Offshore

This subsection of the Need to Know newsletter offers news and insights from journalism around the world.

German Justice Ministry proposes fining social media platforms up to €50 million for failing to remove illegal content fast enough

The German Justice Ministry has proposed a draft law that would fine social media companies up to €50 million (about $53.2 million) for failing to remove hate speech, “fake news,” threats or other illegal content fast enough. As part of the law, the ministry is also asking social media companies to name one person responsible […]

Google AMP pages are coming to some of Asia’s most popular search engines

Three of Asia’s leading search engines announced Tuesday that they would begin supporting Google AMP technology. In China, Badu (the country’s largest search engine) and Sogou will support AMP pages; in Japan, Yahoo Japan said it would connect AMP pages to their search results. At Google AMP’s tech conference in NYC on Tuesday, Google’s VP […]

An investigative story on Shell from De Correspondent and The Guardian started out with a tip from a reader

Without reader engagement, an investigative story on Shell from De Correspondent, published in partnership with The Guardian, would have never happened. A reader shared with De Correspondent a confidential documents showing that Shell had detailed knowledge of climate change. De Correspondent’s co-founder Ernst-Jan Pfauth outlines its workflow for how correspondents bring readers into their reporting: […]

Norway’s Amedia developed a common log-in system to use across its titles that encourages subscribers to build habits

Amedia, Norway’s largest media company, has developed a common log-in system to use across its 62 titles — and that system is encouraging subscribers build digital habits. The system is part of a three-step plan for Amedia: The first stage is converting print subscribers to digital subscribers, the second stage is encouraging non-subscribers to register […]

German audience engagement startup Opinary is expanding to the US

German startup Opinary is expanding to the United States and looking for partner publishers to try out its tools for free. Opinary creates embeddable tools that let readers share their opinions, and it currently works with organizations like BILD, Spiegel and The Huffington Post’s German and U.K. editions. If you’re interested in working with Opinary […]

Brazil’s version of Politico: Poder360 covers the Brazilian government, supported by paid newsletters

A Brazilian news outlet is finding success with a business model similar to Politico’s. Poder360 (which translates to “Power360” in English) is focused on the “ins and outs of Brazilian government,” and entirely supported by its paid newsletters targeted to corporate subscribers. Poder360’s paid newsletter subscribers receive three newsletters a day — at 6 a.m., […]

The New European launched as an anti-Brexit pop-up publication, but it’s doing well enough to continue indefinitely

Last summer, British regional publisher Archant launched a pop-up newspaper targeted to the 48 percent of British voters who did not support Brexit, intended to only last for four weeks. Now more than six months later, The New European is doing so well that Archant plans to continue publishing it at least through the end […]

Facebook is having trouble finding fact-checking organizations to partner with in Germany

A month after announcing it would launch a similar fact-checking project in Germany as what it’s launched in the U.S., Der Spiegel reports that Facebook is having trouble finding fact-checking organizations to partner with, as its potential partners have hesitated to partner with Facebook. Der Spiegel reports that several organizations have backed out of the […]

Proposal for a European ‘link tax’ on Google is the target of criticism from smaller digital publishers

Last year, the European Commission started pushing to require platforms like Google and Facebook to compensate digital publishers for the use of their content. But less than six months later, Matthew Karnitschnig and Chris Spillane report that it’s becoming unlikely that the reform will have enough support in European Parliament to become law. And the […]

Hindustan Times’ tips for FB live: Get outside of the newsroom and try out a new format

Ten months ago, the Hindustan Times started to focus on how it could share more stories through mobile journalism, improving efficiency and increasing readers’ engagement. After producing 315 livestreams over the last 10 months, it’s now sharing its tips for a successful livestream. Mobile editor Yusuf Omar recommends livestreaming outside of your office, forget the […]