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.

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Facts of the case
Colorado website designer Lori Smith owns 303 Creative, LLC., a limited liability company providing website creation services. When Smith’s services expanded to include wedding websites, she wanted to create a message on her webpage explaining that her Christian faith prohibited her from designing websites for same-sex weddings. Upon noticing that this message would violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, Smith sued the state in a pre-enforcement challenge. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled against Smith, upholding the constitutionality of the laws. She then appealed to the Tenth Circuit, which ruled in favor of Colorado, causing Smith to petition to the Supreme Court.

Question for the Court
The Court considered whether forcing a website designer to create designs going against her personal beliefs violated her First Amendment rights.

Decision
In a 6-3 decision by Justice Gorsuch, the Court ruled that Colorado could not force the designer to create designs that go against her beliefs. Justice Gorsuch concluded that requiring Smith to create certain designs violates the compelled speech doctrine and that, in his perspective, Smith refused to create particular messages rather than refusing to serve particular clients. Justice Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion in which Justices Kagan and Jackson joined, arguing that the law regulated Smith’s conduct, not her speech. Sotomayor wrote, “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”

Free press implications
The ruling is intentionally narrow; only prohibiting a vendor from being compelled to create a product that is both customized and expressive when the vendor disagrees with the message being conveyed by the product. How this may impact news publishers or magazines remains to be seen as the ruling gets applied to other scenarios. However, it may come into play if a publisher finds itself subject to a law that attempts to compel speech or create a “right of reply” (see Miami Herald Pub. Co. v. Tornillo that overturned Florida’s “right of reply” law).

For further reading, please visit:
SCOTUS blog: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

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Guest: Feli Carrique, Executive Director, News Product Alliance

“Anything that you build or create for an audience to solve a user need and support your organizational mission, is a product.”  

– Feli Carrique, News Product Alliance

What is news product and product thinking, and why is it important in journalism? How can newsrooms begin to incorporate product thinking into their content? What are the challenges to adopting a product mindset?

On this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with Executive Director of the News Product Alliance, Feli Carrique, about news product and the increasingly popular practice of product thinking in journalism and news publishing. In this informative discussion, Feli explains what news product and product thinking is, as well as how having a product mindset and putting the reader first can help improve content engagement and performance. She also shares some of the biggest challenges to adopting product thinking, as well as some of the things that excite her the most about the use of product thinking and where it has the potential to make the biggest impact.

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Speaker bio

Feli Carrique is the Executive Director of the News Product Alliance, a community for people who strategically align business, audience and technology goals while integrating journalism ethics. Feli is an Argentinian journalist and product thinker working at the intersection of media, technology, and sustainability. In her previous role as Innovation Director at SembraMedia, she worked with news organizations across Latin America, Spain, and the United States to promote innovation and led product design and systems development for the organization. She was also the lead analyst on the recent “Inflection Point International” report published by SembraMedia, which analyzed the innovations, challenges, and threats facing news entrepreneurs across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.  Feli is also a Professor at the Catholic University of Argentina, where she co-created the first news product class in Latin America.

Related:

News Product Alliance Product Kit

Watch the next episode: Print, Logistics and Delivery in a Transitional Age 

Watch the previous episode: Tapping Into the Potential of Blockchain for News Publishers

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Guest: Julien Genestoux, founder and CEO, Unlock

“I think right now the web is ‘sick’ of its business model, from the fact that we monetize everything for attention. … What blockchain brings us is actually the ability to think about alternative business models, the ability to think about things in other ways, to say OK, who owns what piece of content, how it is owned, who gets access to what, and do that in a transparent protocol way rather than a platform-owned way.”    

– Julien Genestoux, Unlock

What is blockchain and how do NFTs work? How can news publishers use blockchain to grow revenue? What would a membership model based on NFTs look like, and what benefits could it offer over the traditional advertising revenue model? What is Web3 and why do we need it?

On this edition of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with founder and CEO of Unlock, Julien Genestoux, about the potential opportunities and uses of blockchain technology by news publishers. In this candid discussion that takes a critical look at the current state of the Web, Julien reviews the basics of blockchain and why it could offer a more secure and more exciting alternative to the attention-based, platform-driven experiences found on today’s Web. He then provides a look at what lies beyond the initial applications, to the potential of blockchain specifically for news publishers, for purposes such as monetizing content and using NFTs in membership models.

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Speaker bio

Julien Genestoux is founder and CEO of Unlock, an access control protocol built on a blockchain that enables creators to monetize their content or software without relying on a middleman. He describes himself as an entrepreneur, unconditional web advocate, and a hacker. He has built two profitable start-ups, one of which was Superfeedr, which became one of the leading real-time web APIs and was later acquired by Medium. At Medium, he led the company’s SEO effort and quadrupled the share of traffic it receives from search. He co-authored the W3C WebSub protocol and spoke at numerous international conferences and events. He talks about NFTs, Web3, crypto and the Open Web.

For more information about Unlock:

Contact Julien: @Julien51 on Twitter and Julien Genestoux on Facebook and LinkedIn

Visit the Unlock website

Watch the next episode: Committing to Product Thinking in the News Industry: Putting Readers First 

Watch the previous episode: Protecting Journalists Reporting on Russia’s War in Ukraine

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Guest: Carlos Martinez de la Serna, Program Director, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

“For journalists outside of Ukraine, regardless of where they are from, they still play a critical role because the world needs to pay attention to that, and they’re explaining that to their audiences in way that is easier for them to understand the nuances and the problems of the conflict. They’re bearing witness, and we need as many witnesses as possible for something like this. For today, and for the record, for generations to come.”
– Carlos Martinez de la Serna, Committee to Protect Journalists

Typically, News Take is where we talk about the latest innovation and get into the weeds about trends taking place in the news media industry. But in this episode, we turned to a more serious topic, which is how journalists are covering the war Russia is waging against the Ukraine.

Since Russia’s first attacks on Ukraine in late February, dozens of journalists have been injured or killed while reporting on the war. Journalists are literally risking their lives to bring the latest news and information about the war to people around the world. So while we could talk about the latest news products, the dire situation in the Ukraine is really the biggest thing happening in the world right now, and what we do as news publishers literally impacts what people know and how people perceive the war, so we felt it needed and deserved our attention here.

On this special edition of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with Carlos Martinez de la Serna, Program Director, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who shares details about the situation on the ground in the Ukraine, including the environment for journalists; the threats to press freedom in the Ukraine and Russia (as well as around the world); the role of journalists from other countries reporting on the war; how journalists are navigating and combating misinformation and propaganda about the war; how they are staying safe; and what we can do to help.

This episode was recorded on April 21, 2022.

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Speaker bio

Carlos Martinez de la Serna has been with CPJ since 2018. Prior to CPJ, he worked as a reporter and digital journalist in the U.S., Spain, and Japan, covering issues including current affairs, biomedical research, and North Korea’s nuclear program. He is a founding member of the mapping startup Carto, co-founder of the nonprofit organization porCausa, and a former director of digital innovation at Univision News. Martinez de la Serna is a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and a former John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University.

Watch the next episode: Tapping Into the Potential of Blockchain for News Publishers 

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

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Guest: Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO, URL Media

“From a mission perspective, we did not want Black and Brown audiences to be only charitable endeavors. We see our people as a very important, vital, necessary market.” – Mitra Kalita, URL Media

You know you were meant to be a journalist when, as a pre-teen, you created a newspaper to protest your parents’ decision to move your family from Puerto Rico to New Jersey! That is exactly how Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media, got her start in journalism.

On this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern and Kalita have a heartfelt discussion about her journey from being a busy CNN Digital executive to starting her own newsletter, Epicenter-NYC, and media company, URL  Media, in Jackson Heights, New York City amidst a pandemic and racial justice movement. During this light-hearted and honest talk, Kalita shares how she and her business partner were able to achieve instant scale, launching the URL Media network with seven million users, and how they’ve embraced a for-profit business model at a time when many similar groups were launching as nonprofits. In addition, she shares advice for improving diversity in content as well as in the newsroom, including ensuring changes to improve DE&I are lasting and become a part of the organization culture.

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Speaker bio

Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, commentator and author of two books. She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. URL Media works with mainstream newsrooms to syndicate content and partner on diversity initiatives in content, staffing and culture. She is co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter designed to help New Yorkers get through the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the newsletters The Unmuted and The Escape Home.

Previously, Mitra was Senior Vice President at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion and features teams. She also worked in leadership roles at the Los Angeles Times and Quartz. She sits on a number of journalism industry boards, most notably, the board of the News Media Alliance.

Related links

URL Media

Epicenter-NYC

Watch the next episode: Protecting Journalists Reporting on Russia’s War in Ukraine 

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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.

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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

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Guests: Aram Zucker-Scharff, The Washington Post

“For the first time, we actually have the potential to create a real shift that benefits our users, our business, and our society, and that’s a win, win, win.” – Aram Zucker-Scharff on the shift to contextual-based targeting

Ad tech, Privacy and Performance, oh my! News publishers working to adapt to a privacy-first digital landscape before the inevitable end of the third-party cookie can easily become overwhelmed and may not even know where to start.

What does the shift towards privacy mean for news publishers and how they approach ad targeting? Is decreased reliance on third-party tracking a good thing for the industry? What are Core Web Vitals and why should news publishers care? How does my news site’s performance tie in to reader trust? What are things publishers can do right now to improve site performance? What is W3C and how can publishers take advantage to get their voices heard?

These questions and more will be discussed on this episode of News Take. News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern had an energizing conversation with Aram Zucker-Scharff, Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, that got in-the-weeds about the kitchen sink of ad tech topics, including site monetization; improving privacy and the user experience; optimizing site performance using Core Web Vitals; and more.

This episode was so full of interesting facts and actionable insights, we didn’t want it to end. The nuggets of wisdom will come faster than you can write them down, so it’s a good thing this conversation was recorded and you can re-watch it to your heart’s content!

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Speaker bio

Aram Zucker-Scharff is the Engineering Lead for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post, where he works with publishers to maximize site performance and revenue. He has also worked on The Post’s Ad Tech R&D and Big Data teams. Aram has developed open-source tools for publishers and consulted on content strategy and digital newsroom workflows. He was one of Folio Magazine’s 15 under 30 in the magazine media industry.

Related reading

“Why The Ad Industry Should Care About Core Web Vitals – And The Impact For Publishers Who Ignore The Dreaded ‘Layout Shift’” (AdExchanger) – by Amanda Hicks, director of product for The Washington Post’s Research, Experimentation & Development (RED) team.

Watch the next episode: Leveraging Products to Connect with Your Audience

Watch the previous episode: Local News: Understanding What Readers Want and How to Deliver it to Them

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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
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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Earlier this year, the European Union adopted its new Copyright Directive that modernizes and harmonizes copyright laws across the EU. Article 15 of this Directive creates a “Publishers’ Right” that grants publishers in the EU an independent right to protect their content against unauthorized uses by online platforms. It was a major step toward recognizing the value of high-quality journalism and helping to ensure that news publishers are compensated for the use of their content by services such as news aggregators (which currently use – and benefit financially from using – news publishers’ original content without compensating the publisher).

However, in response to France’s recent implementation of the law, the first country to implement it, Google has indicated that it will remove all snippets (unless publishers agree to waive their right to compensation) from search results in France, arguing that doing so would allow it to avoid licensing content under the Copyright Directive.

This is not the first such law to be passed in Europe. Similar laws previously passed in Germany and Spain. While Germany’s law was found to be invalid due to procedural issues, Spain’s law – passed in 2014 – requires news aggregators such as Google to pay for a license to use news content. As a result, Google decided to shut down its Google News service in Spain at the end of 2014.

For years, critics have attempted to make the case for why the EU should not adopt a similar law, arguing that the Spanish law and resulting Google News closure were disastrous for Spanish news publishers, with some publishers experiencing double-digit drops in web traffic.

And for years, we’ve heard otherwise from our European colleagues.

To better understand the impact of the closure of Google News in Spain, we recently spoke with our European colleagues and reviewed publicly available website data. What we found was that much of the data contradict the narrative pushed by Google and other opponents of the Publishers’ Right. The data we reviewed do not indicate that publishers would be significantly harmed if Google ceased to operate Google News in a particular country.

Here is what we found:

In addition to talking with our colleagues at Spanish and European news industry organizations, we looked at other studies, as well as publicly available unique visitor data and other statistics from eight Spanish news publisher websites since 2014. The data we reviewed indicates that the closure of Google News in Spain in 2014, and the underlying Spanish law, were not detrimental to the Spanish news publishing industry as a whole. In fact, they indicate that those Spanish news publishers included in the analysis were minimally affected and that the reduction in traffic following the closing of Google News was, if anything, low and temporary.

Since the Google News Shutdown in Spain, Overall Traffic to News Sites Went Largely Unchanged

Over the long-term, data showing online website traffic trends for Spanish news sites from 2014 up to 2019 seem to have remained largely unchanged, with the total number of unique monthly visitors actually increasing with many publishers. For example, El País, one of the biggest newspapers in Spain, reported 8.5 million unique monthly visitors in October 2014 before the Google News shutdown, whereas in December 2015, that number had increased to 16.6 million.

In addition to the decrease in total traffic appearing to be relatively small, anecdotes from those close to the Spanish news publishing industry indicate that the publishers made up for any loss in referral traffic from Google with organic traffic growth.

Cutting Out the Middle-Man Benefits News Publishers Because Direct Traffic Is More Valuable Than Referral Traffic

A 2017 study looking at the effects of news aggregators on news consumption (based on Spanish data) also shows that Google News acts as a substitute to publisher landing pages, the traffic to which is generally assumed to be more valuable to publishers than click-throughs to individual articles. So, the closure of Google News may therefore actually increase more valuable traffic to news publisher sites.

Other data show that publishers in countries without Google News – such as Denmark and Finland – are doing comparatively well, even while struggling with similar challenges to news publishers in other countries.

Finally, the aggregators’ use of news content without compensation may hurt consumers as it does not help sustain, in the long-term, the kind of high-quality journalism they rely on. A survey by the European Commission found that 47 percent of Europeans who access news through news aggregators, online social media or search engines do not click on the links and access the original articles, thereby depriving news publishers of valuable traffic. Research we reviewed has also found that readers often do not see Google News as a major driver for their news consumption habit, therefore reducing the effect of its hypothetical closure in any given country.

While data on the impact of the Spanish law is limited, our findings suggest that the picture is not as clear-cut as critics say it is. The news publishing industry in Spain was not devastated by the adoption of the ancillary copyright law, and countries without Google News still support relatively healthy news industries.

You can find the full analysis of our findings, containing more statistics, examples and study findings here.

The post Google News Shutdown in Spain Was Not as Bad as Google Would Have You Believe appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Manager, Communications
571.366.1009
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Report: Post ‘Trump Bump,’ Readers Continue to Turn to News Publishers for Quality Content

Alliance report finds news publishers are delivering more personalized experiences to keep, attract subscribers

April 8, 2019

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance today unveiled a new report for members, What’s Next – Digital Subscriptions: Progress and Potential on the Path to Consumer-Generated Revenue. The report contains the latest stats on how news publishers are working to drive subscriptions to their digital publications.

The report includes insights from audience and engagement and digital subscriptions leaders at some of the largest news publishers in the country, including Gannett, McClatchy, Trib Total Media and Tribune Interactive. Additional perspectives from experts in reader revenue at the American Press Institute and Mather Economics offer tips for news publishers to improve their digital subscription growth and retention efforts.

The report cites 2018 digital subscription stats from major news publications such as The New York Times, Tribune Publishing Company and The Washington Post, among others. Alliance President & CEO David Chavern stated, “It is very encouraging to see the growth our member publishers are experiencing with their digital subscription programs. This further demonstrates that more people than ever are reading our products, and they crave news from trusted sources that are invested in delivering high-quality journalism.”

Alliance Vice President, Innovation & Communications Michael MaLoon stated, “There are clear trends and evidence of news publishers succeeding in converting readers of their digital publications into subscribers. This report highlights what’s working for them, while also looking ahead at what still needs to be done to keep readers happy and ensure that the numbers keep trending upward.”

The report identifies five strategies critical to digital subscription efforts: tightening paywalls; getting to know your audience; rethinking the use of social media; focusing on the basics; and continuous testing. Publishers can leverage this report to learn from the experiences of other Alliance members and explore similar strategies and tactics for growing digital engagement and revenue at their own publications.

“For example, one of our publishers found that tightening their paywall – that is, reducing the amount of content a reader can see before being asked to pay – did not dampen readers’ propensity to subscribe,” MaLoon continued. “But it’s not one size fits all. It’s about understanding your audience and customizing your offering to meet their needs.”

The report includes key industry digital subscription stats; case studies and first-hand accounts from publishers of what is and isn’t working; what strategies publishers are exploring; and insights from the American Press Institute’s research on what motivates readers to subscribe. Key strategies for maintaining positive momentum round out the report.

“What’s Next – Digital Subscriptions: Progress and Potential on the Path to Consumer-Generated Revenue” is available exclusively to News Media Alliance members (login required) on its website at https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/whats-next-digital-subscriptions/.

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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. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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