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Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism 04422c6b-7998-44f8-b7bb-e4aa0a7f23a5.png

Need to Know

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism


OFF THE TOP

You might have heard . . .
Spot.IM becomes OpenWeb, plans to expand its offerings beyond its commenting platform (TechCrunch)

. . . but did you know:
Backed by The New York Times, OpenWeb becomes a tech unicorn (Axios)
 
OpenWeb, a platform that helps publishers manage user comments on their websites, has raised more than $150 million in a financing round that values the company at $1.1 billion. The company’s growth is “driven by a realization from publishers that building direct relationships with their audiences online is a stronger value proposition long-term than being reliant on social media and search giants,” writes Sara Fischer. OpenWeb plans to use the funds to build more tools that allow publishers to cultivate stronger audience relationships and collect first-party data from readers. ​​“We want to create a more transparent environment by helping publishers bring back their audiences from social media,” says CEO and co-founder Nadav Shoval. The New York Times’ participation, he says “holds us accountable to make sure we’re solving the right things.”
 
+ Noted: Local coalition raises over $5.8 million to launch nonprofit news organization in Ohio (Local News For Ohio); The National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Investigative and Data Journalism Task Force launches strategic plan to hold newsroom leaders accountable for increasing diversity of newsroom investigative reporting teams (NAHJ)
API UPDATE

Trust Tip: Explain your mistakes and your commitment to accuracy (Trusting News)
 
How news outlets handle their mistakes shapes how their audiences view the credibility of their work. It’s important to openly acknowledge mistakes (here’s a good example from News Channel 5 in Nashville). You’ll also want to have a good internal process in place for when mistakes happen, so that everyone in the newsroom knows what the steps are for issuing corrections. Sign up for weekly Trust Tips here, and learn more about the Trusting News project — including how your newsroom can get free coaching — here.
TRY THIS AT HOME

New Mexico local newsrooms find more ways to collaborate (Medium, New Mexico Local News Fund)
 
Bi-weekly meetings of the newsrooms participating in the New Mexico Local News Fund led to many ad hoc collaborations that strengthened their news coverage. Online startup Columbus NM News, for example, has been helping Camino Real Media distribute its Spanish-language newspaper. Radio KTAL has been working with the nonprofit Searchlight New Mexico and Columbus NM News by having their reporters as guests on air. And the Santa Fe New Mexican, a daily newspaper, helped produce an online panel for Downtown Albuquerque News on the vote to build a new soccer stadium in Albuquerque.
OFFSHORE

Community newspapers in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas fill information gaps and fight stereotypes (LatAm Journalism Review)
 
Reporting on Rio de Janeiro’s favelas tends to focus on poverty and drug-related violence. That’s one of the reasons many journalists who live in the favelas work by the “nós por nós” (“For us, by us”) mantra, creating their own community-oriented news outlets that challenge the traditional narratives. Door-to-door distribution of those newspapers helps journalists connect with their readers in a meaningful way, and also makes it possible for residents to pass on tips and story ideas. In addition to investigations, service journalism is important to those living in Rio’s favelas, where informal commercial enterprises are common and their owners are looking to attract customers.
OFFBEAT

New bipartisan bill takes aim at algorithms (Axios)
 
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has authored a new bill that would require social media platforms to let users opt out of having algorithms dictate the content in their feeds using their personal data. The Filter Bubble Transparency Act, spurred by the recent revelations over the harm Facebook causes to some users, marks the frustration and concern over social media that is shared by lawmakers from both parties — and the momentum they’ve gained in addressing the issue.
UP FOR DEBATE

Parental leave is broken, and that hurts all of us (Poynter)
 
Most newsrooms are structured similarly to how they were 50 years ago, with 40-hour (or more) work weeks occurring on a (more or less) fixed schedule. But that rigidity can conflict with caregiving commitments, especially when it comes to parental leave. A government policy for paid family leave can, obviously, reduce those conflicts; in the meantime, newsroom workers are often forced to rely on support from partners or other family members while they choose between working and caregiving. “If a workplace is a reflection of who we believe we are, then I would like to see a workplace structured around the idea that we all have people to care for — children, parents, spouses, loved ones, ourselves,” writes Alex Sujong Laughlin. “I’d like to see one that acknowledges that it isn’t an exception to the human experience that requires special permissions and problem-solving, it’s a central part of it.”
 
+ Earlier: Why The 19th is offering employees six months of parental leave (Forbes); How six women lead the effort for a better parental leave policy at The Boston Globe (Poynter)
SHAREABLE

Twitter’s subscription product, Twitter Blue, launches in the US, and yes, it lets you undo tweets (Nieman Lab)
 
Twitter is rolling out its subscription product to users in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For $2.99 per month, users can access a news-aggregating “Top Stories” feature (similar to Nuzzel), ad-free articles, and an “undo” button for tweets. The target audience for Twitter Blue are “super tweeters,” users with large followings, and news junkies — making journalists prime candidates for the service. Publishers get a cut of the subscription revenue; the amount will be determined by how much time a Twitter Blue user spends on a publisher’s site each month. (The service does not get users past those publishers’ paywalls.) The goal, says senior product director Tony Haile, is “that each site makes 50% more per person than they would serving ads to that person.”
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