We need a Wirecutter for groceries

The Weekly Wrap: November 08, 2024

We need a Wirecutter for groceries

A few years back, my local mom Facebook group started a weekly thread to share the best deals on groceries around town. We tried to look through supermarkets’ circulars to pull out the best deals we saw. Someone started a spreadsheet comparing prices at Costco versus non-warehouse stores.

The effort fizzled quickly. Why? Not because it wasn’t useful, but because it was so much work to do on a volunteer basis.

What if a local news organization did this for us, making it part of a reporter’s job? Better yet, what if local news organizations around the country made it part of their mission to help readers compare grocery prices around town? What if, on every digital local news site, a “groceries” vertical highlighted the week’s best deals across stores? Where I live, Market Basket generally has the lowest prices on everything — but once in awhile Star Market beats its price on butter or broccoli or bagels. A weekly digest letting me know this would provide a genuine service. A regularly updated Costco or BJs spreadsheet on a local news site? Yes, please.

The coupon site Krazy Coupon Lady pulls in an estimated 3 million visitors a month. Here’s how they describe their mission: “Make confusing things simple, give people tools to save money, and create a community of people sharing their success stories.” This would absolutely also be a great mission for a local news outlet.

Supermarkets and local news outlets could partner on coupons and specials. Local news reporters could recommend their favorite snacks, which would get a little call-out card on the shelf — the way bookstores offer on-shelf reading recommendations. Digital news outlets could make lowkey print editions, stacks of them free at checkout, with a $5 coupon for the next shopping trip on the front, alongside a couple news articles from the week.

“The top explanation for president-elect Donald Trump’s victory is that Americans hate inflation,” Heather Long wrote in The Washington Post Friday. “Voters want to see prices go down, and they are angry this has not happened for most items. This isn’t unique to the United States. Incumbents in every developed country have lately lost reelection because of outrage over the high cost of groceries, housing and entertainment.”

At the same time, there is more competition for people’s attention than ever. When most Americans decide how to spend their time, it is not with the news. In the coming years, an exhausted public is even more likely to tune out, and that includes the most engaged news consumers. (Daily Beast promo email subject line this morning: “Trump’s first year – don’t miss a moment.” Uh…)

Local news outlets cannot change grocery prices. But they can help their readers deal with them — and, in doing so, perhaps increase their readership and draw in people who never would have read them otherwise. Not everybody reads news, but everybody needs to eat.

Adobe Stock

— Laura Hazard Owen

From the week

We need a Wirecutter for groceries Local news outlets cannot change grocery prices. But they can help their readers deal with them. By Laura Hazard Owen.

Threads was next to useless on election night (but that’s kind of the point) Launched as a rival to Elon Musk’s Twitter, Threads now has 275 million monthly active users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the app is signing up more than 1 million users per day. By Sarah Scire.

What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people Plus: How newsrooms are using generative AI, what makes news seem authentic on social media, and how to bridge the divide between academics and journalists. By Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis.

When the winner’s name isn’t enough: How the AP is leaning into explanatory journalism to call races “We’ve learned, especially in the last few cycles, that it’s not necessarily possible or a good idea to let [the electoral] process play out in silence.” By Neel Dhanesha.

Votebeat assembles nearly 100 election experts to answer reporters’ questions (now, and in the weeks ahead) “The problem with voting stories is that the people who make themselves most available don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” By Sarah Scire.

Student journalists, filling local news gaps, step up to cover the 2024 election The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont is leading “the first nationally coordinated effort to strengthen university-led election coverage.” By Sophie Culpepper.

The Washington Post isn’t alone: Roughly 3/4 of major American newspapers aren’t endorsing anyone for president this year Led by risk-averse corporate owners, dozens of the biggest U.S. newspapers have decided their editorials should express opinions on everything except who should be president. By Joshua Benton.

Google Scholar now adds AI outlines to research papersAbortion is the next front on the crime beat Highlights from elsewhereReuters / Blake BrittainOpenAI defeats news outlets’ copyright lawsuit over AI training, for now →“A New York federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence giant OpenAI that claimed it misused articles from news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet to train its large language models.” Andrew Deck wrote about the lawsuit here.New York Times / Benjamin MullinWashington Post employees ordered back to office 5 days a week →“The new policy at The Post — which is owned by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — mirrors a similar edict announced by the e-commerce giant in September.”ProPublica / Stephen EngelbergWhat to expect from ProPublica in a second Trump administration →“We face the biggest test of our professional lives. Now we get to see if we really meant it when we said we will hold power to account. Will we do so when our subjects have true power on their side and a willingness to use it? We may be harassed. We may be sued. We may be threatened with violence. We may be ignored. Are we just sunshine journalists or are we ready?”The Washington Post / Lili LoofbourowOn Prime Video, Brian Williams hosted an election night fever dream →“There being no decision desk — Amazon did not supply one — [Williams] frequently looked up results on his phone and reported whatever his ex-colleague Steve Kornacki had said to viewers. This made it all the more strange whenever a woman (who I later learned was Meta employee Erin McPike) did occasionally pop up to scrawl some figures onto an implausibly small screen containing the electoral map.”New York Times / Benjamin MullinTrump Bump 2.0? Experts expect another surge, with caveats. →“David Clinch, a revenue consultant for Media Growth Partners, a media advisory firm, said he thought news organizations would see another uptick in customers, but that it would be more muted than in the first Trump administration, because some readers have become fed up with or exhausted by mainstream news coverage.”Nieman Lab / Joshua BentonWhat would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism? →“The federal government can intersect with any part of the journalism process — from how stories get reported to the platforms they’re distributed on to the business models that pay the bills. What does Project 2025 have in mind for an institution it doesn’t seem to have much affection for?”Giant Freakin Robot / Joshua TylerHow Google’s algorithm shifts have strangled one indie entertainment news site →“After relaunching Giant Freakin Robot in 2019, the site grew to a readership of more than 20 million a month, through 2021 and 2022. Then Google decided they didn’t want independent publishers around anymore. Most entertainment keywords have now been given to one big company, whose numerous sites own the top slots for nearly every entertainment-related query of any substance. No one can find our site to read it so that 20 million unique visitors is now a few thousand a month.”Press Gazette / Dominic PonsfordSemafor’s Ben Smith says old-fashioned political reporting is back in fashion →“The kind of people who made fun of going to diners and talking to Americans about what they’re thinking are now kind of wondering what Americans in diners are thinking. And so I do think there’s a full circle there.”

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