The age of media via messenger app? The Pandora Files. Ozy’s collapse
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Hello and a big welcome to our new subscribers from NRC, Daily Mail, McKinsey & Company, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Roularta Media Group, Thomson Foundation, Civil Rights Defenders, Media Hack, New Statesman, and many others!
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram are hardly traditional ways for news publishers to reach readers. This is especially true in Europe, where many publishers focus on their homepage as the heart of their distribution model.
But perhaps messengers deserve a second look, as a more intimate, algorithm-free way to connect with audiences. Equally important, at least in some countries, they offer a way to evade state censors and (for now) comment moderation headaches.
Last week, The Fix’s Daryna Shevchenko talked to The Continent, a Pan-African media outlet that exists solely on messaging apps, delivering the pdf-paper via private messages. It’s estimated to reach over 100,000 people weekly, mostly thanks to re-shares.
Importantly, this allows The Continent to evade censorship and focus on building quality relationships with subscribers (indeed, they try to have as few of them as possible).
Another messaging app on everyone’s mind is Telegram. Compared to WhatsApp, it provides even more powerful and user-friendly distribution tools, even though its user base internationally is smaller (and more concentrated in specific markets).
This has a flip side, with bad actors enjoying the same convenient tools as reporters and pro-democracy activists. We’re yet to see whether Telegram will be able to address this concern (and work out a sustainable model), while staying true to its ambitious mission, Bohuslav Romanenko writes for The Fix.
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The Fix doesn’t currently use WhatsApp to engage with readers, but we have our Telegram channel. Be sure to subscribe, then check out five other must-join channels for publishers.
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Two very different things we can learn from African and Scandinavian media
David Tvrdon
Insights on product thinking from across the world of media
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Not quite Signal, not yet WeChat: can Telegram fulfill its ambitious mission?
Bohuslav Romanenko
Telegram has superior user experience going for it. Now it needs to manage abuse by bad actors and monetization
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Google keywords matching in 2021
Sofiia Padalko
Worth-reading, if one of your Google advertising objectives is to increase traffic to the site
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Our love-hate relationship with Big Tech
David Tvrdon
It’s like candy, we know there are healthier alternatives, we just can’t stop eating it
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How to fight the power of fear and polarization
James Breiner
Journalists have the tools to get people engaged in solving local problems
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Looking for a good source of knowledge on how to run a newsletter? Here is an extensive “crash course” from Substack. It covers six areas: setting goals, publication strategy, formatting & visuals, growing readership, launch, paid newsletters. |
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Ahead of COP26, the UN climate change conference planned for November, Digiday publishes an overview of the latest publisher’s editorial initiatives around climate change, featuring Bloomberg, Financial Times, Condé Nast, The Economist, The New York Times, NowThis, and The Washington Post.
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What social media can learn from publishers? The story at Wired looks at how social media companies can get inspired from journalist values & norms developed in 20th century and create their own version of ethic and professional standards. |
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A joint investigation by 600 journalists, “The Pandora Files”, sifts through the biggest leak of offshore data, with 11.9 million records featuring 330 politicians and 130 Forbes billionaires from over 200 countries.
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Ozy Media, the hip American digital media firm, was shut down after it was revealed its COO had impersonated a YouTube executive on an investor call and a New York Times column published last Sunday pointed to puffed up results, including overstated newsletter subscribers. ( Axios has a great overview of the fall of Ozy, which features a source claiming 95% of viewership of “The Carlos Watson Show” was paid).
The NYT report soon prompted high-profile resignations, particularly that of board chair Marc Lasry. The company lost a key investor and saw its TV program and festival canceled. By Friday, October 1, Ozy announced it would shut down. Former Digiday chief editor Brian Morrissey wrote the case was emblematic of a “ high tolerance for bullshit” in the media.
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Russian authorities continued a wide-ranging media crackdown, with two prominent independent media projects and 22 people labeled as “foreign agents.” This designation makes it considerably harder for media to operate, notably adding arduous reporting requirements and creating security risks for journalists (see the earlier Meduza case).
The projects targeted are OVD-Info, a human rights watchdog, and Mediazona, an outlet focusing on the Russian penal system. Mediazona’s publisher Pyotr Verzilov and editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov are also among the individuals added to the list.
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Another prominent Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, chief editor of investigative outlet The Insider, came under criminal investigation for allegedly “illegally” crossing the border when he had left Russia this summer. Authorities raided the homes of his family members last Thursday; Dobrokhotov denounced the charges as an attempt to silence his reporting.
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Earlier this fall, an Australian court ruled media organisations are liable for user comments on their Facebook pages. This week, CNN disabled its Facebook page in Australia, becoming the first major media outlet to do so. CNN blamed the platform, claiming it had no choice after Facebook failed to provide a solution to turn off comments in the country.
Obviously, CNN is an American news organisation that isn’t critical to the Australian news landscape (and disabling a Facebook page still leaves a lot of other distribution channels). Yet might be “the first domino to fall,” as an expert quoted by Reuters aptly notes.
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Axel Springer raised targets for gender diversity in management positions. The new initiative entails women taking 40 percent of top roles by 2026, FIPP reports.
Find the full version of our weekly digest on our website. |
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Opportunities and deadlines
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Journalism Creator Summit: Revenue Day. The event from the Newmark School and Facebook Journalism Project will focus on revenue issues for individual journalists/ creators. Speakers are still TBA but the date is already set.
More info: https://bit.ly/2YmyvJ5
When: November 10
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Investigation grants for environmental journalists. Journalismfund.eu offers grants for investigations into cross-border environmental issues. The program also supports comparative deep-dives into local problems/ policies between two or more regions or cities.
More info: https://bit.ly/3ihGH43
Deadline: October 27
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Newsrewired conference. The 10-day online event run by Journalism.co.uk will take place end-October. Sonali Verma from Globe & Mail, Nic Newman from RISJ, and James Breiner are among the confirmed speakers.
More info: https://bit.ly/3l3OV1C
When: October 18-28
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Commercial Product Manager, Content. Financial Times seeks a commercial product manager for its London office. The main responsibilities include improving FT’s branded content products and working on the monetisation of contextual advertising inventory.
More info: https://bit.ly/3uoZVKa
Deadline: Open until filled
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Marketing Manager, Nordics. Spotify is looking for a marketing manager to work at the company’s office in Stockholm. Knowledge of the digital advertising industry with a strong professional network in the media sector is a key requirement.
More info: https://bit.ly/2WuA9rf
Deadline: Open until filled
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Head of Brussels Office Public Affairs. Axel Springer is looking to ramp up its lobbying in Brussels. As you might expect, Head of PA responsibilities include: monitoring, analysing and acting on legislative initiatives coming out of Brussels that are relevant to AS. The job requires fluency in German and English, experience in media firms, politics and legal affairs.
More info: https://bit.ly/3F6WgFM
Deadline: Open until filled
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Project Management Specialist. TheSoul Publishing, one of the largest social media content production companies in the world, is hiring a project management specialist. The position is fully remote.
More info: https://bit.ly/3D7FfJA
Deadline: Open until filled
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