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Friday, December 10, 2021
 | We’ll keep pummeling people with facts that leave out context“If we can’t give clear, accurate messages about something as transparent as an infectious disease, what hope do we have for the complexity of climate change?” By Kendra Pierre-Louis. |
 | The year we’ll be able to tell who’s built a successful local news business“I’ve seen ‘success stories’ suddenly shut down sites or lay off half their staff in a day. And while ‘sustainability’ is the word the industry throws around to describe long-term success, no one has clearly defined it.” By Anika Anand. |
 | National news will be overmatched, local news will be undersupported“Without a democracy-oriented national media, and a healthy, diverse local media, all the alarms that experts sound about how our form of government is on the brink will go unheard by the people.” By Michael W. Wagner. |
 | The local rise of Public Media Centers“Journalism’s transitional moment could be transformational — but only if we reinvent our news media, not resuscitate failing commercial models.” By Victor Pickard. |
 | Fixing old media’s flawed foundations“We never fixed what was broken about old media. Instead, we built something new on top of an already flawed foundation.” By Zizi Papacharissi. |
 | Newsrooms and civil society organizations team up“Though not (yet?) very common in the U.S., projects involving both journalists and civil society organizations — usually advocacy groups, though not always — are a fast-growing trend globally.” By Sarah Stonbely. |
What We’re Reading
Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin, Will Oremus, Craig Timberg, and Nitasha Tiku
Racists, anti-vaccine activists, and Taliban supporters have flocked to Twitter’s new audio service after executives ignored warnings →
Earlier this year, Twitter employees asked how the company planned to prevent Spaces from becoming a platform for hate speech, bullying, and calls to violence. Turns out there was no plan.
CNN / Jackie Wattles and Kerry Flynn
There’s a long history of U.S. journalists *almost* going to space →
“Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan is scheduled to fly on this weekend’s Blue Origin launch. He won’t be the first journalist to make the journey; In 1990, a Japanese TV reporter traveled to space.
Columbia Journalism Review / Gabby Miller
Report: More than 6,150 news workers were laid off amid the Covid-19 pandemic →
The Tow Center tracked 18 months of layoffs — from March 2020 to August 2021 — and found PPP funding partially mitigated the pandemic’s impact on the news business.
TODAY.com / Randee Dawn
“27 courses, very little edible”: The story behind that viral review of a Michelin-starred restaurant →
“I was anticipating something a little unusual and fun. I was not expecting a 4-hour hunger induced fever dream.” (Please don’t skip the chef’s illustrated, multi-page “declaration” in response to a request for comment.)
Nobel Prize
Two journalists won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Here’s what they said in Oslo. →
Maria Ressa decried the “toxic sludge” of hate and violence in our information ecosystem, and specifically called out U.S. tech companies for prioritizing profit. Dmitry Muratov paid tribute to colleagues who have lost their lives in the course of their reporting: “I want journalists to die old.”
Dow Jones / Almar Latour
It looks like The Wall Street Journal will build its own Wirecutter →
Coming soon: a product review service called WSJ Commerce.
Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
36 hours of Fox News covering its own Christmas tree fire →
“On Wednesday, every Fox News show referenced the attack on the company’s ‘All-American Christmas Tree,’ a metal frame covered in branches and decorations — 10,000 glass ornaments, 100,000 lights — that took over 21 hours to assemble.”
Press Gazette / View all posts by William Turvill
Seeing big tech payouts going to Australian rivals, New Zealand publishers are lobbying for collective bargaining rights of their own →
The country’s media minister Kris Faafoi called on Google and Facebook to “engage with New Zealand media entities to reach meaningful, fair and equitable arrangements for content usage.” (Currently, New Zealand competition laws prevent publishers from banding together.)
Financial Times / Anna Nicolaou
What BuzzFeed’s bumpy public listing tells us →
“Calculating the value of digital media companies has historically been a murky art, not a science. As the industry has consolidated in recent years, deals were often done in stock not cash, allowing companies to effectively make up their own valuations. Now the public market will make the call: how much is BuzzFeed actually worth?”
Washington Post / Tom Jackman
FBI may shut down a use-of-force database over low police participation →
The attempt at a definitive database was launched after The Washington Post and Guardian created their own databases of people killed by police. Five years later, the FBI says the program is in jeopardy because the data represents just 57% of law enforcement officers – just short of a mandatory threshold of participation.
Axios / Dan Primack and Sara Fischer
Some BuzzFeed employees who tried to dump their shares when the company went public found they couldn’t sell →
“The situation is exacerbated by the steep price drop, and a stock conversion ratio that already has caused some early employees to be underwater.”
