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.

Bloomberg / Davey Alba, Denise Lu, Leon Yin, and Eric Fan

X’s Community Notes are slow and ineffective in fight against misinfo, according to new Bloomberg analysis →

“X is a difficult platform to moderate because its recommendation system is so attuned to breaking news events … The content on X — including viral falsehoods on the platform — ‘accelerates very, very fast.'”

What else we were reading on November 21

CNN / Oliver Darcy

Peter Kafka leaves Vox to head back to Business Insider →

“Back in 2007, Kafka was the first hire at Silicon Alley Insider, which later morphed into BI. Now the prodigal son will return. I’m told Kafka will depart Vox Media, where he has for years served as a senior correspondent, in December. He will then start his new role at BI in early January. Fans of Kafka’s Recode Media podcast can also rest assured: The pod will continue under the Morning Brew banner.” —SS

The Daily Beast / Lachlan Cartwright

Jezebel set to rise from the dead →

“Four potential buyers came out of the woodwork following the shock news earlier this month that the site was shuttering. And from that pool, two bidders have submitted seven-figure offers to bring the iconic site back to life, according to two people familiar with the matter.” —LO

The Texas Tribune / William Melhado

Texas attorney general announces investigation of Media Matters following Elon Musk’s lawsuit →

The media watchdog group’s report last week prompted companies to pull advertisements from X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would investigate Media Matters — which he referred to as a “radical anti-free speech organization” — under Texas laws protecting consumers from fraud.

The Guardian / Robert Tait

The Israel-Hamas war is the deadliest conflict on record for reporters, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists →

“The reporters’ watchdog has recorded the deaths of 48 reporters since Hamas embarked on a murderous killing spree in Israel on 7 October, triggering a concerted Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response.” —HT

New Lines Magazine / Anthony Milton

How the news disappeared in Canada →

“They’re playing a high-stakes game of chicken hoping the government will blink, so they can point to Canada from here on out and say, ‘Here’s what happens when you mess with us.'” —LO

Platformer / Casey Newton

OpenAI’s alignment problem →

“OpenAI’s board got almost everything wrong, but they were right to worry about the terms on which we build the future, and I suspect it will now be a long time before anyone else in this industry attempts anything other than the path of least resistance.”

Lenfest Institute for Journalism / Megan Lucero

“A space for imagination”: In conversation with the co-founders of The Lorde Society →

“Being a part of the Lorde Society is like being a part of a professional sisterhood,” said Wendi C. Thomas, founder of MLK50 (and a 2016 Nieman Fellow). “We are trailblazers in our own ways, yet there are no professional associations for us. The Lorde Society is becoming that nurturing space.”

—LO

Bloomberg / Robert Burnson

Trump’s Truth Social parent company is suing 20 media outlets for $1.5 billion for incorrectly reporting how much money it lost →

“Reuters and some other publications said they had reached the wrong figure by incorrectly counting a $50.5 million profit for 2022 as a loss. TMTG lawyers said that the ‘incredible circumstances’ of all 20 outlets reporting the $73 million figure within hours of each other suggested a coordinated campaign.” —LO

Medium / The NYT Open Team

How The New York Times designed its audio app from the ground up →

“All in all, we’ve forged a unique relationship with the newsroom that has continued to shape our work. Our collaboration helped make us feel like one team — editors informing design iterations and the needs of our designs themselves, and designers pitching concepts that ultimately inspire a new editorial approach.”

TechCrunch / Sarah Perez

Instagram Threads missed a moment to shine as OpenAI’s drama unfolded on X →

“Journalists were breaking news on X…though [Kara] Swisher cross-posted some of her updates to Threads, one of her X scoops saw 5.5 million views and 6,000 likes. On Threads, her biggest posts attracted single-digit thousands in terms of links.” —LO

The Present Age / Parker Molloy

When it comes to war and speech, who gets to speak and what do we actually hear? →

“The common thread here is that people in power and the mainstream press are set on creating caricatures of their critics to avoid addressing any of the difficult questions posed by protesters.”

Voice of America / Associated Press

Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei wants to privatize public media outlets →

“In his radio comments, Milei described the public media outlets he wants to make private as amounting to ‘a covert ministry of propaganda.’ He complained during the presidential race that the coverage of his campaign in state-run outlets was highly negative.” —LO

WIRED / Lauren Goode

Del Harvey helped make Twitter’s hardest content moderation calls for 13 years. Now she’s breaking her silence. →

“When trust and safety is going well, no one thinks about it or talks about it. And when trust and safety is going poorly, it’s usually something that leadership wants to blame on policies. Quite frankly, policies are going to be a Band-Aid if your product isn’t being designed in a way that actually doesn’t encourage abuse.” —LO

National Post / Bryan Passifiume

Canada expands its payroll tax credit for news publishers →

Qualifying news outlets can now claim up to 35% of up to $85,000 in salary for a qualified employee. Previously, publishers could claim 25% of up to $55,000 in salary per employee. The country also offers a tax credit to individuals to encourage digital news subscriptions.

Meta

Meta unveils new tools to support independent research across Facebook and Instagram →

“Researchers can search, explore and filter that content on both a graphical User Interface (UI) or through a programmatic API.” (See also: Why researchers want broader access to social media data.) —LO

The New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum

Jeff Zucker poised to return to news leading two prominent British outlets →

In a reversal of a recent media trend, the American is “near an agreement” to become “an improbable mogul of British conservative media” as he nears an agreement to gain control of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. Zucker, the former president of CNN, reportedly plans to expand the Telegraph into the U.S.

Press Gazette / Bron Maher

The Guardian launches new ad product to allow advertisers to reach readers who’ve opted out of cookies →

“Right now, about 30% of people on the open web click ‘reject all’ [when asked if they want to opt-in to cookies]. But when they do that, we can’t serve them any advertising – that is until now.” (The publisher also encouraged advertisers to look past the “tofu and oat milk” stereotype of its audience.)