Wednesday, May 8, 2024 |
| “We observe a dramatic increase in posts containing screenshots of Canadian news stories in the post-ban period.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re ReadingCommittee to Protect Journalists / CPJ Staff
Why the impact of the Israel-Gaza war has become harder to document →“Every bit of information we cannot access means the world loses more of its ability to understand what is happening in the war, how it has affected journalists and media workers, and who is specifically accountable.”TechCrunch / Kyle Wiggers
OpenAI says it’s building a tool to let content creators “opt out” of AI training →“The tool, called Media Manager, will allow creators and content owners to identify their works to OpenAI and specify how they want those works to be included or excluded from AI research and training. The goal is to have the tool in place by 2025, OpenAI says.”Futurism / Maggie Harrison Dupré
Meet AdVon, the AI-powered content monster infecting the media industry →“AdVon engages in what Google calls ‘site reputation abuse’: it strikes deals with publishers in which it provides huge numbers of extremely low-quality product reviews — often for surprisingly prominent publications — intended to pull in traffic from people Googling things like ‘best ab roller.’ The idea seems to be that these visitors will be fooled into thinking the recommendations were made by the publication’s actual journalists and click one of the articles’ affiliate links, kicking back a little money if they make a purchase.”Press Gazette / Aisha Majid
First Google core update of 2024 brings bad news for most news publishers →“Data from SEO tool Sistrix shows that of 70 leading news publishers tracked by Press Gazette…all but 15 saw falls in their visibility score. Of those, almost half (33) saw declines in the double-digits. Sistrix’s Visibility Index measures how successful a website is in Google search results, assigning higher scores to sites that rank better in search results.”Engadget / Karissa Bell
Substack is trying to lure TikTok stars to its platform →“The company says creators in the program can still post on TikTok, Instagram and other social channels but that Substack should be the ‘primary home base for free and premium content.’ Creators will also be expected to engage with subscribers on Substack Chat.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
The New York Times added 210,000 digital subscribers in Q1 →“The company said it had about 10.5 million subscribers overall for its print and digital products at the end of the first quarter, up roughly 8 percent from a year earlier. About 640,000 of those were print subscribers, down about 10 percent from the same period last year. The company’s goal is 15 million total subscribers by the end of 2027.”Press Gazette / Bron Maher
BBC World Service risks being overtaken by Russia and China, warns outgoing director →“The World Service announced last week that more than 300 of its journalists, approximately 15% of the total, are working in exile…’Russia and China are investing hard, and not properly funding one of the UK’s most valuable soft power assets makes no sense economically or culturally.'”Bloomberg / Rachel Metz
OpenAI is readying a search product to rival Google and Perplexity →“The feature would allow users to ask ChatGPT a question and receive answers that use details from the web with citations to sources such as Wikipedia entries and blog posts, according to the person, who asked to remain anonymous discussing private information.”The Guardian / Alex Hern
Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board and urges users to stay on Elon Musk’s X →“Dorsey confirmed he had cut ties with Bluesky on Sunday, telling a user on X that he was no longer on the social network’s board. The announcement was apparently unexpected, since Bluesky still listed him as a board member until late on Sunday evening.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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