Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Print makes a comeback, but not in the way you think

“We’ll see more community zines being produced as an effective way to make news more accessible, amplify diverse voices, and help us collaborate with communities to make news — together.” By Amara Aguilar.

In 2022, it’s all about community

“The silver lining of Covid-19: Everyone’s a change agent now, whether they like it or not.” By S. Mitra Kalita.

The press will either save American democracy…or doom it

“Democracy is bigger than Democrats and Republicans, and it’s incumbent upon journalists to defend it with all they have. I don’t believe they’re up to the task, but I’d love to be proven wrong.” By Parker Molloy.

Manipulated media will fool you — yes, you

“We need to prepare for a new normal, where scrutinizing online images and videos is as natural as being fascinated by them.” By Ståle Grut.

The end of the Silicon Valley insider–critic

“We have a generation of ‘veteran tech critics’ with ties to the industry they comment on.” By Joanne McNeil.

Better paywalls won’t save us from what’s coming

“Users will spend more time with devices without screens. They will get information directly from AI assistants that can summarize information without sending the user to a news website.” By Sam Guzik.

A prayer for a humbler media

“It’s time to acknowledge that the enduring belief of American media’s exceptionalism is toxic, and if it continues, it will take down democracy with it.” By j. Siguru Wahutu.

Journalists embrace management opportunities — and train for them

“Journalists must recognize that we don’t have superpowers and we need to be trained in the art of delegating.” By Cristina Tardáguila.

Accessibility becomes more than an afterthought

“Better late than never — but wouldn’t it be nice if it didn’t take a global catastrophe for newsrooms to consider the needs of people outside their most profitable markets?” By Joe Amditis.

This is the year we all become climate reporters

“Like the high tides invading Miami Beach, the climate change story is leaking into the newsroom.” By Andrew Freedman.

Aid to publishers will be politicized

“Populist alt-right and activist left-wing publications will use the tax credit as a cudgel to hammer reporters and editors for being in the pocket of the Biden administration.” By David Skok.

It’s not about ‘dominating the industry’ — it’s about cooperation

“As the audience for on-demand content surges, and as technologies and new markets better enable its production, we have a radical opportunity to democratize media.” By Kerri Hoffman.
What We’re Reading
Washington Post / Rick Noack and Sarah Dadouch
France detains suspect in murder of Jamal Khashoggi at Paris airport →
“France detained on Tuesday a Saudi man that French officials said is accused of playing a role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was dismembered and killed in Istanbul three years ago, a French police source said.”
Twitter / Alex Rainert
The New York Times releases its Audio app to a group of testers [thread] →
Among the audio-listening times that the NYT sees as “up for grabs”: Gym time, the time at the end of the commute, and chores.
The Verge / Russell Brandom
Jessica Rosenworcel will be the first female chair in FCC history →
“‘It’s the honor of my lifetime to lead the @FCC and serve as the first permanent female Chair,’ said Rosenworcel in a tweet after the vote. ‘There’s work to do to make sure modern communications reach everyone, everywhere. Now let’s get to it.'”
The New York Times / Elizabeth Harris
Millions of followers? For book sales, “it’s unreliable” →
“We learned some hard lessons along the way, which is that a tweet or a post is not necessarily going to sell any books, if it’s not the right person with the right book and the right followers at the right time.”
International Press Institute / Sasha Schroeder and Jacqui Park
How Scrolla is reimagining South African journalism →
“About 40 percent of Scrolla’s readers are between the ages of 25 to 35, and their target audience is people with ‘relatively few resources and who don’t have fancy phones.'”
Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin and Joe Flint
CNN president Jeff Zucker protected Chris Cuomo. Then came a U-turn. →
“New information surfaced — including detailed records from the New York attorney general’s office, a report from the law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore and an unrelated allegation of sexual misconduct — that sealed Chris Cuomo’s fate.”
Bloomberg / Madeleine Lim
Haze Fan, a member of Bloomberg’s Beijing bureau, has been detained for a full year →
“Fan was last seen on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, being escorted from her apartment building by plainclothes security officials. Chinese officials said at the time that Fan was detained by the Beijing National Security Bureau on suspicion of national security law violations.”
New Statesman / James Ball
What the hell is going on with the Daily Mail group? →
Mail Online “is not going to change or decline overnight, because it’s a well-oiled machine. But it’s tough at the top, and tougher to stay at the top — especially with a power vacuum and no obvious sense of direction.”
New Lines Magazine / Asser Khattab
Why Asser Khattab stopped writing about Syria →
“I realized I had fallen into a trap: My background and experiences in Syria, my network of contacts on all sides and my ability to speak and write in more than one language made me a highly desired addition to bureaus of news organizations covering Syria, but only in a supplementary capacity to others. At the same time, being Syrian did not encourage editors to promote me to a Syria correspondent role, perhaps thinking that I would be too biased for it.”
Washington Post / Paul Farhi
Meet the reporter who always seems to get a copy of the hottest tell-all Trump book first →
“The 43-year-old British-born journalist has also gotten the jump on Trump books written by journalists, sometimes beating their own employers to reporting the juiciest bits.”
the Guardian / Dan Milmo
Rohingya Muslims are suing Facebook for £150 billion over the Myanmar genocide →
A class action complaint lodged with the northern district court in San Francisco says Facebook was “willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration in a small country in southeast Asia.”