Something I wish journalists understood better: anyone can nominate an article for deletion on Wikipedia, which kicks off a week-long discussion — even if the article is perfectly acceptable and will ultimately be kept. This does not mean "Wikipedia is trying to delete X!!"
Half the time I see news articles about "Wikipedia is trying to delete X!", I go look at the discussion and it's
nothing funnier than a paywalled article that takes so long to get to the point it accidentally makes the opposite argument in the free preview
congrats to Graham Platner for the National Review endorsement!
since i was writing for a general audience i only tucked in a short paragraph about using RSS as a journalist or researcher, but i genuinely have no idea how anyone functions without it.
sometimes in an interview someone will ask me for my “secret” for staying on top of crypto news, and the secret is literally just RSS
Escape newsletter inbox chaos and algorithmic surveillance by building your own enshittification-proof newspaper from the writers you already read
Interesting to see two major news outlets — The Verge and Wired — both announce major newsletter strategies nearly simultaneously. I suspect both are motivated by the hope that email will be "stickier" than the (declining) direct traffic to news websites.
"A New Era for WIRED—That Starts With You"
The Verge cites the desire to "deepen[] its direct relationship with readers". Wired writes "The platforms on which outlets like WIRED used to connect with readers, listeners, and viewers are failing in real time", saying they wish to "connect our humans to all of you humans".
And with the internet eating major broadcasters’ lunch, it’s very likely that the Ellison family paid billions of dollars for a network whose fortunes are headed to the toilet, and whose viewers are headed elsewhere. They have the potential to create a right wing propaganda bullhorn that rivals Fox News; but it’s just as likely their disastrous management turns the network of Walter Cronkite into a sad, historical footnote.
The extremism beat has gone mainstream—but in local markets, it's still intensely personal.
Earlier this week I met someone new and he asked me what I do for a living, and I said “I’m a writer,” and he said “Oh, what do you write?” This conversation happens often enough, and in virtually the same words, that I recognized right away where we were headed. I told him about Tabs and at that point although my new friend didn’t know it yet, we were already on a greased slide toward the moment where I would say: “…but these days I only write it once or twice a week, because the American news media has been systematically and intentionally destroyed by a handful of billionaires.”
How James Gunn's comments about "basic human kindness" triggered a predictable right-wing media meltdown.
The true solution, perhaps, is more solidarity and more sincerity.