Joshua Benton, Nieman Lab

Joshua Benton

Nieman Lab

United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • Nieman Lab
  • The Atlantic

Past articles by Joshua:

Is the future about one all-knowing AI or many? The new app Poe gets you ready to chat with them all

Poe lets you use ChatGPT alongside a new rival named Claude — which seems to work better in important ways. → Read More

Google now wants to answer your questions without links and with AI. Where does that leave publishers?

A dozen years ago, Eric Schmidt forecast the AI pivot that's playing out this week. And the questions it prompts — around the link economy, fair use, and aggregation — are more real than ever. → Read More

This report sees journalistic “bias” less as partisanship and more as relying on too-comfortable habits

"The first step is to accept that broad impartiality brings a stronger obligation to look." → Read More

Twitter will soon let news outlets lay visual claim to their staffers’ accounts. Should they?

Your employer's logo might soon be attached to every tweet you make — for better or for worse. → Read More

Where did all the new podcasts go?

The number of new podcasts launched fell by nearly 80% between 2020 and 2022 — and seems to keep dropping. Has podcasting moved from gold rush to mature market? → Read More

Good news: Misinformation isn’t as powerful as feared! Bad news: Neither is information.

To people who publish facts, it's appealing to think of them as powerful. But people's belief systems go a lot deeper than facts. → Read More

LION’s Local Journalism Awards show the potential of the next generation of nonprofit news outlets

The recent boom of local nonprofit news organizations is proving their model can serve smaller markets, too. → Read More

This political era has nearly killed off newspaper endorsements for president

In 2016, U.S. newspapers were nearly unanimous in rejecting Donald Trump. Blowback from his supporters didn't change their opinions — it only made them keep quiet about it. → Read More

Do news organizations call racist things racist now? It’s still a mixed bag

Saying Democrats want to give African Americans money as thanks for all the crimes they've committed against white people — is that racist? Or still just "racially charged"? → Read More

The Chicago Sun-Times, fitting its new public-media ownership, is dropping its paywall

"It’s a bold move: Reporting the news is expensive...But we know it’s the right thing to do." → Read More

Most people on Twitter don’t live in political echo chambers — but mostly because they don’t care enough to bother building one

"The elite discussion on the platform is important, but it is not necessarily observed directly by the masses." → Read More

The relief of missing out: Anticipated anxiety is a big reason why more people are avoiding the news

"Obviously, I could be a little bit more into what’s going on and look myself...Knowing more about it doesn’t do anything about it, does it?" → Read More

No, the Green Bay Packers are not a realistic business model for your local newspaper

Until the news business adopts NFL-style revenue sharing — which, um, it won't — the Packers are more of an exception than a useful metaphor. → Read More

Are you legally liable for the contents of every web page you link to? Australia finally gets sensible

Its High Court overruled a finding that Google was legally responsible for the contents of news articles it had no role in publishing. But it wasn't unanimous. → Read More

Axios sells for $525 million, to a company that seemed to be getting out of the media business

Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises has spent the past decade selling off most of its media properties as it brings in billions from cable. So why dive back in? → Read More

“Number soup”: Can we make it easier for readers to digest all the numbers journalists stuff into their stories?

"Numbers do not speak for themselves. All the same, many people believe that they do. An ideology we call numerism, which accords a privileged epistemic status to quantification, is widespread." → Read More

For print newspapers, one Florida retirement community is a better market than Atlanta, St. Louis, or Portland

For local newspapers, print circulation has collapsed for every audience except retirees. That's why the daily paper in The Villages, Florida (metro population 129,752) prints as many copies as the one in Atlanta (metro population 6,930,423). → Read More

The Washington Post wants to give you a good deal on a digital subscription — from now until 2072

Anyone who tells you they know what digital news will look like in 50 years is lying. But the Post — with an owner rich enough to allow a decades-long time horizon — says it'll still only cost you $50 a year. → Read More

Facebook looks ready to divorce the news industry, and I doubt couples counseling will help

Out of every 1,000 times someone sees a post on Facebook, how many of them include a link to a news site? Four. No wonder Facebook doesn't want to write publishers big checks anymore. → Read More

What’s working for local TV stations on Facebook? Posting early, killing hashtags, skipping sports

Local TV stations have huge audiences on Facebook, but they'll need new ways to reach younger Americans who associate the app with their parents. → Read More