arbor’s Post

In today's information-rich world, achieving a balanced understanding of news is crucial, yet challenging due to the pervasive bias and specific agendas driven by the interests of channel investors and stakeholders. #NewsDiversity #MediaLiteracy #GlobalPerspectives #CriticalThinking #StayInformed For a regular person, navigating this landscape requires a conscientious effort to diversify sources.  O  This means actively seeking out news from a variety of outlets, including those with differing editorial slants, and integrating international perspectives that might offer a different viewpoint on domestic issues.  O  Fact-checking through reputable, independent organisations can also help verify the accuracy of information.  O  Engaging with in-depth analysis and long-form journalism can provide broader contexts, mitigating the risk of consuming news that might be skewed by the immediacies of sensational reporting or the narrow focus of agenda-driven media.

A healthy democracy needs a vibrant, diverse news media. The demise of Newshub is alarming. As Mike McRoberts said today, if they can't make it work, who can? Newshub isn't my favourite media outlet. But the team there are a strong and credible part of our fourth estate. To me the media is a bit like a patchwork quilt. Made up of lots of different bits, some of us like some bits, some of us prefer others, but the bits come together to make a whole that functions well. But our quilt is falling apart. Who will be next? And what will be left? We should be very worried about a future in which we get our news and information from an emaciated, polarised, and de-professionalised media. The impact on our politics and society would be profound. Just look around, its already happening. I totally understand the aversion to state run and state funded media. But we need to put our heads together as a nation and figure out how we are going to secure the future of quality journalism that informs us and keeps us thinking. If we don't figure that out, dark times lie ahead.

The Portuguese media landscape today faces low readership and a crisis in the traditional business model. In response, journalists are coming together to figure out how to remain afloat. Read more via The Fix Media: https://buff.ly/3PuYdTo

So why are so many journalists losing their jobs, across so many different organizations, all at once? (In a very strong economy, no less.) Industry insiders I spoke to are starting to use a really grim economic term: market failure. What does that term mean in practice? What if the news industry is so broken that no amount of hustle, innovation or grit can fix things? And what if free market approaches can actually make things worse? This is not just semantics. Viewing what's happening market failure changes how we think about cure. Read more here:

At #CIPE, we recognize the vital role that free and independent media play in supporting transparent market economies and democratic societies.   Investments by organizations like the Media Development Investment Fund, which has allocated over $316 million to media outlets in environments of press oppression, are crucial for maintaining journalistic independence and integrity.   Share America at the U.S. Department of State recently featured a report from the Center for International Private Enterprise and the Center for International Media Assistance, highlighting the significance of the private sector in bolstering independent journalism. Such support not only enhances market transparency but also protects brand integrity and strengthens democratic institutions.   ➤ Read the article in Share America: https://lnkd.in/g8fBhBhG   ➤ CIPE and CIMA report: https://lnkd.in/g9yYWrBA   #MediaFreedom #BusinessIntegrity 

The end of an era and the structural crisis of the news. This is a screenshot from Vice's CMS being unilaterally turned off. You've probably heard the news. Vice was an inspiration to us journalists starting around 2013. our #journalism milieu. We should learn a lot from Vice's story, mostly due to the business side of things. Let me explain: Vice is probably one of the coolest media startups ever created. The stories VICE was touching were so unique, and their storytelling was so performative that you simply couldn't get enough. In 2017 #Vice reached its peak valuation in 2017 with a $450 million investment from private equity firm TPG, valuing the company at the time at nearly $6 billion. CAN YOU IMAGINE? In 2019 Vice fetched a price of below $1 billion, while it was looking for a valuation between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. Last year, Vice has also been nearing a deal with Greek broadcaster Antenna Group, but the talks stalled in recent weeks, the people said. Once a swashbuckling media company, now they can't afford employees or a website? The news business is going through a structural crisis due to its model that's beholden to private equity or giant corporations. If we want this structural crisis not to wipe out EVERYONE, we need to think again about the business side of things. And BTW, just because I mentioned Greece, here's the irony & tragedy: The title & digital archive of "#Eleftherotypia" - (translates to #PressFreedom), the country's #1 newspaper for decades -will be auctioned later in March with bids starting at 378,666€. It left so many people unpaid due to mismanagement and private equity. Once Greece's leading media company, they couldn't afford employees or a website?

Thank you Andrew Noyons. I am not an Financial Times subscriber so had missed this. There does seem to be a pattern where commentators are happy to knock the UK, predict armageddon and then remain silent when the predictions are out of kilter with reality. There is a lot of good in the UK and potentially UK equities (not a forecast!!) so it is good to see this being highlighted. #equitymarkets #ukeconomy #growth #predictions Mattioli Woods plc

For those who wonder about possible bias in mainstream media or high-level editorial lines influencing reporting and journalism nowadays, I suggest to visit the Trust Project website: https://lnkd.in/eKW3Sra2. News outlets have to implement their trust indicators in order to join and benefit from... Well... The trust that membership inspires. :-) The list of members is interesting: Euractiv (Mediahuis) and the South China Morning Post (a Hong Kong-based newspaper owned by the Alibaba group) are members, for example. A media channel like Politico (Springer) is not. :-/ Also, it is strange that the larger US newspapers are not a member, but many smaller or more regional American media outlets went through the trouble of becoming a member. Practically speaking, I see (most, if not all) Euractiv articles now have a tiny tag with a link which, if you click it, shows how and why the guidelines were implemented. That looks pretty good! It hugely increased my trust in Euractiv! :-) #transparency #truth #media #trustproject #bias #news

“This kind of multifaceted market failure sounds complicated, but it’s a simple concept. In a failed market, the free market produces too much or too little of a particular good, and the consequences of that mismatch hurt society. The incentives in a failed market tend to make the world worse. Think of a market that makes it profitable to pollute, for example. Or a digital platform that incentivizes clickbait. There’s no rational business strategy or innovation that can fix a market failure. In fact, free market approaches can often distort things further, making bigger or less-scrupulous players even more powerful. […] Which is why it’s time to start thinking about the journalism industry as an example of classic market failure. This isn’t just semantics. Conceptualizing the journalism market as fundamentally broken changes how we’ll need to fix it.”

Seeing Journalists reach out for “stories” about companies about to blow up, makes me think this is common practice for some VCs to feed stories to the press I find this disgraceful and gross. Wanna make the industry better? Help someone! Anyone in your portfolio whom you didn’t check in a while? I find it funny when I meet another VC asking “with whom are you working these days in your portfolio?” Hmmm with all, don’t you lol! I’d love to see more stories, less journalism. Less bashing on others. If you feel bad, go help a founder or a fellow investor. You’ll feel better. @ fellow VCs who do this, the investing world is a small place, we all know who you are and it’s going to get you in reference calls for talent looking to join your firm or founders who give a call and ask what do you think of so and so. LPs might be the last ones to know but it’s catching onto them as well. The community also knows how you’ve treated founders on the way out, not only on their way in. The world would be a better place if people dealt with their own unhappiness and bitterness vs spilling on others, harming others won’t fix your problem. Build, don’t tear down.