By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

May 16, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

1. Defend a free press: Hold your nose & stand up for Julian Assange: Let’s face it, Wikileak’s Julian Assange is not a likeable guy: He’s an accused rapist who helped Donald Trump get elected by working with Russian agents. So the US has said prosecuting Assange is a priority. Anything wrong with that prosecution? Well, yes there is, argues the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan. Going after Assange could be Trump’s sly way of attacking a free and independent media. After all, Assange does what the NYT and WaPo do all the time — publish secret government information. A great, counterintuitive read.

2. Hell hath no fury like the NYT scorned (by Hollywood): The Times and WaPo in recent years have renewed their decades-long news battles, which is one reason why this story is so fun. What’s happened is that Hollywood plans to make a story about the breaking of the “Pentagon Papers,” which in the 1970s exposed the secret history of the Vietnam war. The papers were first published by the NYT. So the movie of course is all about … The Post. It’s even called “The Post,” and will star A-listers Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Old timers at the NYT are not amused… at all. A wonderfully fun read, by Thomas Vinciguerra for CJR.

3. Subscriptions are the savior of the local news: Local newsrooms need to build their revenue models around paying subscribers, not advertising, writes Ben Thompson in Stratechery. Most newsrooms have built their revenue models on advertising, but that’s obsolete thinking. What readers really want is quality information they care about. So supply that — and charge for it.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

May 9, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.

1. Alex Jones *is* the conspiracy: Alex Jones burst from out from under the alt right’s big slimy rock and into mainstream consciousness when President Trump appeared on the conspiracy maven’s talk show. What drives this Infowars powerhouse, who blames 9/11, Sandy Hook, and the Boston Marathon murders on government conspiracies? BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel peels back the lid on the motormouth in this profile.
2. Zuckerberg & Facebook wrestle with how to save the world (they may be wrecking): Alarm bells are ringing inside Facebook, as complaints arise outside and inside the company about its outsized role in influencing the country through its promotion of news, fake or not. What’s not clear is how loud the alarms are or who is listening. The NYT Magazine’s Farhad Manjoo paints a portrait of founder Mark Zuckerborg at least beginning to confront some of the issues that have long been voiced by critics. Interesting.
3. What the White House press corps *really* thinks about Trump: The president has turned attacks on the press into a minor art form, which makes this survey of what White House reporters think about the commander-in-chief so fascinating. If you’re interested in a peek behind the press curtain at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., you’ll love this. One surprise: One third don’t think he’s the the most anti-press president in history. By Politico Magazine, with wonderful graphics.

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• 3 to read logo by Leigh Carroll (Instagram: @leighzaah)

Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

May 2, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.com

1. The dirty war between Trump & the press: The public sees Trump and the rest of his administration trashing the press. But behind the scenes, it’s a very different picture, as Trump and others work hard to curry favor with certain reporters — including the mainstream publications they disparage in public. A nuanced look at the the tense, brawling relationship between the media and the presidency. By Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold for Politico Magazine.
2. ‘Wikitribune’s’ lofty goal is to fight fake news — too bad it will fail: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has created Wikitribune to take on the scourge of fake news. The idea is to create a crowd-funded cooperative that channels the power and skill of professional journalists. But Mathew Ingram of Fortune is dubious it will work. Other similar efforts have failed. It’s just not clear that non-journalists care enough to pay at scale to fund the effort, he says.
3. How real is that ‘media bubble’?: Media critic Jack Shafer argues that the East Coast/West Coast media bubble, with newsrooms isolated from the conservative heartland and clustered in mostly liberal metro areas, is real and is more extreme than is generally believed. Others argue that’s wrong because the big right-wing outlets are located in exactly those some areas. Either way though, the charts in the Shafer story show fewer and fewer reporter jobs are in the heartland.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>

April 25, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail

1. In a new journalism era, quality is key: Online news has quickly cycled through a number of eras — portals, search, and social, each with its own winners and losers, argues David Skok on Medium. Now, he says, we are entering a new era where journalism will be paid for by readers, for readers. It’s a great opportunity for newsrooms that produce quality journalism and can build tight bonds with their readers. An interesting take.
2. What went wrong with Instant Articles: Instant Articles was ballyhooed by Facebook as a great innovation for news publishers — big revenue and readership were expected. But two years in, news publishers have found that neither has happened, and organizations from the New York Times to Vice News have given it up. A nice “what went wrong” piece by Casey Newton for The Verge.
3. Facebook denies what it is & its responsibilities: It’s time Facebook figured out they are a media company, and with that comes tremendous responsibility, argues Margaret Sullivan for the WaPo, pointing to the recent murder on Facebook Live. Yet the company, with 2 billion users, keeps its head firmly in the sand, denying the obvious even to itself. That has to change, she writes. A good read.

Extra: A conference on ‘Conversations’: The Northeastern U conference on “Conversations” focused on how the media can build bridges to fragmented communities. A short video about the day.

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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.