Reader comments on news sites: We want to hear what your publication does
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Monday, May 23, 2022
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Reader comments on news sites: We want to hear what your publication doesWhat is your news site doing with reader comments these days? By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo
“There has to be a line”: Substack’s founders dive headfirst into the culture wars →
“Its laissez-faire approach to content moderation, which sometimes gives voice to objectionable figures booted from other platforms, has made Substack a lightning rod in the debate over regulating free speech. But even amid bursts of negative media coverage, Substack has maintained a large and loyal user base, and there are no signs of an exodus.”
The New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters
What happened to Lara Logan? →
“From the outside, Ms. Logan's path has been one of the most puzzling in the modern history of television news…CBS News executives envisioned her as a next-generation star in the mold of a Mike Wallace or Dan Rather. But her transformation, into a star of far-right media, is one that former colleagues who worked closely with her said did not completely come out of nowhere.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Rebecca Sun
How the current wave of more inclusive leadership is changing newsrooms →
“‘What 2020 did was forge a new baseline [for diverse staffing],’ says Simone Oliver, who was appointed global editor-in-chief of Refinery29 in September of that year. ‘”Let's give them a seat at the table” had been interpreted as, “Let's hire a Black person as an assistant.” There's been a shift in that expectation where it's now about steering the ship.'”
The New York Times / Mike Isaac
Facebook will give researchers more data on political ad targeting →
“…providing insight into the ways that politicians, campaign operatives, and political strategists buy and use ads…The information includes which interest categories — such as "people who like dogs" or "people who enjoy the outdoors" — were chosen to aim an ad at someone.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
“Posh news for posh people”? →
“Panel moderator Kamal Ahmed, formerly editorial director of the BBC, reworded the question to: ‘Is everything going to be posh news for posh people that can pay for it?’ First to respond was Jon Slade, chief commercial officer at the Financial Times, who said: ‘I think that is actually a feasible outcome — not a desirable one, but it's feasible that you'd be subsidizing one [mass journalism] with the other.'”
The Guardian / Euan O'Byrne Mulligan
Condé Nast has apologized to a Cornish pub for threatening to sue over its name →
“The Star Inn at Vogue was sent a cease-and-desist letter by Vogue's publisher, Condé Nast, which claimed a link between the two businesses was ‘likely to be inferred.’ The pub has stood in Vogue, a Cornish village, for hundreds of years, while the magazine was not founded until 1916.”
Washington Post
The Pentagon congratulated the New York Times for doing its job →
“No misattribution there: That was indeed the Pentagon spokesman lauding the Times for reporting that eviscerated the Defense Department's handling of a central component of its modern arsenal. Nor was Kirby's tribute a political stunt to highlight failures of the previous administration, as the Times series covered mismanagement spanning the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations.”
The Wall Street Journal / Keach Hagey
A bill to break up Google’s ad business has bipartisan support in the Senate →
“The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act would prohibit companies processing more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions annually from participating in more than one part of the digital advertising ecosystem. That would directly impact Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., which is the dominant player at every link in the chain that connects buyers and sellers of online advertising.”
Poynter / Angela Fu
As focus grows on schools, local newsrooms launch education reporting labs →
“‘Everybody recognizes that the systems that we've tried for a long time in schools are not working, and people are thinking about how to reimagine things after the pandemic,’ said AL.com education editor Ruth Serven Smith. ‘This is a great time to be in education and to be trying new things.'”
Variety / Todd Spangler
Streaming services now account for 30% of all TV watching in the U.S. →
“For April, Netflix took the No. 1 spot among streamers with 6.6% share of time spent viewing on TV in April, followed by YouTube (6.1%), Hulu (3.3%), Amazon's Prime Video (2.5%) and Disney+ (1.7%).”
Pew Research Center / Carrie Blazina
About 1 in 10 statehouse reporters are college students →
“In Nebraska, 58% of all reporters covering the state capitol this year — 40 of 69 — are student reporters…Student reporters now also account for around a quarter of all statehouse reporters in Louisiana (11 of 42, or 26%) and Virginia (11 of 44, or 25%).”
Variety / Brian Steinberg
The Weather Channel will now sell its TV channel directly to consumers →
“A live-stream of the outlet will be made available via app for connected TV sets, and subscribers who already get the cable version can get it by providing details of their provider. Others who want to access it can do so for a fee of $2.99 per month. It is the first time the network has offered its own direct-to-consumer subscription.”
The Guardian / Katie Cunningham
“Smooth brain, just vibes”: What is life like for people who refuse the news? →
“I definitely am not immune to what's going on in the world. Obviously through social media I'm aware there's an election coming up and there's a war in Ukraine. I'm not completely oblivious. But as far as particularly around the pandemic and other really terrible stuff that's going on, I just tune out because I think it's better for my mental health.”
The Guardian / John Harris
Rupert Murdoch’s new and Fox News-esque U.K. channel is a flop so far →
“TalkTV is in trouble…its numbers have sometimes been so low that the official broadcasting rating agency has not registered a single viewer. Last Wednesday, Piers Morgan Uncensored, the nightly showcase of debate and un-woke opinions intended to be TalkTV's centrepiece, was said to have attracted 24,000 people, and then lost over half of them, leaving it with an estimated audience of 10,000.”
The New York Times / John Koblin and Tiffany Hsu
This year’s TV upfronts showed how much the business has changed →
“In 2019, advertisers spent as little as 10 percent of their budgets on streaming. This year, that budget is surging closer to 50 percent, several media buyers said in interviews…Viewer habits are changing, interest in fall lineups has vanished, and there was that ever-present existential concern: What have the upfronts become, and are they still worthwhile?”
The Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan
It’s time for local journalists to reckon with the racism we overlooked →
“The Buffalo News — like the region's civic leadership — didn't seem to have the best interests of the Black community as a top priority as decisions were being made about the expressway, the football stadium and the university…This month's sickening tragedy — driven by racism and aided by the results of racism — should be a blaring wake-up call.”
Nytimes
R.I.P. Roger Angell, baseball writer extraordinaire →
He wrote his last New Yorker article 11 days after his 100th birthday.
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
A British member of Parliament has been arrested on a rape charge — but the media can’t say which one →
“The Sun was the first on Tuesday night to break the news that a serving MP had been arrested and bailed on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in a public office. But the arrest came after a string of privacy rulings that have changed how newspapers treat public figures under suspicion of a crime. Previously the precedent was to name suspects after arrest when there was a public interest in doing so.”
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