Editor’s note: There will be no Friday newsletter this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Bluesky’s growth may see X’s influence shrink
Bluesky continues to grow in popularity as a social media platform, despite remaining much smaller than Threads or X. (Threads added 35 million new subscribers in the month of November, Sara Fischer reports for Axios.) Jay Peters at The Verge calls it “the big winner right now” due to its similarity to classic Twitter and the ability it gives users to control their feeds. On Platformer, Casey Newton writes that the surge in users has led the platform to quadruple the size of its content moderation team. Sarah Scire for Nieman Lab writes that Sill, a news aggregating tool reminiscent of the old Twitter-based app Nuzzel, has now launched for Bluesky.
This boon for Bluesky is largely a reaction to X and its owner Elon Musk. In The Atlantic, Ali Breland writes that the exodus from X could lead to a decline in cultural cache for the platform, which would leave the remaining, mostly right-leaning users unable to shape the cultural conversation.
News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.
Civic Discourse & Democracy
>> Marjorie Taylor Greene plans to team up with Musk to defund NPR (Salon)
The Georgia congresswoman has said that the incoming Trump administration will defund NPR, which she calls “Democrat propaganda” that doesn’t “help the American people.” NPR receives a very small portion of its budget from federal funding.
>> Presidential transition is a step-by-step process: Dec. 6 webinar gives journalists a roadmap (National Press Club)
The National Press Club Journalism Institute and the Partnership for Public Service are conducting a webinar to help journalists understand the presidential transition process in the lead up to Inauguration Day. The webinar will be held on Friday, Dec. 6 at 11 am ET.
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Culture & Inclusion
>> At Good Morning Indian Country, Native student journalists shape the narrative (The Nutgraf)
Native students at the University of Kansas are teaching their classmates how to better cover Native issues and avoid the stereotypes that are usually seen in the media.
>> New from API: Are you a newsroom that has collaborated with influencers? We want to hear about it.
API is developing a guide for local newsrooms that want to collaborate with influencers to grow the reach and impact of their journalism. As part of that guide, we want to feature lessons learned from newsrooms that have already experimented with influencer collaborations — share yours here.
>> Try looping to really listen (Good Conflict)
In our communities, healthy conflict can improve problem-solving among teams and families, strengthen relational bonds, and generate creative solutions. Make this happen with looping, a form of deep listening that involves reflecting back what sounds like the most important thing to the other person to make sure you really understand them and where they’re coming from.
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Community Engagement & Trust
>> The latest news? Not right now, thanks. (The Washington Post)
Unlike in 2016, when Donald Trump’s elections spurred a “Trump bump” for mainstream and liberal media, this year’s election has pushed many left-leaning voters and news consumers away from media entirely. Some say that a lack of control makes them want to disengage.
>> VERDAD, a new free-to-use tool that helps journalists investigate mis/disinformation spread on Spanish language radio (Reynolds Journalism Institute)
This new tool monitors Spanish-language radio stations for misinformation and then translates it into English. News outlets who want to learn more can join a webinar on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 11 am CT.
>> Join us: Simplify and contextualize your audience data with Metrics for News (ONA)
Join this session to hear from newsrooms from the U.S. and Canada that use API’s Metrics for News to launch new products, present journalism in new formats, stop producing what isn’t working and improve reader experiences. The webinar will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 12:30 pm ET.
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Revenue & Resilience
>> Dating app fatigue? in Vermont, personal ads still thrive (The New York Times)
Weekly alternative newspaper Seven Days still has a thriving personal ads section that highlights the quirky side of Vermonters. One personal ad placer said the paper’s personals section felt like the “online version of the small town I live in.”
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What else you need to know
✂️ Hearst Magazines hit by layoffs (The Hollywood Reporter)
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Long weekend reads
+ Sunset in Baltimore: David Smith built a television empire on sensational, crime-saturated newscasts. Then he bought Maryland’s premier newspaper. (Nieman Reports)
+ Gratitude, somehow, in a dark time: Some thoughts, heading into Thanksgiving week, about how journalism can help, or hurt (Substack, American Crisis)
+ The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang on covering the science and emotion of being human (Nieman Lab)
+ ‘I’m gonna be out there, fighting’: These college students are pursuing journalism in spite of, well, everything (LAist)
