Weekly journalism news update: Cairncross, Facebook News and advice for young investigative journalists

This article was migrated from an old version of our website in 2025. As a result, it might have some low-quality images or non-functioning links - if there's any issues you'd like to see fixed, get in touch with us at info@journalism.co.uk.

Every Friday, Journalism.co.uk brings you a round-up of our week’s top stories, giving you all the information you need to know, wherever you are.

Here is the latest journalism news from this week:

Cairncross: Speaking this week (30 October 2019) at the AOP (Association For Online Publishers) Digital Publishing Summit, Dame Frances Cairncross identified two funding models to keep an eye on.

She said that the approaches of 'micropayment' platform Axate and subscription-only publisher The Athletic shows that audiences are willing to pay for digital content - when the price and the content is right. Read more

Facebook: Last week, Facebook rolled out Facebook News amongst a selection of US publishers. Amongst the new features includes a dedicated space for news content and a platform-powered subscription tool.

We asked three industry experts to weigh up whether the new feature represents meaningful action from Facebook to support news publishers, or just another passing fad? Read more

Mobile apps: Otter.ai is a handy tool for journalists that enables recorded audio to be transcribed into text. It is perfect for interview scenarios.

In this video explainer, we explain how to get started with the free options within the audio-to-text tool. Watch now

Solutions journalism: The Solutions Journalism Network has announced the first 21 recipients of its LEDE Fellowship.

One of those is constructive journalism publisher INKLINE, who has already put the funding and resources to use: by commissioning six journalists to report on solutions to climate change in their designated continent. Read more

Instagram: A group of Italian journalists presented an investigation into the urban development of three Italian cities using various Instagram.

'Un gioco di società' (a game of society) uses multiple Instagram accounts, post tags and Stories Highlights to navigate social media users through infographics and video interviews - a bit like a board game. Read more

IGTV: Staying with Instagram, we also showed took a look at a new feature within the social media platform to group IGTV videos into series. Read more

Investigative journalism: Veteran investigative journalist David Leigh has had a 40-year career with titles such as the Guardian and the Observer. His latest claim to fame however is his book Investigative Journalism: A Survival Guide.

In this week's podcast, Leigh offers advice to aspiring journalists about step into the word of investigative journalism, warning them about the dangers that await them. Listen now

Public service media: What must public broadcasters, like BBC, do to remain relevant?

A recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism revealed as a whole, public media are struggling to get young audiences to tune in - though the BBC proved an exception, as the only organisation to have a stronger online reach than offline.

In contrast, reports from Ofcom suggest that the job is not complete. BBC still must to do more to capture younger viewers, as current initiatives are not quite hitting their mark. Read more

Community engagement: When local news organisation Detour Detroit was faced with a mountain of data to dig through as part of an investigation, they saw an opportunity to engage their readership in the process.

By teaming up with a local journalism non-profit, they organised 'watchdog workshops' for volunteers to train them in the skills to turn them into citizen journalists, building new connections and heightening their interest in local affairs in the process. Read more

Newsrewired takes place on the 27 November at Reuters in London. Head to newsrewired.com for the full agenda and tickets.

Tweet could not be found or could not be loaded.