Werd I/O

This: "The prevalence of “news deserts” has apparently led some to think it’s normal for neighborhood news outlets to function as lapdogs rather than watchdogs." The purpose of journalism is to investigate in the public interest. #Media

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I think this is the right impulse: people tend to follow and trust individual journalists, not publications. Building out profiles and establishing more personal relationships helps build that trust. #Media

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"Web analytics sits in the awkward space between empirical analysis and relationship building, failing at both, distracting from the real job to be done: making connections, in whatever form that means for our project." #Media

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The open access movement is an important way academics can fight back against predatory publishers for the good of human knowledge everywhere - but the publishers are still out there, grifting. #Media

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I've lived in the US for twelve years, and at no point have I even been tempted by traditional cable. Every time I encounter it, I wonder why people want it. It's a substandard, obsolete product. So this is no surprise. #Media

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Services like this become single points of failure with outsize power over the journalism industry. It's a bad idea. No one entity should be the arbiter of bias in news or where a buyer should put their money. For one thing, who watches that entity's own inevitable bias? And if you're offering AI as a bias-free solution, you've already lost. #Media

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Lovely! #Media

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I couldn’t be less of a fan of the current Republican Party but I hate this. The White House should not be sending letters to the media encouraging them to do anything. That’s not the sort of relationship we need our journalistic media to have. #Media

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Snoop Dogg gimmick aside, this is actually pretty neat, and useful. I'd also like the opposite: sometimes I want to read podcasts. Different contexts demand different media; I wish content itself could be more adaptable. #Media

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Two thirds of the political content people consume come from non-news sites. And most of the news content people read is not overtly political. Instead, it's mostly coming from entertainment - which has no ethical need to report factually. #Media

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“Fundamentally: Klein is a leftist, Wolf was a liberal. The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color.” #Media

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Terrible website, very good idea. I would love to contribute to something like this. #Media

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Medium has made it clear that it is not a home for AI-driven content. And it's experiencing record growth now that its recommendation engine has been re-tuned for substance, as decided by humans. This is all great news: for Medium and as an example for everyone on the web. #Media

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I like this approach to building graphics for journalism. Management of these kinds of static assets feels like a cumulative problem, but lightweight HTML / CSS / JS is pretty portable and sandboxable. And ACF is the hidden hero behind journalism's WordPress sites. #Media

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Heather Bryant is spot on as usual here: trust is a facet of human relationships and not something you place in an organization, company, or product. Using a more appropriate framing will help you figure out how to build the relationships your newsroom needs. #Media

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It's an interesting grift in a way: VC-subsidized startups changed an incumbent industry enough that its existing companies began to think that these new ideas were good business. But they never were, and it ate them from the inside. #Media

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I don't think the web is dying, but it's certainly not novel anymore - and you can't depend on its breadth alone to gain an audience. This is yet another call for "niche" publications - i.e., outlets that know who they're publishing for and go deep instead of wide. #Media

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Honestly, every media company should get out of the CMS business and just use WordPress or another open source alternative. This is not your core value or competitive advantage. Build tools that support your journalism (and then open source those, too). #Media

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There's the potential here to upend niche sports coverage on live streaming services, which in part work through local broadcasting. And the legal ramifications of designating live TV streaming services as TV providers would be interesting. #Media

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The subtext here is simple: to survive, media companies must know their audiences well (not just in aggregate) and serve their unmet needs directly. This has been true for a long time, but economics have sharpened the point. #Media

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Paywalls are not it - for the news business or for society. I personally think there’s a lot of mileage to be gained from patronage models, which have worked very well for both non-profit and commercial newsrooms - if their journalism really does provide a strong public service. #Media

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To put it another way: Meta doesn't want to have to worry about throwing an election. Meta wants us to focus on "sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment." Newsrooms, be advised. #Media

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If you own your relationships with your community, you'll never be locked into any platform. Start a blog, start a mailing list - get out of the algorithmic content game. This is even more important if you make a living from your work. Parker is right on the money here. #Media

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“In general though, I think we should tread lightly.” This piece captures my opinion on the subject well. #Media

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This made me wonder: what if DoorDash, GrubHub, etc, added a checkbox to throw in a copy of the latest local paper with your delivery? Or imagine a breakfast subscription: bagels and a paper, every morning. #Media

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