Twitter / Desert Sun NewsGuild
Dublin Inquirer / Sam Tranum
In Ireland, a local paper battles on →“If our digital platform was to close down tomorrow, we’d still be running the business, because it’s not the thing making money for us. But if you flip that and stop the print edition, yeah, and decided to just be online? We’d have to close everything. It wouldn’t sustain paying 15 people. It might sustain two.”
Journalism.co.uk / Marcela Kunova
New project InOldNews wants to improve representation in video journalism →“The idea to focus on producing open-license footage from developing countries was born after they were unable to find relevant footage for an environment journalism workshop for journalists in Rwanda. So [Manon] Verchot and another co-founder of InOldNews, Sanshey Biswas, started to shoot royalty-free footage themselves.”
Rest of World / Viola Zhou
Want to stop livestreaming in China? That’ll be $42,000 →“China’s multibillion-dollar livestreaming industry is driven, in part, by about 24,000 talent agencies, which provide training and equipment to livestreamers to help them gain followers and income. These agencies take commissions from the earnings of individual influencers, as they sing, dance, sell products, flirt with the audience, or stage life-threatening gimmicks to make a living.”
The Verge / Lauren Feiner
The Supreme Court is about to decide the future of online speech →“The laws’ opponents warn that a ruling for the states could force social media companies to carry ‘lawful but awful’ speech like Nazi rhetoric or medical misinformation, which would likely repel a wide swath of users. Rather than offend users, critics argue, platforms may choose to block whole categories of discussion — around topics like race — to avoid legal blowback.”
Sherwood Media / Rani Molla
Vanity Fair / Amie Parnes
The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
How everything became a “psyop” for conservative media →“Actual experts in real-life psyops are unconvinced by this latest wave of claims. ‘Most people realize it’s just baloney,’ said Herbert A. Friedman, a retired sergeant major who worked in psychological operations for the Army.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Reach is using AI to speed up “ripping” and using the same article on multiple sites →“Since late January the Mirror, Express, and Liverpool Echo publisher has been holding weekly drop-in training sessions for staff on how to use its new in-house AI tool, Gutenbot. A significant amount of content on Reach’s network of local and national news is rewritten or reposted from sister sites. Rewrites enable the company to get more traffic out of the same content without duplicating it.”