Want a better comments section? Graham Media Group thinks AI can help with that

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, July 13, 2023 [Want a better comments section? Graham Media Group thinks AI can help with that]( Graham Media Group developed the idea for a “first dibs” comment bot through NYC Media Lab’s AI & Local News Challenge. By Sophie Culpepper. What We’re Reading Axios / Sara Fischer [AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI →]( “The deal marks one of the first official news-sharing agreements made between a major U.S. news company and an artificial intelligence firm.” The New Yorker / Michael Schulman [“Orange Is the New Black” signaled the rot inside the streaming economy →]( “We all took a risk together. And the reward for Netflix does not seem in line with the reward for all of us who took that risk.” The New York Times / Sapna Maheshwari [Texas TikTok ban challenged for threatening “academic freedom” →]( “The lawsuit said that Jacqueline Vickery, an associate professor at the University of North Texas and a digital media scholar, had been forced to ‘suspend research projects and change her research agenda, alter her teaching methodology, and eliminate course material,’ because of the ban.” Washington Post / Laura Wagner [Inside the college newspaper investigation that got a football coach fired →]( “We saw the announcement the same as everybody else. And then, through that, we just started trying to do our own independent reporting.” Vanity Fair / Joe Pompeo [Zanny Minton Beddoes wants The Economist to be more “present” in the media conversation →]( “In the world that is your world, The Economist is not as present as it should be. Amongst people who make decisions, we have huge influence. In the kind of media echo chamber, not as much as we should. That’s something I think we need to work on.” The Rebooting, Substack / Brian Morrissey [The talent premium →]( “Most magazine businesses are likely to make far more from a combination of commerce, agency services, licensing and events than they are from ads and subs. This is a more grubby than glitzy affair.” Press Gazette / Bron Maher [Guardian to launch new 11-staff European edition in autumn →]( “The Guardian said it received more than 250 million page views from Europe last year, representing a 129% increase against 2016, and that it reaches 25 million unique browsers on the continent monthly, a 41% increase on 2016.” Axios / Tim Baysinger [Disney considering sale of non-ESPN linear TV assets →]( “When I came back, one of the things I discovered was that the disruptive forces that have been preying on that business for awhile are greater than I thought,” Iger admitted. Poynter / Elizabeth Djinis [For aspiring and early-career journalists, is 2023 a breaking point? →]( “Nobody signed up for a lot of the obstacles we’re facing now.” The American Prospect / Robert Kuttner [As goes Maine? A hopeful story about the survival of local newspapers →]( “Local dailies and weeklies could actually turn a profit with well-staffed newsrooms if owners could be satisfied by returns in the 5 to 10 percent range rather than the 15 to 20 percent that was typical in the pre-internet era and that is demanded by private equity players.” Washington Post / Taylor Lorenz [That dangerous “boat jumping” TikTok trend on the news? It’s fake. →]( “When pressed for evidence of the challenge, a spokesperson for Today declined to comment. A representative from People pointed to three videos on TikTok, two of which had less than 100 views and have since been removed from the platform. The third was posted from an account with just 28 followers and received only 63 likes.” Intelligencer / John Herrman [Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads is an early success – thanks to Elon Musk →]( “Subtract Twitter’s owner and its amphetaminic product strategy and you’re left with a story that’s both less sympathetic and less novel — Meta copying a much smaller competitor after failing to vanquish or buy it, Zuckerberg settling an old Facebook score, and the dominant American social-media company corralling its users into a new interface in hopes of getting them to reengage with its properties.” Second Rough Draft, Substack / Richard J. Tofel [It’s the first budget season of the AI revolution →]( “The real AI revolution will come to journalism when it makes possible not just old forms at lower cost but new forms altogether. Who will create the first AI equivalent of ‘Snow Fall.’ and when?” [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](