New decade, new Media Voices. On this episode of the revamped Media Voices podcast Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, CEO and Publisher at MIT Technology Review talks to us about the work she’s done transforming the publication to bring it to new audiences, striking a balance between expert and general audiences, and what the business is doing to prepare itself for the next five years.
In the news roundup we discuss the ruling that edition-based digital news products aren’t subject to VAT in the UK, Twitter’s changes to the reply function, and pointedly ignore any news about the royal family. Chris sets a new record with two (2) good analogies in less than 40 minutes.
News in brief:
- The Sun has launched its ‘distinctive brand of tabloid journalism’ (thanks to the Drum for the tactful wording) in the US this week.
- Teen Vogue got in hot water earlier this week when it posted then removed a ‘glowing’ story about Facebook from its website on Wednesday after being accused of hosting sponsored content from Facebook without labelling it.
- Outside magazine saw a 41% bump in print readership in 2019 after ‘recognising and committing to serve audience segments that have been traditionally underserved by the outdoor magazine market’ like women. “Since women have seen their perspectives reflected in our coverage, we’ve watched our audience expand,” said EIC Lawrence Burke.
- Major flaws have been found in TikTok which would have allowed hackers to manipulate and reveal personal data. TikTok claims the vulnerabilities have been fixed.
- Italian Vogue isn’t publishing photos this month in an aim to make a statement about sustainability. In a post, it highlighted the environmental impact of filling a magazine with photographs each month, from the flights required to lighting, catering, garment packing and more.
- Tumblr is launching an internet literacy campaign to help young users spot suspicious activity
- Facebook will ban manipulated videos it considers ‘deepfakes’, but ‘shallowfakes’ or otherwise manipulated video are still allowed. Reddit does similar, but allows ‘satire’.
- Pre-tax losses at Vice UK have grown by 75% in 2018, according to the company’s latest full-year financial figures. Vice is blaming ‘Brexit uncertainty’.
- News website rating tool Newsguard (the one that gave Mail Online a red rating a few months back) is adopting a subscription model, with membership costing £1.95 a month. It’s planning a range of new features as part of this, including warnings about hoax healthcare info and conspiracy theories.
