Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest

Worldwide, online news is looking a lot more like TikTok and a lot less like “shared articles”

Plus: Americans’ trust in news has increased, and other findings from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s 2023 Digital News Report. By Laura Hazard Owen.
What We’re Reading
Good Luck Media
Good Luck Media is a new journalism studio dedicated to climate change →
Founded by journalists Alessandra Ram and Samantha Oltman, the studio will produce “immersive podcasts and screen adaptions.”
New York Times / Adam Satariano
Google charged with violating E.U. antitrust laws with its online advertising practices →
“The European Publishers Council, an industry group representing media companies, applauded Wednesday’s action. The group said it filed a complaint over a year ago describing how Google ‘leveraged their position to the disadvantage of publishers.'”
The New Yorker / Jay Caspian Kang
What was Nate Silver’s data revolution? →
“That enviable status, in which one is both part of a venerated institution and free to point out the fossils in the room, gave Silver the trust of The [New York] Times’ reading public and also allowed those readers to air their grievances.”
Axios / James Briggs
Indianapolis has three news startups with another new newsroom on the way →
The Indiana Capital Chronicle launched its website a year ago covering state government. State Affairs, focusing on state government investigations, launched in December. Axios Indianapolis started sending this newsletter in April. The American Journalism Project is planning to open a 25-person newsroom in Indianapolis for a yet-to-be-named publication.
the Guardian / Emma Graham-Harrison
Nobel laureate Maria Ressa: Journalism research by Reuters Institute can be used against reporters →
“Ressa said the report fails to take into account the impact of disinformation campaigns, particularly in countries where governments use their powers to attack free media.” Reuters Institute director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen has responded.
LAist / Ted Rohrlich
Southern California Public Radio — home to LAist — will cut 10% of staff →
“Roughly 21 of the organization’s approximately 175 positions are being eliminated … [CEO Herb] Scannell said the cutbacks primarily involve administrative staff, producers and technicians and have another purpose: to allow LAist to rearrange its staffing to bolster the scope and speed of its online news reporting”
CNN / Oliver Darcy
CNN broke news during Trump’s arraignment thanks to local high school students and a pay phone →
“In all my years of field producing, never have I been involved in an operation as complex as this literal game of professional telephone.”
New York Post / Alexandra Steigrad
Insider’s top editor filmed tearing down union posters as strike continues →
“The awkward encounter caught on video continues with [Insider EIC Nicholas] Carlson getting back on his bike as he determines that the group is recording it. ‘Who are you all?’ Carlson says, smiling and nervously fiddling with his chin strap. ‘I’m one of your reporters,’ one of the women says.”
WSJ / Simon J. Levien
U.S. House votes 422-0 to demand the release of jailed reporter Evan Gershkovich →
Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker: “His wrongful detention is a blow to press freedom, and it should matter to anyone who values free society. We will not rest until he is free.”
Defector / Alex Sujong Laughlin
Gimlet Media’s story was always going to end like this →
“If Gimlet was meant to last, to become a household name like the other three-letter media companies before it, if it was meant to make narrative podcasts for the foreseeable future, it failed at all of those goals. But Gimlet also succeeded in all the ways it was supposed to. When Blumberg and Lieber pursued VC funding right at the beginning of this story, they wrote that story’s end, too.”