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The Weekly Wrap: March 08, 2024
“There are a lot of people down this rabbit hole”
When I started talking with Ellie Hall about a Nieman Lab piece on the “disappearance” of Kate Middleton, I was worried that I was being a little nuts. What if nobody but me (and, um, all my group chats) cared about this story? What if I was wrong that it was really a media story? And what was the best way to lay it all out for our readers to get them interested, too? I’m glad we went for it because Ellie’s piece, “‘This is just weird’: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media”, turned out to be everything I’d hoped it would be and more. In the words of one Redditor on r/RoyalsGossip: “It’s like a dissertation. I loved it. Finally some substantive analysis.”
And I have some great news: You will be getting even more substantive analysis from Nieman Lab than before, because this week we welcomed our two new writers. Andrew Deck and Neel Dhanesha. Andrew will be covering the intersection of generative AI and journalism for us, while Neel will be roving freely as a general staff writer but has special interest in science and climate reporting and audio. We are so happy to have them on board.
— Laura Hazard Owen
From the week
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“This is just weird”: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media“I cannot emphasize enough how out of character it is that a royal press team went on the record in response to what is essentially gossip.” By Ellie Hall. |
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“Don’t expect help from the disruptors”: The FT’s chief executive on AI, “loyalist” readers, and its U.S. expansionThe FT has more than 1.4 million subscribers, including more than 1 million digital subscribers. About 20% are based in the United States. By Sarah Scire. |
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With Midwest expansion, the Pivot Fund tries to put grassroots news sources on philanthropy’s radar“If we really want to serve communities that are increasingly tuning us out, increasingly unsubscribing, increasingly looking the other way — my God, we’ve got to go to the communities directly.” By Sophie Culpepper. |
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“Mutual incomprehension now exists seemingly everywhere”: The New York Times’ publisher responds to its critics“I don’t believe a news organization must be doing something right because people on all sides are angry. But it’s also not a sign that a news organization must be doing something wrong.” By A.G. Sulzberger. |
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What happened when the Chicago Sun-Times freed the newsAfter a $61 million acquisition by public media, Chicago-Sun Times readers get free content and the newsroom has grown. But no one’s taking a victory lap for local news yet. By Jane Elizabeth. |
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Facebook will stop subsidizing Australian news. Will tax dollars have to replace it?“If we accept that news is a public good, not something we can treat as a product to be traded like soap, then we have to develop economic models that somehow get the public to pay for it.” By Peter Greste. |
Highlights from elsewhere
Time / Charlotte Alter
The fight to free Evan Gershkovich →
“The legal team at Dow Jones focused on getting Gershkovich the right representation — a challenge complicated by the withdrawal of most Western law firms from Russia. One hurdle was finding a good lawyer who also wasn’t ‘politically aligned in one way or another,’ recalls Jay Conti, Dow Jones’ general counsel. ‘You don’t want that to be a signal.'”
Politico / Gabe Fleisher
The mystery social media account schooling Congress on how to do its job →
“@ringwiss has never even stepped foot in the Capitol, much less worked there. The account, which lists its location as ‘Durham,’ uses Homer Simpson’s head as a profile photo and frequently runs circles around veteran congressional experts, is run by Kacper Surdy, a 20-year-old economics student at Durham University in England. He is revealing his identity here for the first time publicly.”
The Guardian / Oliver Milman
AI will likely increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation, according to a new report →
“It’s not like AI is ridding us of the internal combustion engine. People will be outraged to see how much more energy is being consumed by AI in the coming years, as well as how it will flood the zone with disinformation about climate change.”
Defector / Diana Moskovitz
How Fortress Investment Group decimated newspapers before gutting Vice →
“…when you look at Fortress’s essentially 14 years in the newspaper market — how they were able to own the GateHouse chain from 2005 to 2013, when they took it into bankruptcy, and then restart in 2013 and 2014 as New Media Investment Group, before finally merging with Gannett in 2019 — when you look at that trajectory, to me it’s an astounding failure.”
Talking Points Memo / Josh Marshall
Why is your news site going out of business? →
“By the time you see that drop off starting in 2017 and 2018 we actually had a decent amount of momentum with our subscription business, and then it was a race to build the subscription business at least as fast as the ad business was collapsing.”
Apple Newsroom
Apple introduces transcripts for Apple Podcasts →
“With transcripts, users can read the full text of an episode, search the episode for a specific word or phrase, and tap on the text to play the podcast from that point in the episode. As an episode plays, each word is highlighted, making it easy to follow along.”
Business Insider / Katie Warren
The Juggernaut promised to revolutionize South Asian news. But insiders say the company’s founder misled investors and struggled to raise money. →
“Multiple people told BI that they witnessed Sur misrepresent aspects of The Juggernaut’s business to potential hires and investors, including falsely claiming that Oprah Winfrey had invested in the publication. Sur promised staffers they’d have equity in the company. The Juggernaut spokesperson told BI that ‘multiple employees have equity in the company,’ but BI was unable to identify any such employees. Several people said Sur often didn’t pay freelancers and vendors the rate they originally negotiated, which made employees worry about the company’s health.”
The Verge / Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel on blogs, massive tech shifts, and how The Verge stays profitable →
“The kinds of things people write about, the containers that we write in, are mostly designed to be optimized for Google Search. They’re not designed for, ‘I need to just quickly tell you about this and move on.’ Our little insight was, ‘Well, what if we just don’t do that? What if we only write for the people who come directly to our website instead of the people who find our articles through Search or Google Discover or whatever other Google platforms are in the world?'”
The Atlantic / Saahil Desai
Inside America’s last Morse Code station →
“Nestled within the Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco, KPH Maritime Radio is the last operational Morse-code radio station in North America…The [volunteer] crew has gotten slightly larger over the years. Its members call themselves the ‘radio squirrels.’ Every Saturday, they beep out maritime news and weather reports, and receive any stray messages.”
