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April 15, 2014 media notes: Pulitzers, sales, and attention; how journalists dismiss start-ups, those led by women

4/15/2014

For Tuesday, April 15, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Is there a relationship between winning a Pulitzer Prize and retaining (maybe even growing) newspaper readership? Nate Silver, in his newly refurbished FiveThirtyEight perch, studies the issue and concludes it is difficult to conclude anything about the relationship between quality and sales. Pulitzers are won by larger outfits, but they have seen their readership decline, so it might be a positive that winners have more readers or a negative that winners are losing readers like everyone else.
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The Pulitzers were awarded Monday, and among the winners was The Guardian, which earned the public service award for its work in reporting on the surveillance leaks from Edward Snowden. The Guardian's Roy Greenslade notes that the conservative British press has not uttered a peep about the victory.
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There can be something inherent about media dismissing or ignoring other media accomplishments. Digiday's Lucia Moses notes this phenomenon in her examination of the recent wave of journalism start-ups: the publisher haters come out to play. That being said, the focus has been on a handful of start-ups led by men. Ann Friedman, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, notes 16 female-led start-ups that deserve the same attention.

March 18, 2014 media notes: how Americans consume news, how FiveThirtyEight will get nerdy, Newsweek and bitcoin

3/18/2014

Here are some media stories of note for Tuesday, March 18, 2014:

A major study released Monday tells much about how Americans consume news. They are mix-and-match consumers, with various platforms excelling at various forms of content, and they are much wider in their consumption than conventionally thought. The Media Insight Report found three-quarters of Americans, including 60 per cent of those under the age of 30, consume news daily but do not depend in the same way on front pages and newscasts.
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FiveThirtyEight, the Nate Silver/New York Times blog that catapulted to fame during the 2012 U.S. election campaign, resurfaced Monday under a new company (ESPN) and with Silver leading a much larger team. His reintroduction featured a lengthy manifesto about data and journalism, a fairly chiding message to the craft about its anecdotal dependence, and a hint about the direction he wants his group to take --- into "nerdier" territory that is prepared to sacrifice speed for accuracy but made data journalism sustainable.
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Two weeks ago Newsweek resurfaced in print with what it argued was an exclusive profile of the founder of bitcoin. Skeptics abounded, and Monday the subject of the story, Dorian S. Nakamoto, announced he had hired a lawyer to clear his name. He says he has never been involved in bitcoin, has been battling health issues, and will not comment further. Newsweek has stood behind its story.

media notes 11.21.13

11/21/2013

For Thursday, November 21, 2013, here are some media stories of note:

It is a bold prediction: Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, predicts an end to censorship within a decade. No, despotic regimes will not be collapsing and dictators will still be commanding the means of communication when they wish. The Guardian reports Schmidt believes that most everyone will be connected to the Internet and in possession of encryption technology to evade restrictions.

Nate Silver, lured to ESPN from The New York Times this year to create an online site on politics, sports and the economy, says his new group will not be emphasizing click bait. The Wrap reports there will not be stories done for the sake of attracting large audiences, but stories for the sake of attracting long-term audiences. Thus, no pageview-attractive headlines. With an emphasis on quality, there is a better shot at viability, he argues.

Farhad Manjoo, writing for The Wall Street Journal, laments the blurred lines. Advertising and editorial are commingling in native advertising (sponsored content) in such a way as the muddy the waters for the audience. Be careful, he advises.

media notes 11.18.13

11/18/2013

For Monday, November 18, 2013, here are some media stories of note:

The unnamed NewCo financed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has been recruiting some significant journalists: Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Dan Froomkin and Jeremy Scahill all have impressive pedigrees.

But arguably the most intriguing addition is the latest: NYU scholar Jay Rosen, one of the most successfully consistent observers of media in recent years, who wrote this weekend that he is leaving the press box for the field.

It isn't clear from his latest PressThink post if the move is a permanent departure from the academic realm. Rosen says he'll advise Omidyar as the company launches. He wants to apply the thinking in his essays to the practical world of business.

Frédéric Filloux looks at how Omidyar could/might/should invest the $250 million he suggests will be in play for the new venture. In his latest Monday Note, Filloux suggests there is money to be made in investigative journalism and that Omidyar's model will be a for-profit entity. He suggests a print version, different languages of publication, a fact-checking operation, user profiling to create verticals, a Web TV operation, newsletters, and an updating mobile service.

Emily Bell, the Tow Center chief writing for The Guardian, writes about the flurry of high-profile journalists on the move: the new Omidyar clan, Nate Silver's departure from The New York Times to ESPN, Brian Stelter from the Times to CNN, David Pogue from the Times to Yahoo, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg and the AllThingsDigital teaparting ways with the Wall Street Journal, and so on. Far from a statement of concern by them, Bell sees the moves as healthy signs of vitality.

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When cybersecurity is an issue for journalistic organizations, it only makes sense that journalism schools start preparing students for the life ahead. Laura Kirchner, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, examines some of the early initiatives on securing content and operating with a high degree of privacy in a world of heavy surveillance.

media notes 10.19-20.13

10/19/2013

Some media notes for the weekend of October 19-20, 2013:

Nate Silver, the FiveThirtyEight blogger who recently joined ESPN, told the Online News Association conference this week that journalists need to be more adept at handling statistics. Poynter's Sandra Oshiro reports that among his tips are: data needs to be placed in context, correlation is not causation, intuition is a bad judge, and making predictions improves accountability.

The American Society of Magazine Editors has tweaked its guidelines to introduce new approaches for native advertising (aka sponsored content). As part of its overall policies on editorial and advertising interplay, the ASME wants publishers to prominently disclose a marketer's role in creating the native advertising. AdWeek notes the guidelines are voluntary, and not necessarily innovative, but that magazine editors have been calling on the organization to address the issue.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that one in three Americans own a tablet and one in four own an e-reader. TheNextWeb reports that more than half of households earning more than $75,000 have tablets.

media notes 07.24.13

7/24/2013

Here are some media stories of note for Wednesday, July 24, 2013:

Jay Rosen, the media scholar at New York University, writes of the rise of a media state-within-a-state. With the recent departure of FiveThirtyEight blogger Nate Silver from The New York Times to ESPN/ABC News/Disney, Rosen notes how there are personal franchises emerging in media. They reflect a shift in power within media, a domestication and application of voice across scale, and a clearer sense of the value of individual journalists due to better digital metrics.

Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, earlier this week summarized Silver's contributions and challenges in the Times newsroom. She said he was a valuable voice but an outsider who some traditionalists in the newsroom did not embrace. Ezra Klein explores Silver's talent further in a post for the Washington Post. He says others were able to successfully aggregate polling data to predict the 2012 presidential election, but Silver's talents as a journalist permitted him to tell the story every day in a different way to make it engaging for audiences.

India is perhaps on a path toward media regulation, but the country's chief justice believes self-regulation is the far better course. P Sathasivam, speaking at the annual journalism industry award ceremonies, said external regulation "may seem a dominant urge, but it is surely not the answer." Regulation "could result in a perilous departure from the cherished principle of the freedom of the press as the sine qua non of our democracy."

The readers' editor for Sabah, the Turkish daily, has been fired. Yavuz Baydar had been critical of media coverage and of government handling of the recent Gezi Park protests. His employer refused to print his most recent columns and terminated him Tuesday. The Organization of News Ombudsmen (full disclosure: I am its executive director) has denounced the firing and called for his reinstatement.