LION will talk business of indie online news at IRE in Phoenix
Choosing between a for-profit and nonprofit business model, the state of advertising and sponsorships, making the leap from seed funding to sustainability, collaborating with bigger news organizations and being intentional about ethics will be on the agenda as LION Publishers hosts a day of programming in Phoenix Friday, June 23, in association with the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference and INN Days.
LION is also partnering with the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the Knight Foundation to host a discussion about Facebook's new efforts to work with local news organizations, and a Reporters Committee for a Free Press session on legal protections for journalists.
The program coincides with the annual Investigative Reporters & Editors annual conference, which runs June 22-25 at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa outside Phoenix, and the Institute for Nonprofit News' "INN Days," June 21-22, open to LION members and held at the same location.
Media layoffs blamed on Google's and Facebook's dominance
What’s behind the recent media bloodbath? The dominance of Google and Facebook. Layoffs are the media’s own ‘carnage’ as the industry struggles to deal with oversupply and evolving technology.
LION webinar tackles online copyright issues, fair use
LION is offering a webinar at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 22, on copyright issues and what constitutes "fair use" in journalism and online content.
When is it OK to take a picture off the web for your post? How much of someone else's piece can you quote when you are doing a news roundup? Can you use someone else's infographic design for your own work if you change the colors and the data are different? When do you have the right to complain--and collect--when someone else takes your stuff? What should you do if someone else claims you infringed on their copyright? U.S. copyright journalists permits a remarkable range of unlicensed use of copyrighted material under the doctrine of fair use. But in this fast-paced climate, it can be nerve-wracking to make the right call.
Prof. Patricia Aufderheide has worked with colleagues at the Washington College of Law at American University for more than a decade to clarify how fair use works with professional groups, including journalists. She helped to facilitate the Set of Principles in Fair Use for Journalism. In this webinar, she will address questions you have after reading the Principles and seeing how they match up with your own practice.
This webinar is free for LION members and only $15 for non-members.
News About Local Independent Online News Sites
COLORADO: Clarity Media’s push to dominate Colorado politics coverage.
FLORIDA: 30A Takes Its Local Media Success Story 5,637 Miles to Moscow.
ILLINOIS: What a hyperlocal investigative powerhouse looks like.
NEW JERSEY: Samantha Bee Helps New Jersey News Site Attract New Subscribers.
PATREON: Why a NASCAR reporter left USA Today and launched a Patreon account.
Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue
AD BLOCKING: The Virtuous Cycle Of Ad Quality Enforcement. The Coming War: Browsers Against Advertising Pollution. What Does Apple's No-Tracking Feature Mean For Ad Tech? Apple's new anti-tracking system will make Google and Facebook even more powerful. Advertisers Need To Be Upfront About Mobile-Based Tracking.
BOYCOTTS: Opinion: "Stop the Madness: Advertising Boycotts Will Destroy Us All."
DISPLAY ADS: How USA Today is using custom display ads.
E-COMMERCE: How Gay Times is growing its e-commerce business.
FUNDRAISING: Five Content Themes That Inspire Donor Action.
GRANTS: Journalism nonprofit offers seed money for news ‘experimentation.’ Four tips for journalists applying for foundation grants.
INSTANT ARTICLES: How Facebook Instant Articles Can Win Back Publishers.
MEMBERSHIP: Membership programs are paying off for news outlets — and so is helping them set up their programs.
NEWSLETTERS: Newsletter optimizer Opt In allows newsrooms to improve newsletters or create one from scratch. Email is a Sacred Space: Designing for Newsletters. The Three Most Effective Ways to Grow Your Email List.
PAYWALLS: Incognito no more: The Boston Globe’s tightened paywall pays dividends. Bloomberg Businessweek is cutting down free access to content.
PODCASTING: McClatchy is beginning to launch podcasts at its regional papers. Apple is going to let podcast creators — and advertisers — see what listeners actually like. The Washington Post to start experimenting with audio articles using Amazon Polly. Apple’s new analytics for podcasts mean a lot of change (some good, some inconvenient) is on the way. What you need to know. How far will Apple go in creating an advertising platform for podcasting? Expanding into digital audio? Some lessons from VT Digger.
SEARCH: Five reasons why websites still matter to local search in 2017.
SPONSORED CONTENT: Instagram’s most-followed celebs failed to label 93 percent of ads, report finds. Sponsored content drives one-third of millennials to purchase. Native Advertising Set to Expand Again, to $22 Billion in 2017. How Technology Is Redefining Native Advertising for Brands.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Facebook Building Feature to Let Users Subscribe to News Publications. Facebook’s working with publishers on paid subscriptions. Is Facebook serious about helping publishers find subscribers? Industry leaders are watching carefully. How NRC Media reconfigured its subscription sales model.
VIDEO: Why digital video automation equals revenue. How The Washington Post is training video polymaths. How a men’s style YouTuber monetized his audience with online courses.
Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology
ARCHIVES: By Ignoring Archives, News Organizations Put Much at Risk, Miss Rewards.
AUDIENCE: As audience development grows, publishers question who should own it.
CMS: Kinja, the publishing system at the heart of Gawker, lives on under Univision.
COLLABORATION: How do we help newsrooms build effective, meaningful collaborative projects or improve them?
DATA: With help from Microsoft, The Associated Press is launching a program for localized data stories. Open letter to Facebook from a data journalist.
ENGAGEMENT: Our audiences don’t care that we are trying. Without a public editor, The New York Times’ new Reader Center aims to connect with its audience. Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation. How to ask more engaging questions.
FOIA: Vermont Supreme Court considers whether public officials' private emails and texts are subject to FOIA. Will your FOIA request succeed? This new machine will tell you. Think FOIA Is a Paper Tiger? The New York Times Gives It Some Bite.
GRAPHICS: Nerd Journalism: How Data And Digital Technology Transformed News Graphics. Boost Community Engagement with Brilliant Visuals: The Columbia Missourian’s Story.
IMMIGRANTS: The News Deserts in Immigrant Communities. Five lessons from creating a bilingual, multicultural newsroom in Southern Indiana.
INVESTIGATIVE TOOLS: Bellingcat’s Guide to Open Source Verification and Investigation Tools, Resources and Methods. Use these four lists to organize your investigative reporting project.
MOBILE: How technology opens up and creates new “media moments.” (And kills others.) 85 percent of Americans use mobile devices to access news — and seniors are driving that number up.
NON-COMPETES: "I learned the hard way why non-competes are bad for journalists."
OBJECTIVITY: "Objectivity" says, in essence, that journalists are not human. When journalists become part of the problem by only "observing."
PHOTOS: Thirteen Powerful Tools for Online Photo Editing.
SCIENCE: Why The Media Should Hire More Scientists.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Can we be both real and our best on social media? How publishers use emotion to promote content on Facebook.
STORYTELLING: The 10 secrets to great journalism hidden away in ‘Master of None.’
SURVEY: Quick survey: What do you want to know about digital journalism, and how do you want to learn it?
TIMELINES: This free tool will help you make beautiful timelines.
VETERANS: From jobs to journalism: Task & Purpose is finding a niche reporting on veterans’ issues.
WRITING: CBC Ombudsman: Beware of generalizations. Seven ways to avoid jargon in your writing.
Industry News
ALGORITHMS: What does it mean to ask for an “explainable” algorithm?
CANADA: Canada’s largest newspaper chain is in trouble. Shrinking Canadian newsrooms need funding, members of parliament say.
CENSORSHIP: Making Google the Censor. Time for equal media treatment of ‘political correctness.’
CHICAGO: Why the Disintegration of Chicago’s Most Iconic Media Brand Is Such a Big Blow to the Windy City. Sun-Times agrees to extend deadline for bidders. Will Tronc Get Squeezed Out of a Sun-Times Acquisition?
CIVITAS: Civitas Media sells 17 daily newspapers in Ohio and two in West Virginia to HD Media. Champion Acquires N.C. and S.C. Assets of Civitas Media. Phillips buys Missouri Civitas paper.
COLLEGE JOURNALISM: Poynter, Koch Foundation Create Program for College Journalists. The Would-Be Woodwards Are Opting Out of Journalism.
DRONES: What Local TV Should Know Before Taking Off With Drone Journalism.
FACEBOOK: New Facebook Tools Help Marketers Serve Ads to People Most Likely to Spend Money. Now Facebook can tell lawmakers what voters are reading. Facebook’s Role in European Elections Under Scrutiny. Facebook Metes Out A Few New Ad Controls, But No Third-Party Brand Safety Measurement Yet. Facebook requests input on hard questions about censorship and terrorism.
FAKE NEWS: Brits and Europeans seem to be better than Americans at not sharing fake news. Reuters’ survey suggests that readers are getting (a bit) smarter about verifying breaking news. Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones and how to interrogate a liar without getting played. Megyn Kelly fiasco is one more instance of far right outmaneuvering media. Fox News, Filter Bubbles, and Fake News. Pay to sway: report reveals how easy it is to manipulate elections with fake news. Want a “news-style soft article”? That’ll be $15. Or splurge and discredit a journalist for $55,000. YouTube announces four new steps that it’s taking to combat extremist content. We need our platforms to put people and democratic society ahead of cheap profits. This Hyperpartisan Conservative Site Is Connected To Several Pro-Trump PACs. How a journalism class is teaching middle schoolers to fight fake news.
GENDER GAP: WSJ union report shows persistent gender pay gap at Dow Jones.
HUFFPOST: HuffPost Lays Off Dozens Amid Corporate Cutbacks.
INSTAGRAM: Instagram is testing a new way for celebrities and influencers to identify their sponsored posts.
LA TIMES: Buyouts hit the Los Angeles Times.
LIBRARIES: Lessons on newsroom culture from the library.
McCLATCHY: Inside McClatchy’s plan to reinvent its newsrooms.
MILLENNIALS: The Washington Post’s millennial women-focused spinoff The Lily is going the distributed route.
MOBILE: Growth in mobile news use driven by older adults. Modern marketing means mobile messaging. The new speed of mobile engagement.
NET NEUTRALITY: How Media Monopolies Are Undermining Democracy and Threatening Net Neutrality. Of course cable companies are going to screw up the internet.
NEW YORK TIMES: Why the New York Times is rethinking its strategy about every 18 months. The New York Times’ redesign aims to match the quality of its products to its journalism. The New York Times, with a little help from automation, is aiming to open up most articles to comments. Why news organizations need ombudsmen. With its new Reader Center, The New York Times wants to forge deeper connections with its readers.
NON-COMPETE: NowThis Forbids Staff From Taking Jobs At Other News Outlets.
OWN LOCAL: OwnLocal Acquires Wanderful Media, Building Out Local Data.
PRESS FREEDOM: Charges show peril for leakers, journalists alike. The Legal Landscape Of Leaks. How the Reality Winner case is a 'cautionary tale' for journalists.
PRINT: Local newspapers that are still rooted in community are optimistic.
RADIO: Cumulus Media is on the brink of a total collapse.
RESEARCH: When certainties fade: The changing state of academic research into the changing world of news.
SNAPCHAT: Snapchat survey shows that distrust in the media is not so simple. Remember $700,000 ads? Now Snapchat wants small business ad dollars.
TIME: Time Inc. cuts 300 positions.
TWITTER: A new Twitter test puts a bunch of current events across the top of user timelines. How Twitter lost its value as a news source.
UK: This Was The Election Where UK Newspapers Lost Their Monopoly On The Political News Agenda.
VERIZON: Verizon could take on Facebook and Google in online advertising — but it is not there yet.
VILLAGE VOICE: The Village Voice's Liberal Savior Owner Is Trying to Crush its Union.
VOCATIV: Vocativ lays off entire editorial staff in pivot to video.
WASHINGTON POST: At 'Washington Post,' Tech Is Increasingly Boosting Financial Performance.
YOUTUBE: Google: Most YouTube advertisers have returned since boycott.
UPCOMING EVENTS
INN DAYS: The Institute for Nonprofit News will hold its annual conference in association with IRE in Phoenix, June 21-22. LION members are welcome.
IRE: Investigative Reporters & Editors conference in Phoenix, June 22-25.
LION SUMMIT - PHOENIX: LION Publishers will hold a day-long program at the IRE conference hotel in Phoenix on June 23.
LION SUMMIT - CHICAGO: Save the dates! LION Publishers' annual conference will be held Oct. 26-28 in Chicago.
LION WEBINARS: LION Publishers hosts a monthly webinar series. Upcoming webinars:
* June 22: Copyright and fair use for journalists, with American University Professor Patricia Aufderheide.
* July 18: Making sense of metrics for local independent online news publishers, with Metrics Shift Editor Jason Alcorn.
* Aug. 17: Free content for local publishers from national partners, with Tucson Sentinel Publisher Dylan Smith.
* Sept. 14: Hiring, paying and managing sales reps at local independent online news sites, with ARLNow.com Publisher Scott Brodbeck, Home Page Media Publisher Kelly Gilfillan and Richland Source Publisher Jay Allred.
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.) |