Punches have been thrown in the first U.S. newspaper strike in two decades
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Monday, March 13, 2023
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Punches have been thrown in the first U.S. newspaper strike in two decadesNo matter who you see as at fault, it’s evidence of the bad blood keeping this labor action going for 150 days. By Joshua Benton. |
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How Bellingcat gets 15,000 people on Discord to talk about investigative journalism“I picture a Discord server like a room full of chairs and people sitting and talking to each other, while posting on Twitter is like putting up a banner at a corner of a street.” By Francesco Zaffarano. |
What We’re Reading
The Cut / Irin Carmon
Seventeen women in TV news talk about Barbara Walters’ legacy →
“‘From the beginning, and every decade thereafter, we were following her,’ said Jane Pauley, the 72-year-old host of CBS Sunday Morning, who succeeded Walters on the Today show. ‘No one ever caught up. She had contenders, but she never really surrendered the title of the No. 1 among us.'”
i / Jane Merrick and James Gray
After an employee rebellion, the BBC will allow Gary Lineker to return and tweet with “no restrictions” →
“In a statement designed to bring the dispute to an end, BBC director general Tim Davie apologised to viewers over the fiasco, which led to Saturday's flagship highlights programme being broadcast without presenters or commentary and several other football programmes taken off air. But there was no direct apology to Lineker personally.”
Wired / Chris Stokel-Walker
Twitter’s $42,000-per-month API prices out nearly everyone →
“The company is now offering three levels of Enterprise Packages to its developer platform…The cheapest, Small Package, gives access to 50 million tweets for $42,000 a month. Higher tiers give researchers or businesses access to larger volumes of tweets — 100 million and 200 million tweets respectively — and cost $125,000 and $210,000 a month.”
The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
The Messenger, a media startup, aims to build a (big) newsroom fast →
“Financed with $50 million in investor money, the site will start with at least 175 journalists stationed in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, executives say. But in a year, Mr. Finkelstein said, he plans to have around 550 journalists, about as many as The Los Angeles Times.”
The Globe and Mail / Marie Woolf
Meta will end Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram if Bill C-18 becomes law →
“The company made the decision this week amid concerns that it is not clear what the financial burden imposed by the legislation, known as Bill C-18, will be. The bill would make Google and Meta compensate news organizations for posting or linking to their work.”
CBC / Darren Major
Canadian MPs denounce Google for blocking news sites →
“Last month, Google said it was temporarily limiting access to news content for less than four percent of its Canadian users as it assessed possible responses to the bill. It said the tests would run for five weeks. CBC confirmed Friday that the blocking would end next week.”
The Information / Abram Brown
The news business is in crisis — but not at The New York Times Co. →
“The Times newsroom has long been prone to internal strife, and during the Donald Trump years, the old guard and younger journalists often battled over how to cover the president and other cultural watersheds like Black Lives Matter. Those reporter-on-reporter clashes seem to have dissipated somewhat recently, with the newsroom instead directing its ire more toward management.”
The Wall Street Journal / Jessica Toonkel, Alexander Saeedy, and Lauren Thomas
Group Black submits a bid of about $400 million for Vice Media →
“The situation presents an inflection point for Fortress Investment Group, one of Vice's lead investors, which is overseeing the sales process and will need to decide whether to support the sale or help restructure the company and hope to sell it later, said some of the people familiar with the situation.”
The New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters
Rupert Murdoch: “I'm a journalist at heart. I like to be involved in these things.” →
“Those who have worked for Mr. Murdoch describe his approach in conveying his wishes as something of a light touch. He doesn't dictate demands so much as suggest and imply through his observations. And the executives who tend to survive the longest understand what he is asking for.”
The Verge / Janko Roettgers
The future of TV is up in the air →
“Broadcasters are betting that antennas and modern DVRs will help them stay relevant. But a stalled transition to ATSC 3.0 and massive growth of linear streaming services could throw a wrench into those plans.”
Moneycontrol / Deepsekhar Choudhury and Vikas Sn
Meta is planning a Twitter competitor, codenamed P92, that will be interoperable with Mastodon →
“The app will be Instagram-branded and will allow users to register/login to the app through their Instagram credentials, they said. Moneycontrol has seen a copy of an internal product brief that elaborates on the functioning and various product features of the app.”
The Washington Post / Adela Suliman
An English soccer hero’s tweet on asylum kicks up a huge culture war and a BBC staff rebellion →
“It began when the British government this week proposed to send almost all asylum seekers arriving on small boats via the English Channel back to their home country or to a ‘safe third country,’ like Rwanda…Among the critics was the former England soccer captain turned star television pundit Gary Lineker, who hosts ‘Match of the Day’ — which describes itself as ‘the world's most famous football show’ and is watched by millions.”
The Guardian / Vanessa Thorpe
The Gary Lineker row threatens to topple the BBC’s chairman and director general →
“In a sign that the government feared being seen as the reason for Lineker's suspension, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, described him as ‘a great footballer and a talented presenter.’ He said he hoped ‘that the current situation between Gary Lineker and the BBC can be resolved in a timely manner, but it is rightly a matter for them, not the government.'”
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Online abuse makes a fifth of women journalists consider leaving the industry →
“Almost half said they promoted their work less online to minimize the risk of online harm, and almost a fifth (18%) said the threats had made them consider leaving the media industry altogether.”
Therebooting / Brian Morrissey
R.I.P. Recode, one of the last survivors of the tech blog era →
“[Kara] Swisher and [Walt] Mossberg were early examples of restive star talent, quarreling with News Corp over the spoils of the All Things D franchise and splitting off in 2013, taking most of the staff with them, to start Recode in 2015. Dow Jones bargained it could continue the All Things D brand without the star talent and found otherwise.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Matt Gaetz calls for a Congress investigation into…Newsguard? →
“Last year Newsguard revised Fox News' score down from a narrow overall pass to a narrow fail, prompting the cable news channel to blast the fact-checker as ‘a for-profit organization operating under the guise of an objective public service.'”
The Verge / Jess Weatherbed
Vinyl overtakes CD sales for the first time since 1987 →
(But don’t hold your breath for newsprint.)
The New York Times / Jeremy W. Peters
Fox’s P.R. woes may not directly translate to legal ones →
“Some of the unflattering private messages among the network's hosts and executives may never become evidence when Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case against Fox News goes to trial.”
The New York Times / Julie Lasky
Plans are afoot to revive Apartment Life, a 1970s source for Tom Selleck-like mustaches →
“Ms. Dameron is working to bring back the old Apartment Life, in its original guise, as a special-interest publication. She sees its cluttered, lively ethos as an antidote to the chilly perfectionism of Instagram and finds relevance in its message to young people today.”
The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
At least three Black-owned companies are interested in buying BET →
“Tyler Perry, the actor and director who created the popular ‘Madea’ franchise, has expressed interest in a bid, as has Byron Allen, who owns the Weather Channel…Group Black, a media company in Miami run by Black executives, has expressed interest in a bid with CVC Capital Partners, a private-equity firm based in Luxembourg with more than $100 billion under management.”
The Guardian / Ed Pilkington
“Lachlan’s in the mire”: Fox News case spells trouble for Murdoch heir →
“According to Dominion, [Lachlan] Murdoch admitted that he suggested which guests should appear on Fox shows, the content of those programs, and even specific questions to ask interviewees. He went so far as to criticize individual chyrons at the bottom of the screen, complaining that they were ‘anti-Trump.'”
Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
Journalists: ChatGPT is coming for your jobs (but not in the way you might think) →
“The lack of transparency from ChatGPT about how it finds answers does not just threaten traffic for publishers (by removing the need to click on links in order to answer search questions), it also raises huge questions about how misinformation and deep fakes can be spotted in future.”
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