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* From the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism…

An increasingly popular tactic challenges conventional wisdom on the spread of electoral disinformation: the creation of partisan outlets masquerading as local news organizations. An investigation by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School has discovered at least 450 websites in a network of local and business news organizations, each distributing thousands of algorithmically generated articles and a smaller number of reported stories. Of the 450 sites we discovered, at least 189 were set up as local news networks across ten states within the last twelve months by an organization called Metric Media. […]

The networks can be traced back to conservative businessman Brian Timpone. In 2012, Timpone’s company Journatic, an outlet known for its low-cost automated story generation (which became known as ‘pink slime journalism’), attracted national attention and outrage for faking bylines and quotes, and for plagiarism. Journatic rebranded as Locality Labs in 2013; Locality Labs is behind many of the publications we discovered that mimic the appearance and output of traditional news organizations. These sites do not bear much information about their political use or funding, but some of them have been funded by political candidates and lobbying campaigns. Metric Media, Locality Labs (or LocalLabs), Franklin Archer, the Record Inc., and Local Government Information Services (LGIS) are the main organizations involved in operating these networks of publications, and Timpone is associated in one way or another with each of them. Michigan Daily has detailed the convoluted relationship between these organizations.

We’ve seen much of this before. But the reporter did some pretty fancy online detective work to piece it together, so it’s worth a read just for that.

* But the story misses a major point…

It is not clear how effective the sites are, but their architecture and strategy is useful to understand the way they co-opt the language, design and structure of news organizations. Automation has been touted as a way to create stories where there are few reporting resources, and it can be used to build credibility. It can also make a news organization look far more prolific than it is. Potentially adding to the credibility of these sites is their Google search ranking: in the case of some of the websites set up in 2015-2016, we observed that once sites had gained ample authority, they appeared on the first page of Google Search results just below the official government and social media pages.

Timpone raises money to publish his papers, but he’s also obviously figured out how search engine optimization works. Man, has he ever. And that can lead to even more $$$ from advertising.

It’s not just about the message, it’s also about the buckaroos - which is something too many newspapers seem to be clueless about these days. Struggling media companies should be calling Timpone to see what they can learn from him. They don’t have to follow his ideological bent, of course, but a few more dollars never hurts.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 11:34 am

Comments

It seems that the lack of journalistic impartiality has as much to do with the demise of the industry. There are no impartial media outlets anymore.

Comment by Downstate Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 11:41 am
Downstate, when was the news media ever totally impartial? It used to be (and still is, for the most part) controlled by white men, so the bias in what stories are chosen and how they are presented has always been evident.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 11:44 am
There is a lot to be said to follow a business model isn’t the same as following someone and how they go about their business.

If you don’t know how to make money, you don’t exist. It’s not selling out when you turn a profit.

There’s no glory in being poor when changing your business model, while keeping your ethics is possible.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 11:56 am
“Downstate, when was the news media ever totally impartial”

Going back to the 70’s and 80’s, there was some sense of impartiality in both the print and TV media. I don’t think that exists, to any degree, today. That lack of impartiality, has led to people simply gravitating toward the media source that is more aligned with their thinking. In some sense, that probably makes it more difficult for a news organization to aspire to impartiality while maintaining any type of customer base.

Comment by Downstate Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 2:05 pm