Thursday, May 30, 2024 |
| “This is truly a jointly owned responsibility among the business side and editorial.” By Richard Tofel. |
Rest of World retracts an article criticizing WhatsApp misinformation tip lines in India What We’re ReadingThe Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
Robert Allbritton’s new mission is creating more journalists. Why? →“Some cynics have questioned whether Allbritton set up NOTUS as a nonprofit to avoid breaching a noncompete agreement. While Allbritton said he couldn’t discuss the specifics of any deal with Axel Springer, he said he was permitted to start a nonprofit organization.”The Ed's Up / Ed Yong
Ed Yong on judging the Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction →“To be a Pulitzer juror is to wield something between incredible power and a total lack of it. You have a chance to influence one of the literary world’s most important honors… or not. And you won’t know until announcement day.”Trauma Aware Journalism
A new “trauma-aware journalism” toolkit aims to help journalists on sensitive stories →“The materials are free to use and are intended for educational purposes within the journalism community. They can be easily integrated into your training or j-school curriculum. Check out each topic for a ‘micro-learning video’ and related resources.”The New York Times / Steven Lee Myers
Once a sheriff’s deputy in Florida, now a source of disinformation from Russia →“Working from an apartment crowded with servers and other computer equipment, Mr. Dougan has built an ever-growing network of more than 160 fake websites that mimic news outlets in the United States, Britain, and France. With the help of commercially available artificial intelligence tools, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E 3, he has filled the sites with tens of thousands of articles, many based on actual news events.”The Information / Amir Efrati and Wayne Ma
Seven months after his brief ouster, OpenAI’s Sam Altman is more powerful than ever →“He is propelling the company’s board to overhaul OpenAI’s nonprofit structure so that it won’t conflict with the multibillion-dollar revenue business it is building. One possibility is he could turn OpenAI into a for-profit corporation, an idea he has discussed, according to a person who has spoken to him. Some investors in the company have said they want Altman to get an equity package to align his interests with the businesses.”The Verge / Mia Sato
Google confirms those 2,500 leaked Search documents are real →“The documents in question detail data that Google is keeping track of, some of which may be used in its closely guarded search ranking algorithm. The documents offer an unprecedented — though still murky — look under the hood of one of the most consequential systems shaping the web.”The Atlantic / Damon Beres
Is a deal with OpenAI a deal with the devil? →“It does all feel a bit like publishers are making a deal with — well, can I say it? The red guy with a pointy tail and two horns? Generative AI has not exactly felt like a friend to the news industry, given that it is trained on loads of material without permission from those who made it in the first place.”The Guardian / Jim Waterson
How BBC’s breaking news alerts are giving voters — and political parties — an electoral buzz →“The most powerful person in British media during this election, in terms of having the most direct access to voters, is no longer the editor of BBC’s News at Six or the person who chooses the headlines on Radio 2…Instead, they’re the anonymous on-shift editor of the BBC News app, making snap judgments on whether to make the phones of millions of Britons buzz with a breaking news push alert.”Poynter / Annie Aguiar
Are the democracy beat reporters OK? →“Everything on the democracy beat is really high stakes. I don’t want to be the one that’s getting people alarmed over things that are not necessarily worthy of alarm. We try not to write stories and frame headlines that play on people’s fears. We also do as much as we can to report on good news. There is good news on the democracy beat, too. This country is full of people that are doing what they can to protect democracy.”NextTV / Daniel Frankel
Most sports fans 18-49 say they’ll probably subscribe to the new Disney/Fox/WBD sports streamer →“Assuming a price point of $35-$40 a month, 42% of 2,008 surveyed U.S. adults who identified themselves as ‘sports viewers’ said they’ll ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ subscribe to Venu Sports…58% of sports viewers age 18-34 and 57% of those 35-49 indicated a likelihood to subscribe to Venu.”WAN-IFRA / Vincent Peyrègne
WAN-IFRA and OpenAI launch global AI accelerator for newsrooms →“…a broad-based accelerator program for over 100 news publishers in partnership with OpenAI. The Newsroom AI Catalyst is an accelerator program designed to help newsrooms fast-track their AI adoption and implementation to bring efficiencies and create quality content.”The Verge / Emilia David
Custom GPTs are now open to all ChatGPT users →“Features like model and web responses, data analytics, chart creation, vision, file upload, memory, and custom GPTs were available to paid users — ChatGPT Plus, Teams, and Enterprise — but are now open to anyone using ChatGPT.”The Washington Post / Laura Wagner and Gerrit De Vynck
The media bosses fighting back against AI — and the ones cutting deals →Barry “Diller said he sees ‘no contradiction’ between last year’s battle cry and this year’s truce. IAC, he said in a statement, will get ‘direct compensation for our content’ (the financial terms have not been made public) while ‘continuing in whatever forum to enforce copyright laws against others.'”The Guardian / Simon Jenkins
So it’s goodbye to London’s Standard, my old paper — and to the heart of democracy, local news →“The Evening Standard, which has announced plans to shutter its daily newspaper in favour of a digital service and weekly magazine, was truly a London institution. Its tabloid rivals, the Star and Evening News, merged in 1960 and closed in 1980, but there was always a touch of class to the Standard. For journalists told to start their careers ‘working local.’ it was a golden step to a proper Fleet Street job. Londoners needed to read the Standard.”Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Early signs show Google AI Overviews won’t mean “dramatic downward dive” for news traffic →SEO expert Barry “Adams reassured publishing leaders at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Copenhagen on Wednesday that if they primarily produce news content, he believes they are ‘going to be okay’,,,His theory is that Al Overviews is “mutually exclusive” from the Query Deserves Freshness ranking function — meaning search results where Google deems the user wants up-to-date, new information, often triggering the Top Stories box.”The Hollywood Reporter / Lily Ford
BBC to review representation of “different groups and communities” across its content, including news →“The review will assess results from the 2021/2022 census to establish how the ‘BBC portrayal and representation of the U.K. reflects current reality in terms of the make-up of communities around the country and what the major changes have been over time.'”Deadline / Katie Campione
Podcast staffers at iHeart look ready to strike over slow contract negotiations →“After 2 years at the bargaining table, we hope to finally come to an agreement with management this week. But in the case we do not come to a fair agreement, our unit needs to take action to push management to make serious proposals that meet our demands.”The New Yorker / Kyle Chayka
The new generation of online culture curators →“The archetypal influencer produces life-style porn of one form or another, playing up the aspirational glamour of their own home or meals or vacations. The new wave of curators is more outward-looking, borrowing from the influencer’s playbook and piggybacking on social media’s intimate interaction with followers in order to address a body of culture beyond themselves.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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