digital news

Some see a news hole left behind by the shrinking newsrooms of traditional city newspapers and alt-weeklies. Others want to woo smartphone-addicted millennial readers. They’re using newsletters and social media like Instagram to build an audience for their sites.

BitTorrent already has a number of niche channels, but it’s now considering a live TV network among them in time for the election this fall. It’s currently looking to hire a news director to build out a team of journalists. A 24/7 news operation won’t be likely at the start, however, and it will probably instead “focus its coverage on breaking news events, including ‘political campaigns, sporting events, tech and cultural events.’ “

Billy Penn’s Jim Brady says local journalists are often their own worst enemy in the struggle to keep their news organizations alive. That’s because they’ve been slow to adapt and have drifted away from a focus on their customers and communities. He says refocusing there creates opportunity for a robust events business drawing from the news, and it opens the possibilities to more engaging ads that will circumvent the blockers for their utility value.

Digital natives may have paved the path to innovation so far, but legacy brands have their advantages as well.

A new report from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggests that text may have a longer run, at least for news. Consumption of online news video is still a minority behavior around the world, the researchers found: Only about a quarter of respondents, across 26 countries, watched news video online in a given week.

PBS Digital Studios is aiming to boost the number of member station videos on its channels over the next year, though it is coping with a slowly dwindling budget. PBSDS is searching for a way to support itself as it trains stations to create web-first content that builds important inroads to younger audiences.

When The Root was acquired by Univision a little over a year ago, publisher Donna Byrd said she had already set her sights on a big expansion for the African-American news, opinion and culture site. A year later, The Root has staffed up, built out an in-house video and social team and is preparing for a big TV debut, with a series set to launch in the fourth quarter of this year.

Jason Carr is joining the Graham Media NBC affiliate’s ClickOnDetroit as digital anchor and will also contribute to the station’s Local 4 News Today morning broadcast. He comes from cross-town rival WJBK.

Katie Couric is considering leaving Yahoo, which is looking to sell itself  to a yet-to-be-named buyer. While company execs have been buzzing that the media superstar is preparing to announce that she’s departing after 2½ years as a global anchor at Yahoo News, sources close to Couric say she will wait to find out who buys the struggling tech giant.

CBSN, the internet television channel operated by CBS News, has been around since 2014, but executives are just now beginning to see the real value of an OTT video news presence. Marc Debevoise, EVP and GM of CBS News, summed up his feelings toward CBSN at a recent investor conference: “This is the future of CBS News.”

Graham Media Group’s NBC affiliate on WDIV Detroit (DMA 13) on Wednesday announced the appointments of Dustin Block to the newly created role of digital executive producer and David Bartkowiak […]

The digital startups were supposed to figure out how to replace the legacy news outlets. Now they’re facing their own headwinds.

Execs from three news organizations — a network O&O, a cable news channel and a network — explain the logistics and tactics of their coverage of September’s eight days of “popemania.”

It’s ironic how some stations lament their digital growth is slowing. The desktop numbers have crashed because of mobile and apps. In some markets we’re even seeing those numbers decline. Why? Often, those local products are frustrating for users. In research, viewers tell us the information is old, the site itself has not been updated in hours and at least a couple of stations in pretty good sized markets don’t have a local person update their sites on a Saturday or Sunday. Really. What’s the solution? Treat your digital platforms like you would treat your air.

NEW YORK (AP) — After The Weather Channel canceled his morning show, Al Roker is coming back on a much smaller screen. He’s the headliner for “The Lift,” a digital […]

Apple’s new News app will launch as part of a free software upgrade to iPhones and iPads later this month. Here’s a rundown of what’s known so far about the free app’s content, functionality and privacy, along with how participating publishers will be making money from it.

Reuters has changed tactics on its TV app, which launched at $1.99 a month but now is available for free in the App Store. Users will have to endure only limited advertising in the new iteration. Reuters has pinned many ambitions to the TV app, among them attracting a younger audience and building a “Netflix for news” experience.

Chris Ip looks at the rise of Vice Media, its charismatic founder, Shane Smith and its “almost anachronistic” move to cable as it expands its television footprint. “Vice has mastered the mass production of authenticity for profit,” Ip writes, as it grows to a global workforce of 1,500 and aims to straddle maturity and youthful swagger.

WPP founder Sir Martin Sorrell cites the BBC, The New York Times and The Guardian as examples of traditional media with a “stuffy” attitude to content that is not resonating with younger digital news fans gravitating to sites such as Vice News.

A report on the world digital news from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 41% of respondents, representing 12 countries including the U.S., use Facebook to read and share news during any given week. And traffic from Facebook to publishers has also increased: The report found 42% growth in Facebook shares of news content in January 2015 from a year earlier.

It’s still early, but the digital-news revolution of recent vintage hasn’t been an unbroken run to glory. Some celebrated new ventures have found tough going; others are experiencing what might charitably be called growing pains. The journalism that has emerged from them has been decidedly mixed.

Dean Starkman on ad-supported digital news: “To rely on online ads as the sole source of revenue is both unsound in theory, and in practice it’s having disastrous consequences in regional newsrooms, mostly notable at the Times-Picayune and other Advance Publications papers across the South.”

The Associated Press board of directors today approved the establishment of an independent news licensing agency that will allow broader and better access to original news content while providing publishers support for innovative new business models.  When launched this summer, the enterprise will include news content from AP and more than a thousand publications.