“Having very frequent, more positive and hopefully collaborative conversations with startups who want to use their catalog, having those conversations much,  much earlier on, and building out a long-term where they’re proactively pursuing those collaborations with mutually favorable terms, as opposed to ending up in a position where they have to be purely reactive and suing companies and people which definitely is not a good place to be in financially but also in terms of public perception.”

– Cherie Hu, Water & Music

Guest: Cherie Hu, Founder, Water & Music

How is the way the music industry and musicians are compensated similar to and different from the way publishers are compensated? What lessons has the music industry learned to help them better protect against unauthorized use of their content? How could web3/blockchain play a role in compensation models for the music and publishing industries? What are the potential roles AI could play in music creation and/or distribution? 

In this episode of News Take, Cherie Hu, founder of music collaboration and research firm Water & Music, joins News Take host Rebecca Frank for a fascinating discussion about how the music industry has navigated changes to the ways music is distributed and consumed. Hu draws parallels, as well as distinctions, between how musical content is protected and compensated, and those same aspects of publishing. She shares insights on how emerging technologies, including web3/blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged by content creators now and possibly down the road, and breaks down the two camps of AI users from a philosophical and business perspective. Finally, she touches on the work Water & Music is doing to bring new industry innovators together, as well as her take on trends in music innovation that translate to the publishing world.

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Speaker bio:

Cherie Hu is the founder of Water & Music, a research network focused on analyzing music and tech trends. Previously, Cherie penned hundreds of articles on music and tech as a freelance writer for publications including Billboard, Forbes, Pitchfork and Variety. She has spoken as an expert commentator on CNBC and SiriusXM Volume; as a guest lecturer at institutions such as Harvard University, NYU, Northeastern, and Berklee College of Music in Valencia; and spoken at over 30 conferences around the world.

Related links:

Water & Music

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News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

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Our competition is not another news outlet in Philadelphia, it’s the 24 hour clock, it’s Netflix, it’s YouTube, it’s scrolling through Instagram. So how are you going to break through in someone’s day, so that they feel compelled to read your content, and further compelled to pay for that content. We think about this in terms of our content strategy in the newsroom, we strive to be useful, revealing and responsive, that’s the lens that we look through what we produce.

– Lisa Hughes, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Guest: Lisa Hughes, Publisher, The Philadelphia Inquirer

How can magazines and newspapers innovate to attract and keep subscribers in an increasingly competitive landscape? What must news and magazine publishers do to continue to keep their readers engaged over the long-term?

In this episode of News Take, Lisa Hughes, the first female Publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, joins News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank, for an insightful conversation about the evolution of magazine and newspaper media during a time of rapid change. Hughes shares how she’s led with innovation at top magazine and news publications to introduce successful new products and brands that have kept readers and subscribers coming back for more. She talks about her very first experiences working in the magazine publishing business, and how she rose through the ranks to become a top executive at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Traveler before making the transition to Philadelphia’s flagship newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, where four weeks in she found herself brand new and having to adapt and respond amid a nationwide shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She shares how innovative strategies and products, including live blogs, newsletters and gamification have been successful in driving audience engagement, as well as the potential of new platforms such as TikTok for meeting audiences where they are. She also talks about the risks and opportunities that come with new technologies such as generative AI and where she sees the technology having the most potential to optimize the reader experience.

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Lisa Hughes is Publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer. As Publisher, Hughes brings to the role an impressive track record, having successfully transitioned an iconic print brand into a multi-platform, profitable business. Hughes is the first woman Publisher and Chief Executive Officer in The Inquirer’s 190-year history. Hughes is known as a skilled business executive who values and respects journalism. Under her nine-year leadership, The New Yorker, owned by Condé Nast, grew from a largely print-only magazine into a multimedia enterprise. Over the past decade, The New Yorker revamped its website and paid digital content strategy and built award-winning mobile apps. Hughes launched the acclaimed New Yorker Radio Hour and Podcast, and restructured The New Yorker Festival into a profitable business. She left the company at the end of 2017. Prior to The New Yorker, Hughes served as VP Publisher of Condé Nast Traveler for 10 years, steering that magazine through the most successful period in its history.

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Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

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The post News Take Episode 203: Pioneering Innovation at Legacy Magazine and News Media Brands appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

“As a newsroom leader… live on your toes, on the balls of your feet, which makes it a lot easier for you to pivot. When that ideology permeates an entire shop, it becomes very easy to move. Because everybody is basically casting pebbles into the same lake – all of those pebbles ripple, and the ripples connect, and so you’re seeing the transformation spread, which is very exciting because cultural transformation is hard to make it stick. If you don’t do it right, then the movement stops when we leave where we are. And so cultural transformation only happens when people individually decide to commit and you hit a critical mass of those agents of change across one organization.”

– Samantha Ragland, American Press Institute

Guests: Samantha Ragland and Elite Truong, American Press Institute

What is cultural transformation, and how do publishers know if they’re doing it right? How can publishers cultivate real and lasting cultural change in newsrooms? How does cultural transformation in the newsroom translate to the content produced and thereby the relationships newsrooms have with members of their communities? 

In this episode of News Take, News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank sits down with Samantha Ragland, Vice President of Journalism Programs and Elite Truong, Vice President of Product Strategy, both at the American Press Institute, for a candid and fascinating conversation about the work API is doing with news publishers to help them look at their organizations with a critical eye and evolve to better reflect the communities they serve and respond to their needs. They talk about their work with newsroom leaders on DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), promoting and fostering a sustainable news organization from the inside out, and encouraging a culture of experimentation in the newsroom. Finally, they share lessons learned from API’s Table Stakes program and Inclusion Index, as well as their data centric tools for publishers, Metrics for News and Source Matters, and offer tips for how other news publishers can use data and related guidance at their own organizations to spark transformation.

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“We want to encourage folks who understand that if you want to get anything out of working with other folks and learning all of these lessons… you have to put some work in to be able to see some rewards, which is not revolutionary, but … it’s difficult to try to make space for all of the different things when you’re responsible for so much, but I think there’s always a little bit of room to look at ‘What can I let go of so I can invite more modern strategy in, or think about the long-term strategy once in a while.”

– Elite Truong, American Press Institute

Speaker bios

Samantha Ragland is Vice President of Journalism Programs at the American Press Institute. Previously, Ragland was a member of the faculty at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies where she also served as director of the Leadership Academy for Women in Media. As VP of Journalism Programs, Ragland leads API’s efforts to promote cultural transformation and business sustainability in media, helping news organizations serve diverse readers and communities more effectively. She leads API’s journalism programs portfolio, including The Table Stakes Local News Transformation program, Beyond Print, API’s work on diversity and inclusion in newsrooms and change management coaching for news companies of all sizes. While at Poynter, Ragland created custom workshops based on newsroom needs, including trauma and resiliency training developed in collaboration with clinical psychologists. She was also co-director of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship program for early-career reporters. Ragland previously led digital content strategy at the USA Today Network and managed digital storytelling at The Palm Beach Post. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Western Kentucky University. She’s an active member of and coach for digitalwomenleaders.com.

Elite Truong is Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Institute. She manages the existing API product portfolio, which includes Metrics for News, an analytics tool that aligns journalism metrics with an organization’s editorial values and business model, and Source Matters, a tool that allows publishers to track and improve the diversity of their organizations. As head of the Product Strategy team, she helps strengthen and expand the product portfolio, while also serving as a product coach and thought leader for the news industry. Elite is also the board secretary of the News Product Alliance, a nascent community of support and practice for news product thinkers. Elite most recently worked as director of strategic initiatives at The Washington Post, where she led the newsroom R&D team to create projects and products driven by emerging technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence and 3D and augmented reality. Before joining The Post, Elite spent four years at Vox Media, three as the product manager for off-platform storytelling. Elite has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, where she created and taught an entrepreneurship class for journalism students. Elite earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Roosevelt University. She is a member of the Asian-American Journalists Association and the Online News Association, where she taught as guest faculty and coached participants in the Women’s Leadership Accelerator.

Related Links:

Inclusion Index report: Assessing the Pittsburgh news ecosystem’s commitment to DEIB

Metrics for News

Source Matters

Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program

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News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
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This survey has ended – thank you for your participation!

We are evaluating our news and magazine audience and advertising research reports and would like your feedback!

To better meet your needs and continue to provide relevant data and trends about news and magazine media, we want to take the best of the News Advertising Panorama and Magazine Media Factbook and expand on those elements. But we need your help to make sure we’re providing you what you need most!

Please click the link below to share your thoughts. The survey should take you no more than ten minutes to complete.

Your input is extremely valuable and we thank you very much for your assistance in this important exercise!

Note: This survey is for Alliance members only who use the News Advertising Panorama and/or the Magazine Media Factbook.

Please email Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org if you have any questions about this survey or our research reports.

The post Alliance Members: We’d Like Your Input! Audience & Advertising Research Needs appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

“The Internet had the great characteristic of allowing everybody to be a publisher, but that was also the worst thing; everybody could become a publisher. From the point of view of news consumers, that meant it had become virtually impossible for people to tell the difference between a generally reliable … and generally trustworthy site, versus an untrustworthy site.”

– Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard

Guest: Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard

What are the dangers of an open Web where anyone can be a publisher? How do misinformation sites harm reputable news publishers? How are current economic and geopolitical conditions impacting the online information ecosystem? What is a News Nutrition Label and, if consumers can’t tell the difference, how are publishers of quality journalism distinguished from misinformation, hoax and pink slime news sites? How has programmatic advertising contributed to the misinformation crisis and how can advertisers ensure site integrity when buying ad space? 

In the Season 2 premiere of News Take, News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank sits down with Gordon Crovitz, co-founder and co-CEO of NewsGuard, about how his company is working to mitigate threats from online misinformation sites, which are often indistinguishable from real news sites. Gordon explains how the online environment has enabled the rampant spread of fake news and mis- and disinformation via hoax, pink slime and other sites that publish false and potentially harmful misinformation. He then shares how publishers, consumers, advertisers and other businesses, and government agencies can improve their awareness and identification of these sites to minimize their impact. In addition, he describes how news publishers can use NewsGuard’s Nutrition Labels to promote their credibility, both with readers as sources of accurate and trustworthy information, as well as with marketers as brand safe environments for their advertising.

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Speaker bios

Gordon Crovitz is co-founder and Co-CEO of NewsGuard, which counters misinformation online on behalf of news consumers, brands and democracies. NewsGuard analysts rate and create Nutrition Labels for news and information websites, using basic, apolitical criteria of journalistic practice. Its ratings and labels are used by news-literacy partners including technology companies such as Microsoft and libraries, schools and misinformation researchers.

Gordon was publisher of The Wall Street Journal, where he was also the Rule of Law and Information Age columnist, and spent nearly 30 years at Dow Jones and the Journal, based in New York, Hong Kong and Brussels. He was CEO of learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He was co-founder of Press+ (sold to RR Donnelley), a technology company that enables publishers to generate digital subscription revenues. Crovitz graduated from the University of Chicago and received law degrees from Oxford University and Yale Law School.

Related Links:

Get NewsGuard for Microsoft Edge 

Watch the next episode: How the American Press Institute is Inspiring Cultural Transformation in News Media

Watch the previous episode: Lessons in Practicality from The Daily Memphian: “A Lot of People Don’t Know We’re a Nonprofit”

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Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
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The post News Take Episode 201: News Nutrition Labels: How NewsGuard is Helping Fight Misinformation Online appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guest: Eric Barnes, The Daily Memphian

What are some of the things to consider when starting a local newspaper? How can you be nonprofit and still operate like a for-profit newspaper? How did you attract subscribers in a competitive market? What went better than you expected and what didn’t go as well? What have you learned about finding the best revenue mix? What should someone thinking about starting a local newspaper know before they get started?

In this episode of News Take, News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with Eric Barnes, CEO of The Daily Memphian (Tennessee), about his experience over the last four years launching a nonprofit local newspaper. Eric takes us from the very initial discussions and fundraising steps, to deciding whether to publish a print edition or be a purely a digital news publication, to how they decided what to charge for subscriptions and how they structure their organization to allow them to employ 40 newsroom staff (Hint: It’s not on pure philanthropy!) He shares everything, from how they took cues from the community to chart a practical course for advertising, fundraising, and reporting; to why they don’t do sponsored content and scaled back on podcasts; to how they found a balance that is working for them. This must-listen primer on launching a nonprofit digital news publication is full of practical tips and takeaways for anyone wanting to run a news publishing business!

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Speaker bios

Eric Barnes

Eric is CEO of The Daily Memphian, an online daily news source in Memphis that launched in September 2018. For ten years, Eric has hosted “Behind the Headlines” on Memphis’ PBS station, a weekly news show focused on local government, business and the community. Since 2019, he has also hosted “The Sidebar,” a podcast on The Daily Memphian and radio show on local radio station WYXR, that focuses on arts, culture and everything in between. Eric is also publisher of a group of community newspapers in Tennessee, and a former president and current board member of the Tennessee Press Association. He is currently president of the American Court & Commercial Newspapers and is on the board of the Local Media Association. He is a novelist and a published short story writer, and has a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s from Connecticut College.

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With the rise of digital platforms as a major distribution channel for news, concerns about “filter bubbles” and “echo chambers” – a phenomenon that occurs when platforms’ algorithms only serve readers content that they already agree with – have arisen. As more and more news consumers get information online, the scholarly community has worked to investigate the impact of this shift and the degree to which it perpetuates partisan viewpoints due to the lack of visibility of alternative perspectives. A study published in the journal Science Advances in 2022 added new data to the field and suggests that unlike TV, online news is not a major driver of partisan news consumption.

The cross-disciplinary study, conducted by researchers in the fields of communications, computer science and economics, set out to understand where TV news consumption fits into the question of American news consumption and partisanship. As the report explains, “What is missing from this debate is a broader view of partisan audience segregation that includes the Internet but recognizes that the modal American experience of news cannot be adequately described or explained based on online behavior alone.” With 64 percent of Americans saying they get their news from TV sometimes or often in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center, this inclusion is vital.

At the highest level, the finding suggests that concerns about partisan news consumption should focus on TV rather than online sources. The researchers declare that “while only a minority of TV viewers are part of a partisan-segregated news audience, this minority is far larger and far more internally consistent than what has been found in the online media environment.”

Four key data points underline this finding:

• About 17 percent of Americans are partisan-segregated via TV—roughly four times as many as are partisan-segregated via online news consumption.
• TV news consumers are several times more likely to maintain their partisan news diets month-over-month.
• TV viewers’ news diets are far more concentrated on preferred sources, while even partisan online news audience members tend to consume from a variety of sources.
• Partisan cable news audiences are growing even as the whole TV news audience is shrinking.

New Paper”Quantifying Partisan News Diets in Web and TV Audiences” in @ScienceAdvances with Dan Muise @homahmrd Baird Howland @markusmobius @duncanjwatts: if you are concerned about partisan-segregation, you should be focused on TV, not online https://t.co/9rXUFR3O5a 1/7 pic.twitter.com/NG4yjih2Mt

— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) July 13, 2022

Publishers working in non-TV media should pay close attention to these findings. As online news consumption continues to grow, people who get their news there will likely continue to get information from across the ideological spectrum. Companies that invest in gathering and producing unbiased news are continuing to meet their responsibility to the American public.

Though many detractors of the legacy news industry attack its supposed “partisanship,” these findings suggest that high-quality news, when consumed online, provides a more balanced view of major issues. The results also suggest that the digital platforms through which most Americans find their news should promote quality journalism sources further. Online news distribution, so often algorithmically managed, could be used to fight partisan segregation, if the online platforms would use their power to promote real, unbiased news sources.

The post Study Suggests Online News Not a Major Contributor to Partisan News Consumption appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

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This post originally appeared on Medium. Click here to view the full article.

Disinformation and trust in news were key drivers of the tragic riots that took place on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. But as the crisis unfolded, advertisers paused many of their online ads, including those running alongside news content, a practice that ramped up during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is understandable that brands would pause ads in order not to appear insensitive, but advertisers’ continued fear of bad news events is having a negative impact on publishers beyond social and digital media and can be linked to the spread of violent, dangerous disinformation and lies.

Read the full post on Medium.

The post Flaws in Ad Tech Contribute to False Perceptions of Brand Safety, Ad Blocking, and Disinformation appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

From November 6–10, the Lincoln Network hosted the Reboot Conference, a series of virtual conversations about the intersection of technology and policy. Day three of the conference focused on the future of online news, and included conversations with leaders of the Knight Foundation, the American Journalism Project, Substack, The Washington Post, and The Texas Tribune, among others.

Included in the November 10 discussions was a conversation between the Lincoln Network’s Marshall Kosloff and Alliance CEO David Chavern. Chavern and Kosloff discussed the state of online media, the overwhelming power of the digital duopoly over news publishers, the role of Section 230, and the profitability of digital news as we move to an even more online future.

You can watch the conversation between Chavern and Kosloff below. You can learn more about the Reboot Conference here.

The post Video: Can News Be Profitable on the Internet? appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

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Since early March, many people have been living largely isolated lives as the novel coronavirus has spread around the world. Their one guaranteed source of information since the start of the pandemic has been high-quality news – especially local news outlets. However, even as these news outlets have received renewed attention from readers, their staffs are grappling with how to continue delivering critical news with reduced revenue and resources resulting from the crisis.

Right now, the cost of journalism is incredibly high. Journalists, newsroom staff and newspaper delivery personnel are putting themselves at risk every day to provide an essential service to their communities. However, as many in the industry have noted, the cost of not reporting on the COVID-19 situation would be much higher.

If publishers are taking such risks, they should receive equivalent rewards. While traffic to news sites is up amid the ongoing public health crisis, unfortunately, most publishers are not seeing an increase in revenue.

In March, visits to local news sites were up 89 percent compared to February. That traffic is partly due to readers wanting more information about what’s happening in their own communities during this global crisis. The measurement company Parse.ly saw that from January 1 to March 31, their network was producing 45 percent more stories, garnering 124 percent more views on that content. Of the stories produced in March, slightly more than 10,000 stories accounted for more than 10 million views. Stories about the coronavirus earned more than 900 views per article – far more than the 257 views per article on non-pandemic content, which had still increased more than 50 percent from January.

A survey from the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin finds that the stories people most want are about the local response to the pandemic. People want to know their local government response, how local hospitals are responding and what restrictions there might be in their municipalities.

Readers are deeply engaged with the day-to-day changes taking place as state, local and national governments respond to new developments. More than 50 percent of U.S. adults say they are following COVID-19 news “very closely,” while another 38 percent are following “fairly closely,” according to a poll from Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, 70 percent of people think the media are doing a good job of covering the crisis.

As critical advertising revenue sharply declines in response to the pandemic, news publishers across the country are struggling to provide the same level of quality journalism. Many are being forced to furlough or lay off their staff, cut salaries and reduce print days to save money as the COVID-19 crisis enters its second month in the U.S. Although some publishers have seen an uptick in subscriptions, the growth hasn’t been evenly distributed. While large outlets like Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe have experienced a surge of new subscribers, other outlets – especially local publishers – have struggled.

In a survey of news publishers conducted in mid-March, the International News Media Association (INMA) found that as many as 62 percent have experienced a decline in advertising revenue. While much of that initial drop was from sectors such as travel and tourism, as well as event advertisements and big-ticket items like real estate and cars, other sectors, seeing fewer people shopping due to numerous state Shelter in Place orders, are scaling back their advertising budgets for the year.

Even grocery stores are pulling ads, INMA found. The stalwarts of newspaper advertising have seen an increase in business, but because of that, they haven’t had the same need to advertise as they normally would.

In addition, many digital advertisers and ad tech companies are blacklisting COVID-19 stories. These stories, however, are the ones driving increased readership and traffic, with coronavirus news receiving about 32 percent of all pageviews during the week of March 23, 2020, according to Chartbeat. Stories about the pandemic also account for about 34 percent of total engaged time.

Blacklisting news that is receiving such a significant amount of attention means publishers are unable to make money on those essential stories. It also means advertisers are missing out on reaching a captive audience.

In the U.K., newspapers could potentially lose as much as £50 million (approximately $61 million) in digital ad revenue due to the blacklisting of coronavirus stories, if the pandemic lasts for another three months, according to The Guardian. The potential loss is so great that publishers across the U.K. wrote a joint letter to advertisers, asking them to reconsider. “We understand many marketing budgets are under real pressure now. All we ask is that when you launch your next campaign you check you’re not unknowingly blocking trusted news brands from your plans,” they wrote. “Publishers are the only ones who are punished, in an advertising sense, for reporting and distributing the news that society desperately needs. The system needs an overhaul, the technology needs improving.”

It’s hard not to look at what’s happening right now – in the world and in our newsrooms – and not be scared. But news organizations are on the front lines of this crisis, reporting real, credible and vital news in order to help people protect themselves and their families.

The fact that news is so clearly essential, however, should not prevent publishers from earning revenue, even during these trying times. If anything, the ongoing pandemic has proven over and over how much we need quality news. But publishers need to be able to reinvest in continuing to provide quality journalism.

The News Media Alliance and Digital Content Next recently issued a statement asking digital advertisers and digital advertising companies to stop using keyword blocking practices that jeopardize the sustainability of high-quality journalism during this critical time, stating, “Fact-based, reliable journalism supports the online ecosystem by providing readers with invaluable information and advertisers with high-quality content and access to these readers. Keyword blocking threatens this symbiotic relationship at the worst possible time.” Alliance President & CEO David Chavern said, “This is a global emergency, and the public needs access to information that helps them protect their families, plan for their futures, and learn about public health efforts to combat this pandemic.”

The post COVID-19 Drives Traffic to News Sites, But Will Publishers Benefit? appeared first on News/Media Alliance.