What a failed media startup can teach us about involving readers in reporting: The latest from Nieman Lab

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, April 4, 2018 [What a failed media startup can teach us about involving readers in reporting]( The Canadian startup OpenFile was a bet on collaboration between journalists and their audience: “We learned that we shouldn’t dismiss [a story] just because it’s not articulated in a way that we would as journalists.” By Ashley Renders. [Coconuts, a fast-growing, cities-focused network of sites in Asia, takes a hard right into paid memberships]( “The main point is that all of these changes have made me realize that you can’t build a business off Facebook, and the only constant is that Facebook is going to be constantly changing.” By Alan Soon. [Facebook is adding a button to let users get more “background information” (aka information from Wikipedia pages) on publishers]( What We’re Reading Medium / Ev Williams [Ev Williams: “Free, cheaply produced content isn’t disappearing. It will just get worse.” →]( “People are not dumb. But their information diet has been subsidized by print ad revenues and no-longer-sustainable digital CPMs for a lot of years. It will be painful, especially for publishers, to ween off that drug. But supply and demand will kick in. As paywalls go up (and, inevitably, many publishers go out of business), there’s just going to be less great stuff to get for free.” Global Investigative Journalism Network / Elaine Diaz [Here are 14 independent news sites changing Cuban journalism →]( “These media organizations innovate without realizing they are being innovative. They develop applications to download content offline, raise funds in a kind of ‘Creole’ crowdfunding system that flouts national laws and the US blockade of the island, produce podcasts and create partnerships. Almost all of them survive in an openly illegal terrain known as ‘allegality.’ Non-state media in Cuba defy the very constitution of the country, which explicitly prohibits the existence of private media in Article 52.” Bloomberg / Sarah Frier [Facebook scans what you send other people on its Messenger app →]( “The company told Bloomberg that while Messenger conversations are private, Facebook scans them and uses the same tools to prevent abuse there that it does on the social network more generally: ‘For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or viruses,’ a Facebook Messenger spokesperson said in a statement.” Wall Street Journal / Benjamin Mullin [Taboola signed a deal with the Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE to surface recommended links on some of its phones →]( “Taboola has inked a deal with Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE Corp. to incorporate a new feature that displays Taboola’s recommended links on some of its phones, the companies announced Wednesday. The module will initially include only links to news and lifestyle stories from some existing publishing partners, although the company may eventually expand to include paid links from content marketers, according to Taboola Chief Executive Adam Singolda.” Reuters / David Ingram and Joseph Menn [Mark Zuckerberg isn’t committing to coming European privacy protections as a standard for Facebook globally →]( “Zuckerberg told Reuters in a phone interview that Facebook was working on a version of the GDPR law that would work globally, bringing some European privacy guarantees worldwide, but demurred when asked what parts of the law he would not extend worldwide: ‘We’re still nailing down details on this, but it should directionally be, in spirit, the whole thing.'” ICFJ [ICFJ is starting a digital skills training initiative for journalists in the MENA region →]( The trainings are supported by Google through the Google News Initiative, and will take place over the next 12 months across six countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia). Splinter / David Uberti [Gothamist’s Kickstarter raises more questions than it answers →]( “Gothamist, the shuttered New York news site being resurrected by local powerhouse New York Public Radio, launched a Kickstarter today to get ‘back to full strength and make [Gothamist] sustainable for years to come.’ And the response is impressive: As of this writing, more than 600 backers have already donated a collective $47,000 to the project, putting the soon-to-be relaunched blog well on its way to its May 4 goal of raising $100,000.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( / [Encyclo]( [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](//niemanlab.us1.list-manage.com/vcard?u=dc756b20ebb9521ec3ad95e4a&id=d68264fd5e)