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Tuesday, May 19, 2020
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They’re not “the other,” they’re our readers: How one site is helping its aging audience through the pandemicThe older you are, the more dangerous COVID-19 is. Next Avenue, a news site aimed at “America’s booming older population,” is changing the way it serves its readers — who may have to continue to isolate themselves even if the rest of the U.S. opens up. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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We’ve finally got some hard numbers from Luminary (and they aren’t great)Plus: The private paid podcast tech stack gets more crowded, and podcast listening apps run up against Google’s COVID-19 rules. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
The News Leaders Association is canceling its 2020 conference and scrapping ASNE’s annual newsroom diversity survey →
Michael Days, the chairman of the News Leaders Association, said the conference cancellation decision was made pre-coronavirus. As for the diversity survey, “response rates have been poor in recent years. Part of the strategic review is figuring out a new direction for diversity issues that will match a broader range of community and inclusion issues.”
The Verge / Chaim Gartenberg
Instagram is adding Guides for recommendations, starting with wellness and COVID-19 →
“Some of the first Guides include one from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention called "Mental Health and COVID-19," which collects the group's content into a single, easy-to-find place. Heads Together, a mental health group, has similar Guides that collect Instagram posts reminding viewers to be kind to each other, practice self care, and talk about how they feel.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Gannett is planning a combined ad and news-side extravaganza on “Rebuilding America” →
“The project is being framed as news rather than an advertising supplement. But it at least tiptoes into deploying the network's newsrooms (operating at three-quarter strength because of furloughs) to produce a boatload of stories in support of an ad sales initiative.”
WBEZ Chicago / Natalie Moore
Andi McDaniel is the new CEO of Chicago Public Media →
“While at WAMU, McDaniel led the development of the NPR show 1A, which WBEZ's Jenn White will take over in July. McDaniel expanded the audience at WAMU, which now frequently ranks as the most listened to news station in the D.C. area. Revenue also grew under her leadership from $25 million to $40 million. And she established a new podcast division.”
Hostwriter
Hostwriter’s new tool can help editors find journalists all over the globe →
“Using the COVID-19 Collaboration Wire, editors fill out a simple form requesting journalistic work on a topic from any number of countries. Hostwriter's team will then utilize their global network of over 5,000 members in 154 countries to find journalists ready to work on the topic. Editors will receive the top pitches in their inbox from vetted local journalists who they can then contact directly.”
Fortune / David Meyer
German intelligence can no longer freely spy on the world’s Internet traffic, top court rules →
“The Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, gets to freely sift through all the foreign traffic passing through that exchange junction in search of nuggets that can be shared with overseas partners such as the NSA. But now, that power is in jeopardy, thanks to a Tuesday ruling from Germany's constitutional court.”
Substack / Karen K. Ho
What would David Carr say? →
This just about sums up Ben Smith’s New York Times column on Ronan Farrow: “There are also many other serious issues in the industry that need additional attention.”
Axios / Sara Fischer and Scott Rosenberg
Media job cuts are weighing on the industry’s morale →
“Between the lines: Startups and innovators lured talent and raised money under a “we are inventing the future of media” banner. But now they’re shifting to survival mode and will need to find new ways to bolster morale.”
Digiday / Kayleigh Barber
“We need you to fill the gap”: Publishers are making a hard sell for subscriptions →
Since advertising revenue has dwindled, news outlets from The New York Times to The Daily Beast aren’t being shy anymore about asking readers for money.
The Drum / John McCarthy
Washington Post rethinks revenues in lockdown →
“WP BrandStudio has created two digital platforms featuring news about how businesses are swapping profit for purpose and launching efforts to help … It's a good way to keep a line of contact with those who may spend again once the slowdown continues.”
The Guardian / Amanda Meade
More than 150 Australian newsrooms have shut since January 2019 →
“The crisis is unprecedented and for Australia it's a triple whammy of ongoing long-term affects of digital platforms, the coronavirus effect, which unfortunately may generate some irreversible changes, and the bushfires had some effect.”
Cortico / Max Resnik
A journalist’s guide to using Zoom for community engagement →
“We've found that the chat function is a great place for facilitators to set expectations around the order that participants will be invited to speak. Online spaces lack the social cues we're accustomed to when speaking. One key role for the facilitator is to make sure that everyone who wants to share in the smaller groups has the space to do so.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
The New York Times will phase out all third-party advertising data by 2021 →
“Beginning in July, The Times will begin to offer clients 45 new proprietary first-party audience segments to target ads. Those segments are broken up into 6 categories: age (age ranges, generation), income (HHI, investable assets, etc.), business (level, industry, retirement, etc.), demo (gender, education, marital status, etc.) and interest (fashion, etc.) By the second half of the year, The Times plans to introduce at least 30 more interest segments.”
Tampa Bay Times / Mark Katches
MIT Technology Review / Abby Ohlheiser
Media outlets are talking less about “going viral” during the pandemic →
“Figurative use of ‘viral’ has clearly decreased this year as literal uses of ‘virus’ have gone way up.” Maybe it’s time to retire the usage entirely.
NBC News / Nicole Acevedo
Two Latinas created Rolling Stone’s historic June cover →
“Rolling Stone’s Latin music editor Suzy Exposito became the first Latina to ever write a cover story for the magazine and Gabriela Berlingeri, a jewelry designer and Bad Bunny’s girlfriend, became the first Latina to shoot a cover photo for Rolling Stone.”
The New York Times / Alexandra Alter
Publishers snap up coronavirus books, from case studies to plague poetry →
“Publishing books about an unfolding calamity, when the duration and outcome remain uncertain, carries obvious risks for authors and publishers. With so many unanswered questions about the virus, how it spreads and when a vaccine might arrive, works that are reported and written over the next few months risk being out of date, or dangerously incorrect, by the time they are published. The severity of the economic and political fallout is also still a big unknown.”
Financial Times / Henry Mance
The rise and fall of the office →
“Those with most to mourn might be the young, who have the least space at home and the most to learn in the office.”
CNBC / Megan Graham
To show how easy it is for plagiarized news sites to get ad revenue, this CNBC reporter made her own →
Within days, the reporter was monetizing her site using legitimate advertisers — and news stories stolen from legitimate publishers.
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
After two decades of losses, French left-wing daily Libération pivots (officially) to nonprofit status →
“Libération has a hybrid metered and premium paywall, unlike The Guardian and Montreal-based nonprofit La Presse, which are open access and can viably ask for funding to provide a public service. The future of its paywall, tech stack and back-office support from Altice is still being decided.”