The Assembly aims to be a state-level, digital-first Atlantic Magazine for North Carolina

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, August 7, 2024 [The Assembly aims to be a state-level, digital-first Atlantic Magazine for North Carolina]( “I was fixated on trying to build a place that could pay good writers good money to spend more time than normal on big stories.” By Sophie Culpepper. [Nearly half The New York Times’ digital subscribers pay for more than one Times product]( What We’re Reading The New York Times / Maya Salam [Before reality became debatable, there was “The Blair Witch Project” →]( “The internet was the perfect size, ‘the perfect kind of machine to spread things out,’ [Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez] said. ‘There was enough time, enough room for the misinformation that we got out there.’ ‘Obviously,’ he added, ‘we had no idea what was going to happen.'” The Verge / Mia Sato [The ad companies making money off of obituary spam →]( “Google has said it will work to decrease the visibility of obituary spam sites, but Check My Ad’s report suggests the search engine company has nevertheless profited from that very content: HausaNew.com.ng, which published an obituary about Sylver, appears to have had ads on the site that are served by Google.” The Midcoast Villager [Four local newspapers in Maine are merging into the Midcoast Villager →]( The Free Press, Camden Herald, The Republican Journal and The Courier-Gazette are merging to create what they say will be “a single, stronger newsroom” which will be “positioned and better resourced to continue to cover the complex issues that affect the region in the decades to come.” Among other things, they’re planning on opening a cafe called the Villager Cafe next year, which — alongside breakfast, lunch, and coffee — will serve as a “community center that hosts events related to local journalism, brings people together to talk about complex issues, and showcases local talent with concerts, readings, discussions and more.” NPR / Rachel Treisman [The self-proclaimed GOAT of cybersquatting sold HarrisWalz.com for $15,000 →]( “In August 2020, anticipating Harris might run again in the future, he snapped up 15 Harris-related domain names, combined with ‘every sort of folksy white man I could think of who was big at the time.’ Those include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and, of course, Walz.” The Hollywood Reporter / Alex Weprin [CNN is launching a FAST channel →]( The Free Ad-Supported TV channel will carry original CNN programming, including shows like “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” and “Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.” Phil Nelson, executive VP of CNN international commercial, says the company has “additional channels planned to launch in the months ahead.” Washington Post / Erik Wemple [Who’d want to watch a podcast, anyway? →]( “According to a study by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, podcast consumers ages 18 to 34 outpace older demographics in watching video podcasts and in letting them just play as background, in the app or in some other tab on their computer. Victoria Chamberlin, who teaches a course on podcasting at Catholic University of America, says of her students: ‘Something that struck me is that they all talk about podcasts through visual language only. Almost always, they say, ‘Well, I watch this podcast or show.”” Aftermath / Luke Plunkett [Maybe it should be illegal to instantly delete a website’s archives →]( “In tearing down Game Informer’s website, GameStop has torn the nervous system out of a huge part of gaming media’s dying body. You now can’t read any old Game Informer posts, and most of the old links pointing towards them work anymore. Where Game Informer once stood there’s now nothing but a gaping black hole, with torn wires hanging around its edges. Were it not for the Internet Archive (and Wikipedia editors’ herculean efforts in substituting its links with archived substitutes) salvaging some old stories and links, it would be as though the site had never existed in the first place.” University of Vermont [Professional news outlets published student-reported stories nearly 12,000 times last year, study finds →]( “A new study from the Center for Community News at UVM surveyed leaders at 73 news-academic programs across 37 states and Washington D.C. to quantify the extraordinary reach and impact of university-led local news reporting.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](