Shan Wang
Nieman Lab
Washington, DC, United States
Contact Shan
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Shan:
Billy Penn, Denverite, and The Incline are all going after members. Can they become predominately reader-supported? » Nieman Journalism Lab
The three sites together are "just south of 1,500 paying customers," 60 percent of whom are signed up as recurring contributors (of these, the average annual contribution is around $115 or $120). Denverite, which launched its program first, has around 900 members. → Read More
The AP has another plan to track its content across the Internet, and this time it involves blockchain, naturally » Nieman Journalism Lab
It is the year of our lord 2018, and the words "The Associated Press" and "journalism blockchain startup" have now appeared in the same sentence. Part of their new intersection, reported by Digiday, is pretty boring — the AP is licensing its stories to the 14 publications cur… → Read More
So your news organization has real, paying digital subscribers. Now how do you keep them? » Nieman Journalism Lab
One finding: "Need-to-know material converts (related to how to live your life, understand the world), while nice-to-know (guides, arts, reviews) converts badly but is key for retention." → Read More
We’re getting closer to the day when news apps and interactives can be easily preserved in perpetuity » Nieman Journalism Lab
Well, maybe not easily, but an NYU team is building a tool to save the entirety of a news app (including underlying libraries and frameworks), as well as a digital repository to hold them for future audiences. → Read More
How The Globe and Mail is covering cannabis, Canada’s newest soon-to-be-legal industry » Nieman Journalism Lab
Just for starters, the Globe will have an expanding hub of coverage online, more live events, and a high-priced premium subscription newsletter for industry professionals. → Read More
Read Nieman Lab stories in other languages — and help us translate them into more! » Nieman Journalism Lab
Did you know you can read many Nieman Lab stories in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, German, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish? Over the past couple of years, through the help of many partners, from the likes of IJNet to Yomiuri Shimbun to Outriders to Tencent, we've been trying to expa… → Read More
In Germany, a news site is pairing up liberals and conservatives and actually getting them to (gasp) have a civil conversation » Nieman Journalism Lab
And apparently without incident! "The ultimate goal is a less polarized debate and a less polarized, more open, and plural public...But we also want to raise people’s awareness of the value of joining in on the same conversation, and not splitting into different atoms." → Read More
WhatsApp is a black box of viral misinformation — but in Brazil, 24 newsrooms are teaming up to fact-check it » Nieman Journalism Lab
And unlike previous efforts, WhatsApp is giving the fact-checkers an important tool to reach the public more easily. → Read More
What is a Scandinavian media company’s first-ever director of public policy up against? » Nieman Journalism Lab
"We can't say that Facebook is destroying democracy, but then have our newspapers collaborate with them very, very closely, and rely on them for traffic and distribution," Karin Pettersson, Schibsted's new director of public policy, said. → Read More
From a beloved blog to one sold-out show after another at a national theater, history gets an anti-colonialist retelling » Nieman Journalism Lab
"Owaahh had this blog where readers come together around this internet fireplace. What if we made that fireplace a physical place? Would people actually show up to listen to history?" (The answer was yes.) → Read More
Blockchain journalism startup Civil launches a $1 million pot to support media startups in Asia » Nieman Journalism Lab
Here's some news about tangible money. Civil, the earnestly hopeful, sometimes scorned, promise-filled blockchain-crypto journalism startup that's managed to attract about a dozen new publications and hoping to kick off a public sale of its own CVL tokens, is partnering with Splice Newsroom to d… → Read More
Jack Dorsey says Twitter is experimenting with features to promote “alternative viewpoints” in people’s timelines » Nieman Journalism Lab
All unhappy social media networks are unhappy in their own ways. Twitter has capped off a weird week of equivocating over the presence of Alex Jones and InfoWars on its platform as other platforms like Facebook and YouTube finally decided to boot Infowars content. (Jones is currently facing a s… → Read More
Want to support journalism with cryptocurrency on Civil? First you must pass this really hard quiz » Nieman Journalism Lab
The Nieman Lab staffers failed. So did Manoush Zomorodi, a cofounder of one of the new Civil-backed newsrooms that's leaning on the promises of the company's forthcoming cryptocurrency sale in August. → Read More
Hybrid, a collection of targeted news sites in Asia, embraces growing slowly and knowing its audience » Nieman Journalism Lab
It recently passed 10 million unique visitors per month, and it's profitable: "We’re not going to hire 50 reporters and a whole video crew and pump in all these resources and not have the revenue to support it." → Read More
When a link to a news story comes shows the source of the story, some people end up trusting it less » Nieman Journalism Lab
Not that they can remember the source five minutes later, anyway. → Read More
Three multi-billion-dollar companies dominate the Chinese internet landscape, from news media to AI » Nieman Journalism Lab
Plus: WeChat now has 1.04 billion monthly active users, shortform video is booming, and a few other significant numbers out of a recent report on the state of the Chinese internet landscape. → Read More
More than 11,000 people are paying (yes, paying) for email newsletters on Substack’s platform » Nieman Journalism Lab
On average, they're paying just under $80 per year. About 40 or so indie publishers with paid offerings are making what Substack calls "meaningful money." → Read More
Thanks to California, a news site (or other business) now has to let you cancel your subscription online » Nieman Journalism Lab
Power to the people (who hate talking on phones). → Read More
As The New York Times extends its reach across countries (and languages and cultures), it looks to locals for guidance » Nieman Journalism Lab
"What I’m trying to figure out is, what are the proxies for deeper engagement — what are the proxies for repeated use and habituation in a place like this?...Readers are not going to read 100 Australia stories. So what's the right mix?" → Read More
When it comes to launching serious, sustainable membership programs for journalism, ask for more, more often, and aim higher » Nieman Journalism Lab
“The best predictor of membership loyalty is whether an organization has been talking to their audiences already about their need to raise money. The other predictor is how many subscribers you have on your list, and how engaged those subscribers on your list are." → Read More