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'Moment of reckoning' for Infowars conspiracist — www.bbc.co.uk

Yesterday brought a 'moment of reckoning' for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, according to the BBC's disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring. She was reporting on a court ruling that ordered Jones to pay almost $1 billion for pushing the utter nonsense that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

Jones, nor any other conspiracy nut, has ever been slapped with damages on this scale and Spring says it sets a huge precedent. But the question remains, will it make any difference? Online conspiracy movements spread like weeds during the Covid pandemic, and Spring sees a growing group of people vulnerable to the tactics used by conspiracists like Jones.

The Infowars host is already trying to claim this verdict is proof that the State is trying to stop him 'telling the truth'. Calling for donations to 'fight this fraud', Jones said on a livestream during the judgement, "They want us shut down". No Shit Sherlock!

Netflix to reveal for first time how many people watch its shows in the UK — www.theguardian.com

The streaming service has decided it's time to sign up to ratings agency Barb. That means it will be publishing independently audited viewing figures that can be compared with traditional channels. Let's start a sweepstake on how many people watch the next season of The Crown.

P.S. Probably not a coincidence that the Netflix ad tier has just been announced.

The Audiencers on engagement, conversion & retention — theaudiencers.com

Our good friends at Poool have launched a brand new publication to support publishers and brands in their decision making around engaging, converting and retaining audiences. There's already lots of content there and it's in French and English.

Unlock media innovation by experimenting every day — digitalcontentnext.org

Innovation is the go-to buzzword for ambitious publishers, but there’s no such thing as plug-and-play innovation. According to former Condé Nast staffer and workflow specialist Kilian Schalk, experimentation is the key and I wrote about it for DCN.

New episode:

Has local news justified its own survival? The state of local news in 2022 — voices.media

For this next season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool, we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers. For this episode, we're joined by by Chris Jansen, Head of Local News, Global Partnerships at Google to talk about the state of local news in 2022 and beyond.

Buy The Media Voices team a coffee — ko-fi.com

We're approaching our 6th birthday, would you believe! But this year has been our make or break year, and we're pleased to say it's looking really good thanks to your support and some much-needed advice. If you'd like to support us on a monthly basis or just buy us a virtual coffee, every donation is very much apprecitaed.