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What We’re Reading
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.
November 6, 2024
“The changes would allow for ‘greater scrutiny in the public interest’ of deals that include the purchase of U.K. online news publications and news magazines ‘that might adversely impact accurate reporting, freedom of expression and media plurality.'”
The Hollywood Reporter / Georg Szalai / Nov 6
“Matt Rogerson, director of global public policy and platform strategy at the FT and former Guardian Media Group director of public policy, argued that Google’s “social contract” with publishers — through which it provided value to the industry by sending traffic to their sites — has been broken.”
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt / Nov 6
“Are there political levers the former president could pull to target media companies he doesn’t like? Yes. But harassment campaigns and lawsuits that drain companies of time, money, resources and trust are much easier and can be just as punitive.”
Axios / Sara Fischer / Nov 6
“Unlike four years ago, anchors were not forced to delve into the minutiae of absentee ballot counts and arcane legal challenges. The legal pundits on retainer at the networks stayed on the sidelines. The trend lines were clear — and some anchors picked up on the direction of the results earlier than others.” SC
The New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin / Nov 6
“Both King and Kornacki moved at lightning speed, using their fingers to flip from this state to that one, and from this county to that one. The expertise they showed and the authority they spoke with made viewers instantly experts on the voting habits of Pennsylvanians and Georgians and North Carolinians. They offered incredible insight, flipping from the current vote total, to what was left outstanding, to how it all compared to 2020 and 2016. Well before official numbers came in, thanks to the analysis of King and Kornacki, viewers could quickly see where results were headed.” SC
Poynter / Tom Jones / Nov 6
November 5, 2024
Plus screenshots. LO
Twitter / Greg Giroux / Nov 5
“Wikipedia is facing mounting regulatory pressure in India as local authorities question whether the platform should continue to enjoy legal protections as a neutral intermediary rather than being classified as a publisher…The notice follows a contentious case in the Delhi High Court, where judges have described Wikipedia’s open editing feature as ‘dangerous’ and threatened to suspend its operations in India.”
TechCrunch / Manish Singh / Nov 5
“Publishing the Needle live on election night relies on computer systems maintained by engineers across the company, including some who are currently on strike. How we display our election forecast will depend on those systems, as well as incoming data feeds, and we will only publish a live version of the Needle if we are confident those systems are stable.”
The New York Times / Nov 5
“After relaunching Giant Freakin Robot in 2019, the site grew to a readership of more than 20 million a month, through 2021 and 2022. Then Google decided they didn’t want independent publishers around anymore. Most entertainment keywords have now been given to one big company, whose numerous sites own the top slots for nearly every entertainment-related query of any substance. No one can find our site to read it so that 20 million unique visitors is now a few thousand a month.” JB
Giant Freakin Robot / Joshua Tyler / Nov 5
“While friends and neighbors were reeling, while lawmakers offered thoughts and prayers, the Leader-News staff put one word in front of the other, covering the shooting and mourning its seismic ramifications at the same time. They kept going when they learned that their colleague’s daughter was among the victims. They kept going when members of the national media went home.”
The New York Times / Elisabeth Egan / Nov 5