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.
January 29, 2025
“Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Trump’s Truth Social platform, jumped 15% during pre-market trading after it announced the launch of Truth.Fi, a financial technology brand Truth.Fi, in a brief statement.” —SS
the Guardian / Callum Jones
/ Jan 29
The U.K. government announced an extra £32.6m for the BBC World Service in November. “But the BBC said that despite this ‘welcome uplift,’ previous licence-fee freezes, global inflation ‘and the need for ongoing digital and technological upkeep have meant savings are necessary.'” —
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
/ Jan 29
“Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro co-founded the trust in 2021 and has served as chief executive officer since its inception. The first papers acquired by the trust were a suite of weeklies in Colorado, but Shapiro has overseen the nonprofit’s expansion to two other states – Georgia and Maine – with the goal of helping preserve community journalism during a time of sharply declining advertising revenue.” Read more about the National Trust for Local News
here.
—Portland Press Herald / Eric Russell
/ Jan 29
“The new game will officially launch on Sunday, February 9 [during the Super Bowl] … Local fans in Philadelphia and Kansas City — plus Buffalo and Washington, D.C. — will be encouraged to play the game live during halftime with a quick ‘game break’ within the broadcast.” It’s a variation on
Connections, which the Times said was the most-searched game on Google with “tens of millions of daily players” last year.
—The New York Times Company
/ Jan 29
“Among the 52 publishers on the list are Slow Boring by Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias, Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, The Good in Us by Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump and Tipping Point Prophecy Update, a Christian newsletter about the forthcoming end of the world.” —SS
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
/ Jan 29
“It’s a striking pair of incidents — not because The Onion is trying to pull a fast one on its workers or readers, but because it illustrates just how deeply AI content has already permeated the media ecosystem, working its way into the efforts even of creatives explicitly trying to avoid it.” —
Futurism / Noor Al-Sibai
/ Jan 29
The cover shot “seems to purposefully reference Kubrick’s The Shining.” —
Substack / Matt Karolian
/ Jan 29
Nieman Storyboard is the Nieman Foundation’s online publication “showcasing exceptional narrative journalism and nonfiction storytelling.” (Welcome to Nieman, Mark!) —
Nieman Foundation / Ellen Tuttle
/ Jan 29
January 28, 2025
“Maybe there was a time when readers would sit still for sober, dull opinion pieces — history’s most boring headline, ‘Worthwhile Canadian Initiative,’ was the title of a Times op-ed — because they were seen as representing the views of The Establishment. And I have the feeling that Times management still thinks it’s living in that world. But in today’s wide-open information (and misinformation) environment, boring writing just vanishes without a trace.” —SS
Substack / Paul Krugman
/ Jan 28
“Ms. Hardy, 51, is the executive editor and vice president of The Dallas Morning News, a role she started in 2021. She will lead the business and newsroom sides of The Marshall Project, which has been overseen by a president and an editor in chief.” —
New York Times / Katie Robertson
/ Jan 28