David Walmsley: ‘If they don’t pay for your work, it’s because it has no value’

2023-01-11. The Northern Irish journalist, who trained as a reporter during the Troubles in Belfast, edits the most influential newspaper in Canada.

Passing of a newspaper ambassador

2023-01-11. Former IFRA Nordic Board Chairman Örn Jóhannsson passed away in December. Johannsson was previously the managing director of Morgunbladid newspaper in Reykjavik, Iceland.

A Pact Against Disinformation

2023-01-10. The attack against Brazilian democracy that the world witnessed on Sunday, 8 January, when a horde of fanatics invaded and plundered the headquarters of the three powers in Brasília was not an event sprouted by spontaneous generation. The thousands of rioters who marched into the heart of Brazilian democracy with the intention of strangling it represent the tip of a phenomenon of global extension that threatens the very stability of the planet, writes Marcelo Rech.

The turning point for a Russian journalist

23-01-06. A Russian journalist writes frankly about reporting on the war in Ukraine and the moment, while abroad, they learnt they could not return home. At least 500 journalists are estimated to have fled Russia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.  Amidst a climate of intimidation, censorship, blocking and outright banning, most independent media outlets have relocated abroad.

Fighting SLAPPS: Speaking Out, Solidarity, and Profiling Claimants

2023-01-06. For many journalists, getting sued is a nerve-wracking and frightening experience. The bullying tactics used by claimant lawyers are designed to silence them, including about the fact that they are under threat. A new report by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) offers suggestions on how to fight intimidatory lawsuits.

What We Achieved Together in 2022

2023-01-06. A year passes like a blink in the history of a 70-year young organisation like WAN-IFRA. But it’s amazing what can be achieved in twelve months with goodwill and the outstanding support of a passionate team and committed membership. I am proud to present today what our team has achieved in 2022 and share some items on the radar of our 2023 agenda.

Why disinformation journalism should expand beyond fact-checking

2023-01-06. Experts from BBC, AFP and Coda Story discuss why debunking disinformation is necessary, how the information ecosystem has changed in the last few years, and why in addition to fact-checking journalists should cover disinformation as a news topic.

How Der Spiegel uses machine learning to identify its most valuable potential subscribers

2023-01-05. Acquiring new users is expensive and a core challenge to most online news websites. Predictive Machine Learning models reduce customer acquisition costs by a small amount. In this article, Alexander Held, Data Scientist at Der Spiegel, presents the ML approach used to predict lasting subscriptions and enables the segmentation of readers according to their affinity to subscribe.

Canada law worth over $300m/year for news businesses set to pass in spring 2023

2022-12-24. The law is arguably the most anticipated news in media policy this year. The Parliamentary Budget Officer expects that news businesses will receive from deals under the bill “a total compensation of $329.2 million per annum”. Find here a round-up of the highlights of the Law.

NewsArcade – how to entice young readers through news games

2022-12-24. WAN-IFRA and European partners are launching NewsArcade, a project that aims at tackling the challenge of the legitimacy of traditional media among youth and improve news literacy by closely bringing together journalism and news consumption through gamification.