Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Evidence suggests Russia has been deliberately targeting journalists in Ukraine — a war crime

“It is essential — for us all — that the protections afforded to journalists under international law are scrupulously upheld, and those responsible for their deaths are caught and face the consequences.” By Kelly Bjorklund and Simon J. Smith.
The Guardian launches Guardian Europe, its fifth digital edition
What We’re Reading
the Guardian / Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope
The media needs to cover the climate crisis as seriously as it covered Covid →
“Nobody in the media debated the need to dedicate resources to helping audiences understand Covid and then playing the story big. Most outlets ran multiple Covid stories every day, which helped even casual news consumers understand that something important was happening. Journalists grounded our coverage in science, but we didn’t silo it on the science desk: we covered Covid as a health story, a politics story, a business, education and lifestyle story. And we talked not only about the problem but also about its solutions (eg, masking, social distancing, vaccinations).”
ABC News / Nathaniel Rakich and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
FiveThirtyEight now redirects to “new home at ABC News” →
“Old links to specific articles will still work, although www.fivethirtyeight.com will redirect to our new home at ABC News.”
Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo
Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff foresees the fall of Fox News →
“It will cease to exist in its present form.” (Fox News has been giving out the following statement: “The fact that this author’s books are spoofed by ‘Saturday Night Live’ is really all we need to know.”)
the Guardian / Jim Waterson
The BBC’s Russell Brand investigation joins a growing list →
“The national broadcaster is still waiting on reports about social media use by stars such as Gary Lineker, an inquiry into the behaviour of its former DJ Tim Westwood, and an investigation into the news presenter Huw Edwards.”
France 24
A French journalist has been arrested for reporting on a spy operation in Egypt →
“On Tuesday, journalist Ariane Lavrilleux’s home was searched and she was arrested for questioning by agents of the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency … [The investigative news outlet Disclose] denounced an ‘unacceptable attack on the secrecy of sources’ – a view quickly backed by the Society of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).”
WSJ
The Wall Street Journal issued a correction for an article published in 1963 →
“An Aug. 29, 1963, article about the civil-rights movement’s March on Washington incorrectly quoted several parts of the speech of John Lewis, who was then the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.” (“It’s never too late to correct the record,” noted New York Times managing editor Marc Lacey.)
CBC / Bobby Hristova
One of Canada’s largest newspapers will no longer have a physical newsroom →
“The Hamilton Spectator is losing its office space as its owner tries to save money…Late last week, [parent company] Nordstar said it is laying off 605 people and is seeking bankruptcy protection for Metroland, the unit that owns 71 community newspapers and six regional daily newspapers.”
The Verge / Jay Peters
Substack’s redesign makes it feel like a more traditional social media app →
“It seems like Substack is moving away from its newsletter roots into a place with more of a focus on its feed, its app, and encouraging people to read posts directly on its platform. You know… like a social network.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
Advance Local plans a new Gulf Coast news site after Times-Picayune sale →
“Some [of the newly listed jobs], like a sports editor/producer role, are meant to support both GulfLive.com and LoneStarLive.com, a site that launched in beta less than a month ago in Texas.”
Axios / Ina Fried
The right newsroom jobs for AI, and the wrong ones →
“Experiment behind closed doors first.”
The New York Times / Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris
Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, and other prominent authors sue OpenAI →
“The complaint…said that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is capable of producing summaries of books that include details not available in reviews or elsewhere online, which suggests the underlying program was fed the books in their entirety.”
CNBC / Lora Kolodny
Elon Musk says Twitter will soon require “a monthly payment for use of the X system” →
“During the livestream, Musk also divulged some new metrics from X, saying it now has 550 million ‘monthly users,’ who generate 100 million to 200 million posts per day.”
Platformer / Casey Newton
How Google taught AI to doubt itself →
“We may have created the first language model that admits it has made a mistake.”
The Verge / Nilay Patel
Exit interview: Matthew Panzarino dishes on lessons learned from 10 years at TechCrunch →
“I think niche media is going to be the thing that survives this next burst of energy. I think people value focused information from obsessives. People that genuinely go to sleep thinking about something, wake up thinking about it, and are willing to put in the effort to be at the point of inflection with their audience constantly.”