The Splice Slugs: Facebook’s responsibilities in media, a call for diversity in newsrooms, and parallels in soccer
Here’s your human-curated, algo-free, artisan weekly roundup of trends, tools and threats in the media industry. Making newsrooms great again since 2015! — Alan Soon
Mark Zuckerberg shifted his language on Facebook’s place as a media company. He implied that Facebook has some responsibilities around content — just not in the way it works at traditional media companies. “Facebook is a new kind of platform. It’s not a traditional technology company. It’s not a traditional media company. You know, we build technology and we feel responsible for how it’s used. We don’t write the news that people read on the platform. But at the same time we also know that we do a lot more than just distribute news, and we’re an important part of the public discourse.”
…Germany may consider slapping fines on Facebook for running fake news on its platform. It could cost FB around $520,000 per fake item. “Facebook did not avail itself of the opportunity to regulate the issue of complaint management itself,” says Social Democratic Party parliamentary chairman Thomas Oppermann.
…Late last week, Facebook admitted to a fourth instance of inaccurate data. It apparently undercounted traffic on Instant Articles for some publishers. This only affected iPhone traffic.
A Russian ring created more than half a million fake internet users and 250,000 fake websites to trick advertisers into paying as much as $5 million a day for video ads that are never watched. The scam once again reflects the lack of a consistent way of tracking ads. “It will be a big shock to all of these publishers that someone was selling inventory supposedly on their sites.”
The New York Times is redesigning its offices to help improve collaboration among teams. It’s vacating 8 floors of its Midtown HQ — and will get some money from renting those out. They’re also getting rid of the big corner offices occupied by the Publisher and CEO. “We don’t need to preserve those vestiges from a different era, so we won’t.”
…NYT needs to do more than change its layout to keep up with the times. Despite the talk about diversity, there’s no sign of it in the editorial team. Liz Spayd, the public editor, found that only 2 of the more than 20 reporters who covered the presidential campaign for NYT were black. None were Latino or Asian.
…Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron touched on the same need for a diversity of views when he delivered a commencement address to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. “How many of our newsroom colleagues come from working-class families? How in touch are we with families where, when one thing goes wrong — a lost job, a car that gives out — then an entire household falls into crisis for lack of a financial cushion? How many in our newsrooms have served in the military?”
…Fatima Manji is Britain’s first and only hijab-wearing newsreader on national TV. In this interview, she talks about the importance of inclusion in the newsroom.
Many of you would have seen that photo or video showing the grisly assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. It’s all over social media. The New York Times decided to show that photo on its home page — which understandably upset some readers. This is how the company explained its decision.
Facebook launched its Live Audio feature. This could see the arrival of podcasts in your news feed — a new distribution channel for audio publishers. BBC World Service is among the first to use it.
If you think the news industry is changing fast, you should see what’s happening in soccer: VR, more mobile (and less TV) and the use of data. Lots of overlapping changes here. (Thanks Marc Lourdes for calling this out.)
Trump did a wonderful thing for Vanity Fair. He helped them add about 13,000 new subscribers after tweeting that the publication was “way down, big trouble, dead.”
7-Eleven is the first company to provide regular commercial drone deliveries in the U.S. Items were delivered within 10 minutes of their orders.
…The French postal service is going to start delivering parcels by drones. It will run tests along a 9-mile route.
And the next time you’re in Tokyo’s Narita airport, check out the toilets. You’ll find toilet paper for smartphones — not just for wiping off germs; they also contain useful information like finding wifi hotspots.
Quote of the week
“Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.” — Jim Carrey
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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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