Nieman Foundation at Harvard
HOME
          
LATEST STORY
“These dollars are not reaching BIPOC newsrooms”: Tracie Powell and Meredith Clark on funding inequities and local news
ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
“These dollars are not reaching BIPOC newsrooms”: Tracie Powell and Meredith Clark on funding inequities and local news
“You say you’re giving more dollars to BIPOC newsrooms? Well, you’re actually giving to intermediaries who are filtering down those dollars to BIPOC newsrooms. But they’re not filtering down enough.”
By Hanaa' Tameez
“Flexicles,” story alert systems, and other ways AI will serve publishers, reporters, and readers
“When our models noticed stocks of companies moving in ways that typically indicate news, our system pinged the relevant beat reporter in Slack so he or she could hit the phones and see what’s going on. It’s a great way to break news.”
By Louise Story
Evidence suggests Russia has been deliberately targeting journalists in Ukraine — a war crime
“It is essential — for us all — that the protections afforded to journalists under international law are scrupulously upheld, and those responsible for their deaths are caught and face the consequences.”
By Kelly Bjorklund and Simon J. Smith
A paywall? Not NPR’s style. A new pop-up asks for donations anyway
“I find it counterproductive to take a cynical view on tactics that help keep high-quality journalism freely accessible to all Americans.”
By Sarah Scire
The story of InterNation, (maybe) the world’s first investigative journalism network
Long before the Panama Papers and other high-profile international projects, a global network of investigative journalists collaborated over snail mail.
By Mark Schapiro
Want to boost local news subscriptions? Giving your readers a say in story ideas can help
“By providing a service that answers questions posed by audience members, audiences are more likely to reciprocate through subscriptions.”
By Sophie Culpepper
A new station in Mexico City is making radio for social media — and filling local news gaps
“We aren’t, and do not want to be, like the traditional radio stations in Mexico.”
By Hanaa' Tameez
The Colorado Sun, a pioneering for-profit/nonprofit hybrid, moves toward a fully nonprofit model
“Whether I agree with it or not, whether I even like it or not, the reality is that many individuals, many institutions and philanthropic groups, have concluded that journalism should be nonprofit.”
By Dan Kennedy
Can ❤️s change minds? How social media influences public opinion and news circulation
Does seeing that a social post has a ton of likes make you more likely to agree with it? No — except for the heaviest social media users.
By Juan S. Morales
How scientists can help reporters cover disasters
“Journalists and scientists have a lot in common — we both like to chase, we both like to investigate, and we like to write up what we find, and do it in a clever way, that people leave nourished.”
By Dan Falk
Is half a billion dollars a big-enough Band-Aid to cure what ails local news?
The Press Forward coalition, led by the MacArthur Foundation, has pledged to invest $500 million in revitalizing local news over the next five years while working to raise more.
By Sophie Culpepper
“These dollars are not reaching BIPOC newsrooms”: Tracie Powell and Meredith Clark on funding inequities and local news
“You say you’re giving more dollars to BIPOC newsrooms? Well, you’re actually giving to intermediaries who are filtering down those dollars to BIPOC newsrooms. But they’re not filtering down enough.”
By Hanaa' Tameez
“Flexicles,” story alert systems, and other ways AI will serve publishers, reporters, and readers
“When our models noticed stocks of companies moving in ways that typically indicate news, our system pinged the relevant beat reporter in Slack so he or she could hit the phones and see what’s going on. It’s a great way to break news.”
Evidence suggests Russia has been deliberately targeting journalists in Ukraine — a war crime
“It is essential — for us all — that the protections afforded to journalists under international law are scrupulously upheld, and those responsible for their deaths are caught and face the consequences.”
What We’re Reading
The Hill / Rachel Scully
Trump pledges to investigate MSNBC for “treason” if elected
“It’s unclear whether a particular story or report drew Trump’s ire.” And the media is — you guessed it — “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
ProPublica / Justin Elliott, Patricia Callahan, and James Bandler
Randy Smith, founder of newspaper vulture Alden Global Capital, has a Roth IRA with $252.6 million in it
“Roth IRAs were intended to help average working Americans save, but IRS records show [Peter] Thiel and other ultrawealthy investors have used them to amass vast untaxed fortunes.”
The Verge / Emilia David
Getty Images is building an AI image generator trained only on its photos
“Generative AI by Getty Images (yes, it’s an unwieldy name) is trained only on the vast Getty Images library, including premium content, giving users full copyright indemnification. This means anyone using the tool and publishing the image it created commercially will be legally protected, promises Getty.”
Semafor / Max Tani
The City’s layoffs may be attributable in part to an accounting error
“Staff were frustrated to be told that in recent months, the organization’s leadership and an outside accounting firm made a mistake in measuring The City’s finances, presented a flawed budget to the organization’s board and hired more people than they could afford.”
Financial Times / Arash Massoudi and Leila Abboud
A majority stake in Le Monde may soon belong to a foundation in order to protect its independence
“French billionaire Xavier Niel has bought Czech energy tycoon Daniel Křetínský out of his stake in Le Monde…The [roughly €50 million] transaction will bolster Niel’s shareholding and take him a step closer to the goal he set in 2021 to move a majority stake into a foundation to ensure Le Monde’s independence and prevent takeovers.”
Financial Times / Lauren Indvik
Anna Wintour: “I just have to make sure things are being done right”
“It is probable that Condé Nast cannot afford to lose her. Advertisers run ads in Vogue not only because they think that will sell clothes, but also to secure Wintour’s favour and advice. She is frequently consulted by investors looking for young labels to back and executives in search of a new creative director.”
The Washington Post / Paul Farhi
AI may be news reporting’s future. So far, it’s been an embarrassment.
“They can’t discern fact from fiction, which means they can pass off nonsense just as easily as the real goods. They can’t call up experts and sources to gather new information, which limits their effectiveness on breaking news stories. They also have trouble understanding context and cultural nuance — that is, what’s appropriate in the body of a news article.”
The Guardian / Alexandra Topping
Russell Brand and why the allegations took so long to surface
“The reason, according to multiple experts, is simple: publishing stories like this in England and Wales is extremely difficult, and fraught with risk. ‘People often think that we have a law that protects free speech here. We don’t. We have a law that protects reputation,’ says Caroline Kean, a partner at Wiggin who represented the journalist Catherine Belton when she was sued by multiple Russian billionaires. ‘Getting stories out like this may sound easy to people who watch a lot of crime dramas, but it’s actually incredibly difficult.'”
The Washington Post / Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski, and Joseph Menn
Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks
“Academics, universities and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs designed to counter the spread of online misinformation amid a legal campaign from conservative politicians and activists who accuse them of colluding with tech companies to censor right-wing views.”
The Guardian / Charles Kaiser
How The New York Times survived — and thrived — through the digital disruption
“Journalists have been waiting half a century for a worthy sequel to [Gay] Talese’s book, and that is what Adam Nagourney has attempted with The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism, a history of the newspaper from 1976 to 2016, which he wrote with Talese’s encouragement and cooperation.”
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.