“Nobody solves media except temporarily”: Four indie media owners on money, sustainability, and “making cooler, weirder things”

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, February 14, 2024 [“Nobody solves media except temporarily”: Four indie media owners on money, sustainability, and “making cooler, weirder things”]( “Blogging is the media. Blogging won.” By Hanaa' Tameez. What We’re Reading Vanity Fair / Charlotte Klein [Forget A1. The most coveted “front pages” of The New York Times are now The Daily and its flagship newsletter The Morning →]( “’Occasionally, ‘The Morning’ is responsible for more than half of an article’s online audience,’ [David] Leonhardt told me, with recent examples including Wirecutter advice on black tights and a politics story on how the cold weather was affecting the Iowa campaigns. But Leonhardt’s approach has raised questions about how the paper distinguishes between analysis and opinion—and whether Leonhardt, an institutional star, has more latitude than others to toe that line.” Poynter / Angela Fu [The Desert News is making money with a free monthly print digest of its best journalism →]( “The free publication amasses the Deseret News’s best journalism from its various platforms and is delivered to 120,000 homes around Salt Lake City once a month. The Digest launched in September and has been profitable since October, publisher Burke Olsen said.” NPR / David Folkenflik [Journalists turn to picket lines as the news business ails →]( Under president Jon Schleuss, the NewsGuild-CWA has “adopted an aggressive stance.” “When we were organizing at the L.A. Times and building the union we never thought we would go on strike,” Schleuss told NPR. “Now it’s completely changed. We realized that withholding our labor is essential to making sure that the boss knows that we have a seat at the table and we have a voice and we have a lot of collective power.” Digiday / Sara Guaglione [Why New York Magazine’s The Cut is expanding at a time when many media companies are cutting costs →]( “The Cut is expanding this year, adding four full-time editorial staff, verticals and inventory as it chases new and existing advertiser dollars.” Reynolds Journalism Institute / Emily Lytle [How to work with a local artist to design merch for your newsroom →]( “Fort Worth Report expects to make a $6 profit on each shirt after paying a base cost per shirt of $18.99 and selling for $24.99 on Spreadshirt. Saco Bay News also used Spreadshirt, making between $6.50 and $7 on each shirt sold for $26.99.” Reuters [Most influencers fail to admit to advertising as required under EU law, study finds →]( “The screening of 576 influencers showed that nearly all (97%) of them posted commercial content, but only 20% systematically indicated that it was advertising, the European Commission said it a statement.” Current / Tyler Falk [Why NPR’s new podcast strategist sees opportunity after a turbulent year for the network →]( “We grew up with a really unhealthy reliance on advertising and sponsorship. And that’s part of what put NPR through the last year that it had.” TheWrap / Natalie Korach [Daily Beast media newsletter is “likely dead” after editor-at-large departs →]( “The Daily Beast put its scoop-driven media newsletter Confider on hiatus on Monday just weeks after editor at large Lachlan Cartwright — who steered the newsletter — departed the outlet.” Axios / Sara Fischer [Messenger founder says he’s considering severance pay for laid off employees →]( “Many” of The Messenger’s employees “had severance payments guaranteed in their contracts … The Messenger has already been sued in a class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York by former employees a day after the company shuttered, claiming [The Messenger founder and CEO Jimmy Finkelstein] violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires large employers to give advance notice of major layoffs.” The Times U.K. / William Turvill [The Guardian is braced for layoffs as online ad drought hits U.K. publishers →]( “Guardian staff were told last week the Scott Trust, the charitable organization that owns the newspaper and its sister title the Observer, considers the current financial predicament as ‘beyond acceptable or sustainable.'” As digital ad sales have become less reliable, the Guardian has sought to bulk up digital reader revenue and the company [announced]( in January it had raised a record amount of reader revenue in the United States. New York Times / Dwight Garner [What was The Village Voice? →]( “For many oddballs and lefties and malcontents out in America’s hinterlands (I was among them), finding their first copy of The Voice was more than eye-opening. Here was a dispatch from another, better planet. There was nothing else like it. It drove many to go into journalism, or to move to New York, or both.” Los Angeles Times / CHRISTI CARRAS and RYAN FAUGHNDER [CBS News will lay off 20 journalists as part of broader Paramount cuts →]( “The media giant that owns the famed Paramount Pictures movie studio, plus CBS, Nickelodeon and other networks, will eliminate roughly 800 jobs as part of a broad streamlining effort.” The CBS News cuts [include]( correspondents Catherine Herridge and Jeff Pegues. Axel Springer [Axel Springer names new leadership team for U.S. expansion →]( Axel Springer now employs roughly the same number of journalists in the U.S. as they do in Germany. Gabriel Brotman, who cofounded Politico Europe, will oversee the company’s operations in the states. [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](