Facts of the case
Dog toy company VIP Products created a line of toys titled “Silly Squeakers,” resembling well-known alcoholic beverages. The stuffed toys visually replicate the drinks, except their names are spin-offs, such as “Bad Spaniels” instead of Jack Daniels. Instead of the phrase “Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey” written on the bottle, the Jack Daniel’s-themed toy read “Old No. 2 on your Tennessee carpet.” After seeing the dog toy, Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. filed a lawsuit against VIP Products, alleging the company engaged in trademark infringement and trademark dilution. After the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona ruled in favor of Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc., VIP Products appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The Court of Appeals reversed the decision, leading Jack Daniels to petition to the Supreme Court.

Question for the Court
This case asked the Court to consider whether a parody of a product is exempt from fair-use limits and whether the product should receive heightened First Amendment protection as a form of expressive conduct.

Decision
In a unanimous decision, the Court ruled that VIP Products violated trademark law with its parody toy of a Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. product. Justice Kagan authored the opinion, writing, “We hold only that it is not appropriate when the accused infringer has used a trademark to designate the source of its own goods—in other words, has used a trademark as a trademark. That kind of use falls within the heartland of trademark law, and does not receive special First Amendment protection.” Justice Sotomayor filed a concurring opinion in which Justice Alito joined. Justice Gorsuch also filed a concurring opinion in which Justice Barrett and Thomas joined.

Free press implications
The ruling emphasized that creative media does not receive preferential treatment when it comes to trademark use. This leaves open the potential for abuse of trademark rights to chill protected speech when a party disagrees with a message’s viewpoint. In Justice Gorsuch’s opinion, he raised questions on the Rogers v. Grimaldi test, which is applied to protect free speech. The removal or further limiting of the test would drastically shift how the media messages brands.

For further reading, please visit:

• SCOTUSblog: Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC
• CBS News: Supreme Court sides with Jack Daniels in trademark fight.
• National Law Review: Re-Setting the Balance: Jack Daniels’ Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products, LLC

The post Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

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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Speaker bio:

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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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
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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.

With an abundance of sources for news, not all of which are reliable or trustworthy, many people today may feel a disconnect with the media and the people who report it. And while adults may cite reasons such as media bias, children and young adults simply don’t understand the media – according to a 2016 Stanford University study, 82 percent of middle-schoolers cannot distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story on a website. Providing the right tools for young news consumers will help them learn how to spot fake news; how to tell the difference between ads, blogs and news reports; and how to draw their own informed conclusions.

We’ve rounded up several age-appropriate books to help kids at home or in the classroom learn how to navigate the news, just in time for back-to-school.

‘Fact, Fiction and Opinions: The Differences Between Ads, Blogs, News Reports, and Other Media (All About Media)’ by Brien J. James

This book is a good starting point for young news consumers. James defines the primary concepts of media using simple, informative text for emerging readers who are yet to learn the important differences between the kinds of information and stories available to them through the media.

Key quote: “You need to think carefully about news reports you read or hear. Sometimes stories that appear to be news reports are really ads. Other times news reports won’t include all the facts or both sides of a story.” [p.18]

Age range: 6 – 8 years old

What your kids will get out of it: By learning basic concepts of the media and the difference between fact and fiction, as well as the difference between blogs, news reports, advertisements and more, young children will have the tools to be knowledgeable media consumers and become more engaged with media in general.

‘Viral News on Social Media (Young Citizen’s Guide to News Literacy)’ by Paul Lane

Social media is a nonstop content generator that moves as fast as we can scroll through our feeds. We now experience a 24-hour news cycle that can be as beneficial to readers as it is harmful. At a time when clicks and shares are frequently valued over accuracy, readers face an additional challenge – and responsibility – of identifying false sources.

Key quote: “Many times, a picture or a headline that misleads about the actual story is all it takes for a story to be shared, regardless of whether the user reads the article. This helps news spread like an actual virus would spread between people (…)” [p.10]

Age range: 9 – 12 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Students will learn what fake news is, how to identify and respond to it, as well as how to identify reputable sources. Kids will also learn about the power of social media and how viral content spreads, regardless of whether it’s true.

‘Understanding the News (Cracking the Media Literacy Code)’ by Pamela Dell  

Children usually perceive news as foreign and unrelated to them; some choose to ignore news simply because they were never given the tools to understand it. Dell’s book highlights the importance of being media literate and gives readers access to the essential skills they need to really engage with the news.

Key quote: “Telling the difference between fake news and reals news takes the skill of an investigator. You must follow the clues that lead to the truth.” [p.28]

Age range: 8 – 10 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Children will learn the importance of media literacy, as well as the many ways news is presented and how to know if they’re using a reputable source. They will also learn how to identify fact from fiction and quality news websites from those that might be biased or fake.

‘Choosing News: What Gets Reported and Why (Exploring Media Literacy)’ by Barb Palser

News is virtually everywhere – practically everything e do is informed by the events that make up “the news.” But how do news producers decide what events should be part of the news we’re presented, whether online, on television, or in print and digital newspaper media? Is news just limited to major national stories about plane crashes and kidnapped babies, or are road closures and malfunctioning traffic lights in local communities news, too? Palser offers a simple and informative guide that answers these questions and helps kids identify real, high-quality news.

Key quote: “Call it the Awareness Instinct. We need news to live our lives, to protect ourselves, bond with each other and identify friends and enemies.” – Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel [p.4]

Age range: 10 –13 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Preteens and teens will learn how to identify what is a potential news story, and on which news platform(s) they would find it. They will learn about journalism standards, types of bias, and how blogs and aggregators work compared to traditional news outlets.

The post Teaching Kids About Media Literacy appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

I had a writing class about the power of news that turned into a heated discussion about how we categorized “fake news.” Turns out, none of us were certain. No matter how many articles we read — How to Identify Fake News, or What Makes an Article Credible? — at the end of the day, when a class of 30 junior writing college students could not come up with one straight answer, I realized that the problem was much bigger than I expected.

For the next class, our professor asked us to post five news articles we knew for certain to be true in our discussions board. Only seven completed the assignment. I’m ashamed to admit I wasn’t one of them. The truth is that I spent hours scrolling through articles in search of the right ones, and I was never certain. Most were biased, not by blatant opinions, but the words they used to describe the event. I had to get out of one site and search for another regarding the same topic to make up my mind. None seemed real enough. The easiest to pick apart were the ones messily crafted — with multiple spelling and grammar mistakes — and resurfacing old stories under a different headline or context – those were the red flags that I began to recognize after reading several articles.

But what about those who don’t like reading as much as I do? Do they ever get the truth of the specific matters they are interested about?

A new initiative by the News Literacy Project (NLP), Newsroom to Classroom, made me consider it. According to Suzannah Gonzales, Associate Director of Education at NLP, the organization was founded after Alan C. Miller visited his daughter’s middle school and realized how overwhelmed these young students were by content, and how little they understood about the practice of journalism. By taking a day of students’ school education — the last day, when not a lot of information is likely to be taught — journalists could clear up these foggy topics that not only middle-schoolers, but a large majority of us, are still unfamiliar about.

As a volunteer with NLP’s Newsroom to Classroom program, award-winning radio and print journalist and CBS Professor Emerita of Professional Practice at Columbia Journalism School in New York City Ann Cooper “visited” via video conference fourth graders at the Carl Von Linné School in Chicago on their last day of school. While Cooper only discussed why freedom of the press is important and how a student should cover a story about bullying, NLP offers other resources that address matters like fake news, and how to successfully spot the difference between professionally-crafted journalist reports and misinformation. According to Gonzales, “The Newsroom to Classroom program is a return to News Literacy Project’s roots, when journalists made in-person visits to classrooms.”

And who says that it must stay between middle school classroom walls? I could use a lesson like the one Cooper taught to the students at Carl Von Linné School to inform my college class discussions about fake news, and I’m sure other students who question their judgment about the news could use it to become more confident news consumers outside the classroom.

The Newsroom to Classroom program needs journalist volunteers who are willing to visit their local schools and teach middle school and high school students about these important topics, as they are not currently included as part of standard lesson plans in schools across the U.S.

Journalists who are interested in volunteering for this program just need to email journalists@newslit.org.

The post News Literacy Project’s Newsroom to Classroom Not Just for Middle Schoolers appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

On a recent Adweek Webinar, Chief Marketing Officer at NetBase Solutions, Paige Leidig, shared that 81 percent of executives don’t feel like their company is leveraging enough from social media. “There’s so much information out there, literally hundreds of thousands of social media sites, that it’s really hard to keep track of all of their metrics,” he said.

Companies need to understand why consumers are purchasing their products, as well as the key metrics that they should be measuring. “Aligning metrics with your business strategy is key to your business success,” Leidig adds.

Leidig, along with NetBase’s Sr. Director for Product Marketing, Mike Baglietto, shared what they have deemed the nine most crucial social media metrics companies should be considering when investigating their performance:

1.     Mentions: Mentions qualify how people talk about a brand, but businesses should also look at the channels where they were mentioned– your own, sponsored, public or earned.

2.     Engagement: By measuring customers’ engagement in these three different channels, companies can figure out not only who is mentioning them, but also what people are saying about them and their competitors.

3.     Sentiment: Understanding consumers’ likes and dislikes gives you the attitude towards engagement.” Once brands understand this, product and service improvement becomes a simple task.

4.     Passion: While passion and sentiment are two very similar categorizations, passion refers to the intensity of the sentiment. And passion drives action, “If people are passionate about your product they’ll be willing to stand in line for hours to get it.” Baglietto said.

5.     Influencers/Detractors: Brands’ biggest fans are often the best influencers. When identifying potential influencers, “Followers are not enough. Celebrities aren’t either. Even though they are important, people who connect deeply with the target audience can be more beneficial.” Surprisingly, detractors can also be important influencers. By spotting where conversations expressing dissatisfaction are, companies can start communicating and change consumers’ attitude and behaviors.

6.     Top Content: The top content that resonates with the audience is what drives engagement, sentiment and passion. “Visual content has been proven to be 40 times more likely to get shared in other media sites, specially earned channels.”

7.     Top Channels: With such a broad spectrum of social media platforms, some of them can get overlooked. The panelists gave the example of the Pocky brand, being considered unpopular in the U.S. until they learned that Tumblr was the largest source of where the conversations were happening.

8.     Top Locations: Knowing where and what your audience is interacting with will increase targeting possibilities and expand your consumers.

9.     Share of Voice: Include mentions of your main competitors in your social media monitoring to know where your brand fits into the overall conversation.

The post Nine Social Media Metrics for Success appeared first on News/Media Alliance.