Media Past And Future

To fight bigotry and hate, don’t muzzle it. There’s a better way.

“One of the problems with defending free speech,” the celebrated author Salman Rushdie said, “is you often have to defend people that you find to be outrageous and unpleasant and disgusting.”<p>Those descriptions, and worse, certainly apply to the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, racists and bigots …

Tech Censorship of White Supremacists Draws Criticism From Within Industry

The moves by tech companies like Cloudflare have been chided for threatening freedom of expression online<p>The debate intensified over whether the growing number of tech companies that blocked white supremacists and a neo-Nazi website on the internet have gone too far, as a prominent privacy group …

Google Searches for Ways to Boost News Subscriptions

Tech giant testing tools, including shared data and new payment options, with publishers<p>Google is working on new tools to help news organizations sell subscriptions, a move that could help ease its strained relationship with publishers.<p>The tech giant said it is testing changes to its …

Louis Rossetto

Introduction<p>Louis Rossetto, co-founder of Wired magazine, recently announced the publication of his first novel, Change is Good, a collaborative art …

Media scholar on Trump TV: “This is Orwellian, and it’s happening right now, right here”

The president has launched an online TV network. He’s calling it “real news.”<p>“Overall, since the president took office, President Trump has created more than 1 million new jobs, the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low, and consumer confidence is at a 16-year high — all while the Dow Jones …

Inside peek: Here’s how we built Wikitribune in 72 hours

Remember that Norwegian site that made readers take a quiz before commenting? Here’s an update on it

When my former colleague Joseph Lichterman wrote about a Norwegian news organization that makes readers pass a quiz on the article before they can comment on it (one of the most-trafficked stories in Nieman Lab history, by the way) the site — NRKbeta, the tech vertical of Norway’s public …

SoundCloud asks investors to support rescue deal

Tomorrow is do or die for SoundCloud, the struggling streaming music company that recently laid off 40% of its staff despite having raised over $230 …

‘Raining clicks’: why we need better thinking on technology, data and journalism

I’ve spent the last eight years building the case for using audience data in newsrooms and the tools and culture required to make it a force for …

The Schools of Journalism

<i>Two articles came across my feed the other day and gave me a rare delight.</i><p>The first was from Cory Haik, who I’ve met on several occasions and greatly …

Facebook is officially launching its big attack on TV

Facebook's push into becoming a destination for original TV shows begins Thursday with the launch of its redesigned video tab, Business Insider has learned.<p>The new tab will be called Watch and will showcase a slew of shows from the likes of BuzzFeed, Tastemade, Condé Nast Entertainment, and ATTN, …

If I Ran a Newspaper….

Well, yes, fat chance. But if I did, here’s how I’d try to save it.A wise editor I know described his newspaper’s situation this way: “We have two …

Disney to pull content from Netflix

Disney is parting ways with Netflix.<p>The company said Tuesday that it will end its partnership with the streaming service in 2019.<p>Disney also announced it will launch its own streaming services, and plans to acquire a majority stake in BAMTech, a major streaming and marketing service.<p>Disney's cable …

Disney is trying to outrun disruption by dumping Netflix and launching its own streaming service

Good luck! A Disney-branded service is scheduled for 2019. Meanwhile, an ESPN service is (probably) coming next year.<p>We’ve seen this coming for a while, but it’s still a big deal: Disney says it’s going to launch its own video streaming service, so it’s going to stop selling its stuff to …

Disney Unveils New Streaming Services, to End Netflix Deal

New service must balance new and original content to attract subscribers without cannibalizing existing brands<p>Walt Disney Co. just became the biggest cord-cutter Hollywood has ever seen.<p>The world’s largest entertainment company said Tuesday it is starting two online subscription streaming services …

We’re in the early stages of a visual revolution in journalism

It’s more than a pivot to video — it’s an evolution of text.<p>Reports of the death of the written word are greatly exaggerated. The much-lamented and much-snarked-about phrase “pivot to video" is, if I'm being honest, somewhat warranted — video advertising is becoming central to every digital media …

Facebook and Google Algorithms Are the New 'Useful Idiots'

On May 14, a little-known Donald Trump donor wrote an encouraging text message to a former Washington, D.C., cop. “Not to add any more pressure,” the …

Facebook Drowns Out Fake News With More Information

Social-media giant will display related articles to limit the damage of false news without censoring posts<p>Facebook Inc. is fighting misinformation with more information.<p>Starting Thursday, when Facebook’s U.S. users come across popular links—including made-up news articles—in their feeds, they may …

Major Advertisers Pulled Their Ads From YouTube, But It Didn't Hurt Alphabet's Earnings

The revolt didn't add up to much.<p>Several major advertisers revolted against YouTube in March, saying they would pause or even cancel their YouTube advertising because the company was placing ads on obscene or hateful videos whose content was decidedly brand-unfriendly. But all those pulled ads …

Twitter added zero users last quarter

The company’s user growth is still a problem after all.<p>Twitter did not add any new users in Q2, a disappointing follow-up to what had been a promising start to 2017.<p>Twitter reported earnings Thursday morning, claiming 328 million total users — the same number it reported after Q1. Analysts had been …

Chat app Telegram, not much loved by the Russian government, still attracts a loyal readership for news

Telegram is far from the most popular messaging app in Russia, but it’s been the one under fire recently.<p>At the end of June, the app faced pressure from Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor to register information about Telegram on an official government list and seemed on the verge of …

The Public Editor’s Club at The New York Times as told by the six who lived it

The public editor is no more at The New York Times. For 14 years, following the Jayson Blair scandal, a succession of public editors read thousands …

Google says it wants to fund the news, not fake it

Under fire from several quarters for an array of accusations ranging from monopolistic practices to the dissemination (and even funding) of fake …

Legacy media diverge from digital natives in fight against Facebook, Google

After two decades of swimming in the deep and treacherous waters of the internet, the news business is looking for a regulatory lifesaver. The …

How A Pulitzer-Winning New York Times Story Pulled From A Russian News Outlet

The Times’ prize-winning story relies heavily on two articles in Meduza, a Russian news site based in Latvia.<p>A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times story about how Russia recruits elite hackers relied heavily on the work of a Russian news outlet, which claims the Times snubbed its reporting.<p>The …

How Antitrust Undermines Press Freedom

Facebook and Google dominate online ads, and news companies can’t join forces to compete.<p>Whenever President Trump attacks CNN or berates the Washington Post, journalists and free-speech advocates rise up to defend the media and the First Amendment. Meanwhile, a greater threat to America’s news …

Newspapers ask Congress for new protections from Google, Facebook

The News Media Alliance (NMA), a newspaper trade group that represents over 2,000 newspapers in the U.S., is asking Congress for an antitrust safe …

News Outlets to Seek Bargaining Rights Against Google and Facebook

Google and Facebook continue to gobble up the digital advertising market, siphoning away revenue that once paid for the quality journalism that Google and Facebook now offer for free.<p>They are gaining increasing control over digital distribution, so newspapers that once delivered their journalism …

Talking Points Memo doubled its subscribers in a year — now it’s trying to find new extras for them

Josh Marshall, the founder of the liberal political news site Talking Points Memo (which turns 17 this year), isn’t shy about sharing numbers and publicly setting goals for the site. About a year ago, he told my colleague Ricardo Bilton that TPM had about 11,000 paying Prime subscribers, and that …