Today in the Future of News: The latest from Nieman Lab

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, July 5, 2018 [Tell me more: The Globe and Mail is slipping a little extra context into its stories (while explaining its editorial thinking along the way)]( “As a news organization, it’s perhaps an opportunity for us to be helping people fill those gaps without forcing them to go to Wikipedia or start Googling things, just to try to get the background they crave on a story.” By Spencer Turcotte. [Water in a news desert: New Jersey is spending $5 million to fund innovation in local news]( The dollar amount isn’t huge, and it will barely put a dent in the crisis of local news. But it’s also an official statement that communities’ information voids are a problem worthy of government attention. By Marlee Baldridge. What We’re Reading Twipe / Mary-Katharine Phillips [Digital kiosks like Blendle are struggling to keep European publishers on board →]( “In early 2017, NRC announced it would be leaving Blendle. This came after Blendle announced a new premium product offering a daily selection of 20 stories for €9.99. NRC said this was a move from additional service to distribution platform–meaning Blendle went from being a collaborator to a competitor. But before this change, the relationships between Blendle and NRC was already beginning to crumble.” PressGazette [Two convicted murderers sued to have old news articles about them taken down. After 11 years in courts, they lost. →]( “The Federal Court of Justice had recognised that ML and WW had a considerable interest in no longer being confronted with their convictions — but had also emphasised that the public had an interest in being informed about a topical event, and also in being able to conduct research into past events, the ECHR said.” Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott [BBC experiments with new virtual studio to better explain the news to young people across Africa →]( “What’s New?, which is part of the BBC’s investment for new programming in Africa, covers news and current affairs specifically for children across the continent…The weekly show, which covers hard-hitting issues from floods to fake news, is broadcasted around Africa in countries including Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria, and is presented from a new immersive, virtual studio.” The New York Times / Farhad Manjoo [Employee uprisings are sweeping across many tech companies. But not Twitter? →]( “Mr. Trump has continued to tweet an unending stream of brazenly false statements. Among other things, he claimed that thanks to migration, ‘Crime in Germany is way up’ (in fact, it’s way down). Last month, he tweeted the false claim that Democrats were responsible for his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border. Sooner or later, Twitter’s executives and employees are going to have to make a decision about which is more important, Mr. Trump’s tweets or the company’s desire to promote a healthy public conversation. It’s hard to see how both are tenable.” Medium / Tow Center [Platforms: Publishers’ “frenemy within” →]( “Tow Center founding director Emily Bell presented findings from the multi-year Platforms and Publishers project at the Global Editors Network (GEN) summit in Lisbon, Portugal in June…A video of her GEN speech is available below, followed by the slides from Bell’s presentation and a downloadable PDF of those slides.” BuzzFeed / Mark Di Stefano [The BBC has launched a new podcast app but no one knows what it’s going to be yet →]( “BBC Sounds is the British broadcaster’s ambitious attempt to replace its radio iPlayer with an all-encompassing smartphone app that’ll have BBC podcasts alongside livestreams of BBC radio for the first time….BuzzFeed News has learned the process of rushing it out has drained resources within the BBC radio and music departments, and staff are far from sure as to what the end product is.” The Future of Local News / April Lindgren, Jon Corbett [Canada had no idea what was happening to local news on a national scale, so they asked readers for updates →]( “Widespread disruption has made tracking what is happening to local journalism in Canada a challenge. The Local News Map is a crowdsourced web-based mapping tool that invites the public to contribute information about local newsroom startups, closings, and service reductions/increases.” New Naratif / Andrew Nachemson [The end of Cambodia’s free press →]( “After three hours of questioning, the immigration police took my phone. ‘We need to see if you are guilty,’ the interpreter said. ‘Guilty of what?’ I asked. ‘We will see,’ he answered. Current / Tyler Falk [NPR and Seattle’s KUOW explore potential of fundraising through the Alexa voice assistant →]( “Amazon reached out to NPR last summer about piloting the donation function on behalf of its member stations. The tech company understands ‘that membership is a locally held relationship,’ said Tom Hjelm, NPR chief digital officer. ‘They’re also not in a place where they are able to scale this and work directly with the entirety of the public radio system.’ Amazon made an exception for Seattle’s KUOW, the local station covering Amazon’s headquarters.” CNNMoney / Parija Kavilanz [She started a newspaper that helps Ohio’s inmates rebuild their lives →]( “The first issue of RISE — called The Recovery Issue — launched in August 2017, with a first run of 5,000 copies, founder Tracy Brumfield said. The paper is currently on its ninth issue and is distributed for free every five weeks. Half the distribution goes to correctional facilities, while the rest goes to places like health clinics, shelters and food banks. More than 40,000 copies have been distributed to five correctional facilities in three counties between Ohio and Kentucky so far.” Variety / Todd Spangler [When U.S. adults “watch TV” these days, they’re probably just watching Netflix →]( “For the survey of 2,500 U.S. adults conducted in May, Cowen & Co. asked, ‘Which platforms do you use most often to view video content on TV?’ Overall, Netflix captured the No. 1 with 27% of total respondents, followed by basic cable at 20%, broadcast at 18% and YouTube at 11%.” Digiday / Jessica Davies [For IG stories, The Guardian found that less is more →]( “It was just too laborious for the return on investment,” said Eleni Stefanou, acting social platforms editor at the Guardian. [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. 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