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Monday, June 29, 2020
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Newsonomics: The New York Times is opting out of Apple NewsA giant potential audience isn’t good enough on its own anymore: “It’s time to re-examine all of our relationships with the big platforms.” By Ken Doctor. |
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In COVID-19 coverage, female experts are missing“By having these very loud, usually male, voices in the media touting expertise when they don't have it, that risks undermining the public trust in science itself.” By Teresa Carr. |
What We’re Reading
Politico / Emily Nonko
Inside San Quentin’s breakthrough prison newsroom →
“Narratives are hugely important to how the public and leaders understand people caught up in the justice system..But with internet connections prohibited inside prison, as well as a lack of resources to produce media for outside audiences, incarcerated people have been largely excluded from having a hand in telling their own stories. But that has begun changing, in part because of innovative programs at some prisons.”
The Washington Post / Editorial Board
Trump and Biden both want to repeal CDA 230. They’re both wrong. →
“The Justice Department markets this idea as all about transparency. Yet the administration's recent order…makes it look more like a cudgel to wave at companies that moderate too vigorously for the government's taste.”
The New York Times / John Herrman
TikTok is shaping politics. But how? →
“There's relatively little crosscutting political talk (i.e. across partisan lines, with politically heterogeneous others). And when it does happen, it's not very productive. It's still a very polarized discussion of us vs. them.”
Nieman Reports / Michael J. Abramowitz
Changes at VOA threaten the free press — at home and abroad →
“USAGM services operating in less free environments may be stripped of their ability to report critically about political leaders who are favored by President Trump, such as Russian president Vladimir Putin. This would be a terrible blow, coming just as RFE/RL's Russian service gains influence and audience share.”
The Guardian / Daniel Hurst
Australian regional media to gain funding after “catastrophic” ad revenue fall →
“It is understood that among 128 applicants for funding under the government's Public Interest News Gathering (Ping) program, 107 were assessed to be eligible.”
BuzzFeed News / Mark Schoofs
BuzzFeed News apologizes for at least 11 articles with plagiarized or misattributed passages →
The senior reporter, Ryan Broderick, was reportedly fired.
The Guardian / Jim Waterson
Times Radio, News Corp’s audio competitor to the BBC, has launched with a Boris Johnson interview →
“The new station, which is heavily staffed by former BBC presenters and producers, is being run without adverts as a promotion for the Times's digital subscriptions, in the knowledge it will make a hefty loss for the first few years. There are signs the government is supportive of the challenge to the BBC's dominance of speech radio. Johnson granted the station his first live broadcast interview in months.”
The Wall Street Journal / Ben Mullin
Cable news networks are teaming up on convention coverage to reduce COVID-19 exposure →
“Our focus is covering the story. It doesn't mean we have to be in the middle of the story, if it's going to put our people in danger.”
The Daily Beast / Will Sommer
The feds’ case against Jack Abramoff says writers for The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, The American Spectator, and Investor's Business Daily took bribes to write puff pieces →
“The complaint notes that the author of the [Daily Caller] article, along with another writer at another publication, never ‘disclosed that they had been paid to tout AML BitCoin.'”
CNN / Brian Fung
The hard truth about the Facebook ad boycott: Nothing matters but Zuckerberg →
“The highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2 billion in Facebook advertising last year, according to Pathmatics data, or about 6% of the platform’s ad revenue…Much of the rest of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from small and medium-sized businesses, ad executives say. It would likely take tens of thousands of them, acting over a significant period of time, to put a big dent in Facebook’s bottom line.”
The New York Times / Ben Smith
Marty Baron made The Washington Post great again. Now, the news is changing. →
“The Post has published some of the best reporting in the 20th century American newspaper tradition that's ever been done…Mr. Baron's fearless focus on White House coverage and investigations has put it at the center of the American media's response to President Trump…But it's also a top-down institution whose constrained view of what journalism is today has frustrated some of the industry's creative young stars.”