We keep an eye out for the most interesting stories about Labby subjects: digital media, startups, the web, journalism, strategy, and more. Here’s some of what we’ve seen lately.
October 21, 2024
“Not to be dire, but it feels like Axios and The Athletic are going to go down as the two luckiest places that got hundreds of millions while you still could.” —LO
Intelligencer / Charlotte Klein
/ Oct 21“The complaint cited an example of a New York Post article about a writer’s first trip to see a baseball game at Shea Stadium decades ago, which Perplexity allegedly reproduced in full … The suit also cites a Wall Street Journal article about the U.S. arming Ukraine-bound F-16 jets with advanced weaponry, saying Perplexity attributed quotes to the article that never appeared in it.” —
WSJ / Alexandra Bruell
/ Oct 21When will we know who won? “I’d say, the over/under is Saturday. Which was when the call was made last time. Which is when Pennsylvania is likely to come in.” —
Politico / Steven Shepard
/ Oct 21“The Times says Grisham’s [new nonfiction] book ‘draws comprehensively and without appropriate attribution’ from ‘Blood Will Tell,’ a two-part series written by prominent criminal justice reporter Pamela Colloff in 2018…ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg said his outlet had found more than 50 examples of close similarities between Colloff’s articles and Grisham’s writing.” —
Washington Post / Will Sommer
/ Oct 21“The fact that a feasible, if narrow, path exists for Mr. Trump’s proposed crackdown speaks to the permeability of federal protections for the news media — and the obscure levers in the byzantine regulatory machine that an emboldened president may reach for in a moment of pique.” —
New York Times / Michael Grynbaum and David McCabe
/ Oct 21“The media business might be in free fall, but in Issaquah, Wash., the merriest band of magazine makers in America drives to Costco headquarters and sets about producing a monthly print periodical that is delivered to more households across the United States than Better Homes & Gardens, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic combined…You, perhaps, had no idea. But Oprah did. Ms. Winfrey has no shortage of press opportunities, but she has made time for Costco Connection.” —
The New York Times / Mattie Kahn
/ Oct 21“As a Spanish reporter, Pablo González charmed his way into Russian opposition circles and covered Putin’s wars. Then, in 2022, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage. Many former associates now believe that he betrayed them.” —
The Guardian / Shaun Walker
/ Oct 21“What has become known as the ‘Scurati case’ sparked fresh concerns about the decline of press freedom in Italy. Some Italian journalists had been raising the alarm for months. But the issue became more widely known in July with the publication of two reports on this issue: one from the MFRR media freedom watchdog and the European Commission’s yearly Rule of Law Report. Both reports highlighted concerns about media ownership and legal threats to journalists and criticised the governance system of the Italian public service broadcaster RAI.” —
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Marina Adami
/ Oct 21“The next key decision came in 2018 when subscriber growth flattened out. After testing out various trial offers they settled the deal which continues to this day of allowing people to trial the Globe website for six months for just $1. This is combined with a metered paywall which offers readers just one free article before they are invited to pay. The new offer led to a ten-fold increase in subscription conversions.” —
Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
/ Oct 21“Using tax documents and business filings, ProPublica traced the papers to aChicago-based publishing network led by former TV reporter Brian Timpone. His enterprises, including Metric Media, are known among researchers for peddling misinformation and slanted coverage … Many dioceses publish newspapers, but they are not partisan. In distancing itself from the Michigan Catholic Tribune, the Archdiocese of Detroit noted that tax-exempt churches are not permitted under the Internal Revenue Code to be involved in partisan politics.” —
ProPublica / Jennifer Smith Richards
/ Oct 21
