The Splice Slugs: Ads in fake news, Quartz’s new Index, and Dotface’s mission
Here’s your weekly roundup of the biggest trends, threats and tools in media. Human curated, algo-free in small-batch goodness.
Two conferences in a week. Not the best idea. I’m writing this from a crammed seat on a Ukrainian Airlines plane from Kiev to Rome.
On Tuesday, I ran a workshop at a digital disruption conference in Kiev on the importance of getting culture right as part of transforming newsrooms. If your focus is only on restructuring, operations and tools, you’ll get bogged down when you discover that the mindset in the team hasn’t changed. Here’s my deck from that workshop with 8 suggestions on how to drive culture change in transforming your newsroom.
One quick thought about something that came up at the conference: There are a lot of young people who are going to university without an idea of the jobs that are available to them when they graduate. Tech is fast changing the workforce and the way society looks at work. How well are universities aligning themselves to those changes?
A big Splice welcome to our new subscribers from Convertium, International Enterprise Singapore, Today, Tickled Media and Sourcefabric. — Alan Soon
Despite a crack down, fake news sites are still making a ton of advertising dollars from ad networks like Revcontent and Google’s AdSense. “What matters the most is that they get their [ad] impressions. As long as the traffic is real and the ads are being served to real people, it’s never a problem.”
Digiday brought some publishing execs together to discuss the challenges of the media business. One big problem: The latency of ads. So if you’re on a fast loading AMP or Instant Article format, there’s good chance that the reader has already scrolled past the ad, even before it loads. That means the publisher doesn’t get paid.
Quartz rolled out a new product called Index that covers economic indicators. It’s also meant to be mobile-first, which in this case, is about navigating by taps and swipes. “To us, the tappableapproach feels natural in your hand and provides new ways to tell important stories about the forces shaping our economy.”
Have you seen a rocket ship icon in your Facebook app? Facebook is apparently testing out an alternate News Feed that delivers content from sources you haven’t followed.
It’s been a year since Cheddar launched. Its goal is to be the CNBC of the on-demand video space — without the formality or resources of its cable rival. And it’s only just starting to figure out what it wants to be.
So young and yet so confused. Snapchat has a midlife crisis. It can’t state clearly if it’s a media company or a social network, or something else. And that makes it hard for investors to understand its growth.
Heard of Dotface? It’s started and staffed by university grads in Seoul who wanted a social video channel to drive the issues they care about. I love the clarity of mission: “We want to become a media outlet that will help the millennial generation find identity and values that will be needed to prepare for the society of 10 years from now.”
The BBC launched a Messenger bot dedicated to explaining Brexit. This is how it works.
…Btw the BBC has an internal tool called Stitch. It allows its journalists to quickly build videos across different platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Twitter took an unusual step in suing the U.S. government for trying to reveal the person behind an anti-Trump account. Twitter alleges that the authorities tried to use a “limited-purpose investigatory tool” to hack the account.
…Twitter also launched a fast-loading “Lite” product that it built with Google using its Progressive Web App framework. Lite is focused on the emerging markets where data speeds could be slow.
…Twitter seems to be getting a bit of good press lately on its ability to maintain a cozy relationship with video publishers.Some publishers say Twitter has been helping them promote their videos as well as pre-roll ads. “It’s free revenue.”
Google Play Newsstand appears to be doing well for some publishers. The Telegraph says it now has a million monthly readers on the Newsstand, where it publishes 80% of its overall content.
Spotify sealed a new licensing deal with Universal Music. The record label now has the flexibility to withhold the release of new music for two weeks for non-paying Spotify subscribers.
Australia’s Fairfax Media is cutting staff and other costs at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age to trim $30 million off its editorial budget. It’s also shifting its focus to covering popular stories that will bring in more readers.
Mark Little — one of the founders of Storyful — has a solid piece in Nieman about the evolution of media and why there’s an opportunity to build a media startup that focuses on trust instead of clicks. “The trust economy will be shaped by all the instincts and energy that defines the entrepreneur. But it will be a different type of entrepreneur than the one we lionize on stage at industry conferences.”
…And there are some thoughts here on better ways to measure engagement, interactions and customer satisfaction.
Melania met Queen Rania at the White House. Guess what the New York Times focused on? How they were dressed. Eek. “It’s a very safe look, for both women, if not one that conveys fun or relaxation — or even modernity. Rather, both looks respect the office, and the idea of a state visit.”
I met Rakhmadi Kusumo at a conference recently and I was intrigued by his story. He left a career in mining and finance to build a gadget review site in Indonesia called Manggadget.com. In this Splice interview, we talked about what led him on that journey to media entrepreneurship and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Creative agency Droga5 is prepping a launch in China. Mumbrella has a profile of David Droga, on work and creativity. “I was working my arse off and sleeping in the office a couple of days a week. A careershould move at the speed of your talent and not the number on your birth certificate.”
Nivea says it’s sorry for running a Facebook ad headlined “White is purity,” which targeted people in the Middle East. “We are deeply sorry to anyone who may take offense to this specific post. After realising that the post is misleading, it was immediately withdrawn.” Hmm… misleading?
No one likes the middle seat on planes. But here’s a smart design that actually makes it a little more comfortable.
Quote of the week
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I started The Splice Newsroom consultancy to help solve a difficult problem: getting newsrooms to adapt and evolve in the ongoing shift to digital with the right strategy, operations and training. I help transform traditional newsrooms and support the development of editorial startups. What can I do for you?
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Email me at alansoon@thesplicenewsroom.com.
