News story or meme? After Elon Musk aXes headlines, it’s hard to tell

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, October 5, 2023 [News story or meme? After Elon Musk aXes headlines, it’s hard to tell]( If you had to come up with a single move designed to deal a blow to whatever traffic is left and make sharing news more of a hassle, you couldn’t do much better than eliminating headlines from posts. By Sophie Culpepper. [The Athletic cuts back on local podcasts]( The sports news site built its model around comprehensive beat reporting. But in recent months, The Athletic has pulled back from dedicated coverage of professional teams. By Sarah Scire. What We’re Reading The New York Times / Katie Robertson [The remaking of The Wall Street Journal →]( “The Journal now has more than four million total paid subscribers, including 3.4 million digital-only subscribers…About 75 percent of readers are male, and the publication has struggled in recent years to increase its readership among younger audiences.” Garbage Day / Ryan Broderick [This is what replaces news on Facebook →]( “The biggest publisher on Facebook right now is a Nigerian digital tabloid called Legit. It’s been growing all summer and beat The Daily Mail in August, which was formerly the top publisher on Facebook. Legit is owned by Genesis Media Emerging Markets, a Ukrainian company that acquired a bunch of African digital publishers. And in July, GMEM’s Kenyan outlet, Tuko, overtook MLive, a Michigan-based news outlet, for the number five spot. Since then, no US publisher has cracked the top five.” Second Rough Draft / Richard J. Tofel [A local news funder talks candidly about national and local funding →]( “I think there’s often a disconnect between national funders and local funders that has to do with national funders not understanding the constraints of local funders.” Wall Street Journal / Patrick Coffee and Megan Graham [“This is a false advertisement”: X ads are being challenged by reader context →]( “Uber deleted an ad with a critical Community Note, while Apple’s Community Note later disappeared when other members of the notes community weighed in against it.” Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford [WhatsApp for publishers: How Reach is driving millions of page views via messaging app →]( “The open rate for messages shared via Whatsapp Communities is, according to Reach engagement director Daniel Russell, around 90%.” Awful Announcing / Andrew Bucholtz [Jake Tapper–Marty Baron exchange over Felicia Sonmez’s Kobe Bryant tweets illustrates wider journalism conflicts →]( Tapper: “You yourself when you were at The Boston Globe did so much for victims of sexual assault and victims of the Catholic church. I wonder if maybe you have a blind spot on this?” [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](