Many small news nonprofits feel overlooked by funders. A new coalition is giving them a voice

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Wednesday, February 7, 2024 [Many small news nonprofits feel overlooked by funders. A new coalition is giving them a voice]( “There are haves and have-nots in the nonprofit journalism space. And this isn’t right.” By Sophie Culpepper. [The New York Times made more than $1 billion from digital subscriptions in 2023]( What We’re Reading Columbia Journalism Review / Kevin Lind [Dahlia Lithwick on the Colorado case, the election, and the press →]( “I have not figured out a way to make dark money in politics — the Koch network bringing Clarence Thomas to their events so that high donors get to spend time with him, and him changing his position on the Chevron doctrine — into a story. Or anything other than a one-off, sublimely well-reported story that ProPublica, Politico, The Guardian, and the New York Times are starting to do. Every time one of those publications does a story about democratic subversion and everybody shrugs — because Who cares? — we are failing.” Semafor / Reed Albergotti [Medium expects to post its first profit this year. Here’s what its CEO has learned about tech and journalism. →]( “When you bring in a bunch of journalists, it goes against what makes blogging great — that you get to hear personal experiences rather than reported experiences. And the economics just didn’t work at all because it’s expensive to write about things that you don’t already know. That’s why journalists have to be paid a lot to get a high quality piece up. The reporting is really time intensive.” (Laura Hazard Owen wrote about [“the long, complicated, and extremely frustrating history of Medium”]( in 2019.) Anil Dash [“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement →]( “What it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that’s supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that’s not owned by any one company, that can’t be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience.” Poynter / Jon Greenberg [Reporting on people with extreme views? Consider these questions before you decide to cover →]( Have you looked for national ties? “VoteBeat’s Arizona reporter Jen Fifield followed the money and learned that what looked like a grassroots effort targeting election boards was fueled by national dollars.” CNBC / Alex Sherman and Jacob Pramuk [Some of the biggest media companies in sports are coming together to launch a joint streaming app →]( “Walt Disney’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a joint sports streaming service this fall, giving consumers a new way to access marquee live sports for the first time.” Heated / Emily Atkin [The Daily promised to end fossil fuel sponsorships. So why did an ad from BP air last week? →]( A New York Times spokesperson said the Times [doesn’t allow]( oil and gas companies “to sponsor The Daily wholesale” but did not answer HEATED’s questions about the difference between fossil fuel ads and fossil fuel sponsorship, nor how the ad passed advertising guidelines. YouTube / Neal Mohan [YouTube TV now has more than 8 million subscribers →]( The streaming service is now one of the largest TV providers in the U.S. and [some]( are asking: “How long until it’s bigger than Comcast? 3 years? 5 years?” Vox / Rebecca Jennings [TikTok is full of tryhard slang →]( “With every scroll, new terms compete for space in your brain: ‘orange peel theory,’ ‘microcheating,’ girl hobby,’ ‘loud budgeting,’ ’75 cozy.’ They are funneled into the collective consciousness not because they are relevant or necessary but because random people have made videos inventing these terms in the hope that the wording will go viral.” Wired / Kate Knibbs [Confessions of an AI clickbait kingpin →]( “He defends his choices, pointing out that his life has been tougher than that of the average American blogger.” Politico / CLAUDIA CHIAPPA [Tucker Carlson faces backlash from American and Russian journalists over Putin interview →]( “Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine?” Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, railed on X. “It’s absurd — we’ll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now.” Snopes / Jack Izzo [Is 1440’s daily newsletter the unbiased news source it claims to be? →]( “1440 makes over 95% of its income off of advertisements, with a small proportion coming from reader donations. He also explained that the company reviews potential advertisements before a newsletter with those ads are sent out. 1440 is largely employee-owned, with the remaining holdings from a venture capital firm.” Intelligencer / Kara Swisher [Kara Swisher on witnessing the “slow-moving catastrophe” in media →]( “It was no surprise that the media reporters acted like the grandees they covered, preening with the unmistakable air of those who are frequently wrong but never in doubt.” Platformer / Casey Newton [Scenes from a dying web →]( “All the time now, in ways big and small, tech platforms are telling us what they expect the future to look like. And it is not a world in which journalists or almost anyone else now employed in writing or creating has any real role to play aside from training the models that their makers are betting will one day replace them.” The Hill / Ted Lipien [Former Voice of America journalist: “Why is the taxpayer-funded VOA spreading Putin’s propaganda?” →]( “This seems like some promo, worse yet, a platform for Putin,” one wrote back, adding that “clips used in a BALANCED news report would have been in order (if some sort of news were made).” [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](