 |
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
 |
Do true crime podcasts perpetuate the myth of an effective criminal justice system?Plus: Axios joins the daily news podcast wars, Slow Burn has a good week, and how do you decide when to stop your pandemic podcast? By Nicholas Quah. |
 |
More Americans are paying for online news — and those who do say they’re unlikely to stopIn the United States, more than a third of those who pay for online news have signed up for two or more subscriptions. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
 |
To keep readers around after COVID, publishers see hope in newsletters and podcastsPublishers will need to step up the personality and stickiness of their digital news products if they are to compete with platforms and aggregators. By Nic Newman. |
What We’re Reading
Vogue / Chloe Schama
How will the stories of COVID-19 victims be told? A new project by The City challenges who gets an obit →
“According to the nonprofit New York news website The City, less than 5% of the approximately 21,000 New York City residents who died as a result of the pandemic have been commemorated in a news outlet. And those who are memorialized tend to skew wealthier and whiter. Placing a death notice is not free. In the New York Times, an online-only notice starts at $79.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
In the U.K., it’s leftwing voters who don’t trust the news, not conservatives →
“Just 15% of left-leaning voters now say they trust most news most of the time, down from 46% as recently as 2015.” On the right, it dropped from 58% to 36% over that span.
The Atlantic / Sheila Coronel
The conviction of Maria Ressa in the Philippines shows how democracy dies →
“This is how democracy dies in the 21st century: in a musty courtroom, with a judge invoking Mandela. There are no power grabs in the dead of night, no tanks rolling down the streets, no uniformed officers taking over TV stations. Just the steady drip, drip, drip of the erosion of democratic norms, the corruption of institutions, and the cowardly compromises of decision makers in courts and congresses.”
HuffPost / Mary Papenfuss
The new boss of the Voice of America might be Sebastian Gorka →
“The installation of a stridently pro-Trump mouthpiece would further shake the leadership ranks of Voice of America, the U.S.-funded international news agency with a record of independent reporting, and inflame fears that the White House aims to mold it into a propaganda empire.”
Twitter / Esmeralda Burmudez
Under pressure from its staff, the L.A. Times released its diversity numbers →
In a city where nearly 50 percent of the population is Latino, Latinos make up about 13% of the Los Angeles Times newsroom.
The New York Times / Rachel Abrams
The Associated Press apologizes for ‘Thought for Today’ from Confederate leader Jefferson Davis →
“An A.P. spokeswoman said that, starting next week, Today in History would no longer include a Thought for Today. She added that the company had deleted the Davis quote from its database. On Friday, a reporter for The Times asked why the quote remained on the A.P. website's version of the June 3 Today in History. Minutes later, it was gone.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
“Churn and burn”: Publishers are prioritizing subscription volume over immediate revenue →
“Aside from the tough ad market and global recession, subscriber acquisition economics are at play. Acquiring new readers costs more than keeping them: High acquisition costs plus high churn rates lead to low customer lifetime value and low revenue, making a solvent and profitable subscription business tough in the best of times.”
The Wall Street Journal / Khadeeja Safdar, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, and Benjamin Mullin
America’s newsrooms face a reckoning on race after protests sparked by George Floyd’s death →
"’Many WSJ journalists, including many who are white, find the way we cover race to be problematic,’ the letter says, according to a person who viewed it. The letter raised concerns that there aren't enough people of color at the Journal, including in the top leadership, and said a lack of diversity is hindering the paper's ability to tell a full range of stories about the country.”
Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio is laying off 28 people →
“Like all our media peers, over the past few months, some of our revenue sources have dramatically and simultaneously declined, particularly from regional and national underwriting, corporate sponsorship, national program distribution, ticketed events, custom travel, financial investments and other earned income. While recent MPR and APM member drives and emergency fundraising efforts have been successful, with gifts from our Board and other donors, the generosity of our valued contributors is unfortunately not enough to offset the rapid loss of revenue we are experiencing.”
NBC News / Olivia Solon
Dozens of Tunisian, Syrian, and Palestinian journalists and activists who use Facebook to document human rights abuses say their accounts have been deactivated →
“Al Khatib believes the account takedowns may be a result of Facebook's increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze content during the COVID-19 lockdown. Since the COVID-19 lockdown, Facebook has sent home many of its contracted content reviewers and relied on automated tools for content moderation decisions.”
Local News Initiative / Mark Jacob
Can local news outlets ride the wave of new COVID-19 subscribers? →
“Our crisis subs, our coronavirus subs, are retaining at a better rate, 5% better than the group that came to us in January. We're holding onto them at a better rate. Most of them came on with a six-month offer. So that will be the telling point.”
Benedict Evans
“Newspaper ad revenue may only have collapsed since 2008, but newspapers have been losing share of ad spend since the 1950s” →
“That's not all they were losing. Absolute circulation rose until 1990, and has been falling since ('gradually, then suddenly'), but circulation per capita has been falling since 1950, in common with most other developed markets.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi and Elahe Izade
Top Voice of America editors resign amid strife with White House, arrival of new Trump-appointed director →
“It wasn't immediately clear why VOA Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara submitted their resignations. In a memo to staff on Monday, they jointly wrote, ‘It is time for us to leave,’ but cited no specific reason other than the arrival of Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who will head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA. Pack is an ally of Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist.”
The Incline / Colin Deppen
Should you cancel the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette? The answer may surprise you. →
“The owners of the Post-Gazette will still be very wealthy regardless of what happens to the paper. But the PG's Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom staff — with buyouts already being offered — has more at stake.”