Month: January 2019

3 to read: Making journalism crowd funding work | Finding subscribers | What Jill Abramson got wrong

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Jan. 26, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

How The Correspondent became the largest journalism crowdfunding project in history — without 1 story on its site: News sites are increasingly turning to readers to be their financial saviors. But it’s not easy. So here’s a fascinating look at how The Correspondent patiently and carefully laid the groundwork for raising $2.6 million from more than 45,000 supporters. For people interested in starting their own crowd-funded news sites, this is a primer on how to do it well. Great story by Emily Goligoski and Aron Pilhofer for MembershipPuzzle.org.

How many paying subscribers do you need to keep a money-losing magazine afloat? A regional mag finds out: The digital age has not been kind to regional magazine, which at one point were fat, happy money-makers. Now they’re hanging on by their fingertips. So when Arkansas Magazine announced it would shut down if it didn’t get enough paid subscribers, the staff jumped in, pushing hard on social media. Here’s what happened. By Laura Hazard Owens for Nieman Lab.

What Jill Abramson gets wrong about the digital journalism: Abramson, the first female executive editor of the NYT, has written a book, “Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts.” It’s a take on four big media players — the NYT, WaPo, Vice, and BuzzFeed, where media is headed, and her own bitter falling-out with the NYT. But apparently she had trouble wrangling the truth down about Vice and BuzzFeed. An angry war of tweets has erupted over what reporters at Vice and BuzzFeed claim are errors in the book. As Josephine Livingstone chronicles for The New Republic, it’s not a pretty. But it makes an interesting read.

3 to read: WordPress unveiling CMS | AR’s newsroom moment | FB flubs its 10-year challenge

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Jan. 19, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

WordPress unveils a toolkit for local newsrooms: Reporters and editors love to bitch about their crappy CMS system, with good reason. Most of them stink. But there is some action towards improving them (talking about you, WaPo’s Arc). Finally, WordPress is diving into the fray. Honestly, it seems late to me. If there was an organization perfectly set up to dive into this years ago, it seems it would be them. But still, good news. Story by Christine Schmidtfor NiemanLab.

Augmented reality is having its newsroom moment: More and more publishers are sticking their toes in the AR and VR waters, testing how they can best use it in newsrooms. Let’s hope it’s not a “pivot to video” kind of moment. Max Willensfor Digiday.

How benign is Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’? Maybe it’s not that harmless, at all: My 10-year challenge is this: A decade ago, I would not have thought twice about posting pictures of myself up. Now… hmmm, what could possibly go wrong, since it involves the increasingly creepy Facebook? No thanks, FB. Good read by Kate O’Neill for Wired.

3 to read: Saying No to Trump | Censorship factories | Tips to deal with disinformation

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By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Jan. 12, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

Why networks should say No to Trump: The president addressed the nation about immigration last week. Margaret Sullivan at the WaPo argues convincingly that the networks should turn away from Trump, next time he wants to use free air time to spread “propaganda.” In his talk, the president offered up no news, but did repeat again and again exaggerated and false information. So what’s the point?, she asks. A good read.

A peek inside China’s ‘censorship factories’: China is big on censoring news, whether it’s about certain political issues or an ominous empty chair. No news there. But the NYT provides a glimpse of what’s like to work inside one of the “censorship factories,” where low-paid people work to scrub the words of 800 million daily users. It’s a fascinating take.

5 lessons for reporting in an age of disinformation: Good tips from Claire Wardle at First Draft News about how to train reporters from being manipulated. Some ideas: Train your newsroom in disinformation tactics and techniques; do more reporting that helps explain the issues that are often the subjects of disinformation campaigns.

3 to read: Saying No to Trump | Censorship factories | Tips to deal with disinformation

/ Matt Carroll / Leave a comment

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

Jan. 12, 2018: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail. Originally published on 3toread.co

Why networks should say No to Trump: The president addressed the nation about immigration last week. Margaret Sullivan at the WaPo argues convincingly that the networks should turn away from Trump, next time he wants to use free air time to spread “propaganda.” In his talk, the president offered up no news, but did repeat again and again exaggerated and false information. So what’s the point?, she asks. A good read.

A peek inside China’s ‘censorship factories’: China is big on censoring news, whether it’s about certain political issues or an ominous empty chair. No news there. But the NYT provides a glimpse of what’s like to work inside one of the “censorship factories,” where low-paid people work to scrub the words of 800 million daily users. It’s a fascinating take.

5 lessons for reporting in an age of disinformation: Good tips from Claire Wardle at First Draft News about how to train reporters from being manipulated. Some ideas: Train your newsroom in disinformation tactics and techniques; do more reporting that helps explain the issues that are often the subjects of disinformation campaigns.