Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

A paywall? Not NPR’s style. A new pop-up asks for donations anyway

“I find it counterproductive to take a cynical view on tactics that help keep high-quality journalism freely accessible to all Americans.” By Sarah Scire.
What Casey Newton learned in year 3 of running his Substack
What We’re Reading
Poynter / Angela Fu
A reporter made sure a retired police chief’s death didn’t go uncovered. Then social media (and Elon Musk) attacked her. →
“The Las Vegas Review-Journal is facing a harassment campaign stoked by Elon Musk, one year after a reporter was killed for his coverage.”
CNBC / Alex Sherman
After a year of chaos, CNN is betting on new CEO Mark Thompson to focus on long-term viability →
“To keep CNN relevant, Thompson will need to figure out news programming that millennials and younger viewers will watch.”
International News Media Association / Chitranshu Tewari
How Newslaundry built a news app requested and funded by its readers →
“Our listeners, who until then could listen to our podcasts on platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcast, wrote to us about the need for an app that offered a seamless listening experience for paywall podcasts. But rolling out an app at a resource-starved, independent newsroom requires a big budget, so we turned to our readers.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
Benjamin Netanyahu wants to overhaul Israel’s judicial system. Its media, too. →
“If he goes ahead with his proposed overhaul of the media landscape, Netanyahu would prompt both further domestic outrage and international condemnation.”
TechCrunch / Sarah Perez
News aggregator app SmartNews’ latest feature aims to tackle doomscrolling →
“The feature would be a shift in tone for SmartNews, which regularly spits out push notifications with news and entertainment headlines designed to make you launch the app and read, even if they aren’t quite extreme enough to be considered clickbait.”
The Verge / Adi Robertson
Google quietly raised ad prices to boost search revenue →
“…the Department of Justice is focusing on the real moneymaker behind Google Search: ads. It alleges that Google’s dominance lets it raise prices for advertisers with few repercussions — a claim backed up by Google ads executive Jerry Dischler on the stand.”
Reuters / David Shepardson
18 U.S. states are backing Montana’s effort to ban TikTok →
“The state attorneys general led by Virginia and including Georgia, Alaska, Utah, Indiana, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and South Dakota said the suits from TikTok and users should be rejected ‘because TikTok intentionally engages in deceptive business practices which induce individuals to share sensitive personal information that can be easily accessed by the Chinese Communist Party and because TikTok’s platform harms children in Montana.'”
CNN / Marshall Cohen
Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Newsmax over election lies will go to trial in September 2024 →
“The decision by Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis means — barring an out-of-court settlement — Trump’s lies about the 2020 election will be front and center at a four-week trial during the closing weeks of the 2024 election.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Time is doubling down on opinion content →
“The new vertical marries two of Time’s most successful franchises: Time Ideas, its opinion section, and Time100, its popular events and editorial platform.”
Center for Cooperative Media / Joe Amditis
Hundreds of journalists across the country participated in U.S. Democracy Day 2023 →
“Democracy Day is a nationwide, pro-democracy reporting collaborative that involves a tapestry of stories, investigations and deep dives into the core of American democracy and the systems that undergird it, woven together by collaborations between and among local and national newsrooms.”