LION’s Local Journalism Awards show the potential of the next generation of nonprofit news outlets
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Monday, October 31, 2022
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LION’s Local Journalism Awards show the potential of the next generation of nonprofit news outletsThe recent boom of local nonprofit news organizations is proving their model can serve smaller markets, too. By Joshua Benton. |
What We’re Reading
Intelligencer / John Herrman
The streaming era pauses for an ad break →
“Seeing a lot of ads and shelling out for various subscriptions would be the default.”
The Atlantic / Damon Beres and Charlie Warzel
Twitter will only get worse →
“In the social-media era, no entity has managed to balance preserving both free speech and genuine open debate across the internet at scale. And those who have tried and failed or equivocated have often appeared more principled and reasoned than Musk.”
Scroll.in / Scroll staff
Semafor / Ben Smith
Texas Tribune cofounder Evan Smith will spread the local news gospel as a senior advisor to Emerson Collective →
He’s “the model for a new generation of journalists and news executives who are as much at ease working donors as sources, and navigating the legal and political constraints of nonprofit status.”
New York Times / Michael Grynbaum
TV prepares for a chaotic midterm night →
“Seated a few feet from the co-anchors in [CBS]’s Times Square studio, election law experts and correspondents will report on fraud allegations and threats of violence at the polls.”
Washington Post / Paul Farhi
Starbucks can read union’s communications with journalists, federal judge rules →
“In rare cases, courts have ordered news reporters to reveal the source of sensitive stories, especially those involving classified material or national security. But it's unusual for a judge to order a party in a civil case to hand over such a broad record of contacts with journalists.”
The Guardian / Jim Waterson and Matthew Weaver
BBC local radio stations face big cuts to content made for their area →
“Plans under consideration include cutting the number of weekday shows on each BBC local radio station to two, leaving just a breakfast show and a lunchtime program. Output during the afternoons and evenings would consist of shows broadcast on multiple local stations across large swathes of the UK or nationally.” (Here’s the Monday announcement.)
ProPublica / Craig Silverman, Ruth Talbot, Jeff Kao, and Anna Klühspies
How Google’s ad business funds disinformation around the world →
“Google's sprawling automated digital ad operation placed ads from major brands on global websites that spread false claims on such topics as vaccines, Covid-19, climate change, and elections.”
Digiday / Sara Guaglione
News aggregators aren’t growing like they used to, but publishers still see their value →
“The aggregators driving the most traffic are Apple News, which generally accounts for 35-40% of the traffic share, according to Chartbeat, followed by Google News at roughly 12-14% and SmartNews at 2-3.5%. Other aggregators account for less than 1%.”
The New Yorker / Jay Caspian King
The futile race to label Paul Pelosi’s attacker →
“The Internet supplies us with ever more points of ‘data’: political affiliations, unhinged blog posts, references to ‘Q.’ What lingers, at least in the minds of journalists, is a desire to draw a line among all these things and present a theory in concise but deeply hedged prose that both allows us to make suggestions while also deflecting responsibility.”
NPR / David Folkenflik
Right-wing “zombie” papers attack Illinois Democrats ahead of elections →
“There’s a second element to the papers that garners less attention. By contemporary newspaper lights, they are weird.”
Slate / Luke Winkie
Posters aren’t heroes →
“So please, set aside the calls to action; steel yourself from the desire to screenshot a treacly Notes App missive about your decision to post against the grain. You don't need to fight anymore. Honestly, you never did.”
The Verge / Alex Heath
Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification →
“Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark. Employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired.”
Global Investigative Journalism Network / Elena Loginova
Using Telegram chats to reveal life in Bucha under Russian occupation →
“Like people around the world, many Ukrainians use these neighborhood group chats to solve daily problems, give advice, and connect with each other. I gained access to the full log of a chat from 88 people in one building, called Block 17, where the residents seemed to know each other well and were clearly close.”
News Channel 5 Nashville / Chris Davis
Veteran journalists will resurrect the Nashville Banner as a nonprofit digital news site →
“The Nashville Banner served as the city’s afternoon paper for 122 years, until the presses came to a halt abruptly in 1998 … ‘The Nashville Banner will be web-based, but we will be free to everyone. There will not be a special section that is only for subscribers or only for those who donate. We really do believe that the news is free,’ said [Demetria] Kalodimos.”
Platformer / Casey Newton
Would you pay to remain verified on Twitter? →
“The potential of the move to create more avenues for disinformation seems significant. The move also would represent a first for major American social networks, who have always offered verification as a free service. But if Twitter decided to allow all Blue users to obtain verification, it could also expand access to a service that historically has been reserved for an elite few.”
Semafor / Ben Smith
Texas Tribune’s co-founder and outgoing CEO, Evan Smith, will join Emerson Collective →
“Smith, an Austin-based political journalist and impresario, spent the last 13 years turning the Tribune into a model for newer nonprofit newsrooms like Sacramento's CalMatters, Jackson's Mississippi Today, New York's The City, and Las Vegas's Nevada Independent, picking up swaggering statewide political and policy coverage where fading print publications left off. ‘I want every one of the 50 states to have one of these,’ Smith told Semafor on Friday.”
Twitter / Elon Musk
Elon Musk: Twitter will form a content moderation council and no reinstatements (ahem Trump) will happen until the council convenes →
Musk said the council will include “widely diverse viewpoints.”
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