On losing the forest for the trees

On losing the forest for the trees

Media statistic of the week 

Savannah Jacobson has a special report for Columbia Journalism Review on New Money, which examines who’s investing in media these days, stats around each and the potential implications. “In looking at who is investing in what, we can observe what seems most promising—and what risks sacrificing journalistic independence,” she writes.

This week in media history

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As Becky Krystal says, “Bust out the DeLorean, we're taking a trip back in time to look at Thanksgiving coverage since 1877.” Her Washington Post piece gives us 143 years of Thanksgiving coverage in The Post, encompassing politicians, leftovers fatigue and every way to cook the turkey. One takeaway, notes Paula Forbes: “when food writers joke about reinventing thanksgiving every year they mean every year for a century and a half.”

This past week in the media industry 

 Stars vs. ecosystem 

 As we exit the Trump era, Sara Fischer of Axios takes a look at the Trump bump: New York Times and Washington Post digital subscriptions tripled since 2016. WashPost and New York Times with impressive rise in digital subscriptions. Downside: Third place is a long, long way behind,” notes Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi.

What now? Fischer explains how the two papers have different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future. Elana Zak points out, “Phenomenal subscription growth by WaPo and NYT. But this is what’s key: ‘Much of the Post’s growth is attributed to back-end technology investments supported by The Post’s owner Jeff Bezos.’” The Times, on the other hand, is investing in big-name talent and brand-building. 

Mathew Ingram calls it an “Interesting look at the difference between the NYT’s star approach and the Post’s ecosystem strategy -- interesting to think what the latter could do with single sign-on and bundled subscriptions to places that use its Zeus and Arc ad and content platforms.”

And Joseph Lichterman says, “this is so important for local news orgs: ‘research shows shiny objects (original content, hot talent, discounts, etc.) tend to get people to sign-up, and that functionality and lots of content options keeps them from leaving.’”

To build traffic, cover traffic!

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Speaking of local news, at the Press Gazette, William Turvill reveals how the Seattle Times sold 71k digital subs through ‘bridges and tunnels.’ Turvill spoke with Frank Blethen, chief executive and publisher of the Seattle Times, about strategies and innovations that have helped boost his publication’s revenue streams. 

 About that bridges and tunnels quote (“People just love to read about bridges and tunnels”), Turvill says, “This is a simplification – this is a Pulitzer-winning newspaper – but it makes sense.” 

Put another way, “To build traffic, cover traffic!” tweets Dan Froomkin. Penny Riordan points out, “Transportation feels like a forgotten beat, yet this data from the Seattle Times (+ data I saw several years ago at GateHouse) indicates that basic local issues drives subs and return visits.”

Be bolder & more direct

In the end, the 2020 U.S. presidential election wasn’t close. But what if it had been? In her Insight newsletter, Zeynep Tufekci argues that we need better processes: Fighting Mistrust Requires More Than “Trust Us.” “Trust is the design job of the decade,” says Daniel Harvey. As Tufecki writes, “It may not be possible to fix everything, but we can—we should at least try—to fix what we can.”

And now, as Ron Judd puts it, “The RX for post-Trump journalism: ‘pro-truth, pro-voting, anti-racist, and aggressively pro-democracy.’” He links to Margaret Sullivan’s Washington Post column, The disinformation system that Trump unleashed will outlast him. Here’s what reality-based journalists must do about it. 

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“I’ve been saying this!” tweets McNelly Torres. “First, be bolder & more direct than ever in telling it like it is. No more pussyfooting or punch-pulling. No more of what’s been called ‘false equivalence’ — giving equal weight to truth & lies in the name of fairness.”

Arthur Goldstein admits, “I was actually shocked to see journalists speak plainly after election results came in. It's like they were on vacation for four years and only woke up in November? Can they stay woke? Only time will tell.”

 Columbia Journalism Review describes this next piece as “@Jon_Allsop on losing the forest for the trees at a time when bad actors incentivize oversimplification.” Jon Allsop writes about a trend popping up in multiple big news stories: When procedure becomes the story. It’s happened with election and transition stories as well as in the vaccine story. 

“We’re diving deeper into the weeds at a time when our information ecosystem incentivizes the opposite—outrage, oversimplification, lies,” he notes. “The supposed corruption of procedure is a key tenet of vaccine denialism, and of Trump’s election denialism, too.” 

The market for misinformation

Meanwhile, Right-Wing Social Media Finalizes Its Divorce From Reality. That’s the headline of Renee DiResta’s piece in The Atlantic, which she says is “on the post-election content rifts between Fox and Newsmax/OANN, the moderation divides between Big Tech and spaces Parler, and the impact of digital secession.”

Steven Vaughan-Nichols highlights, “Trump’s loss, @noUpside writes, ‘has precipitated a deep rift in the right-wing information ecosystem.’ Media outlets, tech platforms, and commentators have had to choose between upholding reality and pretending that the president really won.”

As DeResta points out, even though Fox News acknowledged Trump’s loss, and Facebook and Twitter cracked down on election lies, “true believers can get their misinformation elsewhere.”

A way (or two) forward for journalism 

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Knight Lab’s series on product thinking in media started with a question: “Journalism has been disrupted. Can product thinking save it?” After more than 25 years in digital publishing, Rich Gordon, editor for the series, thinks the answer is yes, product thinking can save journalism, and he offers Six Reasons Why News Media Need Product Thinkers.  

“In fact,” he writes, “I would go further.  Product thinking is the most important mindset for media companies to embrace today. For news organizations, especially, product thinking is the best way – or only way – to ensure that you are reaching and engaging people, and building a sustainable future.” Laura Davis says, “I have been lecturing about this for years.” 

In the winter issue of Columbia Journalism Review, Darryl Holliday explores What Journalism Can Learn from Mutual Aid. In a Twitter thread, he notes, “I've written about this before but the worst thing media orgs could do is keep people from ‘being their own media’—Journalists have so much to offer to that process and two are not in conflict. Mutual aid principles are a way forward for journalism.”

Terry Parris highlights, “‘The journalists we need today are not heroic observers of crisis—they are conveners, facilitators, organizers, educators, on-demand investigators, and community builders.’ Change is possible. Change is necessary.” To sum up, “We need to think differently about where journalism can come from and who journalists can be. Read,” urges Camille Bromley.

Logged off pretty fast

“It turns out that Facebook has experimented with being less evil, and it’s just not as profitable. Sad!” Dan Kennedy links to a new piece by Kevin Roose, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times, Roiled by Election, Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth, which is basically about, as Roose puts it, “how to balance the sometimes-incompatible goals of growth and goodness.“

Shira Ovide says, “This is QUITE a story about Facebook experimenting with de-emphasizing posts that users had considered ‘bad for the world’ or ‘hate bait’ and the internal divisions that followed. A zinger by @kevinroose, @MikeIsaac & @sheeraf.” 

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You may have seen fewer “bad for the world” posts for a brief moment there, but “Does it seem like there are a lot more ads on Facebook and Instagram lately? It isn't your imagination and it could be a problem for the company soon says.” Spencer Jakab links to the report by Laura Forman of The Wall Street Journal, Facebook Ads Could Be Reaching Saturation Point

Esther Kezia Thorpe shares, “I logged on over the weekend and was hit by 4x sponsored ads in a row before getting to any friend's posts. Logged off pretty fast | Facebook has increased the number of ads served on its platforms by a quarterly average of nearly 30% YoY since 2015.”

The great social media circle of life

 In other social media news, “my time has come,” says Yorick Albert Dupon, of the news, reported by Sarah Perez of TechCrunch, that Twitter plans to relaunch account verifications in early 2021, and will be asking for feedback on the new policy. That coveted blue checkmark could be yours! Casey Newton shares, “My feelings about verification are still: - It should have different flavors (‘politician,’ ‘journalist,’ ‘doctor’) - It should be available to all - It is not nearly as complicated as Twitter thinks. Tinder launched verification months ago. Tinder!”

And at Social Media Today, Andrew Hutchinson reports that Snapchat has launched a TikTok-like ‘Spotlight’ short video feed option. As he writes, “And so, the great social media circle of life continues…” 

Most interesting

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Some “whoa” news, as Joshua Benton tweets, and what Sam Haselby says is “Maybe the most interesting of these recent moves and developments in journalism imo…” Ezra Klein and Lauren Williams are leaving Vox, as Sara Fischer reported at Axios last week. “The media news keeps hitting this week,” notes Bourree Lam.

Klein, who was the co-founder and editor-at-large of Vox.com, is headed to The New York Times, where he’ll have a regular column and a podcast. Williams, editor-in-chief and senior vice president of Vox.com, is starting a new nonprofit called “Capital B,” focused on news for Black communities.

Sadly realistic

What the Hell Is Happening With Masks on Network TV? That’s what Kathryn Vanarendonk is trying to understand in her piece for Vulture. As she tweets, “network tv and covid stories I have thoughts!” Specifically, she says, “I understand that often showing characters not wearing masks is sadly realistic. I do not feel great about judging TV or any kind of entertainment on whether it’s a good model of safe behavior! but here I am, stuck staring at the masks.”

No, really

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Move over Hallmark Channel. As Alex Weprin reports at The Hollywood Reporter, Fox News Media is getting into the Christmas movie game, debuting its own Christmas movie on Fox Nation, with cameos from Fox News journalists and commentators. To reiterate, “Fox News is making a Christmas movie. Really,” tweets Joshua Benton. So, “This is like Fox News’s answer to ‘Sharknado’ right?” tweets Michael Roston.

A few more 

From the Muck Rack Team

The pandemic has led to a surge in the number of people who freelance. If you’re among them — or have plans to be — you’ll want to be sure to read Abby Wolfe’s post on the Muck Rack Blog, How to succeed as a freelance writer, according to these experts

As a follow-up to our 2020 Annual Journalist Survey, we surveyed over 450 tech journalists to produce The State of Tech Journalism in 2020. This study aims to uncover how tech journalists are shifting the focus of their reporting, covering virtual events, and being pitched during the pandemic—and what it means for media relations in 2021. Visit the blog to download the full survey results and check out key highlights from our new survey — including the finding that 31% of tech journalists are less likely to respond to pitches than the same time last year.

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