More local online news startups launch in face of newspaper cuts
New research shows that newsroom employment dropped nearly a quarter in less than 10 years, with the greatest decline at newspapers.
But attention is turning to whether digital media startups can fill the vacuum left by community newspapers. NBC News and Time magazine both look at the trend in the wake of layoffs at the New York Daily News.
And a number of significant local independent online news startup efforts have been announced in recent weeks.
Salem, Oregon is getting a new online news site. ‘I’m pretending there’s no other media there.’
In Memphis, a non-profit site will launch with a staff of 25 and a huge war chest.
And digital startup Colorado Sun plans to cover the whole state in greater depth.
Related: Local journalism is sick; don't misdiagnose the disease. News From Your Neighborhood, Brought to You by the State of New Jersey. There are actual solutions to the local news crisis: Forget billionaires — this is how we meet our community information needs.
Facebook to partner with LION, INN to boost membership programs
Facebook will partner with LION and INN to help local online news publishers grow membership programs. It also announced this week that the company would donate $1 million to the News Match program, which matches year-end donations at nonprofit news organizations.
"Like the subscription accelerator, the membership cohort will participate in a boot camp led by Tim Griggs, focused on developing marketing to build a team of paying supporters. The accelerator involves monthly in-person programming, weekly training, one-on-one coaching, and grant funding. The Lenfest Institute will help share best practices from the accelerator with the industry at large..."
Early bird rate available now for LION's annual conference
The world's largest gathering of local independent online news organizations will return to Chicago this fall, and right now you can take advantage of a discounted early bird rate for the 2018 LION Summit Oct. 11-13.
This year's conference will feature an opening day boot camp for idea-stage local news entrepreneurs and fledgling local independent online news publishers, and then two full days packed with an array of speakers, panel discussions and networking opportunities devoted to revenue ideas and best practices, community engagement and sustainability.
News About Local Independent Online News Sites
BROOKLYN: Stronger Bklyner Helps Keep ‘News Desert’ at Bay in NYC’s Biggest Borough.
CHICAGO: What Chance the Rapper’s Purchase of Chicagoist Means. He gets some advice -- do more than aggregate.
INFORMATION INEQUALITY: “Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?
NEW YORK: In Wake of Deep New York Daily News Cuts, the City Eyes Nonprofit Model.
NORTH CAROLINA: $500,000 goes to 10 North Carolina projects redefining the future of local news, including local independent online news sites Carolina Public Press and North Carolina Health News.
Q CITY METRO: Q City Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, is expanding, hiring its first managing editor.
Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue
AD BLOCKERS: Texas Monthly is running a test to stop readers who use ad-blockers.
AD FORMATS: Bloomberg Media takes a stab at overhauling the display ad.
AD TECH: What Ad Tech Means For Publishers. ‘We’ve reached critical mass’: Advertisers see more options to buy ads only from publishers that have adopted ads.txt.
MOBILE: Mobile Audiences Soar As Publishers, Advertisers Race To Keep Up.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Washington Post puts emphasis on creating paths to subscription. Apple tops 300 million paid subscriptions as it reportedly preps new subscription services.
Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology
AUDIENCE: Play well with others and other tips on growing audience.
CLIMATE CHANGE: The Media’s Failure to Connect the Dots on Climate Change: Why are some major news outlets still covering extreme weather like it's an act of God?
CRIME: Race of mass shooters influences how the media cover their crimes, new study shows. Down with the daily crime story: Crime stories shouldn’t be the cops’ story.
DATA: Bookmark these databases to find deeper stories and enrich your journalism with data. Google, working with news orgs like ProPublica, will return more datasets in search results.
ENGAGEMENT: What Journalists Can Learn from Organizers: A Guide. Lessons on reaching new people from a sold-out storytelling series. Hyperlocal publishers have identified the importance of forging authentic relationships with readers they serve as part of the secret sauce in building sustainable business models. She Won an Award and then Quit Her Reporting Job Out of Frustration.
FACT CHECKING: When fact-checkers are the subjects of misinformation.
GUN VIOLENCE: How to cover the vast, scattered population of gun violence survivors.
IMMIGRATION: Will news outlets keep following families separated by the Trump administration?
INVESTIGATIVE: “Ad revenue was all about chasing pageviews, not impact.” A shift toward reader revenue could bolster watchdog journalism.
METRICS: Choosing journalism metrics that actually count (and are countable!).
PHOTOGRAPHY: WordPress Introduces A Diverse, Free Stock Photo Library.
SOURCES: How and when to break your off-the-record promises.
TRAUMA: Are you ready for trauma in your newsroom? New research may help. Even ethical journalism can have collateral damage.
TRUST: Experiment shows that expert comments can increase news credibility. Research: Lack of trust in media perpetuates belief in fake news. Media bias extends way beyond politics. More Republicans in the news? That’s not media bias.
UGC: Four benefits of harnessing user-generated content to report on natural disasters.
Industry News
AMAZON: This is the Amazon everyone should have feared — and it has nothing to do with its retail business.
DIVERSITY: ASNE diversity survey a critical source of information, but only if leaders participate. Journalism is less diverse than Hollywood — and Congress. Minorities often consume the most media.
ETHNIC MEDIA: New publisher of Philly's Scoop USA keeps a black-owned newspaper going with faith and own funds. Audiences are shrinking for Hispanic- and black-oriented U.S. news media.
FACEBOOK: How much greater could your Facebook reach be? The fate of the once-lucrative American News Facebook page shows how much the hyperpartisan news business has struggled since 2016. By valuing bigness and growth above all of the other values that Facebook professes and kind of believes in, it made a deal with the devil of bigness, and now pays the toll. Facebook to Congress: We are on the job, please do not regulate us. Facebook Identifies an Active Political Influence Campaign Using Fake Accounts. Facebook deletes hundreds of posts under German hate-speech law.
FAKE NEWS: How conspiracy sites keep outsmarting big tech companies. The Oxygen of Amplification: Better Practices for Reporting on Far Right Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators. Democracy at risk due to fake news and data misuse, UK officials conclude. "Are You A Bot?" Is The New "Are You A Cop?" Leaked white paper proposes Congressional regulation of social media. Snopes is feuding with one of the internet's most notorious hoaxers. Snopes fired its managing editor — and she doesn't know why.
GOOGLE: Google confirms broad search algorithm update is rolling out. Google clarifies the upcoming Speed Update only impacts the ‘slowest sites.’
HARASSMENT: Study shows female journalists face “rampant” online harassment. "A reader became my stalker." Is this the new normal for journalists?
INSTAGRAM: Teens Are Debating the News on Instagram. Teens trust Instagram for news because they can engage in discussion and debate. Instagram not an instant fix for ailing Facebook. Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights is starting to build a business from its Instagram base.
MASSACHUSETTS: Ending nearly a half-century of family ownership, The Attleboro (Mass.) Sun Chronicle is purchased by owner of Rhode Island dailies.
McCLATCHY: McClatchy records another big revenue drop and a loss for the second quarter.
NABJ: A blistering memo and revolving door of directors: NABJ’s history of conflict.
NEW YORK TIMES: How one blog helped spark The New York Times’ digital evolution. ‘He doesn’t like bullies’: The story of the 37-year-old who took over the New York Times and is taking on Trump.
PODCASTING: Where should the daily news podcast go from here? (Can we get away from “the commute”?)
PRESS FREEDOM: Times publisher warned Trump about labeling journalists as enemies. Trump Escalates Attack Against Media After NYT Publisher Warned of Violence Against Journalists. Why Dean Baquet Skipped The New York Times’ Meeting With Trump. CNN’s Jim Acosta Warns Anti-Media Hostility Is Going To Get Someone Hurt. A climate of hate toward the press at Trump rallies. Journalists are at risk around the globe. Trump keeps adding fuel to the fire. Is It Finally Time for a Federal Shield Law?
PRINT: Decision to lower tariffs on newsprint by 5 percentage points viewed as limited help for struggling newspapers. Paper blames newsprint tariffs for dropping Sunday comics.
RIGHT-WING MEDIA: Eight Surprising Insights About Right-Wing Websites.
SNAPCHAT: Snap rises as Facebook falls.
TV: Cox Enterprises Inc. says it could merge its 14 TV stations into a larger TV company. Justice Department Investigates TV Station Owners Over Advertising Sales.
TWITTER: Twitter’s not “shadow banning” Republicans, but get ready to hear that it is. An analysis of 9.7 million tweets reveals that news organizations played the largest role in which content was linked to compared with other information providers.
WIKIPEDIA: How Wikipedia could make media more reliable.
YOUTUBE: YouTube search results for A-list celebrities hijacked by conspiracy theorists. How YouTube Bolstered Another Baseless Conspiracy Theory About Pedophile Rings.
Upcoming Events
INN AT ONA: INN will hold its annual fall business intensive, jam-packed with best practices on audience development from industry experts Tim Griggs and Shannan Bowen at this year's ONA conference Sept. 11-12.
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