Media Insider: Washington Post Takes on Big Tech, Covering Climate Now Commands Attention, The Daily Hits 1 Billion Downloads

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round-up of media stories from the week.

AXIOS | SARA FISCHER
Washington Post builds ad network for publishers to take on Big Tech

This week, The Washington Post introduced Zeus Prime, a product that allows companies to buy automated ads in real-time. The new tool will allow advertisers to avoid third-party vendors so they can place their ads directly on publishers’ websites in real-time with minimal input. The Post points out that cutting out the third-party vendors means a higher cut of the revenue for publishers. Jarrod Dicker, The Post’s VP of Commercial Technology and Development, predicts that publishers using Zeus Prime will earn revenue at a rate of more than $10 minimum CPM (the cost per every 1,000 impressions), as opposed to the roughly $2 minimum CPM they make now using outside vendors. As of now, the tool will only be available for D.C., local-based advertisers but Big Tech platforms should keep a close eye on the progress of Zeus Prime.

More news from The Washington Post: Tech giants face heat from Congress

CNN BUSINESS | BRIAN STELTER
Why you’re seeing so much news coverage of the climate crisis this month

Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative launched in April by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation, commits to maximizing coverage of the climate crisis for the week leading up to the United Nations Climate Summit on September 23. What started as a project encouraging media outlets to up their climate coverage has now become a worldwide network of 250+ outlets pledging to create multi-channel content focused on climate news. After this week, organizers hope the momentum continues and journalists begin to think of ways they can cover the climate story in a sustainable way.

Follow Covering Climate Now coverage on social media: #coveringclimatenow

THE NEW YORK TIMES | LISA TOBIN, THEO BALCOMB, AND MICHAEL BARBARO
“The Daily” Hits One Billion Downloads

The Daily, a daily news podcast by The New York Times, hit 1 billion downloads. The hosts attribute the podcast’s success to the newsroom and leadership who embraced and helped pioneer this new way of telling stories. In this letter, hosts Lisa Tobin, Theo Balcomb, and Michael Barbaro recap highlights of the show and share listener emails.

For weekly news on the podcast industry, subscribe to Hot Pod’s newsletter.

DIGIDAY | LUCINDA SOUTHERN
The Guardian reaches 1 million YouTube subscribers after doubling longer-form videos

This week, The Guardian hit 1 million subscribers on its main YouTube channel. How? Two years ago, it joined YouTube’s Player for Publishers program which allows publishers to use YouTube’s player on their own websites and control all ad sales and revenue. It treated YouTube as a separate platform to meet a new, younger audience and focused on video comments to gauge how viewers react to different types of content. It found that viewers were highly engaged in quality investigative journalism videos and began producing fewer one-minute videos and doubling longer-form videos. By July this year, The Guardian’s main YouTube channel saw engagement rates grow to almost three times the platform’s average and it became one of the top-performing YouTube news channels by engagement.

Blog: Reaching the most elusive audience of them all — teenagers

JOURNALISM.CO.UK | MARCELA KUNOVA
BBC experiments with negative news filters on its homepage to help readers with anxieties

The BBC announced it is testing a tool that would allow readers to blur out stories that may impact their mental health. Readers will have the opportunity to input keywords to filter out news that triggers their anxiety. To avoid taking control away from the reader, the developers decided to blur out the headline, text, and any pictures rather than removing the article altogether. A trigger warning will display over the burred article to inform the reader that the article contains keywords they marked as sensitive. Developers at BBC also have been testing a mood filter that would help readers sort out articles that do not match their mood. Both tools are going through testing only and will not be live on the BBC News website anytime soon.

ICYMI: Poynter’s 2019 Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media

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Erin Wade is a Senior Customer Content Specialist with PR Newswire. She is also an animal lover and aspiring world traveler. Tune into her insights as a social curator at @TotalCSR.