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Friday, November 17, 2017
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Bad news from Mashable, BuzzFeed, and Vice shows times are rough for ad-supported digital mediaThe rapid growth of Google and Facebook continues to take its toll on digital media companies. By Ricardo Bilton. |
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Asking members to support its journalism (no prizes, no swag), The Guardian raises more reader revenue than ad dollarsThe Guardian revamped its ask and its membership offerings — moving from 12,000 members in the beginning of 2016 to 300,000 today. By Christine Schmidt. |
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Beating the 404 death knell: Singapore news startups struggle to cover costs and find their footingPolitical news reporting doesn't seem to be holding up well as a business in the city-state. And it’s even harder when you're seen as “alternative” media. By Sherwin Chua. |
What We’re Reading
Journalism.co.uk / Catalina Albeanu
How the Independent Community News Network supports hyperlocal publishers in the UK →
“The UK representative body for independent and hyperlocal publishers, the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), opened membership sign-ups in July. Since then, it now supports 55 publishers and plans to launch formally with a first general meeting in January 2018.”
First Draft News
Some early findings from First Draft’s French election project, CrossCheck →
“CrossCheck appears to have gained the trust of a large and politically diverse audience. Participating journalists learned to be smarter about when and how to report on falsehoods, and journalists and readers learned valuable skills for assessing information and its sources.”
Fast Company / Harry McCracken
The Washington Post is a software company now →
“The newspaper created a platform to tackle its own challenges. Then, with Amazon-like spirit, it realized there was a business in helping other publishers do the same.”
Talking Points Memo / Josh Marshall
There’s a digital media crash. But no one will say it →
“Investors are realizing that scale cannot replicate the kind of business model lock-in, price premiums and revenue stability people thought it would. Another way of putting that is that the future that VCs and other investors were investing hundreds of millions of dollars in probably doesn't exist. And that means that they're much less likely to invest more money at anything like the valuations these companies have been claiming.”
Business Insider / Maxwell Tani
Vox Media’s editorial employees are seeking to unionize →
The move comes after the unionization efforts of staffers at DNAinfo and Gothamist pushed the companies’ owners to shut them down.
The Daily Beast / Michael Tomasky
At Snopes, a peek down the right-wing rabbit holes →
“Fake news is a perfect marriage of corrupt capitalism (make-a-buck pranksters) and corrupt constitutionalism (people who lie under protection of the First Amendment).”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Digital media struggles to survive technology’s chokehold →
“Weeks after Google and Facebook announced record earnings, some of the biggest players in the digital media industry are still struggling to hit revenue projections, make profit or grow.”
Vox / Sean Illing
China is perfecting a new method for suppressing dissent on the internet →
“This has allowed the Chinese government to manipulate citizens without appearing to do so. It permits just enough criticism to maintain the illusion of dissent and only acts overtly when fears of mass protest or collective action arise.”
Digiday / Max Willens
Facing programmatic ad challenges, ThinkProgress pursues membership revenue →
Some readers are contributing up to $50 a month higher then the price of the most expensive membership tier.
Wall Street Journal / Ben Mullin
Axios raises $20 million to fund newsroom expansion →
“According to a person familiar with Axios's pitch to investors, the company brought in more than $10 million in revenue in its first seven months, mostly through short-form native advertising that appears in between stories.”