About the misdirected handwringing

Media statistic of the week?

As Sara Guaglione reports at Digiday, Future PLC drove nearly $1 billion in e-commerce sales in 2020, according to the company’s financial report released in May. The UK media company owns brands like Tom’s Guide, Cinema Blend, Golf Monthly and Marie Claire.?

“Amazing to think that a decade ago most mainstream publishers wouldn’t touch affiliate advertising because they thought it represented a conflict of interest,” tweets Simon Owens. “Now some publishers are driving upward of a billion dollars in sales.”?

In the first half of 2021, Future saw the money it makes from driving sales of other companies’ products grow by 56% year over year, to around $62 million. “Affiliate revenue from clicking through to buy items online is now more than 30% of Future’s total revenue. (Quite different from magazine days!)” notes Simon Carless.

This past week in the media industry?

Tokyo 2020

It’s been an unusual and unusually challenging Olympics, to say the least. As for viewership in the US, according to preliminary figures from NBC Universal, ratings for the Olympics opening ceremony fell 36% compared with the 2016 Games. As Lillian Rizzo and Suzanne Vranica report at The Wall Street Journal, the kickoff drew about 17 million viewers in the US on Friday.

However, Rizzo and Vranica point out that the first night ratings might not necessarily be reflective of what’s to come. The network said the prime-time audience for its broadcast and cable channels was 26% higher on Saturday.

Last week, John Otis of The New York Times wrote about what it will be like for journalists Covering a Restricted Tokyo Olympics. There will be less color and serendipity at an Olympic Games held during a pandemic. But, he says, unique challenges often make for good reporting.

Journalists shared their experiences with Nicole Carroll of USA Today for The Backstory: Reporting from the COVID Olympics requires 5-hour airport screenings, apps to track your every move - and a lot of spit tests. And David Oliver is “once again, in complete awe of my colleagues.”

And then there was what AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson went through to get to Tokyo (twice). Check out his Virus Diary: A really, really, REALLY long Olympic journey, in which he discovered, “The negative test is required within 72 hours of the flight leaving for Japan. Mine was 72 hours and 39 minutes. There was no budging.”?

His ultimate itinerary took him from Jacksonville to Atlanta to Tokyo to Seattle to Tokyo. As Jintak Han says, “A ridiculous dateline to match a ridiculous story. This is the stuff of nightmares.”

The wrong goal

In a recent piece for Axios on Journalism’s two Americas, Sara Fischer and Nicholas Johnston, wrote, “There’s a sharp divide in American journalism between haves and have-nots. While national journalists covering tech and politics on the coasts reap the benefits of booming businesses and book deals, local media organizations, primarily newspapers, continue to shrink.”

And to be sure, Gabriel Arana sees “So much redundancy in national journalism. We have dozens of reporters at outlets from CNN to WaPo writing the same damn stories every day, all the while local journalism withers.”

But when people talk about the death of local news, are they worried about losing local newspapers as we know them? Or are they worried about the loss of local accountability journalism and community-centric reporting? If it’s the latter, then there are few bright lights on the horizon.

In his piece Newspapers are dying; long live local news, LION Publishers Executive Director Chris Krewson argues that digital newsrooms aren’t “replacing” local newspapers. They’re creating something new, which has the potential to grow beyond the limitations of legacy newsrooms and truly reflect and serve their communities.?

Krewson notes that no single digital news organization is trying to do everything a Chicago Tribune used to do. Instead, the digital ecosystems are unbundling legacy newsrooms. “It isn’t necessarily a best practice that one company must try to do all those things at the same time, every day, and bring in enough money to pay all the people required,” he points out.

“This is the ‘newspapers are dying’ take I love to see,” says Darryl Holliday.

Krewson believes “Local news has a bright future. Let’s not conflate its promise with the death of the newspaper -- to be clear, not a state I celebrate, but expecting a 1:1 replacement, or a new ‘business model’ for the Daily Miracle, is the wrong goal here.”

“Great points by @ckrewson about the misdirected handwringing about local newspapers,” says Bettina Chang. “We can create something NEW that does MUCH MORE. As @jamiekalven has said, we just need to have a better imagination.”

Investing in local?

Some more good news for local news: The Ford Foundation has donated $1 million to expand the investigative team at The Times-Picayune and The Advocate.?

Martha Carr of The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate has those details, and Jerry DiColo shares, “We’ll be doubling the size of our @NOLAnews watchdog team because of this grant. It’s a big deal for the T-P, for New Orleans, and for Louisiana.”

“It’s great to see the Ford Foundation deploying its dollars this way, and let's hope it’s a template for other philanthropic orgs,” tweets Bill Grueskin.

And another positive sign: As Mark Jacob reports for the Medill Local News Initiative, more local news outlets are going back to local ownership.

While large chains can bring some advantages, like website expertise, tech support and consistent business practices, Penny Abernathy, creator of the influential “news deserts” reports and visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School, says, “All things being equal, local ownership is always best for the community where the newspaper is located. That’s because a local owner is going to know that market and know the residents.”

Inevitable and chilling

Michelle Boorstein, Elahe Izadi and Marisa Iati of The Washington Post have a new piece about the two men behind The Pillar and their big scoop last week, A Catholic newsletter promised investigative journalism. Then they outed a priest using Grindr data. It’s a development Kara Swisher calls “Inevitable and chilling.”

Also, says Reed Richardson, “This is nowhere close to acceptable—investigative journalism should welcome good-faith scrutiny and transparency. Pair who used Grindr data to summarily out a NJ monsignor are refusing to answer questions about the dubious ethics behind the decision.”

Alejandro Bermudez, executive editor of the Catholic News Agency, told The Post they get a few pitches a year from people who allege they can reveal priests’ indiscretions but that he would not have published that story and was concerned about the other ways similar data could be weaponized within the church.

“Once this cat is out of the bag, what is the limit?” Bermudez said. “If we say, ‘Listen, that was completely legitimate, that was completely moral,’ then any kind of tracking by any authority in the Catholic Church is fair game.”

“Someone was approaching Christian organizations in 2018 offering location data that would uncover behavior of priests. Claimed to have the church’s interest at heart. This is much more insidious than one case,” notes Joseph Cox.

This global journalistic emergency

Meanwhile, “As technology develops, we need to be more careful about leaks and personal information,” tweets Mustafa Tameez. And be “we,” he means journalists.

“When I heard my number was on a leaked data list, I wasn’t surprised. Reporters have never been more vulnerable,” writes former Wall Street Journal reporter Bradley Hope, who has a new must-read in The Guardian, Burner phones, fake sources and ‘evil twin’ attacks: journalism in the surveillance age.?

Tom Wilson says it’s “Interesting to read @bradleyhope on NSO and cyber-security for journalists, in particular that in any city at any time there are teams of surveillance professionals following journalists, business people & politicians on behalf of nefarious clients.”

Interesting is one way of putting it. Hope argues, “Anyone who believes in the value of investigative reporting that holds the powerful accountable should be worried about this global journalistic emergency.”??

‘Nothing to see here’ or…?

Two people familiar with the matter tell Martin Matishak of The Record by Recorded Future that the NSA has found no evidence to support Tucker Carlson’s accusations that the agency had been spying on him in an effort to knock his show off the air.

On Twitter, Matishak shares, “The NSA found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties & his name was subsequently revealed through ‘UNMASKING,’ a process in which relevant government officials can request the IDs of Americans in intel reports to be divulged.”

In other words, “Guess who was not spied on by the NSA, according to this cybersecurity publication?” tweets David Corn.

But Tim Marchman notes, “The substance of this ‘nothing to see here’ report is that the NSA intercepted a U.S. journalist’s communications, deanonymized them, and held this information loosely enough that a whistleblower had access to it.”

Stewart Baker’s take: “The new report supports both NSA’s statement (no targeting of Carlson, no plan to scuttle his show) and Carlson’s demand for an investigation (if not his more overheated exclamations).”

Cracking down on mis- and disinformation

Adam Satariano of The New York Times reports that YouTube removed videos from President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, “becoming the latest internet platform to act against a leader whose country has one of the world’s highest death counts, but who has disparaged vaccines and the use of masks and called governors ‘tyrants’ for ordering lockdowns.”

At Columbia Journalism Review, Mathew Ingram writes about Facebook, disinformation, and the complicated nature of solving the problem at scale. His piece examines why Facebook’s disinformation problem is harder than it looks, but Daniel Harvey isn’t buying it:?

“Respectfully disagree,” he tweets. “The worst of the misinfo stems from 12 accounts or thereabouts. The solution is painfully simple and obvious.”

Nothing but respect and solidarity

Oliver Darcy of CNN reports that Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez is suing the paper, former editor Marty Baron and other senior leaders, alleging discrimination after she publicly disclosed sexual assault.

“I have nothing but respect and solidarity for @feliciasonmez who has worked so hard to make our newsrooms a better place for journalists and readers despite the personal costs. She is brave as hell,” tweets Tonya Riley, a sentiment shared by many journalists on Twitter.

Gabe Schneider finds it “Ridiculous that @feliciasonmez has to go through this for there to be any semblance of accountability.”?

Not to mention, as Rachel Kurzius points out, “If news institutions barred every journalist who has experienced sexual assault from covering stories about sexual assault, I suspect they would have very few people left to report those stories.”

Heed the warning

“So it looks like @NickKristof might be thinking about a run for office,” tweets Prashant Rao.? “@helenlewis offers some advice for Americans from here in Britain”:?

Never Let Journalists Run Things.?

In her piece for The Atlantic with the chilling headline, “This will end with President Tucker Carlson,” Helen Lewis argues that the British experience should be a warning: Don’t let journalists go into politics.

“Nick Kristof sounds like a decent guy,” she says. “But as a British person, my strong message to America is -- do not encourage journalists to go into politics. Or this ends with President Tucker Carlson.”

Christian Paz highlights, “Nicholas Tomalin once said that the ‘only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability.’ If anything, he was being too polite,” and observes that we’re “Starting Leo season with a @helenlewis burn.”

Terrifying headline aside, “This is smart and funny,” as Adrienne LaFrance says.

What a career

Last up this week, Keith Kelly of the New York Post has penned a fond farewell to his Media Ink column, which is coming to an end with his retirement. And as Zachary Kussin says, “This is an incredible retirement column by @media_ink. What a career he’s had!”

Carleton English shares, “While there are a lot of cool things about working at @nypost, one of the coolest was being seated in the same pod as @media_ink, hearing him work the phones, & getting a sneak peek of the latest media gossip.”

“I always found him to be a mensch, and this is a fun swan song. So long @media_ink!” tweets Lea Goldman. And from Jane Mayer a very specific “Farewell and thank you Keith J. Kelly for recounting how you nailed the Koch Brothers when they tried to frame me.”

“I laughed and cried while reading @media_ink’s adios to Media Ink,” tweets Kirsten Fleming. “He knows where all the bodies are buried (I believe he helped bury some of them) and he’s the most fun person to gossip with in the office kitchen or the bar. A true legend…”

We’ll leave you with this tweet, from Zlati Meyer: “-30-”

A few more

• The exclusive from Sara Fischer at Axios, NBC News is adding more than 200 jobs as part of a major streaming push.
• From Angela Fu at Poynter, ‘The stakes are really high’: Newly unionized newsrooms tackle the next challenge, contract negotiations. Jon Schleuss says, “There’s a really good story to be told profiling the cast of lawyers fighting journalists and our democracy.”?
• At Study Hall, Susan Elizabeth Shepard takes a look at the showdown between Lee Enterprises and The Buffalo News as its union fights for a local copy desk and job security protections.
• Daisy Wyatt says she’s “Still struggling to fully understand the NFT world but this is good on how news organisations are beginning to use them.” William Turvill of the Press Gazette spoke with Kris Barton, Gannett’s chief product office about what Gannett learned from its first NFT mission.
• Ben Mullin of The Wall Street Journal delivered the scoop that former CBS chief Joe Ianniello has launched a SPAC amid media merger mania. Mullin also shares that “This is the first time I’ve seen a check for $300 million (also probably the last).”
• After going public via a SPAC, Taboola has acquired e-commerce marketing network Connexity for $800M. TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden has details.
• According to eMarketer’s inaugural forecast on the category, US influencer marketing spending is set to grow more than 30% this year and will exceed $3 billion in 2021. eMarketer projects that the category will surpass $4 billion next year.
• Clubhouse is no longer invite-only, and if you’re already on the waitlist, you’ll get added...eventually, as Ashley Carman reports at The Verge.