Knight Foundation matches nonprofit news site donations
A group of 57 nonprofit news and related organizations, including several led by LION members, has until Jan. 19 to be eligible for up to $25,000 each and $1.5 million total that the Knight Foundation has committed in matching funds for local donations.
According to Nieman Lab, Knight was in part motivated by the surge in donations that some nonprofit sites have seen following the election of Donald Trump as president. It's matching program runs through the day before he is inaugurated.
Related: At VTDigger, an independent online news site in Vermont, donations from readers make a huge impact. How Voice of San Diego is helping five newsrooms bring memberships into the revenue mix.
Programmatic advertising presents a moral dilemma
The New York Times tackles what ad technology has done to enable fake news sites (and impact the revenue of real ones).
"Advertising on the internet has never been easier. Data and automation increasingly allow companies large and small to reach millions of people every month, and to tailor ads to specific groups based on their browsing habits or demographics. Now, however, the marketing industry is facing a moral quandary in the face of a national debate over the role that fake news played in the presidential election and the realization that many websites that promote false and misleading stories are motivated by the money they can make from online advertising."
More news business and journalism productions for 2017
More highlights from Nieman Lab's excellent annual collection of predictions from journalism leaders:
Pure reach has reached its limit. Fix the demand side of news, too. 2017 is for the attention innovators. Moving deeper than the machine of clicks. User-generated content as a path out of the bubble.
The wall between business and news was taken to absurd limits, creating culture of divisiveness that lingers today. Quality advertising to pair with quality content.
Rise of the rebel journalist. A rebirth of populist journalism.
The year of the user. Journalism is community-as-a-service. Not just covering communities, reaching them. In 2017, more news orgs will listen deeply to people, with genuine curiosity and without preconception.
Show your work. Be authentic by being more honest about what you know and what you don’t. Communicating uncertainty to our readers.
Related: Beyond Fake News: Ignore the comments section and other ways to murder media in 2017.
Winter is coming: prospects for the American press under Trump. But there are things that can be done. As Trump era nears, is the media ready for the challenge? Democrats overall express more trust than Republicans in the information they get from national news organizations.
Last year wasn’t the worst of it for journalists. How journalism can seize the moment.
News About Local Independent Online News Sites
CHARLOTTE AGENDA: Despite stumble in Raleigh, will The Agenda be part of ‘new localism?'
DC: Neighborhood news site built a loyal D.C. following but couldn’t make money.
LOCAL NEWS: There are huge advantages to moving to a smaller city.
INNOVATION: Uncommon sense: The indispensability of 'small' innovation — and how to do it well.
MOBILE: Why the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is launching a mobile news lab.
Tools and Tips: Advertising and Revenue
AD GROWTH: Digital advertising grew double digits again to hit $17.6 billion in 3rd quarter.
DATA: Better data about your users. Deep audience data should shape marketing strategy. Being daring rather than data will save advertising.
EMAIL: Email outperforms social media, paid search for ROI.
FACEBOOK: Facebook ads are 'far less viewable' than some advertisers were expecting. Why TBS is using Instant Articles to promote its brand. Facebook is the referral traffic story of 2016. Facebook will now let you block ads that might be "upsetting." The Boston Globe uses Facebook groups to create direct connections with readers. Facebook discloses another metrics mishap affecting publishers. Now Facebook says it gave some publishers bad traffic numbers on Instant Articles.
FUNDRAISING: News organizations spend so much time telling everyone else’s stories that they forget to tell their own.
MOBILE: Survey: What users really want from mobile apps. It’s not about dumbing down or giving up on context — it’s about learning a new grammar that works on a small screen. A very blunt instrument’: The potential and power of mobile notifications. Finally going mobile-friendly, but on a collision course with Google’s mobile-first index. What would it take to make apps viable for publishers? Google helping mobile publishing? Some publishers are not so sure.
NATIVE ADVERTISING: One take: Native advertising has flaws, but they’re fixable. Another: Native advertising is broken. Here's how to fix it.
PLATFORMS: Distributed content: The best ways to build sustainable platform strategies. In 2017, platforms grow up or grow more toxic.
PODCASTING: The year of the newsy podcast.
PROGRAMMATIC: Is the programmatic revolution over? Year in preview: Programmatic alliances splinter. Ad tech's biggest winners and losers in 2016. A briefing with Amazon, ad tech's dark horse.
VIDEO: A bug in Twitter's app inflated video ad metrics by as much as 35%. Let’s make live video we can love. The state of video in 2016: Social video, mobile video, heavy competition.
Tools and Tips: Journalism and Technology
AUDIO: Tool for journalists: Audiogram, for making audio more shareable on social media.
CHAT: Can chat apps help local papers ‘talk’ their way out of distress?
COMEDY: It’s funny because it’s true: Fact-based comedy can affect audiences.
CULTURE: Culture guides how your newsroom reacts to everything that comes its way. Ten resolutions for managers leading newsrooms in 2017.
DATA: Journalists are only starting to acquire the large-scale data-wrangling expertise needed to tap certain stories.
DIVERSITY: How newsrooms can stop being so white. Failing diversity is failing journalism.
DRONES: DroneHack: Journalism will explore newsgathering and storytelling with drones. The year of the drone, really. Taking a look back at the year in drones in 2016. How drones can influence the future of journalism.
ENGAGEMENT: Creating a trust toolkit for journalism. Rethinking engagement strategies for a home page bypass. Five reasons why engagement is so hot right now. Five ways ‘engaged journalism’ made progress in 2016. Ten things the Engaging News Project learned this year. Baking transparency into our routines.
FACT CHECKING: Tools, training and tips for journalists: First Draft’s 2016 in review.
FAKE NEWS: Russian cyberforgers steal millions a day with fake sites. For fact-checking website Snopes, a bigger role brings more attacks. BuzzFeed editor-in-chief in year-end memo: 'Fake news will become more sophisticated' than ever in 2017. Fake news epidemic started with alternative health news sites. Despite fact-checking, zombie myths about climate change persist. Foundations take myriad approaches to combat misinformation, fake news. The war on 'fake news' is over. So what's next in restoring media credibility? How to fight fake news and misinformation? Research helps point the way. This is what it’s like to read fake news for two weeks. Fake news percentages, numbers of working journalists, declining print ad revenue: 2016 in numbers. BuzzFeed News found a network of over 40 sites that have published more than 750 fake news stories. Reversing the erosion of democracy: Facts matter, and we need to believe in that.
INSTAGRAM: Creative ways to build community engagement through Instagram.
METRICS: A good metric changes the way you behave. Easily creating day/hour heatmaps from Google Analytics. Five tips to build a fully automated metrics dashboard with Google Sheets. The opportunity for journalists who get metrics. The year we talk about our awful metrics.
SEARCH: Google is becoming less of a traffic powerhouse, new report suggests. Google updates algorithm to demote Holocaust denial and hate sites in search results.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Newsrooms test social media strategies to forge relationships with audiences. How to integrate Snapchat into your social media strategy.
STORY COMMENTS: Four rules for creating comments sections you won’t want to avoid. Changing the encoded anonymity of the web.
TRAUMA: In 2017, we'll see more suffering, not all of it far away, and we'll see more journalists reveal how it affects them.
USER EXPERIENCE: Usefulness, community, format: Questions to ask to improve your editorial projects.
Industry News
CANADA: The bottom falls out of Canadian media.
CONFLICTS: Community radio’s role is to train journalists, not police contributors’ personal lives.
EDITORIALS: How to save the dying newspaper editorial.
FACEBOOK: Facebook developing copyright ID system to stem music infringement. Zuckerberg implies Facebook is a media company, just “not a traditional media company.” How many people really get their news from Facebook? You’d be surprised. Facebook, Google, consolidation: What drove media deals in 2016. 2016: The year we stopped listening to big tech’s favorite excuse. In 2017: It’s everyone against Facebook and Google. Plus, chatbots and AI.
GOOGLE: The unintended consequences of Google's impending shutdown of Map Maker.
LEGACY MEDIA: New York's news giants scramble for ways to survive. It’s time to stop saying ‘old media.’
MILLENNIALS: Which media draw the youngest, highest-income and most diverse audiences?
NET NEUTRALITY: FCC chairman Tom Wheeler’s departure is the death knell for net neutrality.
NEW JERSEY: Christie legal notice bill threatens New Jersey papers. New Jersey publishers 'not slowing down' in opposition to Christie newspaper 'revenge bill.' New Brunswick police serve search warrant on journalist they've targeted before.
NORTH CAROLINA: Owner of Raleigh News & Observer buys Durham paper.
NOW THIS: NowThis innovates with chatbots and Facebook Live.
NPR: How NPR One data points to new ways of thinking about local content. The secret sauce behind an editorially responsible algorithm.
PRINT: Newspapers are still widely read, but business outlook remains gloomy. New research: 198 UK local newspapers have closed since 2005.
SOCIAL MEDIA: The six big shifts in social media in 2016. Snapchat and Instagram's young audiences rarely notice ads on platforms.
TRONC: The Gannett-Tronc bidding war showed us why people are still investing in legacy media.
TRUMP: Editor of nation’s second-biggest newspaper says he will not report Trump lies, even if he lies. Yes, Donald Trump ‘lies.’ A lot. And news organizations should say so.
TV: TV stations fight ‘sea of sameness’ with experimental local news.
TWITTER: Twitter tests breaking news push notifications. Twitter starts showing search results by relevance, not reverse chronological order. Maybe it’s time to #reconsider the brand #hashtag. Twitter embraces its role as a media company. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is ‘thinking a lot about’ an edit-tweet button.
WASHINGTON POST: Revolution at The Washington Post. 'Profitable' Washington Post adding more than five dozen journalists.
WEB FREEDOM: Internet freedom around the world declined in 2016 for the sixth consecutive year.
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.) |