We keep an eye out for the most interesting stories about Labby subjects: digital media, startups, the web, journalism, strategy, and more. Here’s some of what we’ve seen lately.
September 4, 2024
“‘I think from a consumer perspective, it’s becoming more important to think about spending downtime in nature and experiencing the outdoors,’ [Outside CEO Robin] Thurston said. ‘I think for brands, we’re a pretty safe place to go to not have a lot of that other noise.” —
Axios / Sara Fischer
/ Sep 4“The purpose of the newsroom cuts, MacLeod added, is to find efficiencies in the SaltWire operations that can provide a stable future for the newspapers, including the Cape Breton Post in Sydney, N.S., The Guardian in Charlottetown, and The Telegram in St. John’s, N.L.” —
Global News / Keith Doucette
/ Sep 4“Freelance foreign affairs reporter Richard Medhurst says he was arrested under Section 12 of Terrorism Act 2000 and told he was accused of ‘expressing an opinion or a belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.'” —
Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
/ Sep 4“…last Friday, the 25-year-old nonprofit, known as NaNoWriMo for short, shocked many in the writing community when it published a controversial statement detailing its position on AI. In it, NaNoWriMo asserted that the ‘categorical condemnation’ of artificial intelligence has ‘classist and ableist undertones.'” —
Wired / Meghan Herbst
/ Sep 4September 3, 2024
“We’ve always wanted to remove our paywall in order to make our journalism free and accessible to everyone. And in our surveys, we heard that sentiment from members, too. Because the membership program provided a significant amount of our budget, removing the paywall has been a constant concern. Until now.” —
Civil Eats / The Civil Eats Editors
/ Sep 3“Axel Neff, who helped start Telegram, said the company’s core team of about 60 employees, 30 of whom are engineers, is too small to monitor the platform for criminal conduct. ‘Think about the size of Telegram. There are about a billion users on Telegram every month. A billion!’ he said. ‘Telegram is a massive, massive community. … They are not staffed — and they do not have the capacity — to monitor everything that goes on there.'” —SC
ProPublica / James Bandler, A.C. Thompson and Karina Meier
/ Sep 3“Blocking X in Brazil is like dropping a nuclear bomb on stan Twitter and the shutdown is already sending shockwaves through the entertainment and pop culture universe. With over 21 million monthly users, Brazil is one of X’s dominant markets, not only measured by sheer usage, but also cultural impact. Some staffers at music labels and entertainment PR agencies said they were scrambling on Friday night to assess the impact the ban might have on their talents’ fandoms.” —SC
Substack / Taylor Lorenz
/ Sep 3“USA Today was the domain most likely to appear in
Google’s Top Stories box in the first half of 2024, according to data shared with Press Gazette for Google searches across the web.”
—Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
/ Sep 3“Lots of people know how to describe clothes…Far fewer people know how to describe the way clothes get to our closets.” —SC
Columbia Journalism Review / Haley Mlotek
/ Sep 3“Nearly a decade after ‘Hot Ones’ made its debut on YouTube, the show that spiced up the celebrity interview wants the clout, deals and awards that TV shows command. As YouTube creators’ audience grows, they want to earn the kind of money and prestige enjoyed by traditional television stars. They’re using strategies that also resemble traditional TV — chasing Emmy awards and trying to drive up ad rates.” —
The Wall Street Journal / Isabella Simonetti and Sara Ashley O'Brien
/ Sep 3
