OFF THE TOP

You might have heard: COVID-19 has ravaged American newsrooms (The Conversation)

But did you know: STAT News plans major expansion following banner year (Axios)

STAT News, a publication focused on health, medicine and science, was one of the first U.S. outlets to begin covering COVID-19 in January. This led to a major boom; the site’s unique visitors rose from 1.5 million in January to 23 million in March. With revenue up 66% since last year, it plans to increase staff by 40% in 2021 to launch new data projects, events and reports, writes Sara Fischer. The site was one of the first to drop its paywall for pandemic coverage and began asking for donations instead, which led to a surprisingly robust revenue stream. The site’s owners, John Henry and Linda Pizzuti Henry, say they are now researching investments in other niche news startups.

+ Noted: Report for America announces more than 300 reporter positions in 2021 (Report for America); Time for Kids racks up 63,000 subscribers in four months (Ad Week); Scroll, the ad-free news startup, tests a limited partnership with McClatchy (Nieman Lab); More than half of media jobs lost this year are in news (Axios)

API UPDATE

Trust Tip: Explain what you’re not covering (Trusting News)  

When it comes to covering national political stories, what a local news outlet doesn’t cover is often as important as what it does. Readers may read political bias into the decision to not cover certain stories, even if the motive is much more prosaic. Explain to your readers why you don’t cover certain national stories by clearly defining your priorities and how you allocate resources. Sign up for weekly Trust Tips here, and learn more about the Trusting News project — including how your newsroom can get free coaching — here.  

TRY THIS AT HOME

Searching for new ways to find candidates, some media companies are hosting virtual career fairs (Poynter)

Media companies are turning their recruitment efforts online, hosting virtual career fairs that allow them to reach a broader group of potential applicants. One such event, hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, recreated a traditional job fair with virtual “booths” that allowed interested applicants to chat with recruiters, read documents about the companies and set up virtual interviews. Others focus more on presentations and question-and-answer sessions, with opportunities for feedback from online participants.

+ Related: Hearst Connecticut Media is holding a virtual career fair on Thursday via Zoom (Hearst Connecticut Media)

OFFSHORE

Google, Facebook win key concession in law to pay for news in Australia (Bloomberg)

As the Australian government moves forward with a law to force tech companies to pay to display news articles, Facebook and Google have managed to blunt the impact of the bill. The bill would require that tech companies pay news outlets for the value that their stories create for the platforms, but a change in the draft legislation now means that the value that the tech platforms create for the news outlets will also be taken into consideration. The goal of the legislation is to help local publishers in Australia, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The law is not expected to be legislated until early 2021.

OFFBEAT

Celebrities have become drivers of conspiracy theories on social media (First Draft)

As celebrities and influencers become integral to the social media ecosystem, many are now complicit in “information disorder,” writes Ali Abbas Ahmadi. Fans of celebrities are primed to trust them, making it more dangerous when celebrities promote conspiracy theories. This misinformation can manipulate a fan’s emotions; emotional connection is a key factor in the decision to engage with content and share it on social media. A celebrity’s disinformation is often repeated in mainstream press coverage, further amplifying it.

UP FOR DEBATE

The difficulties of measuring news consumption in a digital era (Pew Research Center)

When it comes to measuring how people consume media, researchers can no longer neatly divide news into categories like print, radio and television. A new study from the Pew Research Center found that Americans are split on whether watching news on a streaming service or device (like a Roku TV) counts as digital media or television, but that most Americans say they consume news via both methods. Americans also aren’t confident that they can identify original news reporting; only 56% of Americans were confident that ABC News did its own reporting, while 6% believed Facebook did its own.

SHAREABLE

The collaboration that helped the Bangor Daily News become the country’s first newspaper to call the presidential election (Down East Magazine)

While much of the media called the presidential election for Joe Biden on Nov. 7, Maine’s Bangor Daily News did so more than 24 hours earlier, on the morning of Nov. 6. The decision was based on data that the paper received from Decision Desk HQ, an election data firm that makes race projections. DDHQ relies on the newspaper for on-the-ground election data from Maine, which is difficult to collect from afar. In turn, the data company shares its rating projections with the Bangor Daily News, the only newspaper with whom it has such an arrangement.