6 Cues to Tell Fake News on Social Media from Real News

Hiawatha Bray, the long-time Tech Lab columnist at the Boston Globe, has an interesting article about fake news. Entitled, "Can computers tell if an Internet news story is mostly true or mostly false," Bray's article notes these common features of fake news on the Internet:

1. Lots of capitalized words or exclamation points.
2. Use of words denote extreme certainty such as “absolutely” and “always.”
3. Sentences that tend to be shorter and simpler. (Which makes them easier to read and forward.)
4. Fewer "love" or "laughter" icon clicks on Facebook. (Real news doesn't usually generate such emotion, apparently.)
5. The media sites where these articles originated don’t have Wikipedia entries about them. 
6. These sites, which may be similar to real news sites, have URLs that are long and filled with unusual characters. (Many reliable news sites are much cleaner.)

These are not all 100% accurate; after all the URL for the Globe's article's URL had a lot of unusual characters in it: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/10/15/can-fake-news-goes-way-spam/UuiUfEmZGKxhMupoXV0AJM/story.html.

We can't wait or rely on algorithms to determine fake news, just as algorithms aren't 100% effective on spam. What we need is for people to take responsibility for what they share. This is important since new reports from the New York Times and others indicate that there will be more disinformation ahead of the midterms next month and ahead of the 2020 campaign. 

Disinformation campaigns at this level (perhaps any level) are anti-democratic, and we need all concerned citizens to take responsibility for what they share. So it's important to be aware of the six indicators for possible fake news.

Boston Globe's "Tech Nomad" Recognizes Screen Addiction + 3 types of solutions that aren't going to work

At some point there may be a backlash to this trend but for the moment, there is a rising recognition that as a society, we are overly dependent on our devices, and that what we're all suffering from is screen addition.

Screen addiction is something we discussed in our predictions for 2018, published in December 2017.

The Boston Globe's "Tech Nomad" columnist, Michael Andor Brodeur, recently wrote about this in a column entitled, "Hard Wired: Our smartphone habits are more like full-blown addictions. So how can we regain control?"

So we consider ourselves validated but that still means we're addicted.

 What's worse, Brodeur suggests that the proliferation of virtual assistants like Alexa presents another opportunity to become addicted to tech. And he's right about that.

So, what to do?

Brodeur cites other industry experts who suggest we should:

• Simply switch your phone to grayscale. By muffling the ways your phone uses contrast, color, and, for lack of better phrasing, sparkly stuff to recruit your attention, the phone becomes less of a dazzling gem to gaze into, and more of a utilitarian brick.

Brodeur also mentions phone-free zones and Yondr, which provides a case in which you place your phone in spaces for artists, educators, organizations, etc. and the case, with a lock, prevents you from temporarily accessing your phone. Seems unnecessary. For all that, you could just agree to turn off your phone.

But the hard part is that so far in the articles we've read about phone addiction, we've come across three types of solutions:

1. Rely on Apple and others to design smartphones that are less addicting.
2. Ask Congress to find a way to regulate big tech to reduce distractions.
3. Identify lifehacks (as in the bullet above) to weaken your addiction.

Of the three, the most likely to happen is #3. But we're open to suggestions. One of us goes on a Facebook hiatus for a week at a time, and combined with the decision to stop checking whenever an alert lights up his phone, finds himself less tense and anxious. But in our business, you can't go cold turkey on news and social media. Which doesn't mean we can't try to break the addiction, just that find ways to scale back and find a better balance.

Suggestions? Send them our way!

Boston Globe Validates Predictions about Cashless Payments and Gender Roles

In our annual predictions, we said that as part of "ongoing stories" that we expect to get a lot of coverage in 2013, we identified these two:

• Salaries paid women vs. men

         and

•  Cashless payments

Yesterday, the Boston Globe validated both of those predictions.  The "salaries paid women vs. men" stories has actually shifted already to address on women's roles in the office. Part of the reason for that shift is the result of interest in Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, who recently gave birth and returned from a brief maternity leave. More significantly, Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, has generated tons of coverage as the result of her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. (Incidentally, "Lean In" was one of the phrases we identified last year as a candidate for most overused phrase.) The whole focus on women and the office will continue to generate buzz this year, even after buzz for Sandberg's book dissipates.

Meanwhile, check out these two front-page Globe articles, which validate our prediction about women and salaries, and were published under the banner: "Crunch hits single mothers hard": 

• Gloria Steinem’s message about gender, then and now  
• Single-mother families struggling in Mass.

(Meanwhile, taking an opposite angle, the New York Times yesterday reported, "Study of Men’s Falling Income Cites Single Parents." The point: it seems that some gender issues are taking on more significance in the media.)

As for the cashless payments predictions, the Globe also reported: "Not paying by smartphone? You soon will, many bet." While this all seems relatively new to U.S. companies, two of our international clients prefer to pay electronically; in fact, the CFO of one international client told me earlier this week that he can't remember the last time he saw a check! We said we expect cashless payments to become mainstream by 2016 but it may happen sooner (based on comments like that CFOs, since it seems Europe has already embraced cashless payments). Perhaps that time will come by 2015.

What do you think?

The Atlantic Validates Our Prediction: Social Media May Make Us Lonelier

In this year's edition of our annual predictions of top media stories, one of our prediction was: "We may be immersed in social media, but we’ll spend less time with actual people."


Back in Jan., we wrote, "So many people use social media sites – from Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn, to and more -- that people have less time to spend with their friends and family. We’re not sure if this will get much media coverage..."

Well The Atlantic Monthly has validated our prediction in its May 2012 issue. It's article, "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" makes the point that: "Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill." Written by Stephen Marche, a novelist who writes a monthly column for Esquire, the article reports on "what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society."

It's well worth reading.

And today's Boston Globe validated our prediction that "The desire to be connected 24/7 may change in 2012." Op-ed columnist Joanna Weiss wrote, "Giving screens -- and ago -- a week off," in favor of unplugging from 24/7 and a Screen Free-Week. Check that out, too.

Late-in-the-Day Update: Just got around to reading Jane E. Brody's column in today's Times.  She's a must-read health columnist, and her current column, "Making Progress Against Clutter," went beyond thinking of clutter as physical objects.  She spent about half the column talking about how much she enjoyed a recent trip to Antarctica because she and her two sons did not spend hours monitoring email and world news.  Instead,

We read books and missed not one excursion, lecture, vista or conversation with an interesting shipmate.

As I watched others buried in their iPads, laptops and smartphones, I wondered what people did on vacation before we had this plethora of electronic equipment keeping us “in touch” 24/7. Perhaps they telephoned now and then to see how the dog was faring.

Not knowing about problems back home or at work surely meant vacations were more relaxing, a real break from daily stress.

 Makes a pretty strong case for unplugging.

Boston Globe Validates Our Prediction about Unplugging

Topping our annual list of predictions this year was this: "The desire to be connected 24/7 may change in 2012." With vacation season fast approaching, The Boston Globe's travel section published a cover story on truly getting away and unplugging.  Check out "10 places where pleasure is the plug-in and only boats need a port."

Now that our top prediction has been validated, we can relax, and unplug. (Ah who am I kidding -- who can afford to unplug?)

Boston Globe Validates Predictions about New Way to Work

Last year, in our Top Dozen Business & Technology Stories in 2010, we predicted that the media would cover "The freelancing of the US workforce -- or how we'll all be contractors or "perma-temps" in the future (especially given the jobless nature of the recovery)."

This year, we predicted continued interest in that story as it develops, calling it the new small business model fueled by contractors, not employees.

Today's Boston Globe reported on aspect of that: "When time is money: Flexible schedules are a boon for workers and a saving for firms."

The increasingly flexible workforce, made possible by technology like videoconferencing, is a main driver of the new small business model.

We see that trend as one that will be increasingly mainstream, where more people work when and where they want. Please note: we're not saying that's the rule for everyone, every job and every company. That said, we do think more people will have more flexibility in where and when they work.

Newspapers Are Not Dead Yet

If flat is the new black when it comes to corporate profits, than a small decline in readership is the new fashion for newspapers. The print editions, anyway.

While the WSJournal saw an 1.82% increase in its circulation, the rest of the top 25 saw a modest decline -- which is good news, actually.

Check out the Journal article here or check out the poorly formatted list (below).

Top 25 U.S. Daily Newspapers
Newspaper Name Total Paid Circulation M-F as of 9/30/10 As of 9/30/09 % Change
The Wall Street Journal 2,061,142 2,024,269 1.82%
USA Today 1,830,594 1,900,116 -3.66%
New York Times 876,638 927,851 -5.52%
Los Angeles Times 600,449 657,467 -8.67%
Washington Post 545,345 582,844 -6.43%
New York Daily News 512,520 544,167 -5.82%
New York Post 501,501 508,042 -1.29%
San Jose Mercury News 477,592 N/A
Chicago Tribune 441,508 465,892 -5.23%
Houston Chronicle 343,952 384,437 -10.53%
Philadelphia Inquirer 342,361 361,481 -5.29%
Newsday 314,848 357,124 -11.84%
Denver Post 309,863 340,949 -9.12%
Arizona Republic 308,973 316,873 -2.49%
Minneapolis Star Tribune 297,478 304,544 -2.32%
Dallas Morning News 264,459 263,810 0.25%
Cleveland Plain Dealer 252,608 271,182 -6.85%
Seattle Times 251,697 263,588 -4.51%
Chicago Sun-Times 250,747 275,641 -9.03%
Detroit Free Press 245,326 269,729 -9.05%
St. Petersburg Times 239,684 240,146 -0.19%
Oregonian 239,071 249,164 -4.05%
San Diego Union-Tribune 224,761 242,693 -7.39%
San Francisco Chronicle 223,549 251,782 -11.21%
Newark Star-Ledger 223,037 246,006 -9.34%

Boston Globe to Get Paywall

Add the Boston Globe to the list of print newspapers building a paywall, according to the Boston Business Journal article.

Not a surprising move given that the Globe's parent company, The New York Times, just announced another quarterly loss -- and that it will establish a paywall for nytimes.com in 2011.

The real question is what model of a paywall will the Globe have. And the second question is what affect will having articles behind a paywall have on the readers accessing Globe content. And if the numbers of readers declines, what happens to ad revenue?

This is a question not only for the Globe but for other similar newspapers in other markets.

More Newspapers Establish Paywalls & the Implications to PR

The news-is-free business model is crumbling.

Starting today, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette will charge non-subscribers for staff-generated articles. Non-subscribers can access 10 staff-produced articles per month before being charged, either $1 per day for one day's access or $14,95 per month. Subscribers don't have to pay for online access.

Wire-service content is available for free.

As the Globe's Johnny Diaz reports: "The T&G joins a small but growing list of newspapers, such as The Wall Street Journal and Newsday, that already charge for some access to their websites. In Massachusetts, The Standard-Times of New Bedford, part of News Corp., which owns the Journal, started charging in January for its website, southcoasttoday.com. Online subscribers, for example, are charged $3.37 a week, which provides access to all articles, blogs, and video."

The Globe has not announced any plans to establish a paywall. However, as a sister paper to the T&G, which is in turn owned by the New York Times which has announced plans to start charging for online access, it's only a matter of time before the Globe establishes its paywall. The same is true for the Herald, since the Journal has charged for online access for years.

Not all paywalls are successful. Newsday spent millions of dollars to establish their paid online access policy, but generated only 35 subscribers in its first three months.

Nonetheless, we dubbed 2010 to the year of online subscriptions because we figured this was the year that online media companies would come to that realization -- including the fact that online advertising alone won't generate enough money to subsidize free access. They've got to find a way to make online content pay for itself.

Over the next three to five years, we expect most newspapers and magazines will have to have a paywall. There will be a domino effect, as more sites find a way to charge for online access, an growing number of sites will adapt paywalls.

The implications for PR functions may be a bit of back to the future. In the past, if an article appeared in a newspaper in one market, you assumed it only reached readers in that market; and for a while, the Internet broke down geographical barriers, and you could access an article in the UK's Guardian as easily as accessing a newspaper around the country. But, as paywalls become the standard, not the exception, articles that appear in the Guardian may not show up on search engines -- so we're back to articles in one market not being seen in other markets.

In an increasingly fragmented society, paywalls will be another obstacle to reaching a mass audience.

I will be further discussing the paywall implications in another article this week.

How Many NPR Stations Does Boston Need?

Good article in the Boston Globe: "To listeners, line blurs between WGBH, WBUR."

It presents a good look at how two NPR-affiliated stations are competing in one market.

Both stations are working on answering the question: How many NPR stations does Boston need?

On the other hand, how many classic rock stations do we need? Or pop? Or country?

The real issue comes down to advertisers and donors -- and getting the former to buy time and the latter to donate to one station over the other.

How many overlapping stations does one market need?

Our Track Record on 2009 Predictions

A lot of organizations issue predictions without looking back to see what they got right and what they, um, didn't. We decided to take a look at the predictions we issued in Jan. 2009, Top 14+ Media Trends for 2009.

We did pretty well with those predictions:

• We were right in saying we need a new term for newspaper once they stop printing on paper. However, our designated term "newssites" has not taken off.
• We were (sadly) correct that a lot of print newspapers and magazines would shift to online-only in 2009. And we were right that some papers would rely more on charts, rankings and shorter articles to mimic online media while magazines would print thinner editions. And, as predicted, last year saw fewer magazine launches than prior years.
• We saw more media layoffs in 2009, including cuts hitting online newsrooms. And we expected stringers and citizen journalists to contribute more content to mainstream media, which is a bit difficult to prove. Meanwhile, the New York Times got in trouble with its own ethics rules in working with some freelance reporters for potential and actual conflicts of interest. This seem to crop up with travel reporters for the Times' Sunday Travel section; that's not surprising because freelance travel writers often accept freebies to be able to afford to travel around the world. Accepting freebies, even for stories not published by the Times, goes against Times policy, and we think that's a bit of a mistake -- the Times isn't willing to offer these freelancers full-time positions yet expects them to live by the same rules as full-time Times staffers who get the benefit of a Times expense account and a Times' salary.
• We were right that hyperlocal media continues to be important. But dozens of local suburban weekly newspapers also closed last year -- so as a strategy, a hyperlocal approach can not save papers from poor business decisions (i.e. debt load) of their parent companies.
• Local TV did indeed hit a bumpy road, especially local affiliates of NBC -- not that we predicted the Leno experiment.
• Twitter did become more prominent, with mainstream references to it.
• Our prediction that people would start suffering from SNF (Social Networking Fatigue) -- did not happen in general last year. However, a few celebrities -- including Miley Cyrus and Ricky Gervais, who otherwise seem unlikely to share a point of view -- indeed seemed to be suffering from SNF, getting attention for quitting Twitter.
• We were right that online reputation management would continue to be important. That will continue in 2010, too, though some companies still don't get it.
• We got right some of the new features in Kindle 2.0, and were right that 2010 will be a bigger year for ebooks. Amazon sold a larger percentage of electronic books during the 2009 Christmas season than in the prior year.
• We're pleased that the New York Times survived 2009. We were right that the Times would not sell the Boston Globe.
• Rupert Murdoch did make more changes to the Wall St. Journal in 2009, but has not "tarted" it up. Yet.
• As for the AP and changes to its model, pricing, etc., that's still too early to call. It did not happen in 2009, but it will come.

Now, if only the economy had been better...

New York Times Decides Not to Sell Boston Globe

On Monday, I wrote a post, Will the New York Times Actually Sell the Boston Globe?, that said I'd bet the New York Times would decide to not sell the Boston Globe.

Turns out I was right.

Just now, the Times declared that it decided not to unload the Boston Globe (and its sister paper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette) for $35 million plus the assumption of $59 million in retirement benefits for a total of $94 million.

Check out "New York Times Decides Not to Sell Boston Globe."

That doesn't mean the Times won't make further changes -- i.e., cuts. It also doesn't mean the Worcester T&G is safe.

As a betting man (at least when it comes to media predictions), I still think the Times would sell the Worcester T&G.

The T&G is the third largest paper in the state, and Worcester doesn't get great coverage from the two largest papers -- so I think the Times feels the T&G is at least worth $35 million itself. And I would agree. The T&G could be worth seven BusinessWeeks if only because there are lots of sources for business news, but not a lot of alternatives for the Worcester area. And one day, the ad market will recover, if slightly.

The key issues for the local group that's interested in the T&G is how much it can offer; they should not think that $35 million rejected Globe bid is the ceiling for its bid for the T&G. But the local group should expect to pick up all T&G pension liabilities.

So even as I believe in the importance of local papers, I will bet the T&G could soon be sold. Anyone want to put together an offer?

Will the New York Times Actually Sell the Boston Globe?

After all the drama this spring about the future of the Boston Globe -- layoffs and buyouts, reduced salaries and benefits, union votes, and potential bidders -- it seems like the Globe may not sold after all.

Check out the Times own coverage of the situation: "Boston Globe’s Fate Remains Unclear." The current bids are $35 million plus assumption of $59 million in retirement benefits -- That's $94 million for the Globe, its real estate, and its sister publication, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. For perspective, the Times paid $1.1 billion to acquire the Globe and the Worcester paper in 1993. The reason not to sell the Globe is that the Times would not be able to recoup $1 billion.

On the other hand, the Boston Globe reports that the Worcester Telegram & Gazette is generating interest from a local group, "Local buyers target T&G: Polar Beverages chief, ex-editor join forces."

I'd bet the Times will hold onto the Globe and sell the Worcester T&G.

We shall see...

Shrinking Newspaper Size Has Shrunk the Amount of Space Allocated to Seniors

David Mehegan, a columnist for the Boston Globe, made an interesting point about one way in which newspapers have changed.

Newspapers used to have cheerful, wide-ranging columns on senior life. Today, the closest thing to it is the column in the Globe business section, under the daily Wall Street report, which is often about the funding of retirement: stocks, bonds, annuities, insurance, Social Security and 401(k) plans, strategies for protecting wealth. Not about grandchildren or love or art, not friends or community or good times. Money.

It's true -- there's very little about seniors in the paper, unless it's about boomers (hard to refer to them as Baby Boomers now that the leading edge has reached retirement age). There's not much otherwise for people in their 70s and 80s or for their children who are increasingly responsible for them.

And what does appear is all about money, financial planning, etc. Isn't there more to getting old than that?

Good point, Mr. Mehegan. Check out "Don’t show me the money."

The Importance of Client Communication

Sunday's Boston Globe's "On the Hot Seat" column, a question-and-answer column with a local CEO, validated a theory I announced to our monthly all-hands meeting on Thursday: that client communication matters.

We recently stopped using a vendor whose reporting was lackluster. But we told them why we were willing to pay more to one of their competitors -- better reporting, which helped us demonstrate value to our client. The sales rep said they were working on updating their reporting, and that it would take several months, but they'd get back to me.

It actually only took them several weeks, and the reporting is much better than it was. As compared to the competitor, their reporting is better in some areas, equal in others, and perhaps still not there in a others.

But they improved our ability to go with them by listening to and addressing our concerns. I'm not saying they made the changes just for us. I doubt that. But I am saying they listened, and helped a small business address an issue we had with our client.

The client communication lesson is one I learned in another area, as a director of a small export/import business. I know we're a small customer, but something's changed. When we started working with this company, we'd get a response, usually email even if the original contact had been by voicemail, within a day. Now, into our second year with them, I find that we generally hear back from them (always by email now) about a week after the request for information. And when we do hear back from them, the information's always incomplete because they're waiting for information from some third-party. I've seen some email threads, so I know some of the delays are attributable to third-parties. Fine, but I think we still deserve a timely response letting us know they're waiting for third-party information, especially because our requests for information is not unreasonable (we're not asking lots of questions for arcane details, and telling them we need the answers in an hour, or a day). We just want a sense of progreas.

The rest of the directors are upset, partly about the quality of the work but also about the responsiveness. I'm going to let this vendor know about our concerns, and give them a chance to improve. But this time, I don't know if the vendor can make the changes or if they're willing to. It wouldn't take much to repair the relationship, and I'd think in this economy, they would try, but we have told them our concerns earlier this year, and have only seen responsiveness decline.

Meanwhile, here's a link to the Boston Globe article. The entire article doesn't address the point about client communication, but the headline does, Client communication is key in ad industry, and the latter part of the article does.

It's an important point, and one we're constantly reviewing to determine how we can improve communication with our clients.

Tips on Using LinkedIn

Boston Globe's Scott Kirsner wrote a very useful article, "Make better introductions: LinkedIn can be a valuable networking tool - but are you maximizing its potential?" on using LinkedIn.

Some of the advice includes:

• Spell your name wrong. That's important if you have a name, like mine, that's often misspelled. By including the commonly misspelled variation in your profile, you can help people find you.
• Write a compelling headline.
• List everything. Because it enables more people to be able to link to you.

Check out the article.

Meanwhile Bad News in NH After a Newspaper Closes

So while the Seattle Times is doing better, another paper has closed. I had never heard of the Claremont (NH) Eagle Tribune, but the Boston Globe ran an interesting article about the impact on the town when the Eagle Tribune shut down.

Check out the article, "In N.H. city, a hard-to-fill void after paper closes." The Globe also includes a video to add more interactivity to the story.

Not Surprised Boston Globe Union Supports New Concessions -- They didn't have much choice

In an unsurprising development, the Boston Globe's largest union voted to accept a similar package that they rejected six weeks ago. They didn't have much choice.

It was accept these concessions or the Globe would go out of business.

So the union has staved off the Globe's demise.

For now.

The New York Times is still trying to sell the Globe and its sister paper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Getting the union to accept the offer makes it easier for the Times to sell the paper -- a new owner would not have to worry about having to negotiate a new union contract.

Which is not to say that a new owner might not push for new concessions.

The question is: what additional changes does the Globe still have to make. Even with the concessions, the paper is still not profitable -- it's not even close. Last year, the Globe racked up more than $1M in losses per week, about $81M annually. The new concessions slice off about $20M, leaving the Globe still negative $1M per week.

That's not sustainable. Not for the Times. And not for new owners.

There will have to be more changes and cuts.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet we'll hear more about those changes soon, by Labor Day. It's not as if the Times and Globe don't know they need to make more cuts. They just needed to focus on contracts first.

I'd also bet that the Times will continue to work to selling the Globe rather than keeping the property for itself.

Should Newspapers Get Bailouts?

Today's Boston Globe ran an interesting op-ed, "A perfect storm for paper: Sinking revenues and the Internet force journalists worldwide to remake their troubled industry." Makes the point that European newspapers are getting bailout support because newspapers are "considered essential to the national health."

The rest of the article looks at the "perfect storm" buffeting papers. Not much new there.

What is -- is the recognition that newspapers' role won't be replicated by online sites and bloggers. I do agree with that notion.

Cost Cutting Won't Save Newspapers, Analyst Says

Quote of the day from the Boston Globe:

Newspapers cannot cost cut themselves to prosperity and an online-only newspaper is not profitable, not even close. We do not have a solution on how to solve the difficulties newspapers face," Craig Huber, Barclays Capital.