The first newspaper strike of the digital age stretches into a new year
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023
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The first newspaper strike of the digital age stretches into a new yearWhen staff at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette walked off the job 100 days ago, they became the first newspaper to strike in decades. They’ve already been followed by more. By Sarah Scire. |
What We’re Reading
The Verge / Casey Newton
Why the new antitrust case against Google’s ad business is a big deal →
“The government says that the fees on Google's ad exchanges allow it to keep 30 cents out of every dollar spent on them — a significant tax on struggling digital publishers.”
The Washington Post / Gerry Shih, Karishma Mehrotra, and Anant Gupta
Narendra Modi really, really doesn’t want Indians to see that BBC documentary →
“The Indian government over the past week has embarked on an extraordinary campaign to prevent its citizens from viewing a new documentary by the British broadcaster that explores Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged role in a deadly 2002 riot that saw more than 1,000 people — mostly Muslims — killed.”
The New York Times / Lauren Hirsch, Katie Robertson, and Benjamin Mullin
Rupert Murdoch abandons his plan to reunite his media empires →
“The deal, if it had gone through, would have put a collection of news and entertainment assets including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the Fox broadcasting network and TMZ under the same corporate umbrella.”
The New York Times / Joseph Berger
R.I.P. Victor S. Navasky, longtime editor and publisher of The Nation →
“When he was named editor in 1978, Mr. Navasky introduced a droll sensibility that leavened the magazine's sometimes too-earnest prose.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
The AP plans to boost its “direct relationship with readers” and ad revenue with a website redesign →
The AP currently “makes the vast majority of its revenue (82%) from licensing its stories to other newsrooms. Less than 10% today comes from advertising.”
The Daily Beast / Justin Baragona
DirecTV officially dumped the pro-Trump network Newsmax →
“The loss of DirecTV will take a huge chunk out of Newsmax's current cable footprint, which currently sits at roughly 50 million households. (The network claims it is available in an additional 50 million homes via over-the-top and digital platforms.)”
FT / Bryce Elder
“We tried to host a Mastodon server and it was awful” →
“It is therefore with relief and regret that we announce the shutdown of Alphaville.club, this blog's completely unofficial home on the Fediverse.”
The Guardian
Margaret Sullivan will write a new weekly media column for the Guardian U.S. →
Sullivan was a media columnist for the Washington Post from 2016 to 2022. Prior to that, she served as the public editor of the New York Times, and as chief editor of the Buffalo News, her hometown paper. Her first column is here.
Substack / Anne Helen Petersen
Layoff brain →
“I watched entire departments unceremoniously let go because they weren't making enough money, even though the company had openly refused attempts to monetize their content. I saw re-org after re-org, double-downs and retractions, the cutting of essential components of the publishing process (copyediting! design!) down to the barest essentials, and horribly handled nightmares of layoff notifications.”
Digiday / Sara Guaglione
Semafor sells Verizon on sponsoring its text message interview series →
“The series, which has spotlighted a Semafor journalist texting a question to a politician, business executive or otherwise influential person, will turn into a sponsored 10-minute interview franchise over text.”
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