Stories

Here’s What Happened When Chicago’s Public Radio Merged With The Sun-Times Newspaper

Now deep into the five-year grant, the combined newsrooms reach 2.8 million readers and listeners; newsletter subscriptions total 760,500; and the Sun-Times’ pageviews increased 55% over the past year. Staff sizes also have grown — crucial to producing more content — as have staff compensation and diversity. - NiemanLab

Artists Warn Censorship Is Rising

Censorship is on the rise globally, say artists and art professionals: two groups that carry the unofficial but historic burden of speaking truth to power and offering political critique on behalf of wider society. - The Art Newspaper

State Of Texas Took Over Houston Schools. Now School Libraries Are Being Emptied

According to circulation data from the Houston Independent school district, the number of books checked out per student at NES schools dwindled to nearly zero compared to over five books to more than 12 books a student at non-NES schools in the district from August 2023 to January 2024. - The Guardian

Why The EU’s Fine For Apple Is Important

“This decision sends a powerful message — no company, not even a monopoly like Apple, can wield power abusively to control how other companies interact with their customers,” Spotify said in response to the ruling. - The Verge

Why Public Radio Has Struggled To Diversify Its Audience And Not Succeeded

None of these efforts moved the audience measurement needle, in most cases because they didn’t sufficiently address the primary cause of audience — the appeal of the programming. The industry just keeps running content through the same psychographic filters and keeps getting the same audiences. - Current

Losing Your Mind? Forgetting Is Part Of The Design For How Memory Works

“The problem isn’t your memory, it’s that we have the wrong expectations for what memory is for in the first place. Severe memory loss is undoubtedly debilitating, but our most typical complaints and worries around everyday forgetting are largely driven by deeply rooted misconceptions.” - Undark

The Secret To Preserving Ancient Papyrus Can Be Found At Your Favorite Sushi Bar

"Wasabi vapors have been found to effectively treat fungal infections on both painted and unpainted samples of mock ancient Egyptian papyrus, and to do so without impacting the papyrus's delicate chemicals or painted pigments." - Artnet

Apple Is Fined $2 Billion By The EU Over Access To App Subscriptions To Music

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said it found the company violated antitrust rules by restricting app developers from telling users about alternative ways to subscribe to music-streaming services. - The Wall Street Journal

From The Creator Of “A Strange Loop,” A Musical About A Vagina Dentata

"If you’re going to musicalize a horror movie, Teeth is a doozy, and a gamble. Darkly comic and at times stomach-churningly gory, it’s a touchstone of feminist body horror and an exemplar … of a rape-revenge film that indicts misogyny and body shame." - The New York Times

It’s Musicians Who Are Getting Hurt By The TikTok Music Ban

“TikTok is how you get the word out about a new song — and now you’re muting someone’s entire catalog? The labels say TikTok is so important and push their artists to , and now they can’t?” - Variety

Pritzker Prize For 2024 Goes To Riken Yamamoto, Known For Innovative Housing Projects

"Across a five-decade career, Yamamoto has dedicated himself to fostering community in Japan’s rapidly expanding cities. From housing projects that coax residents into spontaneous interactions to a glass-walled fire station that invites passersby to peer inside, his architecture appears intent on 'blurring boundaries between its public and private dimensions.'" - CNN

UK Backs Down, Grants Visas To Afghan Youth Orchestra Musicians

The band of 47 exiled musicians aged between 14 and 22 had been working for months on their repertoire for the shows, which are due to start at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday. The Home Office had initially refused their visa applications but overturned the decision on Monday after public criticism. - The Guardian

Archaeologists Discover An Ancient Factory For Making The Legendary Pigment Tyrian Purple

"A new study ... suggests that through most of the Iron Age biblical era, from roughly 1150 B.C. to 600 B.C., a small promontory called Tel Shiqmona on Israel’s Carmel coast was not a residential settlement, as previously supposed, but a major purple-dying factory." - The New York Times

Study: Millions Of Research Papers Are Not Being Properly Preserved Online

More than one-quarter of scholarly articles are not being properly archived and preserved, a study of more than seven million digital publications suggests. The findings indicate that systems to preserve papers online have failed to keep pace with the growth of research output. - Nature

New Zealand Loses Its Last Private-Sector TV News Outlet

"Warner Bros Discovery plans to shut down Newshub, a rebranded version of what most of us grew up knowing as '3 News' – leaving our country with just one English-language TV news team, and none that aren’t owned by the state." - The Guardian

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss