In Italy, a digital startup’s membership model takes off

Luca Sofri has been publishing Il Post for 11 years with the aim of producing quality journalism for a discerning audience. He believes Italian readers are looking for news they can trust. This is not easy to do in Italy, he told me in a Zoom call from Milan. His model of quality journalism is […]

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Do big journalism brands have a future? It depends

One of the big questions facing the journalism industry is whether the traditional brands have a future. An international panel of eight academic media industry experts mostly agreed that those brands can survive, as long as they change what they are doing, and fast. This panel of eight was discussing the impact of global crises […]

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Podcasts evolve, with different flavors for different tastes

A new study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism finds that news podcasts are attracting large audiences as well as driving loyalty and revenue for many media outlets. And news podcasts have been generating many times more downloads than those focused on other topics, in part because of interest in information about […]

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Podcast: What are the biggest mistakes of media startups?

As part of my recent work with DW Akademie, I was interviewed for a podcast that is part of the training and tools they offer to media startups. What follows is a summary of the key points of the podcast: Who are our clients, what do they need? The biggest mistake that media startups make […]

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The danger isn’t algorithms but the humans who write them

A former student recently interviewed me on the use of algorithms in social networks. He was doing a research project for another journalism professor. Weren’t these algorithms leading to the spread of disinformation in the news? he asked. Yes, the algorithms had allowed for the rapid spread of hoaxes and conspiracy theories related to covid-19. […]

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5 keys to making quality journalism sustainable

Author’s note: this post is a summary of remarks I made in a Zoom presentation for the Free University of Brussels and the technology research center IMEC. This research started when our colleague told us he was worried about the future of quality media. He saw traditional media failing as businesses because they were not […]

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‘A crisis is the best time to launch a startup’

Author’s note: My friend and former colleague Hector Farina Ojeda at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico invited me recently to be interviewed on his radio show and podcast. Professor Farina knew of my interest in media entrepreneurs and wanted to know how covid-19 was affecting them, among other topics. What follows is a translation […]

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