10 takeaways from a VR party with Google and the Guardian

Google’s News Lab is working very closely on Daydream with the Guardian. We got an invite to Google HQ in London for a sneak peek at new projects.

Can we take back the term ‘fake news’?

There is widespread discomfort in media circles over the catch-all term ‘fake news’, particularly when used to insult and provoke journalists and news organisations. So it was refreshing to hear Philip Howard, Professor of Internet Studies at Oxford Internet Institute label the misinformation as “Junk”.

WAN-IFRA Letter to President Trump, 27 March 2017

International media leaders have signalled their deep concern with the US administration’s persistent attacks on the press in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump.

World’s Press Calls on President Trump to Stop Targeting Media

International media leaders have signalled their deep concern with the US administration’s persistent attacks on the press by calling on US President Donald Trump to halt his ‘fake news’ accusations and to ensure White House briefings remain accessible to all media.

‘Quality is the only key’ – lessons from Spain’s La Factoría

“We are eager to try any new technology that we think might be interesting for storytelling, or efficient content strategies in any format,” says Virginia Lavín Amirola, Editorial Director at La Factoría, the branded-content production unit of the Spanish publishing house Prisa.

Tech giants need to place higher value on professional journalism

Never in recent history, have not just freedom of expression, but the expression of truth, been under such threat on a global scale, warned World Editors Forum President Marcelo Rech at a UNESCO colloquium in Paris on Journalism Under Fire. To get through the current crisis, tech companies need to recognise and value professional journalism above other content.

Korea’s Chosun Ilbo takes the VR plunge

In November 2015, the management at Chosun Ilbo, Korea’s oldest newspaper, decided to take the plunge into virtual reality (VR) and created a small team devoted to creating and distributing VR journalism.

The civic media crisis and what philanthropy can do

Protecting the independent media and the public sphere presents an epic challenge, but there is great opportunity for philanthropy to step up and help, Bruce Sievers & Patrice Schneider contend in this guest post.

Aftonbladet’s advice: Take user-driven strategy to a new level

Average numbers and large figures don’t really tell us much about our users. But those are the types of information media houses have relied on for years when developing and evaluating their online publications and services. At Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet this is now changing – and they are getting to know their users for real.

Boston Globe’s niche site STAT makes bold move into paid content

Paid content was envisaged from the start at STAT, The Boston Globe’s ambitious life-sciences site – but putting a substantial amount of content behind a paywall only a year after launch was a bold move nonetheless. The paywalled area, called STAT Plus, was launched in December last year.