A new book details how a network of interlocking business arrangements allowed a few men to consolidate control of a huge share of Australia’s media — power that extends to today.
“People do not usually have contrasting views of human and algorithmic selection. If they are skeptical of one, they’re likely to be skeptical of the other.”
Plus: Journalists’ perception of their own news orgs’ bias, what “impartial” actually means to audiences, and when the public might intervene in journalist harassment.
“Is it ready for primetime, ready to be released to the masses? Absolutely not…But can it be done? Can you design an AI system that attends a city meeting and generates a story? Yeah, I did it.”
“Triumphs of the truth are not accidents. They are times the American media — including and especially those outside of the disinformation beat — did not equivocate and did not give an inch to lies and the liars who tell them.”
“If one man fails to file a story of a millionairess marrying a poor factory hand because that man understands such a story is not properly A.P. stuff, such an error of news judgment ought to be generally made known to other employees.”
A new book details how a network of interlocking business arrangements allowed a few men to consolidate control of a huge share of Australia’s media — power that extends to today.
“People do not usually have contrasting views of human and algorithmic selection. If they are skeptical of one, they’re likely to be skeptical of the other.”
“A group of buyers including Fortress Investment Group is set to take over the bankrupt Vice Media company after bidding $225 million to acquire it out of bankruptcy, according to three people familiar with the matter.”
“Denmark’s biggest-selling national newspaper, Politiken, has boosted engagement and page views with the creation of what it calls ‘super articles.’ These online features use all the features of its CUE content management system to create articles which incorporate images, video, graphics, animations, pictures and video. Over the last two years, Politiken’s digital storytelling group has published about 100 super articles. On average a super article records triple the amount of page impressions – about 12,000 compared to about 3,800 for all other articles published by the newsbrand.”
“NYC-based beehiiv was launched in October 2021, and since then, on some $4 million of prior funding, it’s amassed a network of 7,500 active newsletters that collectively have 35 million unique readers and see 350 million monthly impressions…For some comparison, beehiiv’s most obvious rival, Substack, says it has 35 million ‘active’ subscribers, which includes 2 million paid subscriptions. The latter is the focus of Substack’s newsletter business model: it takes a 10% cut on those subscription revenues.”
“Bipartisan House and Senate groups have reintroduced legislation, the PRESS Act (Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying), that limits the government’s ability to compel data disclosures that might identify journalists’ sources.”
“Our colleague Evan Gershkovich appeared in Moscow City Court today for an appeal against his ongoing pretrial detention. Although the outcome was expected, it is no less an outrage that his detention continues to be upheld,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement Thursday.
“In particular, Mr. Ellsberg was unhappy about being misled by Mr. [Neil] Sheehan. Mr. Ellsberg was also upset by the way an article in [The New York Times] later conveyed how he had provided the documents.”
“Spotify isn’t selling anything that’s unique in the world of podcasting. And that may be why Spotify’s strategy around content is shifting: while Trevor Noah’s podcast — due later this year — will be a Spotify Original, it won’t be exclusive to the platform. This will be a win for Noah’s podcast, which will gain more exposure. But it’s also a pivot for Spotify, which has kept many of its original shows in its walled garden.”
“Reddit’s unique appeal among exiled Chinese internet users is its community-moderated, interest-based discussion format, which allows more fringe voices to thrive. According to Deng Jinju, a 25-year-old product manager and former member of Douban’s now-defunct Goose Group, Reddit is a social media platform that is more issue-driven than influencer-driven, granting greater visibility to ordinary users.”
“The problems at the Washington Post under Jeff Bezos and the Los Angeles Times under Patrick Soon-Shiong seem to me to have an important common element: owners who have made significant investments, but have now apparently drawn a line short of what’s necessary for their publications to thrive with readers.”
Nieman Lab is a project to try to help figure out where the news is headed in the Internet age. Sign up for The Digest, our daily email with all the freshest future-of-journalism news.
