Thursday, May 2, 2024 |
| The Pulitzer Center is prioritizing reporters in the Global South, and all the sessions are free. By Andrew Deck. |
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| Recent work from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership offers recommendations. By Sarah Scire. |
What We’re ReadingThe New Yorker / Clare Malone
Is Hunterbrook Media a news outlet or a hedge fund? →“Horwitz was slightly evasive when I asked what Hunterbrook pays its journalists. No one was making less than a hundred thousand dollars as a base salary, he said. ‘The upper limit is potentially incredibly high because it’s based on the performance of an investment fund, which is not an upside opportunity that reporters have had access to.’ Another side market for Hunterbrook employees, he went on, is filing whistle-blower reports with the S.E.C.”Mashable / Chase DiBenedetto
How “blue comments” turned the TikTok algorithm into a protest tool →“The feature has been advertised as an enhancement of the app’s search capabilities and an extension of the company’s efforts to be Gen Z’s go-to search engine.”Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Remember those “hundreds” of journalists Gannett was hiring? Well… →“Authorizations to proceed with other hires stopped. Some candidates who were expecting to start soon have had the offer rescinded. According to internal communications, the ‘pause’ has now been rolled over through the second quarter…[Those who have been hired are] on one-year contracts rather than as full-time employees.”Twitter / Lucia Moses
The Wall Street Journal is moving its focus in Asia from Hong Kong to Singapore →Other outlets, like The New York Times, have shifted to Seoul instead in response to Chinese press restrictions in Hong Kong.Intelligencer / Justin Miller
Can Joanna Coles tame the Daily Beast? → “Her version of news is trend pieces and listicles.”The Guardian / Dan Sabbagh
The fight for full press freedom in Ukraine: “We can write what we want, but bad actors try to intimidate us” →“Today, [the Kyiv Independent has] 11,000 members paying an average of $9 (£7) a month, generating most of the organization’s $1.9m annual revenues, and benefits include access to a chat on a Discord server, the chance to ask the title’s journalists questions about the war, and language lessons in Ukrainian. There are 60 employees, about 40 of whom are journalists, based in an office off one of Kyiv’s most picturesque streets.”Mediaite / Alex Griffing
Ex-WaPo media reporter wins his battle against the paper after being suspended for a tweet →“Paul Farhi, a veteran media reporter and former top writer at The Washington Post, announced on Wednesday that he had won his lengthy battle with the Post over a 2022 suspension that stemmed from accurate reporting about the Post itself.”The New Yorker / Kyle Chayka
The revenge of the homepage in a post-social world →“The major social platforms operated for a long time like digital big-box stores for media content, offering a little of everything all at once…Now digital-distribution infrastructure is crumbling, having become both ineffective for publishers and alienating for users.”CNN / Hadas Gold
Student journalists assaulted, others arrested as protests on college campuses turn violent →“The confrontations with journalists come as student-run news outlets and traditional news media descend on college campuses where police officers have clashed with and arrested hundreds of demonstrators demanding the universities divest any financial ties with Israel over the war in Gaza. On one campus, assailants reportedly followed and attacked student journalists.”The Washington Post / Laura Wagner
In campus protests, students are wary of the media →“Faculty members in yellow vests manning the entrance to the [Columbia protest] space last week turned reporters away, saying it was the protesters’ choice. Everyone would have to wait for the official student news conference, beginning shortly.”The New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum
Jeff Zucker abandons his bid for The Telegraph, putting the London paper back into play →“Mr. Zucker’s venture company, RedBird IMI, had sought government approval to complete a debt-for-equity deal that would hand it control of The Telegraph and its sister magazine, The Spectator. Because of the withdrawal, other prospective owners may now attempt to purchase the publications.”Digiday / Sara Guaglione
Publishers not ready to change social media strategies as TikTok ban looms →“Execs at Bustle Digital Group, Gallery Media Group and The Washington Post told Digiday that they don’t have plans to change their audience development strategies on social media or abandon TikTok. This confidence comes down to having a strong production and distribution strategy for short-form vertical video on other social platforms, thanks in large part to TikTok.”The New York Times / Brian X. Chen
Meta’s AI assistant is fun to use, but it can’t be trusted →“Unlike other chatbots and image generators, Meta’s A.I. assistant is a free tool baked into apps that billions of people use every day, making it the most aggressive push yet from a big tech company to bring this flavor of artificial intelligence — known as generative A.I. — to the mainstream.”Bloomberg / Leah Nylen
Google’s payments to Apple reached $20 billion in 2022, antitrust court documents show →“The deal between the two tech giants is at the heart of the landmark case, in which antitrust enforcers allege Google has illegally monopolized the market for online search and related advertising. The Justice Department and Google will offer closing arguments in the case Thursday and Friday, with a decision expected later this year.”The Guardian / Alexandra Topping
Four female BBC news presenters accuse the network of sexual discrimination →“The women said evidence from a whistleblower would show that the BBC ‘rigged’ the process of recruiting chief presenters for the new BBC News channel in January 2023 and they were ‘set up to fail in the jobs process.'”The Guardian / Abbas Rezaie
Can journalism survive the Taliban? →“The Etilaat Roz was once the most widely circulated newspaper in Kabul, but everything changed in August 2021 when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. With journalists tortured in the street for their reporting, the paper’s staff were forced to flee.”Deadline / Ted Johnson
House Republicans ask NPR CEO to appear at hearing after bias allegations →“The House Republicans also cited NPR’s coverage of Covid, the Mueller report and the Hunter Biden laptop.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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