Study Hall Digest 4/8/2019

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

Tech Giants Try to Bargain with Publishers (Again)

The news industry has a lot to dislike about the giant tech platforms that make up the internet today — sucking up all those ad dollars, for one. Now, the platforms are trying to sweeten the deal by actually sharing revenue generated by news content. Mark Zuckerberg recently proposed paying publishers to include their articles on a dedicated news section of the site, which users would turn to for “high-quality, trustworthy content.” This isn’t a move to maximize revenue for Facebook, according to Zuckerberg, but rather a sincere attempt to bolster quality journalism and inform the public.

Facebook previously tested a separate news section but abandoned the plan due to traffic shortfalls — users didn’t really want that division in their feeds. This time around would apparently be different in that there wouldn’t be such a hard divide between news content and other content. Ok, cool, but who gets to define “quality journalism”? Facebook’s past attempts to curate breaking news in a Trending Topics feature led to accusations of anti-Conservative bias (lol), while a move to give publishers trust rankings based on user surveys quickly revealed the obvious problem with such a system (your Tucker Carlson-loving uncle gets a vote!!).

Then there’s the question of who benefits. The idea of paying publishers licensing fees for their content is nice, but Facebook hasn’t committed to such a plan, and a source tells Recode that the company might take the old tried-and-true route of pulling publishers in with minimum guarantees on ad revenue. It’s hard not to see this as an empty PR stunt as Facebook tries to redeem its public image. It should be noted the company was just hit by some aggressive proposals from the U.K. government to impose steep fines on platforms that fail to regulate their content.

Still, as CJR pointed out, Facebook’s outsized power means that publishers may not feel they have much of a choice but to play along and accept the scraps. (Meanwhile, in the U.S., a disturbing New York Times piece on the grotesque wealth gap in San Francisco tells the story of a military veteran who lives off dumpster diving in Mark Zuckerberg’s trash.)

Another attempt to bundle news products is Apple News’s Netflix-style approach, based on their acquisition of the digital magazine service Texture. They’re recruiting publishers into a subscription bundle, but publishers only get 50% of the revenue. The Wall Street Journal announced it’s on board and is going on a hiring spree to support the partnership (though it looks like they’re hiring independent contractors, not full-time staffers, spawning objections from the union). The New York Times and the Washington Post are avoiding Apple’s plan like the plague, however.

Publishers will have to make a calculation. Do the potential profits outweigh the cost of depending on Apple for revenue? If you can afford to ignore the temptation, it’s probably better to focus on refining your own product.

Private Equity Firm Snatches Gizmodo

Hot off the presses: It was announced this morning that private equity firm Great Hill Partners has bought Gizmodo Media Group, which is unsurprising since we’ve known since February the two were in exclusive talks. Nonetheless, it’s pretty dark. The chief executive of Gizmodo is now James Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes.com and president of consumer magazines at Ziff Davis, which publishes such titles as PC Magazine and AskMen (the company also recently purchased Mashable).

In a memo to staff this morning, Spanfeller provided a glimpse of what may be in store for GMG’s famously give-no-fucks editorial style: “While editorial independence is critically important, there needs to be a healthy and productive partnership with the business side for the company to be truly successful. Without an audience we have nothing to offer advertisers, eCommerce partners or subscription efforts.” It seems inevitable that GMG writers will step on their new owners’ toes at some point, and then we’ll see how much of a stomach they have for continuing the publications’ legacies. At least it’s not Bryan Goldberg?

BuzzFeed’s Union Busting Gets Rude(r)

No one was under the impression BuzzFeed management was going to swiftly and painlessly recognize the BuzzFeed News Union, but is it too much to ask that they…show up to scheduled meetings? Management unceremoniously bailed on negotiations with union members, some of whom had taken time off for the meeting. They apparently object to the union as an “editorial unit,” instead wanting to further limit who can and cannot join.

It has now been over seven weeks since BuzzFeed News announced its union efforts, and Jonah Peretti and Ben Smith have refused to engage in negotiations during that time. Management claims that voluntary recognition is the goal, but if that’s true, maybe it should show up for meetings with staff instead of quarrelling with the Mayor of New York City on Twitter (???). ANYWAY remember when Jonah Peretti told his staff they don’t need a union then fired 200 of them? One big happy family!!!

Business Insider DEMANDS THANKS

Business Insider is hiring, so if you’re in the running there’s probably something you should know: unless you take the time to send off a “thank you” email post-interview, executive managing editor Jessica Liebman isn’t going to hire you! Liebman writes that the “thank you” test is the “simple rule” by which she makes hiring decisions, which sparked some controversy on Media Twitter because it is a bad, discriminatory practice that shuts out qualified candidates. And of course, this dumb performance of politeness does not go both ways — one editor took to Twitter to note he underwent a four-hour unpaid writing test while applying to Business Insider and never heard back despite multiple follow-ups. It’s another reminder of the inherent inequality of the job-hunting process, particularly in media.

More on Captain America’s Bipartisan Project 🙁

Here’s Chris Evans on his bullshit news site that will be a paragon of both-sides-ism: “It’s a website designed to provide succinct answers to common questions by presenting both the Democratic and Republican point of view on dozens of issues across the political landscape.” There is a certain kind of liberal who earnestly believes we just need to LISTEN TO EACH OTHER and everything will be fine (also, this project is a perfect accompaniment to Howard Schultz’s delusional belief that partisanship is what is tearing this country apart).

“This only works if it’s combined with diligent fact-checking and de-platforming bad actors,” journalist Michael Hobbes rightly tweeted in response. “Quoting Republican politicians saying ‘immigration is out of control’ isn’t hearing both sides, it’s disinformation.” But it turns out people who aren’t journalists often think journalism is as simple as just presenting dual perspectives and letting the reader decide how to think. Honestly, I’m not usually one to tell celebrities to “stick to acting” or whatever but…Chris, please stick to acting!! Now let us take a moment to remember Verrit, that bizarre Clinton-endorsed news operation based on the journalistic principle of objectivity.

Longread of the Week: Let’s keep it light this week! Vox’s The Goods published a fascinating deep-dive on the history of ball pits, which rose to prominence in the safety-obsessed 1970s and apparently are having a resurgence among adults because we’re all trying to reclaim a feeling from childhood? You know, because we’re all chronically anxious and depressed? (KEEPING IT LIGHT).

EVERYTHING ELSE

— In unsurprising news, YouTube executives ignored warnings to curb dangerous content, prioritizing engagement above all else. And conspiracy theorists and extremists know that when it comes to engagement, the wilder the better. The users “don’t know how the algorithm works,” Brittan Heller, a fellow at Harvard University’s Carr Center, told Bloomberg. “But they do know that the more outrageous the content is, the more views.”

— Here’s an interesting look at the state of mentorship in media from Fashionista: While the fact that editors are stretched increasingly thin makes mentorship more difficult, hierarchies within companies have broken down in such a way that makes top editors more approachable to their underlings.

— The City, the non-profit local New York City news site in partnership with New York Magazine, has finally launched, and its first batch of stories are live. The site is one attempt at a new model for the future of local journalism.

— CJR talked to freelancers about “scope creep,” the process by which an editor significantly increases the scope of a story through rounds of edits. It puts writers in a tough spot — you feel you can’t push back on edits or push for extra money during the editing process because you don’t want a reputation for being difficult. But it adds up to a lot more work for roughly the same amount of money.

— The New York Times talked to new Cosmopolitan editor Jessica Pels, who has grown the site’s unique visitors from 15 million to 41 million since taking over in February 2018, and has more than doubled digital subscriptions. E-commerce on the site has also doubled during that time. So the digital side is thriving — what remains to be seen is whether the print will last (they’re planning to continue it for the next five years, apparently).