Thursday, October 17, 2024 |
| After the launch of Guardian Europe, one-time donations from European readers increased by 45%. By Hanaa' Tameez. |
What We’re ReadingCommonWealth Beacon / Jennifer Smith
In a small city in Massachusetts, an experiment in hyper-local AI podcasting →“The Melrose Update Robocast was made by dropping public documents into an artificial intelligence program that then generates a conversation about the issues with these fake people. Its creator isn’t trying to hide that, even leaving in small quirks to signal an inhuman feel, like the AI-generated logo that adds an extra ‘e’ to the end of Melrose.”Atmos / Amal Ahmed
The hurricane conspiracies made it clear: we’re going climate delulu →“In the aftermath of the hurricanes, AI-produced images spread across the internet. Some seemed harmless enough: a dog rescuing a child from a flood, for example. Another viral post misleadingly showed Disney World flooded out in Florida, and a costumed worker carrying a child through knee-high water. Conservative politicians, however, have shared such images as if they’re proof of the Biden administration’s failure to respond to the disasters.”Axios / Sara Fischer
As rumored, Amazon Prime Video will air its own election night coverage hosted by Brian Williams →“To date, Amazon and most of its Big Tech peers have avoided producing their own real-time news coverage, which is both expensive and sometimes controversial for firms that like to remain apolitical.”Second Rough Draft / Richard J. Tofel
What’s the matter with the Knight Foundation? →“There are, as I see it, three issues here: 1) the decision to so heavily front-load grants without warning the field that it was doing so; 2) the administrative shortcomings Knight now acknowledges; and 3) the decision to now launch a strategic review of journalism grant-making attendant with a partial pause, without any general announcement of that fact.”Deadline / Jake Kanter
The BBC won’t hire its first royal editor after all →“BBC News has traditionally appointed royal correspondents, but the corporation decided to hire an editor last year ahead of the retirement of Nicholas Witchell, a 25-year veteran of the beat.”The Washington Post / Geoffrey A. Fowler
How Instagram hides political posts from its users — including any that mention the word “vote” →“If you’ve suspected that you’re yelling into a void about the election on Instagram, Facebook or Threads, it might not be your imagination, either. Downplaying politics is a business and political strategy from Meta, the social media giant. And users just have to accept it.”The Washington Post / Philip Bump
How Fox News loads the dice so Trump always wins →“That unfolded during the hours of programming that followed the interview, during which hosts and producers clipped the least flattering moments from the conversation and presented them to viewers with a slathering of spin.”The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin
TMZ criticized for photo said to be of former One Direction singer Liam Payne →“The site initially published a cropped image of a body lying on a wooden deck, saying that it was at a hotel in Buenos Aires, where Mr. Payne died. TMZ said it had identified him from his distinctive tattoos. ‘We’re not showing the whole body, but you can clearly see his tattoos — a clock on his left forearm, and a scorpion on his abdomen,’ text accompanying the photo said, according to screenshots of the article circulating online.”Press Gazette / Bron Maher
Free subs for students are part of The Economist’s “future-proofing” of its business →“Over the course of that three or four years of study, we’ve given those students a taster of what Economist journalism is and what quality journalism is. And then at that point, they either move on to Espresso or, fingers crossed, they go for a core Economist subscription.”The Verge / Jay Peters
Meta is laying off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram, and more →“Some Meta employees have started posting that they’ve been laid off. Among them is Jane Manchun Wong, who gained notoriety for reporting on unannounced features coming to apps before joining the Threads team in 2023.”The Washington Post / Laura Wagner
For the reporters of Hell Gate, heaven is covering Mayor Eric Adams →“‘We nibble at the edges,’ says Hell Gate staffer Max Rivlin-Nadler. ‘But we nibble a lot.'”The Guardian / Amanda Meade
Australia’s largest media company apologizes for systemic bullying and harassment →“The report, based on 122 interviews, concluded that ‘known perpetrators’ of inappropriate workplace behaviors were not dealt with. Instead, staff who were victims of the perpetrators were simply warned to just avoid them. The report does not name individuals, but it found some ‘leaders’ attempted to cover up inappropriate workplace behaviors or discouraged the reporting of incidents.”Associated Press
Mark Robinson sues CNN over report he wrote racist posts on porn website →“The lawsuit, filed in Wake county superior court, comes less than four weeks after a television report that led many fellow GOP elected officials and candidates, including Donald Trump, to distance themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign. Robinson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Raleigh.”The Ankler / Lachlan Cartwright
Flat is the new up for CNN star anchor salaries →“Thompson recently gave Jake Tapper a new three-year deal, but without an increase in pay, leaving the host of The Lead — and CNN’s chief Washington correspondent — making around $7 million a year, I’m told. Blitzer also has been renewed with a three-year deal at his previous salary (about $3 million).”Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
The key decisions that saved The Boston Globe →“Privately-owned Boston Globe Media does not publish financial results but today has close to 1,000 employees, with 261,000 digital subscriptions and 75,000 in print…’The first important decision was separating Boston.com from The Globe. One would be free and one would be a premium paid reader revenue-focused site which was Globe.com.'”St. Louis Public Radio / Jessica Rogen
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the latest daily to get out of the printing business →…the Post-Dispatch will close its Maryland Heights press, laying off 72 employees. Though it will still be printed seven days a week and be delivered at the same time to subscribers, the paper will be missing a few developments. Earlier press deadlines mean that news that breaks in the evening will not be included in the morning paper. That loss includes reports from Cardinals night games and other sports.”The Verge / David Pierce
Amazon finally has a color Kindle, and it looks pretty good →“‘Frankly, the technology just wasn’t ready’ before now, says Kevin Keith, who runs Kindle products for Amazon. ‘And we now think the tech is ready.’ (Kobo, Remarkable, and others might disagree that it wasn’t ready before.)”CNN / Donie O'Sullivan and Casey Tolan
Why the Harris campaign has spent $11 million on a Facebook page with 1,000 followers →“The ads promoting The Daily Scroll have appeared on screens at least 700 million times, according to data from Meta’s Ad Library, with about 97% of views coming from seven battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.”Digiday / Kimeko McCoy
Marketers are not won over by new AI-powered search tools →“The conversation around search advertising has reached a new fever pitch thanks to recently launched AI-powered tools like Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. Despite the buzz, some marketers and advertisers remain uncertain about AI tools in search, citing too many unknowns.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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