Belarus, Google vs Australia, Facebook vs fakes, Epic vs Apple, home vs journalists
Media news. Explained. Issue #1
Thanks God, it’s Friday.
And here is the very first issue of our newsletter — MediaMedia. Read something about us here as we start the show.
Top 5 news of the week. Explained.
1. Journalism in Belarus is on fire
What’s up:
Sixty nine local, russian, british and dutch journalists in Belarus were detained since the start of the protests after presidential elections. 33 of them were beaten and even tortured in jail. 2 journalists are still in the custody.
Why it is important:
This is the situation when so called “elected“ president Alexander Lukashenko are going all-in to have his power once again. But the problem is that there are very few information about the protests and the tortures in prisons. Western media were not allowed to cover the election and protests. But local Press-Club is going to change the situation. They asked journalists to collect all the facts and gather the volunteers to translate all this texts into english and other languages. This will be the content for the new website for foreign journalists to link to when trying to cover the protests. Be in touch and we let you know about this website when it is ready.
Go deeper: What is going on in Belarus
2. Google now will prioritize websites with the fastest load speed
What’s up:
Now it has three principal characteristics to taking in to account while deciding who to show higher in the search results: load speed, interactivity and visual stability (so called Core Web Vitals). This change will be rolling out starting in Chrome 85 Beta.
Why it is important:
The load speed is vital for news media, but often the newsroom doesn’t care about it. And that finally turned into the big problem. Finally — because newsrooms will be force to look at the media not just as the place to post “brilliant journalism“ but as the product. And if the speed of your website is low, you will be affected with this new features from Google. So check your website with GTMetrix, Page Speed Insights and do something with the speed.
Go deeper: How to improve the load speed of your website.
3. Google doesn’t want to pay publishers in Australia
What’s up:
The Australian government wants to force tech giants (firstly Google and Facebook) to pay publishers the fee for using their content in search results and news feeds. Both Facebook and Google don’t want to do it. And now Google said that if the government approve this law, all people in Australis will see the decrease of the search quality (on Youtube and Google).
Why it is important:
This clash will be crucial for media industry all over the world. Because if Google wins, media will lose the opportunity to make money on nothing. Frankly receiving money this way will be the reselling of the content — the first sell is to their advertisers and the second sell is to Google or Facebook; sounds unfair. There is a similar approach to Google in Spain. The government tried to force search giant to pay for the news, but Google just turned the Google News off in the country.
Go deeper: Google and Facebook vs australian media
4. Posts with health misinformation had 3.8 billion views on Facebook during 2019
What’s up:
But only in April 2020 health fakes received 460 million views. The report from Avaaz shows that 10 "superspreaders" of false information received four times as many views as the ten leading health institutions, including the WHO and CDC.
Why it is important:
The Facebook’s effort to lable fakes is failed. Only 16% of health misinformation labled as fake. A single article from the anti-vaccine organization Children's Health Defense promoting a conspiracy theory about Bill Gates was viewed approximately 4.7 million times. So be careful. Social media (especially Facebook) spread fakes anyway.
Go deeper: How to spot fake health information and root out charlatans, according to health experts / Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations
5. Survey: 41% of US users have ad blockers, down from 52% in 2016
What’s up:
According to the newest survey from Audience Project, fewer people are using ad blockers. From 2016 to 2020 the share of the online population using ad blockers has decreased across all countries. For example less than 1/3 in the Nordics are using ad blockers, in Germany — 48% (it is the country where ad blocking is most widespread). In the US and UK the numbers are — 41% and 36% respectively. Mobile ad blocking grows to 7% from 5% in 2018; 50% say online ads are irrelevant to them.
Why it is important:
Maybe this is the shift towards healthy ads ecosystem in news media? Advertisers and platforms are trying to place more relevant ads with higher quality than ever. Or maybe this is the result of what tech companies doing trying to give us annoying-free browsing experience (Apple with Safari and Google with Chrome). The last thing looks more relevant.
Go deeper: What is “shadow traffic“ and what should we do with it
Something visual about media.
Pew Research Center asked users is it likely that social media censor political viewpoints. And the most of them said — yes.
The one who was in the spotlight this week.
Digiday made a profile of Meredith Kopit Levien. She is going to be the youngest CEO of the New York Times Company. She is 49. And she has a story in “Gray Lady“.
David Bradley, the then-majority owner of the Atlantic:
“After a while, I began hoping Meredith would quit her work so that I’d feel I could drop my own and read a novel. But she worked on, and I worked on. Around 1:00 a.m. Bradley bailed, but Levien continued working while travelers pulled down their luggage as the train arrived. “Had I not seen her many times since, I might assume that, in some Amtrak rail yard, there sits a car from the 2000s with one person on board, still on WiFi.”
Read: Digiday
A glance on the big piece
Today we would like you to read the article from Nieman Lab — why it is important for news media to watch the battle between Epic (Fortnite developer) and Apple / Google.
In short:
If Epic wins, we all will have to bypass the system where we should pay Apple 30% from revenue in AppStore.
Now we have 3 options: to leave AppStore (like Financial Times did in 2011), to increase the price by 30% or just swallow it.
With this system media can’t test different kinds of subscription offers.
Three options how this clash ands: the court says Apple is right (and we say — okay then), the court says Epic is right (and we say — holy shit!) and Apple agree to reduce the percent (like they did in 2016 for Amazon).
Read: Nieman Lab
By the way: A trade body representing NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and other publishers asks Apple for improved deal terms for digital subscriptions sold through the App Store / The Wall Street Journal
In a couple of words.
Why working from home is a harm for journalism? Because young journalists won’t be able to learn from experienced colleagues and won’t feel the atmosphere of the real newsroom / Washington Post
ViacomCBS are going to sell CNET for $500 millions. And later they reported about selling book publisher Simon&Shuster. The reason: ViacomCBS wants to get rid of noncore assets and focus on video streaming / WSJ
NowThis is launching project for children — NowThis Kids (Youtube channel, podcast and newsletter). The new vertical will target kids ages six to 11 / Axios
US podcast ad spend surpass $1 billion next year. eMarketer forecasts this growth will accelerate strongly in 2021, increasing by 44.9% to reach $1.13 billion in ad spend / Business Insider
The New York Times is seeking an Editorial Director, Games to support its fast growing and expanding games subscription business. Not games as you maybe think of. But the games that NYT produces for the readers (crosswords, for example) / NYT
That’s all for today. See you next Friday.
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Take care,
Sergei / MediaMedia.me/En