Opinions are just that

Media statistic of the week 

Coronavirus is affecting all corners of the economy, and that includes the media business. In a message that sent publishing-industry stocks sliding last week, New York Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson warned that ad sales will fall in the mid-teens this quarter, with digital advertising down 10%. 

Bloomberg’s Gerry Smith spoke with Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at the advertising giant GroupM, who noted that supply-chain issues in China related to the virus “will disproportionately impact global media owners whose ad revenues depend on Chinese manufacturers.” Shares of Gannett, Tribune and Meredith all took a hit last week.

This week in media history 

“Mr. Watson, come here — I want to see you.” Those were the first words spoken on the first telephone call, on March 10, 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell phoned his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, who was in the next room. 

This week in the media industry

Covering COVID-19

As the coronavirus spreads, so does the potential for misinformation, which means it’s more important than ever for reporters and newsrooms “to support one another and share ideas as we cover this evolving public health crisis,” writes Laura Helmuth, health and science editor for The Washington Post. At The Open Notebook, Helmuth has compiled a tipsheet on how to cover this urgent, complex and quickly moving story effectively without spreading misinformation. 

Anna Kuchment highlights the “Great and timely tip sheet for all of us covering #COVID19 via @laurahelmuth and @Open_Notebook: Avoid ‘othering’ those at risk, interview nurses, show virologists and others at work because ‘people really want to see competence right now.’”

And Mark Berman says, “These @laurahelmuth tips for reporters covering the coronavirus also double as amazingly good pointers for reporting in general, including: -explain what is known/unknown -avoid jargon -trust experts, watch for frauds -avoid false balance.”

Meanwhile, Ren LaForme,  digital tools reporter at Poynter, has listed some of the tools and tech that journalists are using to track coverage of COVID-19. “We can tell that everybody is writing about coronavirus with MuckRack Trends,” he writes, “which reports a whopping 1.6 million articles about the virus since the beginning of the year.”

Great job Facebook!

Speaking of the spread of misinformation, let’s check in with Facebook. Josh Constine of TechCrunch takes a look at the Facebook fact-check feud that erupted over Trump calling coronavirus Democrats’ ‘new hoax.’ Facebook fact-checkers concluded that those stories were false. Constine observes that it’s hard to tell what exactly Trump meant, and Snopes rated the claim that Trump called coronavirus a hoax as a mixture of true and false. One thing’s for sure: “Great job Facebook!” as Michael Roston tweets.

“But the bigger concern,” writes Constine, “is how Facebook has designed its fact-checking system to prevent other fact-checking partners from auditing the decision of The Daily Caller.”

Robson Fletcher points out, “It’s not perfect, of course, but Wikipedia manages to weed out low-value & outright false information on a wide range of complex & controversial topics on a budget of $68 million. With a budget of $47 BILLION, why does FB struggle so mightily with this?”

Reddit as a force for good

On another front in the disinformation wars, some “Anti-disinfo warriors found in an unlikely place” — Reddit, of all places. Rui Kaneya links to Steven Melendez’s story for Fast Company about the Redditors fighting 2020’s fake news war. That piece is part of a new Fast Company editorial series, “Hacking Democracy,” which examines the ways in which technology is eroding our elections and democratic institutions—and what’s been done to fix them. 

As Harry McCracken explains, “Our series on tech on democracy (spearheaded by @kschwabable) starts today. Here’s @smelendez on Reddit as a force for good.” And Katharine Schwab shares, “My fav quote from a moderator who built a graphic that tracks the people and organizations involved in big disinformation campaigns: ‘Trying to understand how the universe works is hard enough for humanity without some assholes trying to mislead people.’”

Trust in tech

Meanwhile, how do people feel about Apple, Google, Facebook and more? Ahead of the election year, The Verge polled Americans about which big tech companies they trust with their personal information — and which ones should be broken up. Casey Newton breaks down the results of The Verge Tech Survey 2020. Some notable stats: 72% believe Facebook has too much power, and 51% believe Google and YouTube should be split into two separate companies. 

When it comes to which companies people trust to safeguard their information, the most-trusted tech company is Microsoft, at 75%, and the least is, you guessed it, Facebook. Overall, says Newton, “Facebook and Twitter really lag behind the rest of the pack.”

Also, says Sarah Frier, “There is a lot of news in my Instagram book that’s out in April. But for 62% of the people surveyed here, there will be a rude awakening.” See if you can guess what those 62% don’t know about Instagram.

This is rich

In what Carol Morello of The Washington Post notes is “a major escalation of a media war between Beijing and Washington,” last week the Trump administration ordered four Chinese news outlets operating in the United States to reduce the number of Chinese nationals working on their staffs by more than a third. 

Jeff Stein thinks “This is rich: ‘Mature, responsible countries understand that a free press reports facts and expresses opinions,’ Pompeo said in a statement. ‘The correct response is to present counter arguments, not restrict speech.’” “What a stupid way to set an example,” adds Michael Balter.

Stop surrendering to the trolls

Meanwhile, “Media bosses need to fight back when reporters are attacked by trolls, not give in,” tweets Matthew Carroll, and on that note, T.C. Sottek of The Verge has a message to fellow newsrooms: Stop surrendering to online attacks on your reporters. 

“It’s time to get smarter — and fast,” Sottek argues. “The business of truth depends on it.” Clara Jeffery agrees, urging, “Every journalism and particularly manager or leader of news orgs should read this about the information warfare being used against us.” 

A few more

The Poynter Institute announced that it has received funding from Google News Initiative to help three local newsrooms — The Minneapolis Star Tribune, WGBH News in Boston and 10News WTSP in Tampa, Florida — reach new, young audiences through engaging, shareable social video storytelling. Poynter’s Tina Dyakon explains that the yearlong program, VidSpark, will culminate with a playbook that local newsrooms across the country can use to engage younger people in their communities. 

At the Financial Times, Alex Barker and Mark Di Stefano report that profits at the Independent now far eclipse the Daily Telegraph, a new milestone for the first UK newspaper publisher to switch off its printing press.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is working to form a local ownership group that could purchase The Sacramento Bee. As The Bee’s Ryan Lillis reports, the move would separate the 163-year-old publication from its parent company, McClatchy, which is moving through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No word on who the mayor has spoken with about a possible Bee purchase, but Steinberg’s office tells Lillis the group “includes multiple deep-pocketed investors and one California billionaire who has demonstrated an interest in ownership.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that San Francisco has reached a $369,000 settlement with Bryan Carmody, the freelance journalist whose home and office were raided by police trying to find the confidential source of a leaked report into the death of the city’s former public defender.

From the Muck Rack Team

PR pros love a peek inside the minds of the journalists they pitch and work with on stories. As part of our ongoing series, Muck Rack recently chatted with Daniel Roberts from Yahoo Finance. To get to know Daniel and hear some of his tips and advice, head over to the blog for 6 questions with Daniel Roberts from Yahoo Finance.

Question of the week

What are your best tips for covering a complex and quickly moving story like coronavirus?