Don’t trust the polls? Neither did The New York Times in 1956 (spoiler: it didn’t work out great)

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Monday, October 21, 2024 [Don’t trust the polls? Neither did The New York Times in 1956 (spoiler: it didn’t work out great)]( “There was some feeling that the Times should stick to reporting trends and let the pollsters make the forecasts.” By W. Joseph Campbell. What We’re Reading Intelligencer / Charlotte Klein [New York Magazine interviews “57 of the most powerful people in media” about how the media works →]( “Not to be dire, but it feels like Axios and The Athletic are going to go down as the two luckiest places that got hundreds of millions while you still could.” WSJ / Alexandra Bruell [Wall Street Journal and New York Post sue AI startup Perplexity over “massive freeriding” →]( “The complaint cited an example of a New York Post article about a writer’s first trip to see a baseball game at Shea Stadium decades ago, which Perplexity allegedly reproduced in full … The suit also cites a Wall Street Journal article about the U.S. arming Ukraine-bound F-16 jets with advanced weaponry, saying Perplexity attributed quotes to the article that never appeared in it.” Politico / Steven Shepard [He runs Fox News’s Decision Desk. Here’s how he sees Election Night coming. →]( When will we know who won? “I’d say, the over/under is Saturday. Which was when the call was made last time. Which is when Pennsylvania is likely to come in.” Washington Post / Will Sommer [John Grisham poached Pamela Colloff’s material for new book, New York Times and ProPublica say →]( “The Times says Grisham’s [new nonfiction] book ‘draws comprehensively and without appropriate attribution’ from ‘Blood Will Tell,’ a two-part series written by prominent criminal justice reporter Pamela Colloff in 2018…ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg said his outlet had found more than 50 examples of close similarities between Colloff’s articles and Grisham’s writing.” New York Times / Michael Grynbaum and David McCabe [Trump ratchets up threats on the media →]( “The fact that a feasible, if narrow, path exists for Mr. Trump’s proposed crackdown speaks to the permeability of federal protections for the news media — and the obscure levers in the byzantine regulatory machine that an emboldened president may reach for in a moment of pique.” The New York Times / Mattie Kahn [Costco has a magazine and it’s thriving →]( “The media business might be in free fall, but in Issaquah, Wash., the merriest band of magazine makers in America drives to Costco headquarters and sets about producing a monthly print periodical that is delivered to more households across the United States than Better Homes & Gardens, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic combined…You, perhaps, had no idea. But Oprah did. Ms. Winfrey has no shortage of press opportunities, but she has made time for Costco Connection.” The Guardian / Shaun Walker [Journalist or Russian spy? The strange case of Pablo González →]( “As a Spanish reporter, Pablo González charmed his way into Russian opposition circles and covered Putin’s wars. Then, in 2022, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage. Many former associates now believe that he betrayed them.” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Marina Adami [Under a far-right government, journalists fear press freedom in Italy is heading down a slippery slope →]( “What has become known as the ‘Scurati case’ sparked fresh concerns about the decline of press freedom in Italy. Some Italian journalists had been raising the alarm for months. But the issue became more widely known in July with the publication of two reports on this issue: one from the MFRR media freedom watchdog and the European Commission’s yearly Rule of Law Report. Both reports highlighted concerns about media ownership and legal threats to journalists and criticised the governance system of the Italian public service broadcaster RAI.” Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford [The key decisions that saved the Boston Globe →]( “The next key decision came in 2018 when subscriber growth flattened out. After testing out various trial offers they settled the deal which continues to this day of allowing people to trial the Globe website for six months for just $1. This is combined with a metered paywall which offers readers just one free article before they are invited to pay. The new offer led to a ten-fold increase in subscription conversions.” ProPublica / Jennifer Smith Richards [Who’s mailing the Catholic Tribune? It’s not the church, it’s partisan media. →]( “Using tax documents and business filings, ProPublica traced the papers to aChicago-based publishing network led by former TV reporter Brian Timpone. His enterprises, including Metric Media, are known among researchers for peddling misinformation and slanted coverage … Many dioceses publish newspapers, but they are not partisan. In distancing itself from the Michigan Catholic Tribune, the Archdiocese of Detroit noted that tax-exempt churches are not permitted under the Internal Revenue Code to be involved in partisan politics.” [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](