What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism?

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, September 25, 2024 [What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism?]( From defunding NPR and PBS to kicking reporters out of the White House, it’s an array of conservative priorities and Trumpian retreads. By Joshua Benton. What We’re Reading Digiday / Kayleigh Barber [Business Insider switched from a freemium model to a “smart paywall that uses machine learning” and says it worked →]( “By the end of the testing period, which spanned December to April, Friedman said that 60% of new conversions happened on ‘non-premium’ stories, meaning stories that never would have been paywalled in the previous model.” ESPN / Mark Fainaru-Wada [Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe won a Pulitzer for a Brett Favre scandal story. Now she could face jail. →]( “I am getting punished for something that I had no control over. I think most people can see that. I can’t even start to describe what a travesty that is. That sucks, because it wasn’t the reporting.” Washington Post / Ben Strauss [How to cover the worst MLB team ever without going (too) insane →]( “The team’s march to infamy has offered the reporting and broadcasting corps who follow the White Sox the task of documenting once-in-a-lifetime misery. That work has become historic in its own right.” Media Nation / Dan Kennedy [Arc was supposed to be a key to The Washington Post’s future. It became a problem instead. →]( “Arc has failed to deliver on its promise of becoming a revenue center for the Post as well as a way for the paper to establish itself as center of a network of Arc-using news organizations. I hope we find out what happened.” Journalists Pay Themselves / Lex [After grant funding fell through, Range Media turned to its readers →]( A “surprise win” was “re-engaging members and upgrading members. Members who had let their membership lapse came back and renewed. Members on a lower tier bumped up to a higher tier. According to an update from last week, this meant: 78 new paying members, 63 upgraded members, and 21 former members returning.” (We have [covered]( Range Media before.) Axios / Sara Fischer [International Fund for Public Interest Media, cofounded by Mark Thompson and Maria Ressa, looks to raise $150 million →]( “As part of its ambitious new campaign, IFPIM says it aims to fund 300 media outlets across 50 low- and middle-income countries in the next three years….The fund’s work mostly targets countries in South America, Africa, and parts of Asia.” The Handbasket / Marisa Kabas [NPR’s David Folkenflik on Olivia Nuzzi, Ben Smith, and journalism ethics →]( “My feeling is you can do almost anything as a journalist that you’re willing to disclose to your editors, but also to your audiences. And if you’re uncomfortable disclosing it to your audiences, maybe that’s a sign that it’s something you shouldn’t be doing.” Financial Times / Daniel Thomas, Ivan Levingston, and James Fontanella-Khan [Bari Weiss’s Free Press is valued at around $100 million and just raised $15 million →]( “The Free Press makes most of its money from subscriptions, including to its newsletters, and runs podcasts and events such as regular live debates. This week, Weiss posted an article that said The Free Press now had more than 800,000 readers served by ‘dozens of reporters, editors, and producers.'” ARLnow [ARLnow acquires GazetteLeader →]( “I think it’s pretty interesting that a digital news outlet is doing well enough to acquire a weekly paper and then jettison the costs of printing and distribution. The challenge will be figuring out how to make sure the audience knows their community newspaper still exists, only in a new form.” The New York Times / Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum [News outlets brace for chaos on election night (and perhaps beyond) →]( “Arnon Mishkin, who oversees the Fox News decision desk, said his team had developed new models that could better estimate eventual totals from mail-in ballots. The idea is for viewers to receive more precise guidance on how to interpret early returns that may not include mail-in or absentee votes.” Vanity Fair / Paul Farhi [Why news outlets are sitting on hacked Trump documents →]( “In recently exploring the decision-making at Politico, the Times, and the Post, I’ve found that editors’ reluctance to play ball with Robert reflected neither regret over widespread coverage of the 2016 hack nor ethical concerns about publishing illicitly obtained information from a hostile foreign power. The reason for the non-response is more mundane: The hacked documents are a dud.” CNN / Jon Passantino and Liam Reilly [Did you know violent crime is down? Not if you’re watching right-wing media →]( “The FBI on Monday reported that violent crime dropped across the US last year, registering the steepest annual decline in murders in decades. But the report was almost entirely ignored by right-wing media outlets, which have pushed a false narrative that crime is surging under President Joe Biden.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](