Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism

Ken Doctor: The envelopes open on the sale of Digital First Media newspapers

Will America’s third-largest newspaper group sell as a single unit or a collection of smaller clusters? And what would lead someone to buy newspapers in 2014, anyway?

By Ken Doctor

Watchup raises $2.75 million from Tribune Media, McClatchy, and more

Can Berkeleyside turn an engaged community into a profitable membership program?

The Bay Area local news site has a dedicated audience and significant ad revenue, but to continue growing they’ll need additional sources of income.

By Caroline O'Donovan

Unable to find a local partner, the much praised Homicide Watch D.C. is shutting down

The Upshot’s vote-estimating algorithm will probably do a better job of telling you who’s ahead tonight

Philly’s lauded GunCrisis.org is stopping daily gun-crime reporting

By the book: How Belt Publishing led to an online magazine covering the industrial Midwest

Belt says it expects three-quarters of its revenue to come from book sales by the end of the year.

By Joseph Lichterman

The Texas Tribune is 5 years old and sustainable. Now what?

The Austin-based news nonprofit has success and a measure of stability with its business model, raising almost $27 million in its first five years. But now the Tribune has to figure out how it grows its audience outside the capitol.

By Justin Ellis

From rumor to out: Tim Cook reminds us that “unpublishable” facts don’t live in a vacuum online

The Apple CEO confirmed what some websites had reported years ago — the fragmented lens of online media giving new meaning to the idea of an “open secret.”

By Tim Carmody

Ken Doctor: The New York Times’ financials show the transition to digital accelerating

The numbers may look flat, but they contain a continuing set of ups and downs. Up next: executing on a year’s worth of launches.

By Ken Doctor

Before the “teaching hospital model” of journalism education: 5 questions to ask

It’ll take a new generation of academic leadership — willing to incur the wrath of faculty, the greater university, alumni, industry, and analysts — to break through the old ways we train journalists.

By Katherine Reed

Controlled chaos: As journalism and documentary film converge in digital, what lessons can they share?

Old and new media types from journalism, documentary, and technology backgrounds gathered at MIT to share practices and discuss mutual concerns.

By Liam Andrew

The near future of First Look’s next site, Racket, looks fuzzy

The site, promised as a “satirical approach to American politics and culture,” was set to launch this month, but now it’s unclear when or if it’ll get off the ground.

By Caroline O'Donovan

The newsonomics of the Sun-Times national/local network play

The company behind Chicago’s No. 2 newspaper wants to go national on the cheap. Can it succeed where Patch and others have failed?

By Ken Doctor

The New York Times Co. and Axel Springer are investing €3 million in Dutch startup Blendle

Ken Doctor: The envelopes open on the sale of Digital First Media newspapers

Will America’s third-largest newspaper group sell as a single unit or a collection of smaller clusters? And what would lead someone to buy newspapers in 2014, anyway?

By Ken Doctor

Can Berkeleyside turn an engaged community into a profitable membership program?

The Bay Area local news site has a dedicated audience and significant ad revenue, but to continue growing they’ll need additional sources of income.

By the book: How Belt Publishing led to an online magazine covering the industrial Midwest

Belt says it expects three-quarters of its revenue to come from book sales by the end of the year.

What We’re Reading

Variety / Brian Steinberg

CBS Launches Ad-Supported Broadband News Feed In Effort To Vie With Cable-News Outlets

“Surrounding the streamcast, however, are options to choose video segments and stories that have already run and even a ‘CBSN10′ video that point to what Rhodes said was ‘the video version of a text-based site’s ‘most viewed’ or ‘most linked.’”

Economist

Our new daily edition for smartphones

“The first daily edition in The Economist’s 171-year history, it does what we have always done, distilling what’s important from the news and telling you what it means, but on a daily rather than a weekly basis.”

Technical.ly Philly / Juliana Reyes

There’s another new news startup in Philadelphia: PhillyVoice

Three former Philly.com executive producers “are running a new media startup called PhillyVoice, which bills itself as a “well-funded media startup serving the Philadelphia and South Jersey region.”

Pinterest / Melody Kramer

Mel Kramer’s highlights from how news orgs covered Election 2014

The New York Times / Steve Duenes

Behind The New York Times’ Election Night graphics and interactives

“It’s true that you find maps and tables elsewhere, but we don’t think everything is equal.”

See what else we’re reading →

1020 tweets	The newsonomics of the millennial moment The new wave of news startups is aiming at a younger audience. But do legacy media companies have a chance at earning their attention?

686	Ken Doctor: The New York Times’ financials show the transition to digital accelerating The numbers may look flat, but they contain a continuing set of ups and downs. Up next: executing on a year’s worth of launches.

413	The new Vox daily email, explained The company’s newsletter, Vox Sentences, enters an increasingly crowded inbox. Can concise writing and smart aggregation on the day’s news help expand their audience?