The Best of Nieman Lab

Plus: A fake news game that seems to inoculate players against fake news.

The crowd-funded news platform aims to combat fake news by combining professional journalism with volunteer fact checking: "news by the people and for the people."

“I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.”

It is increasingly the tech stack of choice for major news publishers. But now Arc wants to be the backbone of your digital advertising and subscriptions, too.

It's a remarkable turnaround for an institution that's been losing money for what seems like forever, and there are lessons to be had for other digital publishers.

You can now VLOOKUP the SUMPRODUCT of the Times' training efforts. It's SORT of a TREND; even AVERAGE journalists can CONVERT data skills TO_DOLLARS.

From loading up the Wayback Machine to meticulous AirTables to 72 hours of scraping, journalists are doing whatever they can to keep their clips when websites go dark.

Shared by 549

Some reporters can build a career around their own personal brands. But doing great work requires an infrastructure, including a lot of talented people who don't get bylines. Barry Sussman — the…

Shared by 260, including Mark Little, Simon Wüthrich, Kevin_Indig, Mark Kaigwa, Javi Cantón @[email protected]

The number of new podcasts launched fell by nearly 80% between 2020 and 2022 — and seems to keep dropping. Has podcasting moved from gold rush to mature market?

Data from Germany finds that Apple Podcasts users devote about 23 percent of their podcast listening to news shows — versus just 8 percent for Spotify users.

Shared by 581, including Thomas Pleil

“Thank goodness that the mandate will never be to look what's getting the most Twitter likes.”

Shared by 342, including Mathias Menzl, Tom Connor, Kevan Lee 👋, Oscar MacDonald, AJ Ghergich

The Journal went on a quest to identify the user actions — an app download, an article share, repeat reading of a particular reporter’s stories — that can turn a new subscriber into a loyal one. Then…

Shared by 837, including 👨‍✈️ AA-Admiral ⚓🚀🌌, Esther Schindler, Nieman Foundation, Jane

«Knight speaks openly about the Times’ desire to reach 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027, which can only be realistically engineered by investing in terrain outside of the media’s traditional contours.»

Early coverage sidestepped conversations about the unique kinds of gendered racism that a Black girl from a working-class California neighborhood might face on the professional tour.

«Practicing sports journalism by “sticking to sports” leaves reporters ill-equipped to cover news events that demand a wider lens.»

The same-day cancellation rate likely includes subscribers who only wanted access to one article, or who felt the full paid experience was lacking after a quick look around. New data suggests some…

Journalists — like nurses and teachers — want to do work that's interesting and socially beneficial. But the industry's increasing precariousness counterbalances the appeal.

Shared by 427, including Fabio Chiusi, Nieman Foundation, Tactical Tech

«Still, questions remain about the long-term viability of this strategy. Can Ukraine’s strategic use of information continue to offset Russia’s material advantages?»