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Thursday, July 23, 2020
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“The idea is to have more Serials”: The New York Times acquires Serial Productions and partners with This American Life“Our goal is not to change Serial's DNA at all…For the people who love Serial — and there are millions of them — the idea here is to have more Serials." By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Google / Ludovic Blecher
Google has handed out $39.5 million in coronavirus relief to 5,600 publishers across 115 countries →
The Lawton Constitution, in Oklahoma, put their funds toward subsidizing subscriptions and building reader relationships for the future. In South Korea, Jeonnam Ilbo launched a series dedicated to small- and medium-sized local businesses. Narcity Media, a Toronto-based publication for millennials, will use the money to hire at least one new reporter.
The Engaged Journalism Lab / Anita Varma
Beyond the statement: How journalism funders can act in solidarity with marginalized communities →
“Far from trumpeting neutrality or objectivity, journalists who cover marginalized communities tend to describe their work in terms of a moral obligation that compels them to focus on enduring social issues. Industry leaders, on the other hand, display greater hesitation when faced with the prospect of acknowledging journalism's longstanding role of solidarity. Ironically, unlike corporations that may do little to nothing aligned with solidarity and yet are quick to capitalize on the opportunity to issue a statement du jour, some prefer to position journalism's role as reporting on acts of solidarity rather than admitting to enacting it as well.”
BuzzFeed News / Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman
“Hurting people at scale”: Mark Zuckerberg’s employees reckon with the social network they’ve built →
“All of these steps are leading up to a situation where, come November, a portion of Facebook users will not trust the outcome of the election because they have been bombarded with messages on Facebook preparing them to not trust it.”
The Wall Street Journal / Sahil Patel
Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and Gotham Chopra’s sports media venture raises $10 million →
“The funding comes at a time when athletes are getting more involved in content businesses and using a range of platforms to speak directly with fans. Religion of Sports executives said they are expanding their network of athletes and filmmakers to work with on projects, some of which the company will finance by itself.”
CNN / Brian Fung
Twitter confirms it’s considering subscription options as ad revenue drops sharply →
“We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business,” CEO Jack Dorsey said. “We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls … we think is complementary.”
ProPublica / Stephen Engelberg
ProPublica’s editor on their most ambitious data project yet →
“The tools of data journalism have allowed investigative reporting to move from anecdotes and scattered numbers to a level of authority that was unimaginable when I started in journalism. We no longer have to litter our stories with the phrase ‘experts say.’ Now, we can say: ‘data shows.'”
Poynter / Michael Bugeja
Should journalism be added to general education requirements? →
“Journalism education has focused for decades on graduates securing media jobs. As those decrease, along with enrollments, the future of the discipline might depend more on general education. But the case here is about democracy, accountability, transparency and empowerment.”
The Markup / Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin
Google’s ad buying portal equated “Black girls” with adult content →
“Google's Keyword Planner is an important part of the company's online advertising ecosystem. Online marketers regularly use the tool to help decide what keywords to buy ads near in Google search results, as well as other Google online properties.”
Study Hall / Jessica Wakeman
How Choire Sicha is steering the Times’ Style section in a crisis →
“As the editor of Style at this moment in history, Sicha said he is cognizant ‘that every one of us has some varying level of crisis in their life, whether it’s new or old or newly terrible.’ That largely means avoiding pieces that could be regarded as tone deaf or full-on hate-reads. (Under earlier iterations of Style, the infamous April article about honeymooners trapped in the Maldives might have leaned even more into hate-read territory.) ‘We’re being a little bit more respectful than we normally would be because we know that people who are reading the New York Times have families who are sick, or are doing childcare while working, or are dealing with Zoom funerals — which is a terrible, terrible phrase,’ Sicha said. ‘So, I do like pissing people off and we’ve definitely done a little bit in the last couple of months. But it’s just a time to be a little more empathetic to people.'”
Substack/Branded / Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin
Breitbart is still collecting your ad dollars →
Through “dark pooling” of ad IDs, Breitbart can keep making money even if advertisers have stopped buying its inventory.
The Wall Street Journal / Brent Kendall and Patience Haggin
The Justice Department won’t challenge the merger of Outbrain and Taboola →
“The department concluded that the merger wasn't likely to suppress competition, in part because it found that other companies were getting into the sponsored-content game.”
Vice / Bettina Makalintal
Publications grapple with SEO, authenticity, and whitewashing when naming recipes →
“The appeasement of translation can seem like a self-fulfilling prophecy: If people aren’t given the word ‘bibimbap,’ if it’s called a ‘Korean rice bowl’ instead, will the original term ever enter ‘mainstream’ parlance? Food publications have the power to steer the conversation for readers and home cooks; suggesting that a dish’s traditional name is too complicated or unfamiliar to include is a cop-out for platforms that dictate these trends.”