Category: Gawker

media notes 05.14.13

05/14/2013

Media stories of note for Tuesday, May 14, 2013:

The Associated Press revealed Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice had secretly obtained two months of telephone records for its journalists at several of its operations. AP decried the move as an unprecedented intrusion into the rights of a free press. Details of the probe are not known, but it was believed to be in connection with AP's reporting on a foiled terrorist plot. The New Yorker's John Cassidy looks at the wider political implications of the issue for the Obama Administration.

The Bloomberg terminal controversy continues to draw commentary. It was revealed that reporters were able to advance stories on the basis of their monitoring of login activity of clients on the Bloomberg data terminals. Gawker notes that the monitoring was supposed to stop, but didn't. And the Guardian suggests the matter is not a big deal. That said, the Wall Street Journal reports Bloomberg and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are cooperating on examining the issue.

Joel Smith, writing for the Pacific Standard, explores an innovative effort in sociology and journalism in Alhambra, California, to study the news consumption of residents and marry them to a grassroots organization that would use a range of contributors to produce community journalism. He writes that the effort has promise in linking expertise in consumerism to a market's need for content.

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media notes 12.03.13

03/12/2013

Three media stories of note for Tuesday, March 12, 2013:

A proposed Texas law rearranges the obligations of media and the opportunities for litigants in defamation cases. Nieman Journalism Lab reports on the proposed "retraction statute" that would oblige those who believe they have been defamed to contact publishers to give them an opportunity to retract, correct or clarify with the same prominence as the original publication. If they do so, a plaintiff can't be awarded punitive damages. If they do, they are entitled to a reasonable amount of information that can confirm the error. Out-of-court efforts would be made, too, to avoid expensive and protracted legislation. The bill would promote "truth in publication."

Gawker's Deadspin blog, known for its verve, has taken a detour in its approach and suddenly opened itself to a public "contributor network" with the same creative tools as its writing staff. It has PandoDaily pronouncing it as throwing in the towel and taking the route toward Huffington Post and Bleacher Report and away from its original path. PandoDaily's Bryan Goldberg says all media properties need to embrace the fact that more traffic is better than less, professional writers are not the only valid voices, and innovation is the only route out of the challenging economics.

Veteran news executive and advisor Gordon Crovitz weighs in on last week's spat between freelance journalist Nate Thayer, who worked for him in Cambodia, and The Atlantic Online. It will be recalled that The Atlantic wanted Thayer to rewrite his reporting fot them free. Crovitz, writing for the Wall Street Journal, laments this and notes that the tumult in journalism is driven by declines in advertising. Some journalism will be free, but the important journalism will require underwriting. "We need to find ways of paying for it," he concludes.

media stories of note: 02.01.13

01/02/2013

Some stories of note Wednesday:

Andrew Sullivan, one of the most iconic bloggers, has decided to break away from The Daily Beast and take his team to run The Daily Dish as a stand-alone, reader-financed outlet. Even though Sullivan is one of the better known commentators online, his "declaration of independence" will be a test of the digital business model.

The successful bidder for Current TV appears to be Al Jazeera, says Brian Stelter of The New York Times. The network formed by former U.S. vice president Al Gore offers Al Jazeera a long-sought foothold in the American cable and satellite market, with a penetration of about 60 million homes.

Hamilton Nolan, writing for Gawker, has some advice for aspiring journalists: It's not about you. He bemoans narcissism and points to the billions of fascinating lives there to cover.

And the Columbia Journalism Review weighs in with a withering review of health-related journalism, particularly in the realm of promising medical science that never pans out.

Ethics: A Gawker.com writer finds out the value of a link

10/26/2011

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It didn't take a fertile imagination to believe one day someone would be offered money to link to a company website. Such is the value of a hyperlink.

Now a Gawker.com writer has an offer in hand to indicate it's happening.

Hamilton Nolan has laid out the correspondence that indicates an advertising agency would pay him $175 to link to a website inside one of his stories. The agency suggests it has bloggers linking to its clients, including several prominent companies, for a fee.

In the hours since the story was posted, one publication and one client have denied they are associated with the practice.

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Gawker rewards its best commenters

07/14/2009

News organizations everywhere are contending with the flood of comments and the challenge of what to do about them. Do you leave them alone? Do you let the community rank and reorganize them? Or do you curate them?

Gawker appears to be moving into the latter territory with its media site, Jezebel, in elevating what it considers the best comments. Essentially, if you're deemed "funniest, thoughtful, intelligent, well-argued" you'll move up the rankings to be in Tier 1. To be anywhere other than in Tier 1 is, well, not to be anywhere deemed good.

Obviously it's a subjective call, but it's a serious attempt to sift through what are often phenomenally long lists of comments to find the ones more likely to advance the debate.

Henry Blodget on the business model of journalism's future

08/07/2008

Former Wall Street media analyst Henry Blodget sent a couple of comments in the last day or so to Silicon Valley Insider on business models after the head of Gawker crowed about his traffic next to that of the Los Angeles Times.
He believes Gawker's business model is right and that The New York Times et al will be closer to that model than Gawker is to their model in five years.

Pay-per-view: Is this the road ahead for journalists?

05/07/2008

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Reed Business Information is discussing the notion of paying journalists according to the number of page views their work earns. They'd accept a lesser salary and be given bonuses on the basis of the Web traffic their work generated.
It has a faint echo of the recent kerfuffle at Gawker, where a number of contributors groused about the approach.
After all, page impressions are only one measurement --- and one that can be distorted rather easily --- and have the potential to induce very-low-common-denominator work. More difficult work, which may not produce as much traffic, might be diminished.
If we were to organize newspapers or newscasts on the basis of audience, a number of things would disappear. The newsroom's total package is what drives budgets that in turn accord compensation.
Many organizations provide bonuses when traffic objectives are reached, but moving to a new pay-per-view formula would be quite a grenade.