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8/3/15
National Defense Authorization Act: Eaglen on ‘Defense News with Vago Muradian’
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Discussing 2016 presidential candidates: Goldberg on Fox News’ ‘Special Report’
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Pay for Success doesn’t mean Wall Street is recruiting in pre-K
Last week, the National Journal (NJ) published an article on “social-impact financing”—often referred to as pay for success or social impact bonds—entitled: “Is Wall Street Starting to Recruit in Pre-K?” Most of the article’s focus is on describing this innovative new approach to public financing that uses private dollars from investment banks and other sources to scale promising social programs. (For more information on the approach, see my recent blog here.) But the title of the piece reflects a counterproductive misunderstanding on the role of investment banks—or any funder—in social programs.
“Is Goldman Sachs leading an effort to start recruiting future analysts and stockbrokers in preschool?” the article asks, referring to a recent pay-for-success initiative in which Goldman Sachs invested $4.6 million to help scale up a great pre-K program in Utah. The answer to that question is a resounding “no.” Think of it this way: If the federal government funds preschool does that mean they’re trying to recruit future bureaucrats? If wealthy private citizens fund preschool, does that mean they’re trying to recruit future rich people?
The effort Goldman Sachs is leading is not to recruit future stockbrokers in preschool. The effort they’re leading is to make preschool work well enough that solid results for children have staying power down the line. If—and only if—the Goldman-funded preschool shows clear results in children’s elementary school achievement the government will pay the bank back their original investment plus “success payments” based on the results achieved.
So Goldman wants to ensure the preschool gets strong results because making money (not recruiting stockbrokers) is the business they’re actually in. That works out well for children because Goldman’s investment affords them access to a good program that improves their lives. It works out for well for school districts because they avoid paying for expensive remedial services that would have been necessary if the Goldman-funded preschool hadn’t given kids a strong start in the first place. And finally, it works out well for taxpayers because they only pay Goldman Sachs back if the preschool is truly successful in helping kids.
The NJ piece also raises an important larger issue: the conflation between the source of dollars, on the one hand, and how they’re used, on the other. There are always risks of perverse incentives associated with sources of funding for social programs, whether the government or Wall Street or “private dollars.” People may worry more about one particular source than another. But the source of money isn’t the crucial issue. What matters is what it’s used for and how. We should focus less on where dollars are coming from and more on the goals for their use, if they’re being spent wisely to achieve those goals, and if what they’re paying for gets results.
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NYT Now only had 20,000 paying subscribers at $8/month, short of its goal of 200,000 subscribers
You might have heard: New York Times’ NYT Now app was recently made free, trading paid subscriptions for brand sponsorships (TechCrunch)
But did you know: Before going free in May, New York Times’ slimmed-down NYT Now app only had 20,000 subscribers paying $8/month for the app, far short of the paper’s goal of 200,000 subscribers. The app is designed to appeal to younger readers with curated, shorter stories and a lower price point. Lukas I. Alpert says NYT’s decision to make NYT Now free signals a change in its digital strategy as it courts younger readers with free content rather than trying to turn them into subscribers right away.
The post NYT Now only had 20,000 paying subscribers at $8/month, short of its goal of 200,000 subscribers appeared first on American Press Institute.
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How 5 news organizations are approaching podcasts
Podcasts are undeniably popular right now, and many news organizations are exploring what kinds of storytelling work in podcast form. At Quartz, host of Actuality podcast Tim Fernholz says they try to make the podcast “a deeper dive into a topic than people might normally get,” which means the podcast is “more than just reporters talking” and requires getting interviews with people involved with the story.
The post How 5 news organizations are approaching podcasts appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Following the launch of its Arabic edition, Huffington Post promises to protect its contributors
Huffington Post’s new Arabic language edition called HuffPost Arabi will cover a particularly dangerous area for journalists, but Arianna Huffington says the organization will protect its contributors to the Arabic edition. Huffington Post will provide legal support and coverage on the Huffington Post for any contributors who are persecuted due to opinions published on the site. Huffington says: “One of the reasons why we are going to be based in London and Istanbul is to make it clear avoiding any kind of censorship and control is absolutely key to our coverage.”
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Yahoo is buying social shopping site Polyvore, which could help link ads to sales
Yahoo has agreed to acquire Polyvore, a social shopping site similar to Pinterest that allows users to post fashion items, create and share outfits, and buy items online from partner retailers. Tim Peterson says the acquisition will help Yahoo sell ads as they can be linked to specific products and provide data on people’s shopping habits, which Google and Facebook are experimenting with through e-commerce as well. Yahoo Style and Yahoo Beauty both feature many products that can be bought online, and Polyvore could be integrated into that coverage as well.
The post Yahoo is buying social shopping site Polyvore, which could help link ads to sales appeared first on American Press Institute.
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The real issue in the ad blocker debate is that users are being exploited
Users feel cheated by advertising, Jean-Louis Gassée writes, as advertisers collect data, track users and interfere with the reading experience. Gassée says users are “being exploited — and it’s not even done nicely,” which is causing a lack of trust that publishers can’t afford. Gassée says: “Publishers who rise to condemn new (and still unproven) ad-blocking features on iOS and OS X ought to ask themselves one question: Who needs whom the most?”
The post The real issue in the ad blocker debate is that users are being exploited appeared first on American Press Institute.
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News app users are the most loyal, according to a new mobile ad report
While most smartphone users in the U.S. start their day with a social media app and end it with an entertainment app, a new report from Opera Mediaworks says apps classified as “News & Information” are the category to which users are most loyal. The report says: “This category had the most consistent first and last app of the day usage across the entire month. It also had the smallest relative change in its audience size between morning and evening.”
The post News app users are the most loyal, according to a new mobile ad report appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Need to Know: Aug. 3, 2015
Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: New York Times’ NYT Now app was recently made free, trading paid subscriptions for brand sponsorships (TechCrunch)
But did you know: NYT Now only had 20,000 paying subscribers at $8/month, short of its goal of 200,000 subscribers (Wall Street Journal)
Before going free in May, New York Times’ slimmed-down NYT Now app only had 20,000 subscribers paying $8/month for the app, far short of the paper’s goal of 200,000 subscribers. The app is designed to appeal to younger readers with curated, shorter stories and a lower price point. Lukas I. Alpert says NYT’s decision to make NYT Now free signals a change in its digital strategy as it courts younger readers with free content rather than trying to turn them into subscribers right away.
+ Noted: American Journalism Review will cease publication, and its archives will remain available online (Poynter); Rolling Stone appoints Men’s Journal editor Jason Fine as managing editor, succeeding Will Dana who is leaving the magazine following controversy around its campus rape story (New York Times); Salon.com recognizes its editorial staffers’ request to form a union, ending a monthlong standoff between writers and managers (International Business Times); LinkedIn is looking to build a syndicated content network with content people are publishing for free on the social network (Re/code); New York Times built a tool that suggests article tags in real time (Nieman Lab)
How 5 news organizations are approaching podcasts (Journalism.co.uk)
Podcasts are undeniably popular right now, and many news organizations are exploring what kinds of storytelling work in podcast form. At Quartz, host of Actuality podcast Tim Fernholz says they try to make the podcast “a deeper dive into a topic than people might normally get,” which means the podcast is “more than just reporters talking” and requires getting interviews with people involved with the story.
Following the launch of its Arabic edition, Huffington Post promises to protect its contributors (International Journalists’ Network)
Huffington Post’s new Arabic language edition called HuffPost Arabi will cover a particularly dangerous area for journalists, but Arianna Huffington says the organization will protect its contributors to the Arabic edition. Huffington Post will provide legal support and coverage on the Huffington Post for any contributors who are persecuted due to opinions published on the site. Huffington says: “One of the reasons why we are going to be based in London and Istanbul is to make it clear avoiding any kind of censorship and control is absolutely key to our coverage.”
Yahoo is buying social shopping site Polyvore, which could help link ads to sales (Advertising Age)
Yahoo has agreed to acquire Polyvore, a social shopping site similar to Pinterest that allows users to post fashion items, create and share outfits, and buy items online from partner retailers. Tim Peterson says the acquisition will help Yahoo sell ads as they can be linked to specific products and provide data on people’s shopping habits, which Google and Facebook are experimenting with through e-commerce as well. Yahoo Style and Yahoo Beauty both feature many products that can be bought online, and Polyvore could be integrated into that coverage as well.
The real issue in the ad blocker debate is that users are being exploited (Monday Note)
Users feel cheated by advertising, Jean-Louis Gassée writes, as advertisers collect data, track users and interfere with the reading experience. Gassée says users are “being exploited — and it’s not even done nicely,” which is causing a lack of trust that publishers can’t afford. Gassée says: “Publishers who rise to condemn new (and still unproven) ad-blocking features on iOS and OS X ought to ask themselves one question: Who needs whom the most?”
News app users are the most loyal, according to a new mobile ad report (Nieman Lab)
While most smartphone users in the U.S. start their day with a social media app and end it with an entertainment app, a new report from Opera Mediaworks says apps classified as “News & Information” are the category to which users are most loyal. The report says: “This category had the most consistent first and last app of the day usage across the entire month. It also had the smallest relative change in its audience size between morning and evening.”
+ A Q&A with The Marshall Project’s Bill Keller on the future of traditional news organizations: “Places like Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice — they are placing their bets on whether they can cover anything and make it interesting. A lot of that they cover by aggregating old media and they are going to run out of old media eventually if newspapers keep dying off. Then you wonder, who are they going to aggregate?” (WWD)
The post Need to Know: Aug. 3, 2015 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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