Young people are giving up on BBC News. A new podcast is helping try to get them back

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, January 17, 2024 [Young people are giving up on BBC News. A new podcast is helping try to get them back]( “It’s quite lazy to say that young people don’t care about news.” By Imran Rahman-Jones. [How The New York Times is building experimental handwriting recognition for its crosswords app]( “Aside from handwriting, there’s also potential for interactive features like ‘scribble-to-erase’ detection, in-app self-training mechanisms, and a whole host of other doors that on-device ML in the Games app can open.” By Shafik Quoraishee. What We’re Reading The Baltimore Banner / Cody Boteler, Lee O. Sanderlin, and Giacomo Bologna [New Baltimore Sun owner insults staff and says he paid “nine figures” for the paper →]( “Smith said in 2018 … he considered print media ‘so left-wing as to be meaningless dribble.’ Asked Tuesday during the meeting whether he stood by [those comments]( now that he owns one of the most storied titles in American journalism, Smith said yes. The Baltimore Sun won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.” Axios / Sara Fischer [Alex MacCallum, who helped build New York Times subscriptions and launch CNN+, rejoins CNN →]( “Alex MacCallum, the digital news product veteran known for transforming the New York Times’ subscription business and helping to launch CNN+, is re-joining CNN as executive vice president of digital products and services.” Adweek / Mark Stenberg [The New York Post is positioning Page Six as a stand-alone brand →]( “This was not fully motivated by the fact that news has become a pariah for some advertisers.” Intelligencer / Matt Stieb [Media attorney explains why Bill Ackman’s case against Business Insider is a fantasy →]( “A key component of a libel claim is that the plaintiff — in this case, Neri Oxman — would have to prove falsity. That would be the threshold question. She would have to allege that she did not plagiarize. She has already admitted to plagiarizing, and there are plenty of comparisons out there of what she wrote and what was originally on Wikipedia. It’s clear that there’s copying. I can’t see how they can get through the threshold question of falsity.” 404 Media / Jason Koebler [Google Search really has gotten worse, researchers find →]( “The majority of high-ranking product reviews in the result pages of commercial search engines use affiliate marketing, and significant amounts are outright SEO product review spam.” New York Times / Alex Williams [Tom Shales, TV critic both respected and feared, dies at 79 →]( The Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The Washington Post issued “scalpel-sharp dissections of shows he deemed dead on arrival” that earned him nicknames like the Terror of the Tube, as well as a reputation for the power to make or break shows. WSJ / Isabella Simonetti [Will people pay to watch CNN videos on their phones? CEO Mark Thompson wants to find out →]( “The first step, outlined in a memo Wednesday, is to combine all of CNN’s newsgathering operations into one unit that will serve its TV, streaming and digital platforms, while creating a division tasked with exploring growth opportunities. In an interview, Thompson said he was also looking to monetize CNN’s offerings, potentially through subscriptions, and wanted to find a better way to show video news on phones.” the Guardian / Miranda Green [How an Alabama utility wields influence by financing local news →]( “A Floodlight investigation found Alabama Power runs a news service and its foundation bought a Black newspaper. Neither reports on high electric bills or utility-related pollution” ABC News / Abby Cruz and Sarah Beth Hensley [ABC News cancels New Hampshire Republican primary debate after Nikki Haley said she wouldn’t attend without Trump →]( “Trump has not participated in any of the GOP debates so far, saying he saw no point given his large polling lead … Instead, Trump has favored counterprogramming events such as rallies or televised interviews.” The Objective / Brandon Pho [LA Times staffers say Kevin Merida’s legacy is muddled →]( “I want us to do well as a newsroom … but a lot of the language here is about being profitable, and getting conversions and clicks and getting millions of views, it just rings hollow to me, and I think it honestly rings hollow to a lot of people.” Medium / Artifact Team [News sharing app Artifact will shut down →]( “News and information remain critical areas for startup investment. We are at an existential moment where many publications are shutting down or struggling, local news has all but vanished, and larger publishers have fraught relationships with leading technology companies. My hope is that technology can find ways to preserve, support and grow these institutions and that these institutions find ways of leveraging the scale that things like AI can provide.” [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](