Top News:
Madison Malone Kircher / New York Magazine:
Q&A with a Michigan college student who has made 692 quizzes for BuzzFeed as a hobby, becoming the 2nd-highest traffic driver for the site's quizzes worldwide — Rachel McMahon is a teen from Michigan you almost certainly haven't heard of before this week.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, @willoremus, @4evrmalone, @4evrmalone, @mattdpearce, @auntbeckyrose, @sarahlkaufman, @nymag, @jakeswearingen and @austin_walker
RELATED:
Will Oremus / Slate:
The global layoffs at BuzzFeed, once a successful beacon in a shrinking industry, mark an end of innocence for the outlet and for staffers with big social reach — BuzzFeed's layoffs were painful for its staffers—and fatal to its self-mythology. — There's a phenomenon familiar …
Discussion:
Slate, @evanselinger, @clarajeffery, @willoremus, @willoremus, @willoremus, @chrisgeidner, @monicaamarelo, Sydney Morning Herald, Variety and @katienotopoulos
James Walker / Press Gazette:
BuzzFeed proposes cutting 17 of BuzzFeed UK's 37 editorial staff, with most losses to the Buzz section covering pop culture
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, @markdistef, @mattdpearce, @maggyvaneijk, @kimberleydadds, @jane__bradley, @mjs_dc, @patblanchfield, @sunapology, @charles_kinbote, @williamsjon, @tolly_t, @maggyvaneijk, @rossalynwarren, @jamesrbuk, @maxseddon, @danieldrepper, @simonchilds13, Variety, @jillfilipovic and @janelytv
John McDuling / Sydney Morning Herald:
BuzzFeed Australia, which employs ~40 people, says 11 staff positions are facing redundancy; reporter says entire news team has received a consultation letter
Discussion:
New York Magazine, @smh, PerthNow, Australian Financial Review, NEWS.com.au, The Guardian and Mumbrella
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
BuzzFeed laid off its Director of Quizzes because lots of people are willing to make quizzes for free
Discussion:
Fluxblog, @eleanorbate, @jeff__benjamin, @karaschlegl, @niemanlab, @conroyforreal, @robferdman, @kwameopam, @johnastoehr and @kateotherkate
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
BuzzFeed says it will pay laid off employees for paid time off they had earned but not used, after current and former staff demanded it in an open letter
Discussion:
@peretti, @dylanmatt, @hshaban, @verambergen, @daveyalba, @jeremymbarr, @rachelysanders and BuzzFeed News Staff Council
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
As Disney completes merger with Fox and prepares for Disney Plus, uncertainty remains about integration, programming, and the executives who'll lead the shift — Bob Iger has repeatedly called it the “highest priority” of the Walt Disney Co. — The launch of Disney Plus has become the talk …
Discussion:
The Information, Business Insider and The Playlist
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Study finds major US newspapers hiked home delivery prices more than 2x between 2008 and 2016, but about two-thirds of print readers remained loyal — Once print advertising collapsed, newspapers hiked prices to get more money from readers. If they hadn't, they'd employ even fewer journalists and be in even worse shape today.
Discussion:
@emilybell, @gerryfsmith, @irischyi, @irischyi, @irischyi, Journalism Studies and Editor & Publisher
Jennifer Creery / Hong Kong Free Press HKFP:
FCCC report on press freedom in China: 55% believe government interference has risen, with notable crackdowns in Xinjiang and visa denials for negative coverage — Over half of foreign correspondents say reporting conditions in China deteriorated last year, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club …
Discussion:
Reuters and @nvanderklippe
Adam Becker / Undark:
Inference, a “quarterly review of science” started in 2014 and funded entirely by Peter Thiel, publishes scientific articles alongside junk science — The newish ‘quarterly review of science’ sometimes muddies the waters between science and political ideology. It is funded by Peter Thiel.
Discussion:
@cshperspectives, @bobbierman and Boing Boing
Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:
Sarah Sanders held her first press briefing in 41 days on Monday, which CNN and MSNBC did not carry live, but Fox did — “Shampoo the carpets, take the sheets off the chandeliers!” Those words, emailed around by a pool reporter and shared on Twitter by the BBC's Jon Sopel …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Reporters Without Borders, The Hill, Blog Network and Observer
Committee to Protect Journalists:
Sudan's security services arrest at least six journalists covering protests and have stopped the distribution of a newspaper seven times since December — Washington, D.C., January 28, 2019—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Sudanese authorities to release at least six journalists …
Discussion:
France 24
Max Willens / Digiday:
Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith says the company grew revenue by 16% YoY in 2018, and that its Twitter show TicToc is already profitable — Welcome to the first installment of Keynote, a weekly Q&A series where top media executives discuss their businesses as well as a hot-button issue facing publishers.
Discussion:
MediaPost
James Walker / Press Gazette:
University of Kent academics stand by their study, financed by News UK and disputed by BBC Radio 5, that found that the station didn't meet Ofcom standards — Journalism academics have defended research claiming BBC Radio 5 Live did not meet Ofcom targets for news and current affairs output …
Discussion:
The Times & The Sunday Times
Tyler Kingkade / BuzzFeed News:
High school bans student magazine from covering sexual assault allegations against a student, illustrating a growing fight over censorship of student press — At the beginning of the school year, one of Kyra Howard's high school classmates abruptly stopped showing up for classes.
Discussion:
@tylerkingkade
Alison Langley / Columbia Journalism Review:
After crowdfunding $2.4M and raising $3.5M from investors, Swiss investigative news startup Republik gets scrappy, asks initial backers to renew subscriptions — Republik, a Swiss news startup, raised $2.4 million in less than two weeks in 2017, when a crowdfunding campaign that promised …
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Internal docs and sources describe how Facebook educates moderators about political issues and potential “PR fires” that are particular to different elections — Internal Facebook documents obtained by Motherboard show specific steps and strategies taken by the company …
Discussion:
Facebook, @tonyajoriley, The Hill and Fortune
RELATED:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook shares draft proposal describing how its new content review board could work, suggesting it have 40 diverse members, none of whom are Facebook staff
Discussion:
Facebook, The Verge, @imillhiser, @zittrain, @davidakaye, @jjmacnab, Adweek, Gizmodo, Fortune, MediaPost, Engadget and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »
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