On July 5, 2023, 18 publisher groups and media associations from around the world issued a joint statement in response to Google and Meta’s threat to take down news in Canada after Canada’s parliament passed the Online News Act (C-18) in June. See the full statement here.

The post Global Reaction to Google and Meta Threat to Take Down News in Canada appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Today is the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, a day to recognize and appreciate the journalists and reporters who strive to keep us informed and connected to the world. To show gratitude, let’s make sure to support our local news industry and the reporters who risk their lives to report the truth.

Learn more about the day, including this year’s theme, “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights” on the UNESCO site.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn and join the conversation – #WorldPressFreedomDay  #supportlocalnews

The post Celebrating World Press Freedom Day 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.

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

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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”

View all episodes

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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

Audio & Video Engineer: Current Media Group

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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: Rand Fishkin, SparkToro

“My position is, How do we help marketers find the sources of influence that their audience pays attention to outside of these big ecosystems? Because we think that’s not only good for the advertiser, it’s good for the publisher, too. If you’ve built a great audience, you should have people coming to you who want to reach that audience, you shouldn’t have to participate in Google’s extremely low payout advertising network or FB’s or put all your content on TikTok for free. Those mechanisms for driving revenue, we think are fundamentally biased and unfair.”

– Rand Fishkin, SparkToro

What can publishers do to get out from under the dominant tech platforms that control the digital advertising space? How have other industries pushed back on Google’s scraping of their data and coming between them and their audience? How can publishers take back control of our audience data so that we’re not having to go through Google, Facebook and the other tech platforms to reach our own audience?

In this episode of News Take, News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern is joined by Rand Fishkin, cofounder and CEO of audience research software firm SparkToro, for a fascinating conversation about the big tech platforms, their algorithms, and how the Internet has evolved from a once equitable environment that was mutually beneficial, to now favoring only a handful of giant tech platforms today. Rand paints a picture of the digital marketing landscape businesses must navigate today, highlighting concerns with tech platforms’ walled gardens in which they intentionally try to keep you from leaving. He shares SparkToro’s research on “zero click searches” that has gained attention from marketers worldwide on how few web searches now result in a click through to the original content. And he explains how his company helps marketers understand their audience’s behaviors and preferences without having to rely on Google and Facebook, and the importance of taking back ownership of your audience relationships and data.

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

Watch with video:

Speaker bios

Rand Fishkin is cofounder and CEO of SparkToro, a software company that provides unique audience research and insights, aggregated from tens of millions of verifiable public social and web profiles, to make channels outside Facebook and Google accessible to everyone. Rand started SparkToro in 2018 with Casey Henry. Prior to that, he was CEO of Moz, where he raised two rounds of funding, led three acquisitions, and a rebrand. From 2007 to 2014, he grew the company to over 130 employees, more than $30 million in revenue, and web traffic to over 30 million visitors a year. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through his writing, videos, speaking, and his book, Lost and Founder. Rand previously co-contributed to two other books: Art of SEO, and Inbound Marketing & SEO. He’s been profiled in the Seattle Times, featured in Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, named to BusinessWeek’s 30 Under 30, written about in Newsweek, The Next Web, the Inc 500, and hundreds of other publications.

Additional Resources

In 2020, Two Thirds of Google Searches Ended Without a Click (Sparktoro)

White Paper: How Google Abuses Its Position as a Market Dominant Platform to Strong-Arm News Publishers and Hurt Journalism (News/Media Alliance – features SparkToro’s zero click research)

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

Watch the previous episode: Update on News Deserts and Local News Trends

View all episodes

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 111: Outsmarting Google and Facebook: Helping Publishers Grow Their Audience Outside the Dominant Platforms appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

On September 26, the News/Media Alliance filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its proceeding about Endorsement Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. In these comments, the Alliance supports the FTC’s efforts to clarify these guidelines and advocates for guidance that doesn’t burden news publishers or magazines. The FTC’s proposed guidance on Live Reads is in line with the Alliance’s requested clarification in its earlier comments in this same proceeding. The Alliance specifically addressed “the increasing reliance on influencers and social media posts to endorse products and services and supports the inclusion of certain new Examples which address these practices.”

The Alliance’s comments request the FTC differentiate its guidance on intermediary liability by clarifying the duties of news publishers and magazines to ensure they have no excessive monitoring obligations or liability for influencer actions. Because monitoring obligations and extra liability for actions entirely removed from the news publisher or magazine would be unduly burdensome, the Alliance asks the FTC to clarify this guidance to exclude any excessive liability. The comments further request flexibility in both the definition of “endorsement” and “clear and conspicuous” to ensure news publishers and magazines do not face rigid standards that are difficult to comply with. The comments explain “Alliance members have directly witnessed the evolution of the advertising industry over the past 13 years since the Guides were last updated, and support the Commission’s general efforts to revise the Guides to reflect these changes.”

The post Alliance Files Comments with FTC in Endorsement Guides Proceeding appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The report, which examined the history of minority-owned media and the impact of the ascendance of big tech platforms (such as Facebook and Google) on minority-owned outlets and those targeting underrepresented communities, is the product of an extensive research and information-gathering effort that included conducting interviews with several representatives from minority-owned news outlets.

The report concludes, “The ascendance of Facebook and Google threatens the viability of the entire news industry and exacerbates the structural inequities – including a disparity in advertising dollars, resources and access to capital – that have long plagued minority media. These persisting inequities, which require a reconsideration of a broad set of public policies and practices, are now compounded by minority publishers’ reliance on the very platforms that have upended and circumvented the role of the press as independent watchdogs in a democracy.”

In a separate overview and introduction to the report, which is based on the report’s conclusions, the News/Media Alliance recommends passing the JCPA as a solution to reversing the concerning trends found in the report. The JCPA would offer small and local news media outlets, including minority-owned publications, the ability to collectively negotiate with the tech platforms for fair compensation for the use of their content. Currently, these publishers do not have the ability to negotiate these deals on their own, as the dominant tech platforms capture the majority of U.S. digital ad revenue, leaving local publishers with little to reinvest in the production of high-quality journalism.

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Click here to download the report.

Media contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The post Statement: The JCPA Would Allow Minority-Owned Media to Negotiate with Big Tech Platforms for Fair Compensation appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guest: Kim Bui, Director of Product & Audience Innovation, Arizona Republic

“The product side is a personal interest of mine in that it really is the ‘how’ – I love looking at how we can tell better stories, how we can integrate better with our audience’s lives, listen to them, become more useful, and really get away from the pedestal style journalism that has ended up with us not being trusted by a majority of people.” – Kim Bui, Arizona Republic

What comes first, the product or the user? How do we close the gap between the addressable market and market penetration? What are ways to use newsletters and text notifications to get personal with readers? How can we position ourselves now with younger readers and Gen Z readers as a useful news source? What are the “winners” in the news product space doing that we are not?

On this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern chatted with Kim Bui, Director of Product and Audience Innovation at the Arizona Republic/AZCentral.com, about how to leverage the latest trends in digital products to connect with your audience and be useful to them, while at the same time building trust and emphasizing community-centered journalism. The conversation flows into a discussion of the evolving workplace and how Kim’s columns, “Sincerely, Leaders of Color” and “The Middles” reflect the importance of improving diversity in news media and providing education to those emerging leaders who are navigating unfamiliar management and leadership roles.

Listen now or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

Watch with video:

Download transcript

Speaker bio

Kim Bui is the director of product and audience innovation at the Arizona Republic. She’s focused her career on leading real-time news initiatives and creating new storytelling forms for digital, print and broadcast companies catering to local, national and global audiences. Prior, she was editor-at-large for NowThis News, focusing on original, social reporting and breaking news. She was also deputy managing editor for reported.ly, a digital media startup specializing in social journalism. She’s been a speaker, trainer and teacher on digital and social journalism at universities, conferences and gatherings worldwide. She writes a syndicated newsletter for emerging leaders and managers, The Middles.

Related reading

Sincerely, Leaders of Color

The Middles

The Key to Gen Z: Insights and Ideas to Build Lasting Relationships

Watch the next episode: Encouraging and Sustaining Diversity in News Media

Watch the previous episode: Tech Trends: What Publishers Need to Know

View all episodes

Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 103: Leveraging Products to Connect with Your Audience appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, VA – The group of twenty-somethings comprising Generation Z grew up with the Internet and get their news primarily on social media. However, findings from qualitative and quantitative research from the News Media Alliance, released today, indicate that there are opportunities for news outlets – especially local news outlets – to position their products with Gen Z consumers to attract them as readers and potential subscribers.

About half of Gen Z consumers (51 percent) report reading news daily. The majority (60 percent) say they would be likely to use local news products, while one-third (33 percent) say they would be likely to pay for local news. Not surprising, twenty-somethings prefer to get news online via social media apps and web searches rather than in print, and they want to “snack” on news that has been customized to their preferences throughout the day. Motivators to subscribe to local news outlets include free trials and special content targeted to them.

When it comes to attracting this tech-savvy demographic, meeting them where they are is key. The findings show the times of day Gen Z users are likely to be on various social media platforms, representing optimal times for news outlets to post content that will engage these readers. For example, twenty-somethings are more likely to be on Facebook (42 percent) in the morning than other apps, shifting to other social media platforms later in the day.

“The findings from the study are exciting in terms of the opportunities they present for news outlets. Gen Z places an emphasis on credible, accurate and fact-checked news, which is exactly what our members provide,” said Rebecca Frank, News Media Alliance vice president, research and insights. “News outlets that apply the insights in this report will have a distinct advantage over other content providers because the quality of their content already meets Gen Z’s expectations. By providing the content these readers care about – when, where and how they want it – they will be best equipped to meet Gen Z’s needs.”

Gen Z wants to see themselves reflected in their news, and they want to feel acknowledged. They prize authenticity, family and voting foremost, followed by important social causes to them such as social justice/civil rights/racial discrimination (54%), environment/climate change (50%), and women’s rights (50%), among others. Other content that this group wants includes financial advice, health and wellness, and career. For local news, they are interested in weather, events/arts and entertainment, and other news about their town.

While twenty-somethings want credible news, they also don’t want it to be boring. Striking visuals, video and an easy-to-navigate app and site will be more likely to draw these readers in.

Frank continued, “Gen Z are up-and-coming news subscribers, and news outlets must be prepared to up their game to attract and keep them as loyal readers. It’s not just about the news; it has to be the whole package.”

The full report, exclusively for News Media Alliance members, contains additional data points, visuals, verbatims, examples, and actionable tips, ideas and insights at: https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/genzreport

Survey Methodology: The News Media Alliance commissioned Springboard Market Research to conduct quantitative and qualitative research with U.S. adults ages 18-29 to gain insight into the news consumption and habits of twenty-somethings. For the qualitative study, 20 hour-long telephone interviews were conducted with participants living in 20 key media markets. The participants represented a mix of gender and race/ethnicity. The quantitative market survey was conducted among 424 Gen Z consumers ages 21-29, evenly split between 21-24 and 25-29, and approximately census-representative ethnicity for this age cohort.

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

The post Twenty-Somethings Share What Would Get Them to Pay for News appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, VA – Today the American Economic Liberties Project, MediaJustice and the News Media Alliance jointly published a new report, “Minority-Owned Media and the Digital Duopoly,” which examines the history of minority-owned media and the impact of the ascendance of big tech platforms, such as Facebook and Google, on minority-owned outlets and those targeting underrepresented communities.

Through an extensive research and information-gathering effort that included conducting interviews with several representatives from minority-owned news outlets, the report demonstrates how minority-owned media’s continued survival – as well as the addition of new outlets – is being threatened by the digital platforms’ anticompetitive practices.

The report states, “The U.S. Census Bureau projects that racial minorities – primarily Blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics – will constitute the majority of the population by 2045. Given the unique challenges and the strong legacy of many minority-owned publications, the need for their survival is acute.”

Report author Pamela Newkirk, PhD – a journalist, author and professor – interviewed Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA); Joel Dreyfuss, former managing editor of The Root; Akoto Ofori-Atta, co-founder and executive editor of Capital B; Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today; and Omar Wasow, co-founder of Black Planet.

As with local newspapers, niche publications aimed at certain racial or ethnic groups provide high value to their communities, sharing what is happening locally, nationally, and internationally that impacts their readers’ daily lives. However, unfortunately, they also have been hard-hit by the transition to a digital advertising marketplace that is dominated by the Duopoly.

“Facebook and Google’s dominance over online advertising poses an existential threat to journalism – and specifically to media owned by and designed to serve communities of color,” said Nidhi Hegde, Co-Lead of the American Economic Liberties Project’s Access to Markets program. “Without an open and competitive advertising market, minority-owned publishers cannot generate the revenue they need to survive, and Black and brown entrepreneurs cannot start and grow new media ventures. The way to spur innovation and protect critical civic arenas for communities of color is to break Facebook and Google’s monopoly power.”

“In the digital age, companies like Facebook and Google have reshaped where people get their information. Similar to traditional media gatekeepers, these tech companies systemically block people of color from owning and controlling our own stories while amplifying hateful content and disinformation that further harms our communities,” said Steven Renderos, Executive Director at MediaJustice. Marginalizing people of color is profitable for these tech platforms, and that’s why we need solutions that think beyond the current gatekeepers into a future where alternative newspapers and press can reach our communities.”

News Media Alliance Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Danielle Coffey, said, “We are currently facing a crisis in which our valued news publications are suffering from a dire lack of financial resources needed to survive. Two dominant tech companies – Google and Facebook – are forcing everyone to play by their rules, using news publishers’ content to fill their platforms without offering fair or adequate compensation. Without immediate intervention to correct this market imbalance, we run the risk of these publications – including minority-owned outlets – fading into history, their legacy forgotten, their future ability to provide critical, high-quality news to underrepresented communities going with them.”

The report concludes, “The ascendance of Facebook and Google threatens the viability of the entire news industry and exacerbates the structural inequities – including a disparity in advertising dollars, resources and access to capital – that have long plagued minority media. These persisting inequities, which require a reconsideration of a broad set of public policies and practices, are now compounded by minority publishers’ reliance on the very platforms that have upended and circumvented the role of the press as independent watchdogs in a democracy.”

Economic Liberties, MediaJustice and the Alliance, in a separate Overview & Introduction to the report, made the following recommendations based on the report’s conclusions:

• Pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), which would allow news media outlets – including minority-owned publications – to collectively negotiate with the tech platforms for fair compensation for the use of their content.
• Make more government-backed small business lending available for the creation of new minority-owned and rural media outlets and advertising agencies.
• Conduct more research, such as a Government Accountability Office report aimed at gathering more data on advertising in minority-owned outlets.
• Follow through with antitrust action to break up the largest, most monopolistic social media companies and force interoperability between them, to create room for ad-driven tech platforms such as Black Planet to flourish.

The Alliance will submit the report to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, ahead of its hearing on February 2, 2022 on “Breaking the News – Journalism, Competition, and the Effects of Market Power on a Free Press.”

Click here to download the report.

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Media contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.

MediaJustice is dedicated to building a grassroots movement for a more just and participatory media—fighting for racial, economic, and gender justice in a digital age. MediaJustice boldly advances communication rights, access, and power for communities harmed by persistent dehumanization, discrimination, and disadvantage. Home of the #MediaJusticeNetwork, we envision a future where everyone is connected, represented, and free.

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. 

The post Research Report Shows Negative Impact of Big Tech on Minority-Owned Media appeared first on News/Media Alliance.