Fact-checkers need a marketing mentality

Let your users tell you what they value and are willing to pay for The International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute held its Global Fact 8 conference this past week. I was on a panel that discussed the question, “Fact-checking as a product: Why can’t we sell it?”. The moderator was Gilberto Scofield Jr., […]

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Be the organizer, not the storyteller

Find out what matters to your community; it might not be your news stories This week’s post focuses on examples of successful business strategies for local news publishers. The strategies have become ever more critical as local news organizations have suffered mightily in the covid-19 crisis. Several years ago I was working in Belarus, a […]

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Retiring media legend warns, ‘stay independent’

Spain’s Iñaki Gabilondo sees ‘destructive’ polarization as threat to democracy What better model of Spanish eloquence and journalistic integrity could there be than Iñaki Gabilondo. For decades, he was the host of Spain’s top morning radio program, “Hoy por hoy” (Today). I got to know him by listening to audiocasettes with excerpts of his programs […]

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Despite the crisis, media consultant sees bright future

The best days are ahead for news organizations that adapt and innovate Jakub Parusinski is an optimist for the future of quality journalism, even in Eastern and Central Europe where press freedom is under threat. He believes the problems the media are facing–censorship, lawsuits, layoffs–are manageable. And he has a solution that is simple but […]

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Optimism, luck, and the future of journalism

The crisis has emboldened news organizations to make overdue changes Just a few weeks ago the dark forces of the internet seemed to demand the world’s attention. Democracy itself appeared to be shaken to its foundations. Social media and cable news can do that to you. They make it appear that everyone is a take-no-prisoners […]

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How the press is struggling against ‘toxic’ disinformation

Facts and science don’t matter in the new media ecosystem What follows is the abstract of my paper just published by Comunicación y Hombre, of the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. The emergence of search engines and social media networks in the past two decades created a new media ecosystem. It allowed the instantaneous creation, distribution, […]

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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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