#28 - Rethinking The Inverted Pyramid
In recent years, a slew of new digital news companies have pushed hard to rethink the fundamentals of journalistic formats. The inverted pyramid made place for?listicles (Buzzfeed), news cards (Vox), smart brevity (Axios)?among others and now there is ‘the Semafor’. A new structured news format that orders facts, opinion, background, and other points of view.
Semafor is of course more than a format. It’s a long-awaited and much hyped new digital publication that aims?to catch the attention of a global audience. Whether there is also a burning need for it remains the question.
This and more in this week's Wayfinder.
IN FOCUS
The relationship between technology platforms and news publishers has been declared over a few times but now things really seem to be winding down. Meta is pulling the support for Instant Articles and gives publishers six months to adjust their Facebook strategies. Earlier they announced they would kill their newsletter plaftform and funding for publishers.
Meanwhile Google's latest core algorithm change has hit major news publishers hard. According to Press Gazette the top 25 publishers in the UK saw their visibility in Google’s search rankings drastically reduced since September.?
At the same time Google seems to be keen to guide users to the Google News Showcase, which this week also launched in France.
REVENUE
Advertising is by far the most popular choice to fund news if you ask people (in the US). And confronted with a paywall most people will look for the news in other places first. This and other insights in a new survey by Gallup and the Knight Foundation.
Toolkits has conducted research on subscribers in the US market. One of the surprising findings was that a relatively small group of consumers, about 4% of the population, accounts for an outsized portion of subscriptions to digital publications in the U.S.?
NEWSROOMS
Margaret Sullivan, formerly the media columnist at?The Washington Post, has written a book about her journey in news and her fears for the future of journalism: Newsroom Confidential.
The BBC has turned 100 and if you have not yet explored its celebratory website you definitely have to take a look.
Related, an analysis by NiemanLab, looking into the many challenges the BBC is facing: increasing competition for audiences from global entertainment providers, anxieties about the sustainability of its funding, and a highly competitive global news market.?
领英推荐
SHORT
AI
The first experiments with AI illustration in journalism where ‘covers’ (Cosmopolitan, The Economist) and articles (everyone writing about generative AI). Now Le Temps in Switzerland has gone full generative with their magazine “T” of which 95% of the images are generated by AI.
The Every, a bundle of newsletters and podcasts, has launched an own AI driven word-processor called Lex.?In itself that's not special. There are many out there. But for the first time, it's being launched by a journalistic enterprise and there is already a waiting list of 25000+ people who want to try it out.?
Related:
Vox warns that the images used to train DALL-E and other generative AI models are to Western. They keep making art that looks to European ignoring traditions from the rest of the world.
YOUNG
Gen Z believes mainstream pop culture is a thing of the past.?Instead, they exist in several different niche cultures that they’re passionate about. Provocative insights in a good new report on Gen Z subcultures by Horizon Media.
Ethar El-Katatney, a news product strategist at Bloomberg, created a guide to Gen Z:?“Attracting Young(er) Audiences: A Guide for Small(ish) Legacy Organizations"
READ
Is TikTok's design reinforcing misinformation? Mashable argues that the infinite scroll encourages more time spent on the app and the absence of external links is making it difficult for creators to cite their sources and for users to quickly verify information.
And a new report by Dentsu packs together the latest insights in gaming culture and how brands can develop a presence that truly resonates with gaming communities. ?
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One more thing: Sameer Padania, from the Public Interest News Foundation, sums up what is needed to build a future for independent public interest media.
As always feel free to share this newsletter with friends & colleagues!
Ezra.