By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Sept. 29, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

1. Free speech: why editors can no longer publish and be damned: The always interesting Emily Bell of The Guardian notes that the economic pressures of a subscriber-based revenue model and social media means that editors need to think twice (or three times) about upsetting readers. Case in point: Tone-deaf Ian Buruma, former editor of the New York Review of Books, who lost his job after his bumbling attempts to defend a contributor who’d been abusive toward women. Bell notes: “Making heinous mistakes of fact or opinion is not an option for editors in a subscriber-driven world. Upsetting readers and sponsors in economically perilous times weighs more heavily on editorial decisions….”

2. What will happen to readers when print goes all online?: Well, it’s not pretty, according to this story. The Independent, a Brit paper, switched to fully online in 2016. It had a devoted print readership, which spent big gobs of time every day reading. Their online readers (like online readers for most sites), spend far less time on the site. So the question Josh Benton of Nieman Labs asks is: Would those print readers invest the same amount of time in an online product? In a word, the answer is … no. Those once dedicated readers became just as twitchy as other online readers.

3. Publisher love Apple News — but where’s the revenue?: As Facebook pulls back from the news business, Apple News is surging. Publishers are seeing huge gains in readership. But there’s a major problem. Publishers are seeing little revenue from the relationship. An interesting take on the problems face as they deal with platforms such as Apple News. By Will Oremus for Slate.

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AI, Media and the Threat to Democracy

Interested in the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and the Media?

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When: Friday, Oct. 12

Where: Northeastern University, Boston

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Keynote: Danielle Citron, Morton & Sophia Macht Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Panels:

1. AI on the Beat: How journalists are using — and covering — bots, algorithms and whatever comes next

2. AI, big data, and bias in sociotechnical systems

3. Legal and Policy Responses to AI and the Media

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