| Fueled by match, nonprofit sites gear up for #GivingNewsDay
"Every year, millions of Americans mark the Tuesday after Thanksgiving by donating to nonprofit and philanthropic causes as part of Giving Tuesday. This year, News Match — the largest-ever grassroots campaign to strengthen nonprofit journalism across the United States — is launching #GivingNewsDay as part of this nationwide effort.
"With a goal of making 2017 a record-breaking year for donations to nonprofit news, more than 100 local and investigative newsrooms (including many run by LION members) are eligible to receive up to $28,000 each in matching grants, totaling more than $6 million in new support for journalism. On Nov. 28, Giving Tuesday encourages people to support the causes that matter to them, #GivingNewsDay is a reminder that quality journalism shines a spotlight on those issues every day."
Related: News Match grows as new funders step up to support nonprofit news.
What a repeal of net neutrality means for local news
You've heard by now that the FCC is planning a total repeal of net neutrality rules.
The move could have broad ramifications for communities' access to information, and for local independent online news publishers in particular, as Internet service providers and wireless carriers will have the ability to restrict access to publishers who don't pay them to get into a "fast lane" of access to the web. Small, independent news orgs could get left out as a handful of big publishers and tech companies with deep pockets pay for that access.
Poynter has a rundown on what journalists need to know about the new net neutrality battle.
RELATED: FCC Rule Rollback Makes It Easier To Buy And Sell Media Outlets. DOJ's AT&T suit could freeze media deals. More than a Million Pro-Repeal Net Neutrality Comments were Likely Faked. How the end of net neutrality could impact small businesses and advertising prices.
'The other reason billionaires should stay out of local news'
LION board member Scott Brodbeck, publisher of ARLNow.com and RestonNow.com in the Washington, D.C., area, writes about why DNAInfo was an outlier in the local online news business and other problems associated with billionaires playing in local media enterprises.
"... short attention spans and hidden motivations aside, there’s a more compelling reason that even the most altruistic wealthy people should avoid the local news space, and it is something they should be well-equipped to understand. The mere act of running a local news outlet at a significant loss produces a market distortion."
In Texas, a video-based local news site partners with a library
"Welcome to your local library, which also happens to be a newsroom."
Poynter features LION board member Charlotte-Anne Lucas and her innovative, video-focused nonprofit news site in San Antonio, NowCastSA. Its mission: “Amplify the voices of the people in the community, and give them access to the community.”
"This longtime partnership may provide a model as journalists and libraries find common cause and look for deeper ways to collaborate," writes David Beard. "... As local newspapers shrink or move to out-of-town ownership, and some digital local news operations encounter turbulence, libraries may play a bigger role in informing Americans."
An ad-focused local news site pilots mobile app subscriptions
Local independent online news site The Batavian moves to bolster its ad-supported free site with a subscription-based app.
The national online news site bubble may be bursting
"There’s a digital media crash," wrote Talking Points Memo. "But no one will say it."
Except everyone is talking about it. Poor results from some major national online news sites, and news that the Daily Beast and potentially others were looking to sell, have fueled a spate of articles over the past week about the "digital media bubble" bursting.
"Winter is here for digital media," Columbia Journalism Review declared.
Why there's so much anxiety in the (national) media business right now.
Some called it a "pivot from advertising," or a "pivot to reality."
Related: Digital media struggles to survive technology's chokehold.
Students play key role in local journalism for some indie sites
Independent web publishers from Texas, Wisconsin and Illinois discussed the benefits of their education-based work with youth reporters — ranging from teens to graduate students — at the 2017 Local Independent Online News Publishers Conference held last month in Chicago.
Up in Wisconsin, independent outlet Madison 365 created the Madison 365 Academy as a way to give local teenagers the journalism bug. This project’s mission is to create a pipeline of talent for teens of color to make their way into the journalism industry.
“A lot of them would never have thought of going into journalism before they come to us,” said Associate Publisher Rob Chappell.
News About Local Independent Online News Sites
CANADA: Village Media, relying on local advertisers, seems to have found a scalable (and profitable) local news model. Three years in, Discourse Media looks to membership to power its national expansion in Canada.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Why We Need to Teach More Business Skills in the J-School Classroom.
INDIES RISE: As newspaper industry consolidates, grassroots local online news sites emerge.
NEIGHBORHOODS: Neighborhood involvement is a critical factor in the sharing of hyperlocal news, research shows.
Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue
AD POSITIONS: ‘People are bombarded with ads’: Confessions of a publishing vet on user experience. Dazed’s redesign cut out ads — and people are staying a lot longer.
AD TECH: Fake-Ad Operation Used to Steal From Publishers Is Uncovered. The Financial Times got 24 ad exchanges to stop spoofing its site. Here's How Mobile App Publishers Are Defending Against Ad Fraud. Programmatic usage to ascend to two-thirds of global digital display market by 2019. ‘It’s not just for banner ads anymore’: The New York Times is making all of its ads available programmatically. Advertisers Express Interest in Bringing Programmatic In-House.
BLACKLISTING: Major Brands Blacklisting Media is Detrimental to Publishers. ‘We’ve had to tone down our honesty’: Confessions of a publisher on brand-safety concerns.
MEMBERSHIP: New membership model gives Cuban news site financial, editorial independence. Asking members to support its journalism (no prizes, no swag), The Guardian raises more reader revenue than ad dollars. Facing programmatic ad challenges, ThinkProgress pursues membership revenue. News media companies must think beyond the subscription. The pivot to paid heralds the rise of the chief customer officer at publishers. Get Great at Converting App Users into Members.
NATIVE ADVERTISING: The best ads aren’t ads. How audience data drives The Atlantic’s native ad strategy. The Rise of Native Programmatic Advertising. Separating programmatic native fact from fiction. Five Hidden Content Marketing Costs.
NEWSLETTERS: Why Email Newsletters Continue to Succeed for Newspapers.
PAID TRAFFIC: Publishers paying George Takei to promote stories isn’t just weird — it’s an FTC violation. Six sites, including Slate, Refinery29, Mic, end paid promotion partnerships with Takei to share their content on his Facebook page.
PLATFORMS: Topix was getting crushed by Google and Facebook. Now it's making millions off them.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Social Media Gets the Local Spending Growth, Partly by Default.
VIDEO: For video production, 64 percent of publishers say cost is their biggest challenge.
Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology
ARCHIVES: Changing media landscape adds yet another challenge to archivists of born-digital news content. After watching Gothamist and DNAinfo disappear, this journalist built a tool to help others save their own archives. Here are three tools that help digital journalists save their work in case a site shuts down.
CLICKBAIT: It is possible to shift to digital and not be clickbait.
DISABLED: How accessible is your website for the disabled? Consider doing an audit to find out.
ENGAGEMENT: Using Digital Games to Make Engaging Journalism. UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism hires "community organizer."
FACT CHECKING: In a step toward automation, Full Fact has built a live fact-checking prototype.
FOIA: ‘Public records are cool again’: The role of investigative journalism.
HEADLINES: The Enhanced Art of Writing Headlines.
HEALTH CARE: Campaign #QuoteHer aims to get women’s voices in healthcare reporting.
INVESTIGATIVE: How the ‘Paradise Papers’ Set the Bar Even Higher for Global Collaboration. The Paradise Papers: methods and tools for investigating a massive leak. Investigate these resources for in-depth reporting, from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. Measuring Impact: Best Practices in Gauging the Impact of Investigative Journalism.
METRICS: How to Tell the Story of Metrics Inside Your News Organization.
MOBILE: The case for geotagging local news. How OtherWorld Uses Beacon Technology to Share Local News Stories. Using the Right Technology and Data to Keep Mobile App Users Engaged.
RACE: Q&A: AP’s new race reporter on how her beat is everywhere.
SOLUTIONS: How to Do Better Visual Journalism for Solutions Stories.
STORY COMMENTS: Why Crain's is no longer allowing comments.
TRANSCRIPTIONS: The best automatic transcription tools for journalists.
TRUST: The Trust Project launches transparency standards to help readers identify reliable news sources. Local audiences consuming news on social platforms are hungry for transparency.
UNPUBLISHING: Survey seeks information on unpublishing policies.
VIDEO: Born on Facebook, Al Jazeera’s AJ+ is now warming to YouTube.
Tools and Tips: Industry News
AXIOS: Axios Raises $20 Million to Fund Newsroom Expansion.
CODING: Don’t just teach kids to code – teach them to question Facebook and Google.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Chicago Tribune leaving namesake tower by mid-2018.
CNN: How CNN documented human slave auctions.
FACEBOOK: Does a free press mean more regulation for Facebook? How Facebook Turns ‘Likes’ Into Dollars Right Down to the Local Level. Mark Zuckerberg has discussed "community" more than 150 times in public. A close reading reveals his road map for the platform’s future. Facebook (Still) Letting Housing Advertisers Exclude Users by Race. In some countries, fake news on Facebook is a matter of life and death.
FAKE NEWS: Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal. At Snopes, a Peek Down the Right-Wing Rabbit Holes. Fighting fake news: by the time it reaches your social media feed, it’s too late. Don't put too much hope in EU legislation against fake news. Google to 'derank' Russia Today and Sputnik. Facebook Plans to Let Users Know If They Followed Russian Pages. How media brands are using marketing to turn accusations of fake news into page views.
GOOGLE: Google referrals up 17% on the year with AMP traffic. Why magazine mogul Tina Brown is ‘angry and upset’ at Google and Facebook.
HARASSMENT: Men and journalism: Where we go from here. So how big is the media’s sexual-harassment problem? Which sexual harassment and assault stories should you cover? Here are some guidelines.
KOCH BROTHERS: The Kochs Are Inching Closer to Becoming Media Moguls.
LA TIMES: The LA Times flirts with unionization, defying its history.
MASHABLE: ‘Jack-of-all-trades, master of none’: Why Mashable flamed out.
PRESS FREEDOM: An American Journalist Is Facing A Felony Trial This Week — In The United States. The media is giving up its place in our democracy. China is perfecting a new method for suppressing dissent on the internet.
PUERTO RICO: Local reporters in Puerto Rico ‘forge ahead’ through wreckage.
SINGAPORE: Singapore news startups struggle to cover costs and find their footing.
SNAPCHAT: Snapchat is selling a new type of ad just in time for the holidays: Promoted Stories.
TRADE PRESS: Trump circus squeezes a key media niche on Capitol Hill.
TV: Is Local TV Worth Saving?
TWITTER: Twitter testing a feature that shows how many are ‘talking about’ tweets.
UNIONS: A unionization wave across big players in national media. In an era of billionaire media moguls, do press unions stand a chance? Vox Media's editorial employees are seeking to unionize. "Vox Media Is Trying to Unionize and Your Newsroom Should, Too."
WASHINGTON POST: The Washington Post Is A Software Company Now.
WIKILEAKS: How Jared Kushner’s Newspaper Became a Favorite Outlet for WikiLeaks Election Hacks.
WIKITRIBUNE: How WikiTribune is aiming to combat trust issues in journalism.
UPCOMING EVENTS
LION WEBINARS: Upcoming LION webinars are free for members and just $15 for non-members.
* FACEBOOK LIVE IN LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE: Charlotte-Anne Lucas of NOWCastSA will offer advice and discuss best practices on the technical requirements of livestreaming video on Facebook, building an audience for livestreams, and choosing the right topics and events to cover with live video from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12.
* COVERING YOUR LOCAL HOSPITAL: Rose Hoban of North Carolina Health News will talk about the many stories to be found in delving into the finances, policies, practices and performance of your local hospital at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22.
Is Your LION Publishers Membership Up for Renewal?
For many of our LION Publishers members, it's time to renew! Your membership includes participation in the LION Publishers Den on Facebook, networking and support from fellow LION publishers, our new newsletter, discounted rates on media liability and directors and officers insurance and more.
Plus, being a member gives you access to a members-only rate to the LION Summit – a savings of up to $175 compared to the non-member rate. If your membership is due for renewal, please go to http://www.lionpublishers.com/members/dues/renew to submit your payment. Those who opt for multi-year membership save, and easy, secure payment options are available via credit card or through Paypal. (Not sure when your membership expires? You can look it up easily on LIONPublishers.com.) |