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Wednesday, April 22, 2020
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Aligning the user data that websites and apps collect with what consumers expectConsumers are relatively comfortable with their data being collected to offer a safer, more customized experience. But selling that data or reusing it for targeting on other sites? Not so much. By Rande Price. |
What We’re Reading
The Seattle Times / Paul Roberts
The Seattle Times projects April ad revenue will be down 45% from 2019 →
But: “The Seattle Times Co. has received a $9.9 million federal coronavirus-aid loan that will give the newspaper temporary relief in the face of a sharp drop in advertising revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘This is a lifeline for us for the next 60 days.'”
NPR.org / Kelly McBride
NPR’s new public editor reports NPR plans to double the number of investigative reporters in the newsroom by this summer →
“With our government handing out trillions of dollars, health care workers scraping for protective equipment and mixed messages from offices of power, NPR’s probing is well-timed.”
The Daily Beast / Maxwell Tani
Wired staffers plan to unionize as parent company Condé Nast weighs pay cuts and layoffs →
“The union will likely ultimately encompass the editorial staff of nearly 80 people, including writers, researchers, video producers, and other non-managers at the publication—making it one of the larger unions among national magazines.”
WWD / Kathryn Hopkins
Nylon’s print edition, set to be the first print product for BDG, is delayed until 2021 →
Bustle Digital Group, which bought the struggling fashion and music magazine in 2019, intended to publish themed print issues around “flagship cultural moments” such as Coachella. (The website redesign inspired by the magazine’s heyday in the late nineties and early aughts moved ahead.)
The Hollywood Reporter / Rick Porter
The nightly broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC are drawing their biggest audiences in years →
“Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC’s rating surges are small potatoes compared the three network evening newscasts, which averaged almost three times as many viewers — 29.14 million — in the week of April 13. The most watched show in cable news last week, Fox News’ Special Report With Bret Baier (5.77 million daily viewers), fell more than a million people short of the third-place network newscast, the CBS Evening News (6.99 million).”
The Wall Street Journal / Georgia Wells
Snapchat’s revenue soared with users stuck at home →
“The results mark a surprise as many analysts estimate sharp decreases in digital ad spending in the quarter, the first to show the impact of the coronavirus crisis…’Snap seems to have been protected as it relies more on larger advertisers.'”
Protocol / Issie Lapowsky
Inside the Facebook news team’s race to address COVID-19 →
“You’ll never hear me criticize anybody for giving charity. If they’re giving grants to news publishers, god bless. But charity is not what the news business needs. What the news business needs is a sustainable business relationship, in which one of the biggest distributors of their content, Facebook, returns value back to the creators of the content.”
Axios / Jim VandeHei
Axios got a stimulus loan just under $5 million and will avoid layoffs and paycuts →
“We are in the somewhat unique position of being both a media company, which covers government and business, and a job-creating small business with a national presence. So we wanted to be fully transparent about our thinking.”
TechCrunch / Connie Loizos
The Dipp, a subscription-only TV news startup, is springing to life despite the pandemic →
The idea “is to zero in on the ‘niche fandoms that are being created every day…We want to focus on certain franchises that are underserved, then scale’…the secret sauce behind The Dipp will really be data, culled in part from social media, that informs which franchises and characters the outlet zooms into for its readers.”
The Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin and Keach Hagey
An internal Vice Media document lays out a plan for layoffs →
“The planning document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, calls for layoffs of over 300 people in digital operations, including major cuts at both Vice News and Refinery29…The savings from the cuts laid out in the document would be about $40 million, and they could result in a 30% decline in digital traffic as less content is published, the document said.”
Bloomberg / Lucas Shaw
Livestreamed at-home performances are musicians’ attempt to recoup their concert losses →
“From 1999 to 2005, the North American music industry's annual ticket sales doubled, then tripled, and now sit north of $8 billion…Artists who used to tour to promote their album now release an album to promote a tour.”
Folio / Steve Smith
How The Atlantic, National Geographic, and New York magazine carry on their print legacies in digital design →
“If you want to create a premium experience, that is one of the most valuable things you can do—frame things and play with space.”