“Economic headwinds”? No, The Messenger’s flop is the result of one man’s blindness to his own bad ideas

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, February 1, 2024 [“Economic headwinds”? No, The Messenger’s flop is the result of one man’s blindness to his own bad ideas]( The flaws in the site’s strategy were highly predictable (and repeatedly predicted). But Jimmy Finkelstein’s muddled nostalgia has still left hundreds of people out of a job. By Joshua Benton. [Research: 3 in 4 U.S. adults can discern real political news headlines from fake ones]( New research suggests people in the U.S. are, overall, good at identifying true political news headlines from fake ones — but there are some stark socioeconomic differences. By Clark Merrefield, The Journalist's Resource. What We’re Reading TAPinto Newark / Matt Kadosh [Judge rules for local news site TAPinto Newark in New Jersey Open Public Records Act case →]( A Newark Superior Court judge has sided with TAPintoNewark, requiring the city’s school district to hand over the information requested. 404 Media / Samantha Cole and Emanuel Maiberg [The Taylor Swift deepfakes disaster threatens to change the internet as we know it →]( “The state of nonconsensual, AI-generated pornography on the internet at the moment is completely out of control. AI startups are flush with cash from venture capitalists and they are racing to make their tools available before they stop to stress test how those tools could be abused, and nobody seems to care until the Swifties show up.” Intelligencer / Jordan Hoffman [Killing The Messenger: My final days working at a disaster →]( “It was clear, pretty much on day one, that in addition to writing with an authoritative and articulate voice with over 15 years’ experience, I would be expected to help shovel the furnaces with SEO coal. I was happy to pitch in. But I soon recognized that time-consuming reporting or rich critical essays were less valued by upper management than quick hits. I’ll never forget the day I was told, breathlessly, by the then-head of the entertainment channel that Toni Collette was trending.” The Guardian / Kari Paul [Zuckerberg tells parents of social media victims at Senate hearing: “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through” →]( “[Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg and [Snap Inc CEO Evan] Spiegel were among five executives being grilled in Congress on Wednesday in a hearing titled Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis. The hearing was called to ‘examine and investigate the plague of online child sexual exploitation’, according to a statement from the U.S. Senate judiciary committee. Also attendance were chief executive officers including Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter), Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, and Jason Citron of Discord.” The New York Times / Ben Sisario [Universal Music Group pulls songs from TikTok →]( “Universal’s clash with the platform is the latest manifestation of a media conflict that has played out repeatedly over the last two decades, pitting tech companies’ innovations against the music industry’s demands for control and compensation.” The Washington Post / Laura Wagner [After budget slashing, more newspaper journalists plan one-day strikes →]( “It’s the largest collective action by staff at the former Tribune Publishing chain since it was purchased in 2021 by Alden Global Capital, criticized by some employees for what they see as ‘vulture capitalist’ practices, such as selling off real estate assets.” The Atlantic / Conor Friedersdorf [Readers share the state of their local journalism →]( “A longtime Seattle Times staff journalist recently started a new full-featured paper focused mostly on the northernmost 50 miles of the state. It took six months before a weekly paper copy was published. It’s now almost as large a paper, by weight, as my Sunday Seattle Times. I think the Cascadia Daily News succeeds in large part because it has a strong local focus. It also has a sense of humor, and isn’t afraid of the big stories.” The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin [The Messenger is shutting down after less than a year in business →]( “Things quickly went sour after the launch…Employees grew fatigued with demands to mass-produce stories based on competitors’ articles. The site’s debut was met with a tepid reception from industry critics like [Columbia Journalism Review]( and [Nieman Lab]( [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](