Top News:
Jahnavi Nidumolu / Reuters:
Twitter drops the “Government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels from accounts of media outlets and journalists, including NPR, BBC, CBC, RT, and Xinhua — Twitter dropped the “Government-funded” and “China state-affiliated” labels, which implies government involvement …
Discussion:
@mattbinder, @bobbyallyn, @robertmackey, NPR, Boston Business Journal, CNN, @benkuchera, @afp, @josephmenn, @mattbinder, @ngrossman81, The Verge, @spenolpalinusa, Al Jazeera, Forbes, @donmoyn, @kenroth, @brindusab1, @andrewfeinberg, @politicussarah, @pt, @mrrickywhittle, @noahshachtman@mstdn.social, Current, @jkarsh, @wilson__valdez, @alexvtunzelmann, @anews, @chadloder@kolektiva.social, The Wrap, Inside Radio, @blackamazon, @keithboykin, @chrisgeidner, @jesse_brenneman, Newser, Semafor, @mattzeitlin, Voice of America, @defensebaron, @paleofuture, @mattbinder, The Hill, Gizmodo, @michaelcaster, @derjarjour, @nathalieloiseau, @tommywalkerco, @jeffveillette, Fox News, The Desk, BBC, Reuters, @JosephMenn@infosec.exchange and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: paid bluechecks with 10 followers running celebrities off the platform for simply choosing not to pay. the business genius strikes again. https://twitter.com/...
Bobby Allyn / @bobbyallyn: NEW: Elon Musk tells me Twitter has now dropped all media labels. Asked why, Musk says: “This was Walter Isaacson's suggestion.”
Robert Mackey / @robertmackey: Mission accomplished. While everyone was distracted by his blue-check removals, Musks's Twitter deleted labels that alerted users that they were reading news from state-run propaganda outlets of authoritarian governments. Potemkin news channels now free to inject disinformation. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Kuchera / @benkuchera: Twitter had the best influencer program in the world. The company created an incentive structure where the most famous people on the planet created content on the site, daily, for free. Destroyed in one day because the new owner thought Stephen King should pay to write for him.
@afp: #UPDATE Twitter has dropped “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels from media accounts, according to a review by @AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform Many major media outlets that had either of those tags no longer display them, according to AFP. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: actually, looks like when removing legacy verified blue checkmarks...Twitter accidentally removed *all* state-affiliated, government-funded, & public-funded media tags on every account not just RT...NPR, PBS, BBC, CBC...none of them have it anymore lol https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Nicholas Grossman / @ngrossman81: Editor in chief of RT thanks Elon Musk for freeing her outlet from the state media label and making her appear more in searches. “Cui bono”—look for who benefits, assume they caused it—is often conspiracy theorizing. I doubt RT caused Twitter's changes. But they sure do benefit. https://twitter.com/...
Emma Roth / The Verge: Elon Musk removes Twitter's ‘government-funded media’ labels after outlets flee the platform
@spenolpalinusa: So Musk quietly removed the “Russia state-affiliated media” label from all the Russian propaganda accounts. I suspected he would do that at some point, and it became pretty clear when he labeled CBC “69% government-funded.” The whole point was to turn the label into a joke. https://twitter.com/...
Alison Durkee / Forbes: Twitter Removes ‘Government-Funded Media’ Labels From News Outlets Amid Controversy—Including NPR, CBC, PBS
Don Moynihan / @donmoyn: Musk has dropped all labels of news organizations, meaning that the new status quo is that propaganda outlets are no longer labeled as such https://twitter.com/...
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: Is @ElonMusk really so benighted as to be unable to distinguish between a media outlet with state funding that retains editorial independence and a state-funded propaganda outlet? https://www.reuters.com/...
@brindusab1: #Twitter #StateAffiliatedMedia Ongoing experiments ... good or bad, only time will tell ... Some might compare yesterday's #SpaceX 2nd stage blast to Twitter's management ... https://www.reuters.com/...
Andrew Feinberg / @andrewfeinberg: Fwiw it's not clear this was intentional. It's more likely that the labels required the old blue check. Remove the check, remove the label with it. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Reese Jones / @politicussarah: Elon doing Putin et al's bidding by erasing state affiliated media label. https://twitter.com/...
Parker / @pt: This is where you wonder whether China called him and asked if he wanted Tesla to make its APAC sales targets. I mean, he's probably just dealing with a real bad case of the anti-woke mind virus, but the point is we don't know! https://twitter.com/...
Ricky Whittle / @mrrickywhittle: The oblivious who think this is about money or status shows how manipulated & out of touch they are.Couldn't care less personally,but it's about my fans safety.The verification was about trust,credence & followers knowing a person/company/organisation was who they said they were https://twitter.com/...
Noah Shachtman / @noahshachtman@mstdn.social: I don't usually go for conspiracy theories. But sometimes my mind drifts, especially when I think about who funded Musk's Twitter takeover. — I wonder: Would these people have paid billions for a third-tier social network? …
Tyler Falk / Current: Twitter drops “government-funded” label from NPR, PBS
Jason Karsh / @jkarsh: This is the other thing Musty doesn't get. Jurnos and celebs showed up here because the place was interesting, immediate, and fun. If you turn it into Gab, white nationalists and nazis aren't fun or interesting. So tentpole users will just leave, as so many are. https://twitter.com/...
@wilson__valdez: This was always his goal. Seems pretty obvious that one of the reasons he added the labels on reputable outlets like NPR & BBC, was so he could say, “See? I just removed them all. Now everyone is equal.” He is truly a one-man disinformation machine. https://twitter.com/...
Alex von Tunzelmann / @alexvtunzelmann: Just looked up the tweets and all the blue tick replies appear first under any tweet, meaning that a reader must now wade through a swamp of dullness before anyone says anything funny or interesting. So I guess that's conversation killed on here as well https://twitter.com/...
@anews: #Twitter on Friday dropped the “state-affiliated media” #tag on some accounts like National Public Radio (NPR) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a label by the social media platform that implies #government involvement in editorial content. https://anws.link/j4b9ck
Chad Loder / @chadloder@kolektiva.social: I've been disgusted by the lack of professional solidarity among journalists ever since Musk bought Twitter. As Musk bans journalists one-by-one, their colleagues stay on Twitter, tweeting out their work, hoping that they'll survive the next round.
Eileen AJ Connelly / The Wrap: Twitter Drops ‘Government-Funded’ Label From NPR, PBS After News Orgs Quit Platform in Protest
@blackamazon: So the very specific kind of flight that folks always warned of is beginning https://twitter.com/...
Keith Boykin / @keithboykin: In a victory for NPR over Elon Musk, Twitter has dropped the “Government-funded Media” label from the National Public Radio account. @NPR recently stopped posting on Twitter, but it's unclear if the media outlet will return after Musk's new reversal. https://www.reuters.com/...
Chris Geidner / @chrisgeidner: Today in, “What are today's organizing principles, decided based on what single interaction?” https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Brenneman / @jesse_brenneman: Ah I see now. A blue check was much like a classic title or land bestowed by the monarchy, which has now been replaced by democracy (people paying a billionaire $8 for a check). https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Zeitlin / @mattzeitlin: one funny dynamic right now is that because the paid blue checks are so, uhh, intensely self-selected, if you're a Big Account, the only replies you're going to see are from paid blue checks, which may affect the Twitter Experience https://twitter.com/...
Liam Scott / Voice of America: Twitter Drops ‘State-Affiliated,’ ‘Government-Funded’ Labels from Major News Outlets
Matt Novak / @paleofuture: I know people who are really excited to read Isaacson's upcoming biography of Musk but if he's brainstorming business ideas with the billionaire that's a really bad sign. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: before today Joe Biden's Twitter account was labeled “US government official” after the legacy verified blue checkmarks were removed...the labels gone too https://twitter.com/...
Nick Robertson / The Hill: Musk removes ‘government-funded’ labels after scrutiny leads some outlets to exit Twitter
Michael Caster / @michaelcaster: #Twitter removed “state-affiliated media” label from some accounts. The label is important to identify government influence on editorial content but labels have also been removed from #China state-affiliated media responsible for information manipulation. https://www.reuters.com/...
@derjarjour: It would be funny if it weren't truly terrifying that this platform is now run with so little care https://twitter.com/...
Nathalie Loiseau / @nathalieloiseau: Twitter's rapid unscheduled disassembly. #Twitter #BlueCheckMarks https://twitter.com/...
Tommy Walker / @tommywalkerco: Legacy blue tickets removed. Also “China state affiliated media” tags also gone for angry propaganda hawks. Twitter becoming a circus, anyone can say anything with no accountability nor checks. Maybe great for content but ground zero for bullshit.
Jeff Veillette / @jeffveillette: Just an absolute genius at work https://twitter.com/...
RELATED:
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Twitter emails advertisers to say they must now have “a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations” to keep running ads — As Twitter's legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network's new paid-for verification system …
Discussion:
Mashable, @mattnavarra, Bloomberg, Axios, @jamieeast, Gizmodo, @tante, The Daily Beast, @leratomannya, @theseantcollins, @jamespmcleod, @edzitron, @pinche_pi, @scottmonty, @dloehr, @elilikesrice, @petbugs13, @petershankman, @jappleby, @bradmossesq, @reportbywilson, @blackamazon, @padresj, @helenkennedy, Garbage Day, @jessehawken, @film_girl, @bradmossesq, @tylermahancoe, @mattnavarra, @peoplesoracle, Billboard, @mediaevan, @mkobach, @aintscarylarry, Forbes, The Information, Variety, IGN, Engadget, The Drum, MediaPost, ET Canada and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Matt Binder / Mashable: Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to ‘Block the Blue’ paid checkmarks
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: WOW... Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads! https://twitter.com/...
Jamie East / @jamieeast: This is pretty hilarious. An email from twitter saying that you have to pay for verification before you can have the privilege of advertising on Twitter. Absolutely deranged. https://twitter.com/...
@tante: Totally not a desperate move by a company without a working strategy. https://twitter.com/...
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast: Daily Wire Host: I'll Pay for Twitter Blue to ‘Show My Support’ for Elon Musk
@leratomannya: Lmaoooooo easiest way to piss people off, moving my focus back to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok 🫶🏾 https://twitter.com/...
Sean T. Collins / @theseantcollins: How much money will this possibly make him? Bet your bottom dollar it's less money than simply courting advertisers like a normal businesshuman would! https://twitter.com/...
James McLeod / @jamespmcleod: Elon Musk built his empire basically off massive government subsidies for EVs and rockets, and it's hilarious how he's flailing wildly running a business where he actually needs to navigate market forces and human behaviour. https://twitter.com/...
Ed Zitron / @edzitron: These changes rock because he definitely is like “yes this will get us guaranteed revenue from every advertiser” as opposed to the other way you get revenue from them - selling them advertising https://twitter.com/...
@pinche_pi: Are they also informing advertisers that many users are blocking every account that buys ads on this platform or nah? 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
Scott Monty / @scottmonty: Twitter's new advertising requirement that advertisers must be subscribed to Twitter Blue reminds me of an old National Lampoon cover... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David J. Loehr / @dloehr: So if you use the “Blues Blocker” extension in Chrome, you'll also have an ad-free Twitter experience? Good job, genius. https://techcrunch.com/...
@petbugs13: wait wait wait so what you're saying is if i install the extension that blocks blue checkmarks, i block all ads? lmfao https://techcrunch.com/...
Peter Shankman / @petershankman: “Daddy, why are the only ads on Twitter for either vape pens or penis enlargement pills?” “ Well, Timmy, a billion dollars a year in interest payments alone makes a manchild do some things he's not too proud of.” https://twitter.com/...
Jack Appleby / @jappleby: This is a colossal Elon error. Does it rationally make sense to ask companies to pay a few bucks to advertise on Twitter? I'd actually say yes. Does implementing this rule now, when advertisers are already abandoning Twitter, make ANY sense? No. https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Pay for a worthless blue checkmark so you can pay us to advertise on this platform. Yeah, Elon is a genius https://twitter.com/...
Teddy Wilson / @reportbywilson: “Twitter's broader verification strategy” “We're making this shit up as we go along” https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: The funny thing is for the most part this just means we're back in Twitter circa 2014. Like it sucks in many ways .. and a lot of the indignation is mostly about taxonomic manipulation https://twitter.com/...
Helen Kennedy / @helenkennedy: You could make a place alluring to advertisers by getting rid of racist undesirables, not pushing your politics and juvenile humor on users, and verifying identities. Or you could demand advertisers pay for the privilege of paying you. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day: “You're welcome namaste 🙏” — I Have Grown Tired Of Being An Unwilling Participant …
Jesse Hawken / @jessehawken: This is a great idea because it will almost completely get rid of ads https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: The remaining sales people at Twitter must hate their boss so much. What a disaster. https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Was anyone getting ads in the past from accounts that were not verified already? https://twitter.com/...
Tyler Mahan Coe / @tylermahancoe: Is there some kind of loophole he's trying to exploit? Like, could there possibly be some benefit to Elon in bankrupting Twitter? Maybe he can't legally just walk away but killing the company gives him some kind of out? Help me understand. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to ‘Block the Blue’ paid checkmarks “The campaign to “Block the Blue” - that is, any user still with a blue checkmark which signifies they are paying Musk for it - is in full swing” https://mashable.com/...
Dayna Lynn Nuckolls / @peoplesoracle: So he's intentionally bankrupting this platform, yes? Or is he really that bad at product development and revenue creation? Both? https://twitter.com/...
Hannah Dailey / Billboard: Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat & More Musicians React to Losing Their Blue Check Verification on Twitter
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: Not sure I'd go swinging this leverage around if my ad platform was the least critical one in everyone's stack. https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Kobach / @mkobach: Twitter ALWAYS should have charged businesses to use their platform. https://twitter.com/...
@aintscarylarry: Elon Musk's rapid scheduled disassembly of twitter is really accelerating. #ElonMuskIsaGiantTurd https://twitter.com/...
Dani Di Placido / Forbes: Elon Musk Mocked After Paying For Stephen King's Twitter Checkmark
Todd Spangler / Variety: Twitter Reportedly Is Now Requiring All Advertisers to Pay for Verification Unless They Spend at Least $1,000 per Month
Adele Ankers-Range / IGN: Elon Musk Is Paying for Some Celebrities' Twitter Blue Verification
Chris Sutcliffe / The Drum: Twitter restricts its advertising platform to paid and verified organizations
Colin Kirkland / MediaPost: Twitter Reportedly Now Requiring All Advertisers To Pay For Verification
Dara Kerr / NPR:
Sources: Twitter removed its “visibility filtering rules”, or “shadow bans”, for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government accounts and state-affiliated media — Dmitry Medvedev, a leading government official and former president of Russia, took to Twitter earlier …
Discussion:
Joseph Menn / Washington Post: Twitter removes labels from state-controlled media, helping propaganda
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: Elon has fully unshackled CCP & Kremlin propaganda. now Dmitry Medvedev is getting 7,000 RTs calling for genocide. https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Dara Kerr / @darakerr: Last night “state-affiliated media” labels disappeared across Twitter. Turns out those labels were in name only the last few weeks. Two former employees say Twitter made a deliberate decision to end the de-amplification those labels were intended to do. https://www.npr.org/...
Chloe Simon / Media Matters for America: Elon Musk ended legacy verification and now Twitter users can't determine reputable sources
Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable: LGBTQ centers leave Twitter following removal of hateful conduct protections
@akinunver: The correct angle here is for Twitter to muzzle propaganda from *all* governments. It is a bit unrealistic and long-term unsustainable to think that it is only China, Russia and Iran that do propaganda and not others. https://twitter.com/...
@dfrlab: @Twitter ... Following @DFRLab's investigation, @NPR confirmed @Twitter made the deliberate decision to stop filtering government accounts in Russia, China, and Iran. @Reuters reported Twitter had removed its state media labels from said countries' accounts as well. https://www.npr.org/...
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: Still amazed that someone has not just made a Twitter clone that is not a) affiliated with weird subcultures of rightwing politics or a former president b) trying to “disrupt” news or c) a somewhat confusingly designed series of decentralized federations
Brian Mann / @brianmannadk: Twitter in the Musk era looking more and more like the public square — if you mean Tiananmen Square and Red Square. 🤔 https://www.npr.org/...
David Gura / @davidgura: Dmitry Medvedev “took to Twitter earlier this month to denigrate Ukraine in a post using language reminiscent of genocidal regimes. And Twitter didn't stop him.” “Previous guardrails on government accounts in Russia, China and Iran have now been removed.” https://www.npr.org/...
Drew Dixon / @deardrewdixon: Twitter became a powerful platform where independent thinkers, writers, and movements spoke-out, scaled, and established authenticity. By dismantling this ecosystem, Elon is muting the impact of independent voices who challenge gate-keepers and the status quo. Is that the point? https://twitter.com/...
Scott Sigler / @scottsigler: This won't impact elections at all, I'm sure. Pretty comprehensive write up — the bots are back in town. “Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That's over now” https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
@cendemtech: “Taking the restraints off state-affiliated media accounts could also lead to more general #disinformation on Twitter, said @Sarah_G_Cook, senior advisor at @FreedomHouse who researches China, Hong Kong & Taiwan:” https://www.npr.org/...
@kim: Big Picture By verifying extremists and purging the blue checkmarks of legitimate accounts, Clyde is essentially stealing the influence earned by long-time verified users and transferring that social media equity to some of the most unsavory guys on the interwebs. Not cool!
Dice / @jdice03: Twitter has been hard at work driving away reputable news agencies like NPR & PBS while opening its doors to propaganda, hate and disinformation from the likes of Russia and China. Elon Musk is making Donald Trump's wildest dreams come true. https://www.npr.org/...
Hillary Frey / Slate:
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti innovated and kept BuzzFeed News going longer than others would have, only for Facebook's pivot away from news to kill his creation — I heard about BuzzFeed News shutting down right before it hit Twitter. Word travels fast among industry old-timers like myself, and we try to keep each other in the loop.
Discussion:
@believekarolina, Puck, @brianstelter, Defector, The Independent, Vanity Fair, @oliverdarcy, @pressgirlk, @troyericg, @benpauker, @timkawakami, The Present Age, @mckinneykelsey, @ellencscott, @timkawakami, @kausmickey, @caleweissman, @film_girl, @igorbobic, @baekdal, @mediaevan, Nieman Lab, @froomkin, @mrwaltershapiro, @dannygroner, @niketa, @ylichterman, CNN, What's New in Publishing, Poynter, Media Voices, MediaPost, The Drum and NPR
Discussion:
Karolina Waclawiak / @believekarolina: It was an honor and privilege to lead @BuzzFeedNews. I've spent 7+ years of my career working alongside the most talented and generous people in journalism. We changed the culture. We changed laws. Hire them all. A portion of my note from today: https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / Puck: Jonah and the Whale — BuzzFeed News and the world it made, and didn't make, and what happened in between.
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism... The 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” —@hilella https://slate.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / Defector: Greed Is Still The Problem
Bevan Hurley / The Independent: BuzzFeed News is ‘beginning the process’ of closing down, CEO tells staff
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: A spokesperson for BuzzFeed News told me that there are “ongoing discussions” about the future of the outlet's website, but said that all the work will be archived and available after the newsroom shutters. Full story here: https://www.cnn.com/...
@pressgirlk: Great, nuanced piece. I appreciate the focus on the deep impact @facebook has had on shaping news revenue models - bc it's not only a U.S. problem. Sure, today @facebook is cutting its news media partnerships, but hopefully we won't forget the harms of its undelivered promises. https://twitter.com/...
Troy Griggs / @troyericg: 'They raised up a generation of journalists that have made our industry better and smarter. It is crushing that it's going away for good. I believe that it's bad for journalism, and even democracy.' https://twitter.com/...
Ben Pauker / @benpauker: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism.” smart read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
Tim Kawakami / @timkawakami: My version is a little less elegant (but also exceedingly ignored oh well, I came up with it years ago): Just put good s— on the internet. https://twitter.com/...
Parker Molloy / The Present Age: What Now For Media? — Yesterday, BuzzFeed announced the shuttering of its news division, BuzzFeed News 1.
Kelsey Mckinney / @mckinneykelsey: the media analysis in this piece is good! The retrospective on how we got here is good! But people (who? me? link your sources!) are mad because their FAILURES affect everyone but them. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Ellen C Scott / @ellencscott: this is it. you can only rely on FB etc for so long; one day the bubble will burst. Loyalty takes a lot longer to build and too many big bosses aren't patient enough to invest in that long-term. Now you've got a lot of publications panicking about social traffic dropping and... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Tim Kawakami / @timkawakami: Damn this is smart and so often ignored: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism.” https://slate.com/...
Mickey Kaus / @kausmickey: BuzzFeed News was going to live off Facebook traffic. Turns out if you live by Facebook's whims you die by Facebook's whims. PS This piece also explains why all the news sites started to do those videos you didn't watch https://slate.com/...
Cale G Weissman / @caleweissman: the smartest and most succinct take on buzzfeed/state of media i've read thus far: https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: This is absolutely spot-on and it mirrors many of my own observations from that time. I think the failed SPAC and the misguided Complex purchase were also to blame here, but I just read this post and nodded the whole time. https://twitter.com/...
Igor Bobic / @igorbobic: “Newsroom workers needed assurances of severance and basic workplace protections even as the executives who were determined to get “in” with Facebook and ride the next trend always seemed to pop up elsewhere and do it all over again.” https://twitter.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: Time out. Sure Facebook has not been kind to publishers, but to base your publication on random traffic from another site was a fools errand no matter what Facebook did. We cannot blame Facebook for the demise of Buzzfeed News. It never had a lasting business model to begin with https://twitter.com/...
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: A lot of takes on Buzzfeed News and the trajectory of digital media as a whole, but I think this one really gets to the heart of it. https://slate.com/...
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: A history of BuzzFeed News, Part II: 2017-2023
@froomkin: A hopeful view: “being free of our reliance on tech platforms is going to be better for our business. The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you.” https://twitter.com/...
Walter Shapiro / @mrwaltershapiro: This is by far the smartest and most honest media piece on the sad death of BuzzFeed News. And I so support @hilella ode to home pages and loyal readers. https://twitter.com/...
Danny Groner / @dannygroner: “I did not enjoy my time at Politico, but I learned a lot about what can happen if you pump a bunch of stuff into the universe with clicky headlines on a homepage crammed with them.” https://twitter.com/...
Niketa Patel / @niketa: Good read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
Joseph Lichterman / @ylichterman: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you...Looking back on it all, the 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” https://slate.com/...
Oliver Darcy / CNN: BuzzFeed News will shut down
Webb Wright / The Drum: BuzzFeed News is dissolved as parent company eyes AI
RELATED:
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
BuzzFeed News' legacy has two components: brilliant stories and alumni plus digital media's tragic mismanagement of unrealistic, impossible exponential growth
Discussion:
@hilella, @sallyshin, @johnghendy, @ursulaperano, @edzitron, @missrobinson, @mjs_dc, @bakerluke, @kallipearl, @bendreyfuss, @mariasherm, @doree, @slate, @moorehn, @annehelen, @dlberes, @scottnover, @lpolgreen, @ethangach, @jon_fischer, @mediaguildwest, @cwarzel, @cwarzel and @Chronotope@indieweb.social
Discussion:
Hillary Frey / @hilella: Perhaps at my own peril I shared thoughts I have about digital media over the last decade. https://slate.com/...
Sally Shin / @sallyshin: If you are reading one story about @BuzzFeedNews today, please make it this one. Poignantly written by none other than @cwarzel “The Internet of the 2010s Ended Today — BuzzFeed News was more than a website: It defined an era.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
John Hendrickson / @johnghendy: Nearly every contemporary problem can be traced back to “perpetual growth mindset” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... via @cwarzel https://twitter.com/...
Ursula Perano / @ursulaperano: the lede alone on this.... RIP mf Buzzfeed News, a legend https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Ed Zitron / @edzitron: This is exactly what I was talking about in The Rot Economy https://ez.substack.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Amber / @missrobinson: This is the online media landscape in a nutshell, and why it's practically impossible for newcomers to be profitable. Online ads are worthless and building subs revenue is hard. #BuzzFeedNews https://slate.com/...? https://twitter.com/...
Mark Joseph Stern / @mjs_dc: This @hilella postmortem on BuzzFeed doubles as an industry insider's view of everything that went right, and wrong, with digital media over the last ~15 years. Really fascinating stuff. https://slate.com/...
Luke Baker / @bakerluke: A valuable read for anyone interested in the business of journalism — BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
Kalli Anderson / @kallipearl: “It took less than four years to fully internalize the lesson that venture capitalism is just a form of gambling: You invest in 10 companies to make money off one, and employees are the chips.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Ben Dreyfuss / @bendreyfuss: This is a manifestly false statement that anyone can see is false by just pulling up comscore and looking at slate's traffic. https://twitter.com/...
Maria Cristina Sherman / @mariasherm: i started my career at buzzfeed. i still work with some of the editors and writers i met there. (truthfully, it is unclear whether or not i would've gone anywhere/done anything without the guidance and support of @SteveKandell) this is devastating news https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Doree Shafrir / @doree: Charlie really captures here what it was like to work at BuzzFeed at the height of its popularity (and the height of its getting investor cash) https://twitter.com/...
@slate: BuzzFeed News' death takes a lot of the internet's promise with it. Could that be good for journalism in the long run? https://slate.com/...
Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn: You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Jonah Peretti for building BuzzFeed. He was also the one who, for profit, voluntarily drove it into the ground https://slate.com/...
Anne Helen Petersen / @annehelen: Still just thinking about the murderers' row of talent now former to to BuzzFeed News https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Scott Nover / @scottnover: This is a smart point by @slate's @hilella on digital media. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Lydia Polgreen / @lpolgreen: So much hard earned and big hearted wisdom from one of the best in the game,@hilella. BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
@ethangach: Often think about how foundational Google feels to the modern internet that people rarely mention it in the same breath as Facebook when it comes damage done to media by social platforms https://slate.com/...
@jon_fischer: A good, sympathetic @hilella autopsy of BuzzFeed News that zeroes in on the fickleness of social-media giants, and the foolishness of media to ever depend on them for distribution https://slate.com/...
@mediaguildwest: “The whiplash was never ending, and the collateral damage was always the journalists and producers who had been hired to do the next cool thing. No wonder unionization swept digital media.” https://slate.com/...
Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel: anyhow here's a eulogy of sorts for that https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel: I wrote about six amazing, insane years working in the beating heart of the 2010s internet, the two legacies of BuzzFeed News (one is good, one is very sad)...and a whole bunch of wild office interactions like this one https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Ben Smith / Semafor:
The end of BuzzFeed News signals a vast shift in digital media: the old way of thinking about news as text distributed primarily on social media has passed
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, @jeanlucr, @brianstelter, @terryglavin, @sylviaobell, Adweek, @czarcruise, Financial Times, Vox, Poynter, Axios, @masurakusuo, @jakeadelstein, @nmasc_, @nmasc_, @tednesi, @justinhendrix, @brandyzadrozny, @scaachi, @leighgiangreco, @lisatozzi, @chronotope, Vanity Fair, @lorenzofb, @cassiefambro, @tasneemn, @sonnybunch, @tomgara, @ledbettercarly, @apbenven, @kaiseratcb, @rklein90, @katie_rayford, @jonfriedman, @ciciadams_, @kerrymflynn, @azi, @chaykak, @semaforben, @ashleyfeinberg, The Verge, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Crain's New York Business, The Guardian, @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social, @brooklynmarie@mastodon.social, @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social, @_L1vY_@mstdn.social, @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social, Fast Company, The Information, Gizmodo, Mediaite, Variety and New York Times
Discussion:
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Journalism's Wild Ride and the End of Buzzfeed News
Jean-Luc Raymond / @jeanlucr: ✅ The end of the #BuzzFeed era in #news or the lure of the grail of #SocialMedia distribution for news https://www.semafor.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: The end of BuzzFeed News “signals a vast shift in digital media that those of us who live inside it are feeling intensely right now, the end of one era and the beginning of another,” @semaforben writes https://www.semafor.com/...
Terry Glavin / @terryglavin: Whatever one thinks of Buzzfeed, it really is awful that the BuzzFeed News crew is getting turfed. Some may end up at Huffpo & I expect most will land on their feet, but the news side did terrific work in #Xinjiang a couple years back. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Sylvia / @sylviaobell: Thinking of all my former colleagues who (past + present) who have been laid off due to the mishandling of BuzzFeed News. Always feared it wld end this way despite promises given. Lots of great journalism came out of that newsroom. Another bad sign for the future of news. https://twitter.com/...
@czarcruise: Damn say what you will about Buzzfeed, but Buzzfeed News shutting down is a huge L for journalism. They weren't like the clickbait on the other brands and actually won massive awards for their investigative journalism. Sad day.
Peter Kafka / Vox: RIP, BuzzFeed News. Who's next?
Tom Jones / Poynter: BuzzFeed News stunner caps a wild week in media
Sara Fischer / Axios: BuzzFeed News shutters amid digital media reckoning
@masurakusuo: I felt nostalgic when I read this sentence from @semaforben . Nostalgia, one of the elements that makes people want to share. The end of the BuzzFeed era in news https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_: The piece also has a vivid account of what it's like to see a media company change after it takes venture capital money, and the “zombified form of Buzzfeed” ahead. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_: “The Internet of the 2010s Ended Today” @cwarzel beautifully captures a definitive, focused newsroom and the outsized influence it has had in our world https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Ted Nesi / @tednesi: “Peretti had built BuzzFeed into a traffic juggernaut by being among the first to see the rising social web. But BuzzFeed never found a new path when that trend turned against us” https://www.semafor.com/...
Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix: “Once, I got assigned to follow exotic dancers around at a predawn chicken-wing-eating contest.” A @cwarzel love letter to BuzzFeed News. Hard to estimate the importance of its investigative and political reporting, particularly on tech. RIP. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny: This is the thing. Buzzfeed News was revolutionary because it reported on the internet like it was a real place. Great piece on the death of something special by one (of many) of its greats, @cwarzel. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@scaachi: not one “this is why buzzfeed news folded” article has been accurate. it's really interesting being in the eye of this particular storm because i get to see how wrong you all are, and while i'm sad for our newsroom, i am thrilled to be right and see other people be wrong.
Leigh Giangreco / @leighgiangreco: “The BuzzFeed era of media is now officially over. What comes next in the ChatGPT era is likely to be just as disruptive, but I doubt it'll be as joyous and chaotic. And I guarantee it'll feel less human.” @cwarzel https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Lisa Tozzi / @lisatozzi: “The emphasis was on doing the old-fashioned thing: finding an original story that told people something new, held people to account, or simply delighted. The traffic would come.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Aram Zucker-Scharff / @chronotope: One of the big mistakes in the analysis of the media biz is the claim that the internet disrupted journalism/media. The internet disrupted local monopolies journalism outlets had. Big journalism wasn't a business model, there's never been a business model. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@lorenzofb: Read this by @cwarzel, he put it better than I could have. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Cassie / @cassiefambro: This one will pull your heartstrings, journalists. And people who care about journalism. Extremely well-written. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Tasneem Nashrulla / @tasneemn: my former boss aka my current boss @semaforben reflects on the end of the @BuzzFeedNews era and his own regrets: https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sonny Bunch / @sonnybunch: I guess this isn't that bold of a take, but: I am increasingly of the opinion that click/ad-based journalism has no future and if you cannot convince a critical mass of people to pay for your reporting/writing you will not make it. https://www.semafor.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: “Drudge and Huffington Post, the old portals that propped up the internet of the mid-aughts, will outlive the social media age, along with, of all things, Yahoo!” https://www.semafor.com/...
Carly Ledbetter / @ledbettercarly: So much solidarity for our Buzzfeed News and Buzzfeed colleagues. Beyond upsetting day today. https://twitter.com/...
Alexis Benveniste / @apbenven: In an email, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti announced the end of BuzzFeed News. “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we've determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.” The end of an era.
Rebecca Klein / @rklein90: There is so much to say about BuzzFeed News. But for reporters entering the industry in the 2010s, it was the gold standard — a beacon of hope. This is a terrible day and the end of an era. If I can help anyone, provide an ear, advice...please reach out.
Katie Rayford / @katie_rayford: been sitting here trying to craft a tweet, but all I got is: I'm proud of what BuzzFeed News built & proud to have been a part of it —truly had the best time growing up in that newsroom w/ so many exceptionally smart, funny & kind people End of an era! (Where are the drinks?) https://twitter.com/...
Jonathan Friedman / @jonfriedman: worthwhile piece from @semaforben (née @buzzfeedben) on the end of his old newsroom, and proclaiming the challenge of the new era: “[building] direct connections with an audience... overwhelmed by the decaying social web” https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
CiCi Adams / @ciciadams_: Buzzfeed News gave us groundbreaking investigations into R. Kelly, money laundering at big banks, & modern Chinese internment camps. Along with 180 people losing their jobs, shuttering Buzzfeed News means journalism will lose a wealth of important reporting. This is terrible.
Kerry Flynn / @kerrymflynn: “My own regret is not aligning a strong business with our news operation from the start, something I knew little about and wasn't particularly good at. Peretti is obviously right that he, and we, could have managed better.” - @semaforben https://www.semafor.com/...
Kyle Chayka / @chaykak: “the new challenge is to build direct connections with an audience that's still overwhelmed by the decaying social web, and eager to find great journalism they can trust.” https://www.semafor.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: i don't know man, seems like if you fucked up as bad as you say you did you shouldn't be the one who gets to keep your job! https://twitter.com/...
Jay Peters / The Verge: BuzzFeed News is being shut down
Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times: From BuzzFeed to Netflix, digital media promised revolution. And a bloody business it's been
Shawn McCreesh / New York Magazine: The End of Buzzfeed News Isn't Very Surprising News
Jonathan Glick / @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social: @_L1vY_ @Mediagazer There will always be a next thing. The question is whether you really have anything to communicate. Buzzfeed had the talent — but as an institution, it never had a journalistic purpose.
Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie@mastodon.social: @Jonathanglick @Mediagazer Yep. It's just poor decisions and labor theft all the way down.
Jonathan Glick / @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social: @brooklynmarie You're right. What it really is: a dependency on the latest social distribution trend (facebook! Tiktok) instead of making a direct connection with a community who cares about your work
@_L1vY_@mstdn.social: @Jonathanglick @Mediagazer — How many more decades are they going to try to make video snippets happen? We still want to read the news. I feel like this was a FB thing to begin with and they have just never let go of pushing it.
Jonathan Glick / @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social: @Mediagazer except that the most successful online news business (NYT) is 99% text
Connie Lin / Fast Company: BuzzFeed News is closing up shop as the company nurses its bottom line, enlists ChatGPT
Nikki Main / Gizmodo: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down
Isaac Schorr / Mediaite: JUST IN: BuzzFeed News to Shut Down
Todd Spangler / Variety: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down, Company Laying Off 180 Staffers
Alastair Reid / @ajreid:
[Thread] At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, journalists debate the shifting value of social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook — Outrageous setting for this powerhouse panel here at #ijf23 with @CharlieBeckett @emilybell @mathewi and @mitrakalita. What now for journalism as the platforms move on? https://twitter.com/...
Discussion:
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Facebook, sure, is a lobbying organisation now, says @mitrakalita, but it was set up to rank women. Thinking that platform cares about a news ecosystem was always a non starter #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Twitter is now “a train wreck but where every car is a dumpster and they're all on fire. And it's crashing” is a helluva way to kick things off from @mathewi #ijf23
Federica Cherubini / @fedecherubini: #ijf23 what we learnt in Perugia (so far) about the future of news: @risj_oxford put together a few highlights from the first day of the festival on topics such as press freedom, investigative journalism, climate coverage and AI https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
S. Mitra Kalita / @mitrakalita: Tis true. I hung on because it's the biggest audience I have, I derive value and I feared losing two-factor after I was hacked earlier this year. But eyes wide open ... https://twitter.com/...
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There are people about both companies who care about news, but at the top it is about stopping regulation, says @emilybell, regulation which is intended to pass money from one part of the information ecosystem to another #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: We looked at platforms as referral traffic rather than what we were actually doing on there, says @mitrakalita, which is a fundamental failure. Very good point: she worries about newsrooms serving platforms rather than serving the people on them #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: So what about Facebook? News made up something like 3% of traffic, says @CharlieBeckett, and they stopped funding it. The pretence of caring about news and journalism is gone #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Q from the floor: Should platforms be publicly owned? That opens the door to questions around authoritarianism and sustainability, says @CharlieBeckett. It's never going to happen in America, days @emilybell #ij23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But in some non-Western countries, where there are real government pressures on media outlets, Twitter can be vital for independent journalists in doing their job and telling their truth says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: “Journalism in the face of American capitalism is like a marshmallow in the face of a dragon” says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: What about other platforms? Mastodon is great but it's predominantly white nerds, says @emilybell, and although it's improving it doesn't do what Twitter does in being a centralised platform where everyone is together #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But Elon coming in is like a new developer coming to town, tearing down the buildings and saying “I don't care if that's where you met your friends, it's mine now” #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There's a danger for journalists of thinking Twitter is the real world, says @CharlieBeckett, and we should not fall into the facade of disproportionality that it can create #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: In a packed room, @mathewi asks who is paying for Twitter. There is one. Plus @mitrakalita, on stage. “If I refuse to pay for products made by white men whose politics I disagree with, I probably wouldn't eat or have travelled here today” she says #ijf23
RELATED:
Reuters Institute:
Highlights from talks at International Journalism Festival 2023 in Perugia, Italy, about reporting in exile, investigative journalism, generative AI, and more — Here are a few highlights from the festival on topics such as press freedom, investigative journalism, climate coverage and AI
Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
A look at sports media rights money with cable TV's rise and fall, and why leagues and franchises worry they won't replicate the reach and revenue of peak cable — Television has changed the course of sports as long as it has existed, in ways both sweeping and specific.
Discussion:
@benjstrauss, @barredindc, @benjstrauss, @jbflint, @mulvihill79, @joeovies, @dcsportsbog and @roehlteacher
Discussion:
Ben Strauss / @benjstrauss: New @postsports: I wrote about the inextricable rise of cable TV and local sports $$ and why nothing will likely ever be as good for pro sports as the heyday of the RSN's (plus: several handy charts from the great @arturgalocha) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@barredindc: Great article to explain why you cordcutters can't watch local teams and in the end this will be worse for sports fans who've gotten subsidized by non sports watchers https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Ben Strauss / @benjstrauss: But! It's also worth noting just how popular teams remain on local TV, especially baseball. What they are facing is a reach/revenue equation problem far more than a popularity problem. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Joe Flint / @jbflint: Good history lesson. https://twitter.com/...
Michael Mulvihill / @mulvihill79: Great (if sobering) chart in yesterday's @benjstrauss story about the state of the RSNs. Interestingly the average decline in subscribers for the 7 RSNs shows here is -35%, but the average viewership trend for these 7 MLB teams according to our tracking is +2%. https://twitter.com/...
Joe Ovies / @joeovies: .@benjstrauss has a really good “explain like I'm 5” story on WaPo about the current state of RSNs. Lots of nifty charts, too! And yes, I'm a broken record when it comes to this, but called this problem 10 years ago. And we're all gonna have to pay more. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Dan Steinberg / @dcsportsbog: Loved this clear-eyed look at the RSN conundrum from @benjstrauss and @arturgalocha . Here's the crux of it: In whatever new model emerges, sports fans are gonna have to pay more, now that non-sports fans aren't subsidizing their viewing habits https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@roehlteacher: The more you hear about Bally Sports and the RSN model in general imploding in the cord cutting era, the more the Apple TV MLS deal makes sense. Whether MLS is successful in the new model is beside the point: the old model seems like quicksand nowadays. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Hsiuwen Liu / Columbia Journalism Review:
Journalists in Hong Kong, many who once worked at outlets that have since closed, like Apple Daily, continue to produce media independently despite China's laws — Hong Kong Court News, an online outlet that debuted at the start of the year, operates out of a rented coworking space in Wong Chuk Hang …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Hasbro is in talks with Entertainment One founder Darren Throop, who is backed by private equity firm CVC, to sell him back most of EOne's assets — Hasbro Inc. is in talks with Entertainment One founder Darren Throop to sell most of the film and TV studio's assets back to him, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
How business journalists are building their audiences via LinkedIn, which is using newsletters and curation to engage users and writers on the social network — Linkedin has one of the biggest business newsrooms in the world, with more than 250 editors following a major expansion in the past year.
Discussion:
Dougal Shaw / @dougalshawbbc: I shared my thoughts about @LinkedIn as a tool for journalists with @CharlotteTobitt for this piece in @pressgazette. If you want to subscribe to my CEO Secrets newsletter, find me on LinkedIn. @LinkedInUK https://pressgazette.co.uk/...
@pressgazette: Newsletters are the latest Linkedin tool pleasing journalists, but classic posts are still proving useful too https://pressgazette.co.uk/...
Wall Street Journal:
The CPJ: 363 journalists were detained in 30+ countries in 2022, before Evan Gershkovich; RSF's 2022 press-freedom index: Russia ranked 155 out of 180 countries — 'It's gotten worse everywhere,' the Committee to Protect Journalists says about press freedom
Discussion:
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bloomberg Media announces six new shows, focusing on documentary or interview formats, for Q2 2023, and hires Cassie Thornton as its head of IP partnerships — The new head of IP, Cassie Thornton, will be tasked with striking licensing deals to bring Bloomberg's journalism to other platforms.
Discussion:
@thestalwart, @lauren_jellis, @rajakorman, Bloomberg Media, Bloomberg Media and Talking Biz News
Discussion:
Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart: A little news in The Hollywood Reporter https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Lauren Ellis / @lauren_jellis: New show w/ @emilychangtv coming soon! https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...
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