A Puerto Rican journalist is helping crowdfund independent journalism on the island
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Wednesday, February 22, 2023
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A Puerto Rican journalist is helping crowdfund independent journalism on the island9 Millones is a publishing and crowdfunding platform for journalists looking to investigate stories about Puerto Rico. By Hanaa' Tameez. |
What We’re Reading
Toolkits / Jack Marshall
Publishers are grappling with complex subscription renewal laws →
“With subscription products gaining prevalence and legal requirements around them becoming more complex, legal experts say they've seen a notable increase in class action litigation targeting auto-renewal law violations in recent months. Companies selling products on a subscription basis are finding themselves under increased scrutiny, including publishers and media companies.”
NPR / David Folkenflik
NPR says it’s cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops →
NPR will lay off at least 100 people and eliminate most vacant positions. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts.
Vice / Maxwell Strachan
Companies can no longer demand employees refrain from disparaging the company in severance agreements, NLRB rules →
“In recent years, limits on free speech have become an increasingly common aspect of many severance agreements, meant to limit damage and backlash stemming from mass layoffs.”
Indiegraf / Lauren Kaljur
How The Palm Springs Post turned 1,500 subscribers into a sustainable news product →
“[Founder Mark Talkington] credits the success in part to the gap the outlet fills. The local daily paper shrunk to ‘a ghost of its former self,’ as he puts it, while the local TV stations focus primarily on crime. ‘We’re not in a news desert, there’s just a way to do it differently.'”
Buffalo News / Michael Petro
The Buffalo News is closing its production facility and moving printing to Cleveland →
“The planned move comes after a ‘thorough analysis’ of the current operation and with an eye on maintaining the current level of reporters in the newsroom – which even after recent cuts is still the largest in Western New York and anywhere in the state outside New York City and Long Island, said Tom Wiley, publisher of The News.”
Washington Post / Isaac Stanley-Becker
Project Veritas claimed James O’Keefe risked the group’s nonprofit status →
“In a memo sent to employees last week, the board warned, ‘THERE IS NO PROJECT VERITAS WITHOUT THE IRS,’ referring to the Internal Revenue Service, which regulates nonprofits.”
The Verge / Mia Sato
Researchers will get access to TikTok data. But requests have to be approved by the company first. →
“The platform's API will allow academics and researchers to access ‘public, anonymized’ data like user profiles and content like comments, likes, and favorites on videos and search results in order to better understand TikTok trends and user activity.”
Vanity Fair / Charlotte Klein
A group of high-profile New York Times reporters have objected to the Guild defending criticism of the paper’s trans coverage →
"Every day, partisan actors seek to influence, attack, or discredit our work. We accept that," the letter reads. "But what we don't accept is what the Guild appears to be endorsing: A workplace in which any opinion or disagreement about Times coverage can be recast as a matter of 'workplace conditions.”
CNN / Brian Fung
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases this week that could reshape the internet →
“At the heart of the legal battle is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a nearly 30-year-old federal law that courts have repeatedly said provide broad protections to tech platforms but that has since come under scrutiny alongside growing criticism of Big Tech's content moderation decisions.”
Substack / Adam Johnson
What’s considered “activism” at The New York Times? →
“The ‘News Analysis’ vertical is one of the more fourth-wall-breaking concoctions in recent years, whereby Times editors allow their ostensibly straight reporters to veer into outright opinion writing under the guise of ‘analysis.’ It's a funny ideological dance where alleged impartiality is maintained through a strange ‘analysis’ tone, but it's clear the journalist in question is making a political point: in this case, very clearly, opposition to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan—a current of activism consistent with Baker.”
Signal Ohio
Signal Ohio will launch a second, 11-person newsroom in Akron →
Like its counterpart in Cleveland, Signal Akron will be free to access. The new site will cover topics related to government, public safety, economy, health and education, as well as local arts and culture on a daily basis. It will also feature a Documenters program, part of the award-winning Documenters Network by City Bureau, which trains and pays residents to cover public meetings.
Vulture / Emily Gould
What makes this morning show of a mostly-volunteer station in New Jersey work? “Relentless yet uncloying positivity.” →
"What I like to do is drive people almost to the point of madness with repetition. Then they cross over a threshold, and they're like, 'Please, Clay, play the sound of the hyena. I need the hyena.'" The quirky model is working: In WFMU's most recent fundraising drive, "Wake" raised 10% of the $1.5 million generated — more than any other program, according to Freedman.
New Statesman / Illia Ponomarenko
A news startup in Ukraine reflects on history’s plot twist →
“Has there ever been a group of people reckless enough to try to establish a media outlet from scratch, without any starting budget, and during a war? That's us, the Kyiv Independent.”
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