digital culture

Graham Norton and the impossible question

When a celebrity gets asked about cancel culture, there is no right answer. It is the impossible question — and we need to ask better ones.

tl;dr newsletter

tl;dr: the Facebook is burning issue

This week's in-depth round-up of links has depth on Meta's problems, lots of newsletter news, and plenty more to keep you enthralled this weekend…

Websites rising from the ashes

Fast Company is back up after its hack — but so are the Kiwi Farms. Today's all about follow-ups (and the following-up that isn't happening)

business models

The Canary becomes a flock: left-wing site reforms as a workers’ co-operative

The politics site's former management is gone, and the staff are now collectively running the title. Can they align their business model with their values?

local journalism

A little respect (just a local bit)

Another week, another economic crisis. But in other news, local politicians are getting more overtly disdainful of journalists, and big news sites are taking a serious SEO hit. Let's dive in…

Morning Coffee: hacked, ignored and artificially created…

In today’s digest of interesting publishing stories from around the web, racists hack Fact Company, Parse.ly heads to the bottom, and an artist gets copyright on an AI-generated graphic novel.

photos

Images of Hamburg

Images from my first working trip overseas in three years…

newsletter

What happened to a quiet summer?

Big moves afoot in local journalism, some SEO changes to pay attention to, and Medium finally gives up on journalism.

newsletter

Some helpful content for you

Google is rolling out a major new update, Facebook is killing its most useful tool, and we remember a genuine magazine pioneer.

substack

Substack’s hard yards: building a business when the cash dries up

As VC cash grows scarce, staff are laid off and big names start exiting the platform, Substack can ill afford PR blunders like cutting off an editor from work, because one of his clients left the platform.

SEO

Major Google update incoming: the helpful content update is imminent

Google's hitting us with a major new update next week. Here's what you need to know.

newsletters

Newsletters and other decades-long overnight success stories

Can a format that's been around since the last century truly be something new?