Tuesday, November 21, 2023 |
| In an era where the “easy money” is gone, celebrity sluggers are beyond reach, and commercial outfits are pulling back, public radio orgs can win by leaning into data and ideas that helped them create the art form. By Ben Brock Johnson. |
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| “I don’t want to make ‘positive news.’ At the same time, we have a real responsibility toward our young readers to not completely depress them.” By Priscille Biehlmann. |
What We’re ReadingVoice of America / Associated Press
Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei wants to privatize public media outlets →“In his radio comments, Milei described the public media outlets he wants to make private as amounting to ‘a covert ministry of propaganda.’ He complained during the presidential race that the coverage of his campaign in state-run outlets was highly negative.”The Present Age / Parker Molloy
When it comes to war and speech, who gets to speak and what do we actually hear? →“The common thread here is that people in power and the mainstream press are set on creating caricatures of their critics to avoid addressing any of the difficult questions posed by protesters.”TechCrunch / Sarah Perez
Instagram Threads missed a moment to shine as OpenAI’s drama unfolded on X →“Journalists were breaking news on X…though [Kara] Swisher cross-posted some of her updates to Threads, one of her X scoops saw 5.5 million views and 6,000 likes. On Threads, her biggest posts attracted single-digit thousands in terms of links.”Medium / The NYT Open Team
How The New York Times designed its audio app from the ground up →“All in all, we’ve forged a unique relationship with the newsroom that has continued to shape our work. Our collaboration helped make us feel like one team — editors informing design iterations and the needs of our designs themselves, and designers pitching concepts that ultimately inspire a new editorial approach.”Bloomberg / Robert Burnson
Trump’s Truth Social parent company is suing 20 media outlets for $1.5 billion for incorrectly reporting how much money it lost →“Reuters and some other publications said they had reached the wrong figure by incorrectly counting a $50.5 million profit for 2022 as a loss. TMTG lawyers said that the ‘incredible circumstances’ of all 20 outlets reporting the $73 million figure within hours of each other suggested a coordinated campaign.”The Lenfest Institute for Journalism / Megan Lucero
“A space for imagination”: In conversation with the co-founders of The Lorde Society →“Being a part of the Lorde Society is like being a part of a professional sisterhood,” said Wendi C. Thomas, founder of MLK50 (and a 2016 Nieman Fellow). “We are trailblazers in our own ways, yet there are no professional associations for us. The Lorde Society is becoming that nurturing space.” Platformer / Casey Newton
OpenAI’s alignment problem →“OpenAI’s board got almost everything wrong, but they were right to worry about the terms on which we build the future, and I suspect it will now be a long time before anyone else in this industry attempts anything other than the path of least resistance.”New Lines Magazine / Anthony Milton
How the news disappeared in Canada →“They’re playing a high-stakes game of chicken hoping the government will blink, so they can point to Canada from here on out and say, ‘Here’s what happens when you mess with us.'”The Guardian / Robert Tait
The Israel-Hamas war is the deadliest conflict on record for reporters, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists →“The reporters’ watchdog has recorded the deaths of 48 reporters since Hamas embarked on a murderous killing spree in Israel on 7 October, triggering a concerted Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response.”The Texas Tribune / William Melhado
Texas attorney general announces investigation of Media Matters following Elon Musk’s lawsuit →The media watchdog group’s
report last week prompted companies to pull advertisements from X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would investigate Media Matters — which he referred to as a “radical anti-free speech organization” — under Texas laws protecting consumers from fraud.Bloomberg / Davey Alba, Denise Lu, Leon Yin, and Eric Fan
X’s Community Notes are slow and ineffective in fight against misinfo, according to new Bloomberg analysis →“X is a difficult platform to moderate because its recommendation system is so attuned to breaking news events … The content on X — including viral falsehoods on the platform — ‘accelerates very, very fast.'”The Daily Beast / Lachlan Cartwright
Jezebel set to rise from the dead →“Four potential buyers came out of the woodwork following
the shock news earlier this month that the site was shuttering. And from that pool, two bidders have submitted seven-figure offers to bring the iconic site back to life, according to two people familiar with the matter.”CNN / Oliver Darcy
Peter Kafka leaves Vox to head back to Business Insider →“Back in 2007, Kafka was the first hire at Silicon Alley Insider, which later morphed into BI. Now the prodigal son will return. I’m told Kafka will depart Vox Media, where he has for years served as a senior correspondent, in December. He will then start his new role at BI in early January.
Fans of Kafka’s Recode Media podcast can also rest assured: The pod will continue under the Morning Brew banner.”Media Nation / Dan Kennedy
Could ChatGPT summarize an hour-long panel discussion? Here’s what I learned. →Kennedy thinks it looks “shockingly good.” Some readers
did not agree.The Fix / Sofiia Padalko
How Polish publisher OKO.press earned over half a million euros from readers’ tax donations →“There’s a separate page on the publisher’s website dedicated to 1.5% tax donations. It contains instructions on how to donate and a report of revenues and costs from the last year.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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