RJI news
FL#142: Enlisting product managers and automating more complex stories
This week we explore the role of product managers within news organizations, and we find out how more complex stories might be written by computers. PART 1: Product managers for news Borrowing from the tech and business worlds, several large news organizations have integrated the role of product manager into their workflows. The result can … Continued
Traditional news media still popular with users of mobile media
2015 RJI Mobile Media Research Report 2 Majority of smartphone owners say they frequently get news from television and-or printed newspapers Updated March 9, 2016 Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of U.S. adults who owned smartphones said they got news and information frequently or very frequently from at least one traditional media source — television news … Continued
FL141: Faster fact-checking and nonprofit partnerships
This week we find out how automation might speed up political fact-checking, and we learn what goes into successful partnerships that involve nonprofit news organizations. PART 1: Faster fact-checking It takes time to investigate whether claims made by politicians are true, but technology might help speed up that process. We get some ideas from PolitiFact … Continued
News organizations getting significant boost from phablets
2015 RJI Mobile Media Research Report 1 Large-screen smartphone owners between the ages of 25 and 34 are the most frequent news consumers U.S. adults who have a phablet —a smartphone with a 5- to 7-inch screen — are much more likely to use it for consuming news than those who have a standard-size smartphone, … Continued
Volunteers and community newspaper boost local teens’ chances of winning college scholarships
They arrived early on a Saturday morning — not the usual hour for teenagers — and found the only open door along the quiet, cavernous hallway of an empty Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri. Stomping snow from boots and rubbing chilled hands together, they found us in the media center and sat down, one … Continued
How stories can contribute to patient-centered care: A framework that targets efforts
In an earlier blog, I wrote about my interest in how stories, through health care and news organizations, can contribute to better health and health care. Research is showing that patient engagement, a key determinant of patient-centered care, improves health outcomes, patient safety and health care costs. In its landmark 2001 report, Crossing the Quality … Continued
Reporting into structure: How journalists, crowds and robots can work together
In previous posts, I’ve written about structured journalism’s potential to improve newsroom economics by rebundling news as networks of structured information, and to provide new value to consumers by giving them more control over the news they consume. But what does structured journalism do for journalists? Will structure merely contribute to the tech-driven weakening of … Continued
WordPress moves news past the printed newspaper
Local newspaper sites have long broken all the rules for building a sticky site. Most still load painfully slowly. They are difficult to navigate and — let’s be honest — often ugly.—Matthew Hindman, Shorenstein Center For centuries newspaper design has stayed about the same. In 1880 printers introduced halftone photographs and in the 1980s the … Continued
The Apple News app is not living up to its hype
The Apple News app launched with much hype on September 15. I’ll always remember that date because the app’s launch was a major determinant for me to pivot Reportory, my news customization platform, from a consumer-facing service to a license play for publishers. The Apple News app hadn’t launched when I first profiled 15 other … Continued
Structured journalism puts consumers in control of news
In September I wrote about the economics of structured journalism, highlighting the potential for newsrooms to rebundle news as value-accumulating networks of structured information. But what is the market for structure? Why would news consumers want such a radically different way of formatting and consuming news? Why would customers care? Choice. Article-centric journalism has traditionally … Continued