Notable links

Media

Communities will build trust and loyalty for local public media. Chicago Public Media is taking a big leap forward.

Chicago Public Media is launching a region-wide social platform as a way to bolster its journalism. I believe it represents a path to the future.

Technology

As social networks fill up with AI slop, trusted relationships and communities will win.

Long-form LinkedIn posts are 41% slop. Other social networks are not far behind.

Business

Startups track business metrics. Newsrooms should learn from them.

I've rarely seen newsroom business teams discuss metrics like LTV, CAC, and even ARR outside fundraising or finance. They should be commonly known.

Media

CNN and CNBC promote gambling to make a cheap buck

Some newsrooms are making money from deals with prediction markets. It will only serve to further destroy the public's trust in news.

AI

Governance can prevent AI from being used to undermine democracy. But only if it has teeth.

The apparatus to cement centralized, undemocratic power has already been built. Regulations have a part to play, but they can't just be recommendations.

Media

A new media spinout provides streaming apps for public service broadcasters. I just wish it was open.

We need to see more technical collaborations between public service media organizations. It's also really important that they're based on open technology that doesn't lock them in.

Media

Newsrooms need to get comfortable expressing their business value - and raising money on it.

Newsrooms like to spend their time on the journalistic process and assume that the value of their work will speak for itself. They need to start selling themselves.

AI

OpenAI wants to give us 5% of its success. It's a bad bargain.

A wealth fund that shares 5% of AI success with government and voters is either based on hype or not nearly enough to cover the damage. Either way, the incentives are perverse.

AI

I have a theory about AI fake news site The Editorial

I was taken in by a fake AI news site. I think it may be an attempt to poison LLMs with propaganda.

AI

AI's costs are going through the roof - so businesses are telling LLMs to talk like cavemen

Me think this hilarious sign of times.

Democracy

They tell us surveillance makes us safer. It undermines our democratic rights.

Civil society actors in nearly every region of the world now operate under the assumption that they are being surveilled. The result is a less democratic world for everyone.

Media

A concrete tool to help newsrooms cover emergencies

A new site to help newsrooms cover disasters is refreshing in its concrete practicality. Wouldn't it be great if these existed for every aspect of running a newsroom?