for a subscription.” Some ways publishers are adopting the micropayment model is allowing readers to build up a tab ($5.80 for Germany’s Der Spiegel, for example) before requiring a payment and using micropayments as an addendum to other subscription strategies.
+ A Dutch startup is giving readers the option to pay for content either by paying for it or by answering a set of five questions: “We wanted to solve the problem of how people, especially young people here in The Netherlands, don’t want to pay for journalism,” explains Annefleur Schipper, founder of The Playwall. “We also know that media companies want to know and collect data about their audience but the way they are doing it now is very secretive and users don’t really know what is being taken away … We are trying to tell people that their information and opinion is really worth something.” (Journalism.co.uk)
A snap election is spurring fact-checking collaborations in Japan (Nieman Lab)
A snap election combined with global fears of fake news is leading to news organizations in Japan collaborating on fact-checking initiatives. “We looked at First Draft News’ guide and realized in Japan, we have very little understanding of where false information originates or how it spreads,” says Kayo Mimizuka, a member of the Japan Center of Education for Journalists. Ahead of the October election, four-month old FactCheck Initiative Japan launched a project to monitor information around the election, such as politicians’ statements and false information that might be circulating. Meanwhile, the Japan Center of Education for Journalists launched its own initiative to debunk misinformation social media during the election, modeled off of similar initiatives around the world, like CrossCheck in France.
A new review site is letting nonprofits anonymously give feedback to foundations (Fast Company)
A new review site is trying to bring the Yelp model to philanthropic funding: GrantAdvisor lets nonprofit organizations anonymously review foundations, turning the table “on the usual relationship between who has the money and who is asking for it.” Ben Paynter writes: “For nonprofits, the benefit is obvious: Finally, a way to give real feedback, and warn others if a funder whose promises look enticing might be more trouble than it’s worth. And for foundations, there’s a real opportunity to realistically gut check their own procedures and to figure out how to improve.”
Nick Denton on what we’re missing without Gawker: The allegations against public figures such as Harvey Weinstein and Terry Richardson are shocking — ‘ unless you read Gawker before it was shut down’ (NickDenton.org)
“The recent torrent of public allegations against celebrities such as Harvey Weinstein, Terry Richardson and James Toback is unprecedented. … The headlines are shocking — unless you read Gawker before it was shut down, in which case this may feel like a throwback,” Nick Denton writes. “Gossip can be gratuitous, without any purpose beyond entertainment. … But those first accounts of sexual harassment — even if anonymous or thinly sourced — give confidence to victims that they are not alone. Gossip, though it draws those motivated by envy and resentment, is also a tool of the powerless. It’s a mechanism for coordination.”
But did you know: Media companies need to address ‘the deep-seated gender inequality’ that’s at the heart of widespread sexual misconduct at companies (Washington Post)
“The appalling behavior that has been in the headlines for weeks isn’t going to stop just because some high-profile men have fallen from grace,” Margaret Sullivan argues, saying that media companies need to address their “deep-seated gender inequality.” That includes having women in leadership ranks: “Having a critical mass of female decision-makers, rather than a token presence, allows ideas to bubble up and voices to be heard in new ways. This is, of course, true for racial diversity, too,” Sullivan writes. “Now, a few powerful men have been shamed or demoted, but the underlying issues of gender inequality and power dynamics live on. In all kinds of insidious ways, women remain underrepresented in media, and their voices remain muted. Until these issues are seriously addressed, nothing will change.”
Stop saying pageviews don’t matter: How to reframe what pageviews tell us and use them in conjunction with engagement metrics (MediaShift)
In newsrooms, pageviews are called “everything from passé to obsolete,” journalism professor Nicole Blanchett Neheli writes. But pageviews are a valuable metric, Neheli says — we just need to reframe how we think about what pageviews are telling us. Neheli explains: “It’s time to reframe the focus to what pageviews do tell us, and then breach the divide on how to use volume metrics in conjunction with engagement metrics to develop proper context and useful audience insight that contribute to quality storytelling, in ways short-staffed newsrooms can manage.”
Going from a metered model to a ‘freemium’ model, Germany’s Die Welt has added nearly 80,000 subscribers (Digiday)
In September 2016, German daily Die Welt made a major change to its subscription model: The news organization moved from a metered model that allowed uses 20 free articles per month to a “freemium” model where 15 percent of its content requires a digital subscription. Its subscription product, WeltPlus, offers its “most exclusive content” for €19.99 ($23.40 USD) a month. Since switching models just over a year ago, Die Welt has added 78,000 subscribers. “We have lots of customers at the top; then we optimize the sales funnel with different offers and checkout payments using what we know from e-commerce,” explains VP of consumer business Dominik Stiefermann on how metrics drive this model. “The best starting point is the premium articles.”
What managers can learn from Larry David: Obsess over social details and matters of etiquette that communicate subtle messages (Quartz at Work)
Achieving diversity and inclusion in the workplace is fostered by “micro-choices, micro-actions, and micro-behaviors” — of which Larry David is a great example, Lila MacLellan writes. On David’s shows, characters obsess over small social cues and details, such as a missed hello, and why those moments happen. “Macro policies and company mission statements about diversity are also essential … but it’s the day-to-day decisions about who gets invited to a meeting, whose opinions are sought out, and what assumptions are made about people — particularly by leaders in an organization — that determine the fate of the mission,” MacLellan explains. “When we don’t bring awareness to these moments, we’re likely to continue repeating the same patterns of behavior, emphasizing, socializing, and promoting the people we know best (people who usually look a lot like ourselves).”
Why journalism needs to address its class problem: If journalism is meant to shine a light, we need to shine a light for everyone (Heather Bryant, Medium)
“Newsrooms are inherently powerful by nature of what we do, no matter our size, and we cannot be ignorant of our privilege,” Heather Bryant argues on why it’s imperative that journalism addresses its class problem. “If we’re going to be faithful to the duty of our profession, when economic inequality is greater than ever and issues of race, gender and politics are at the front of everyone’s mind, we have to do better. … Let’s figure out what we’re missing and what we aren’t, [and] let’s be open with our audiences about it.”
MySpace and GateHouse Media ended up as pawns in an elaborate ad fraud scheme — and neither company knows who’s behind it (BuzzFeed News)
This summer, it briefly looked like MySpace might have been back, Craig Silverman writes: Millions of visitors were coming to its new video page, which could have generated a new wave of revenue for its parent company Time Inc. But an investigation by BuzzFeed News found that both MySpace and GateHouse Media were pawns in an elaborate ad fraud scheme around video views. Here’s how it worked: Before it was shut down last week, the page trendingvideos.myspace.com streamed licensed videos from reputable publishers. Suspicious amounts of traffic were being directed to the page, and the traffic triggered “automatic redirects and page refreshes that generated massive amounts of video ad impressions without any human involvement.” Similar schemes were identified on GateHouse Media’s subdomains, and the company says it’s in the process of shutting those pages down.
With the return of Continental and the emergence of the all-new 2018 Navigator as the defacto Lincoln flagship, it doesn't take a cryptographer to read the writing on the wall: Lincoln is re-embracing proper model names. During the 2018 Lincoln Navigator first drive press launch, Lincoln group vice president (and now also Ford's chief marketing officer) Kumar Galhotra confirmed that the switch to Continental from what had been the MKS in Lincoln's lineup has indeed been a positive one as increa
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