💡
This article was originally published in Medians' 10 Links newsletter, sent every other Monday at 2pm. Sign up here!
- INDEPENDENCE (Medians) — Wikipedia faces an existential challenge: AI is driving down its traffic, threatening its model based largely on donations from its readers, while massively exploiting its content. At the journalism festival in Perugia, the Wikimedia Foundation was presenting its strategies to maintain reader engagement and build loyalty among its donor base.
- AI (Pulitzer Center) — The Pulitzer Center is making a training program for journalists freely available to those wanting to cover AI critically. Tailored to different expertise levels, it offers an understanding of technical fundamentals, traces the history of the sector, explains how to use these tools, and, most importantly, how to spot the bullshit in tech companies' messaging.
- DATA (CNIL) — The CNIL has published its final recommendations on tracking methods in newsletters (click-through rates, open rates, geographic location, etc). Conclusion: these practices require obtaining explicit, free and informed consent from readers. The authority, which allows three months for compliance, details the obligations to be observed.
- DESIGN (The Verge) — The New Yorker published a lengthy profile of Sam Altman that drew significant commentary… particularly for its AI-generated illustration. A deliberately ironic choice — coming from a publication renowned for its visual standards — to highlight how ubiquitous these tools have become? As The Verge points out, discussing AI doesn't require using it.
- MODELS (404 Media) — The cooperative model is attracting journalists who are launching their own projects, tired of media owned by billionaires. As a guest on the 404 Media podcast, Maddy Myers reflects on the creation of Mothership, a feminist media outlet focused on video games. She makes the case for the economic and editorial benefits of journalists owning their own work.
- FREEDOM (OC Media) — Last August, several Georgian readers noticed that multiple media websites suddenly went offline. Not a bug, not a cyberattack, but a deliberate action. In response to the government's authoritarian drift and laws targeting the press, 21 independent newsrooms coordinated a "blackout" by simultaneously taking their sites offline for several hours.
- JOURNALISTES (Independent Journalism Atlas) — Also discovered in Perugia: this database listing over 1,000 independent journalists around the world, organized by topic, format, and country. Designed as a Wiki for independent creators online, the project is collaborative; anyone can suggest additions or corrections if a name is missing.
- PLATFORMS (The Verge) — Puck promises journalists creator independence with newsroom infrastructure. A media outlet with a hybrid model, defended by its CEO Sarah Personette, who was questioned by The Verge about its limits: by positioning itself between journalists and audience, Puck reproduces certain platform logics that many are actually seeking to break free from.
- PLATFORMS (Futurism) — In previous editions, we discussed the rise of prediction markets like Polymarket. Some media outlets are riding the trend through partnerships or by developing their own systems. This is the case with Forbes, which offers various bets… including in an article about a shooting that killed eight children. A section quickly removed after the backlash.
- COMMUNITY (Visdeurbel) — The "fish doorbell" is back! As every spring, thousands of internet users watch a lock in the Netherlands in livestream and press a button to help migrating fish pass through. Each week, the team publishes a recap video of observations, along with images of fish spotted by the community.
💡
ANNOUNCEMENT : Want to launch or professionalize your media outlet? The next edition of our "Create a Media" training will run from May 5 to 27. On the program: masterclasses, workshops, and meetings with media founders and alumni. Find out all the details on our page and register before May 4!
