Trust #13: How investigative journalists protect you from the powerful
“Investigative journalists focus on social justice and accountability. Do the powers that be treat people fairly? Are they enriching themselves with taxpayer money?”
Read More »Trust #8: In a 24/7 newsroom, it’s all about the basics
Veteran news editor emphasizes fairness and accuracy over speed in reporting I recently interviewed Joanna Sullivan, who I hired 25 years ago to be a editor-in-chief of the Baltimore Business Journal. She’s recently been promoted to a senior editor position on the national News & Content Team for the 45 cities in the American City […]
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Yes, quality journalism can pay its own way
elDiario.es, a startup in Spain, ranks among the leaders in audience and paid reader support in that country. James Breiner Originally published Jun 27, 2024 You’re reading the My News Biz newsletter. My goal is to help digital media entrepreneurs find viable business models. The 2024 Digital News Report of the Reuters Institute for the […]
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Credibility and quality find a market in Ecuador
GK has survived and thrived with a model of in-depth story-telling Isabela Ponce and José María León met on Twitter more than a decade ago when it was still “a nice place where you could meet people,” Isabela recalls. From that meeting, they began to exchange ideas and collaborate. What emerged from this partnership in […]
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Reasons for optimism #2: Edwy Plenel and Mediapart in France
Few believed a subscription-only website of investigative journalism could survive Why write about “reasons for optimism” when so much is going wrong in our politics, economy, and environment? Optimism gives us confidence we can make things better. As I like to say, it’s another day of opportunity. Conventional wisdom predicted failure for the French startup […]
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Journalists pay a price for speaking truth to power
Many endure threats, cyberattacks, even physical violence in 3 global regions What follows is an edited chapter of the study Inflection Point International of SembraMedia about 201 digital native media in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. This chapter deals with Media Freedom and Journalist Safety. Read the full report here–also in Spanish and Portuguese. It […]
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‘Friends’ support investigative news site through 8 years of losses
Spain’s infoLibre increases subscribers, staff, audience during Covid crisis The name of one of Spain’s notable survival stories in public-service journalism–infoLibre–contains the essence of its guiding principle. It literally means “free information”–that is, free of undue influence from political and business interests. In his annual public letter, Jesús Maraña, editorial director, attributed the publication’s financial […]
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