City Cast, a local news podcast network, is still expanding three years in

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, January 24, 2024 [City Cast, a local news podcast network, is still expanding three years in]( This month, City Cast published guest demographic data for podcasts in its 11 cities and analyzed how that data compared to each local community. By Sophie Culpepper. [The Texas Tribune moves to unionize]( The “wall to wall” union would represent 50 staffers in departments across the nonprofit newsroom. By Sarah Scire. [The LA Times lays off 115 people, with the De Los and Washington, D.C. teams especially hard-hit]( “We are not in turmoil. We have a real plan,” the paper’s owner, billionaire businessman Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said. By Hanaa' Tameez. What We’re Reading INMA / Kaya Maraz and Lena Beate Hamborg Pedersen [Norway’s largest newspaper on what readers liked — and didn’t like — about audio articles →]( “We have learned that mispronounced foreign words and the wrong stress in words annoy people the most.” WIRED / Kate Knibbs [Most top news sites block AI bots. Right-wing outlets welcome them. →]( “Data collected in mid-January on 44 top news sites by Ontario-based AI detection startup Originality AI shows that almost all of them block AI web crawlers … But none of the top right-wing news outlets surveyed, including Fox News, the Daily Caller, and Breitbart, block any of the most prominent AI web scrapers.” New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum, John Koblin, Benjamin Mullin, and Katie Robertson [It’s not just you. The last few weeks have been especially grim for American journalism. →]( “The onslaught of painful headlines is an ominous sign for the broader news industry’s efforts to forge sustainable business models.” NPR [NPR names Katherine Maher its next president and CEO →]( Maher is currently the CEO of Web Summit and previously “completed a highly successful tenure at the Wikimedia Foundation where she drove unprecedented growth in global readership and impact, while doubling fundraising income and raising an endowment to ensure Wikipedia’s enduring sustainability.” Business Insider / Peter Kafka [Report: Peacock signed up a record 2.8 million subscribers for its NFL playoff game →]( Subscription tracking service Antenna says that’s the biggest sign-up around a “singular programming event” it has ever seen. WSJ / John Jurgensen [Jon Stewart returns to “The Daily Show” to steer it through the presidential election →]( Starting Feb. 12, Stewart will host “The Daily Show” each Monday night while also steering the series as an executive producer. San Francisco Chronicle / Sophia Bollag [In wake of LA Times layoffs, a renewed push to force Google and Facebook to pay for news →]( “My priority is making sure this bill does exactly, and only, what it intends: to support our free press and the democracy sustained by it, to make sure publications get paid what they are owed, and to hold our nation’s largest and wealthiest tech companies accountable for repurposing content that’s not theirs.” Press Gazette / Bron Maher [HuffPost U.K. is having “cash flow” issues leaving freelancers chasing money for months →]( “It’s the fact that I’ve had to chase and chase and chase them. I feel bad for being like – ‘Sorry, please can you pay me in the terms that you’ve set out in your contract?’” Adweek / Mark Stenberg [G/O Media hangs “for sale” sign across its portfolio →]( “The media company—which includes publishers Deadspin, Quartz, Kotaku, The Root, The Onion and Gizmodo—initially sought a suitor that would acquire its entire stable of brands, according to two sources. But no such buyer materialized, leading the company to explore options to sell the properties on an individual basis. It has placed a particular emphasis on offloading The Onion, which is not profitable, according to two people familiar with its finances.” KCRW / Amy Ta and Danielle Chiriguayo [After cutting 20% of its newsroom, what is the LA Times’ identity? →]( “As the Los Angeles Times has declined to really stake a claim to California, others have come in to pick up the slack. That includes CalMatters, which is a nonprofit newsroom based out of Sacramento, and now Politico, which is repeating their playbook from Washington in California. That leaves less space for the Los Angeles Times to reclaim that, which is a lost opportunity.” [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](