Friday 7th June: Nearly half of journalists covering climate crisis globally received threats

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That’s a horrifying headline, made only slightly better by the fact that the body copy reveals the actual figure to be 40%, not ‘nearly half’. Regardless, this is yet another body of evidence that demonstrates that journalists can be subject to a horrendous barrage of threats and abuse for reporting on something that affects all of us — often from people with vested interests in letting the world burn.

The Guardian reports that: “A global survey of more than 740 reporters and editors from 102 countries found that 39% of those threatened “sometimes” or “frequently” were targeted by people engaged in illegal activities such as logging and mining. Some 30%, meanwhile, were threatened with legal action – reflecting a growing trend towards corporations and governments deploying the judicial system to muzzle free speech.”

Threatening journalists is never acceptable, just as it isn’t to threaten anybody just because they might inconvenience you. What makes this especially worrying is that environmental coverage is only going to become more regular over the next few years as the climate crisis begins to bite. Newsrooms need to be looking at how they protect journalists now more than ever.

Here’s something I [pawalled]wrote for A Media Operator - based off the fact that I’d been seeing more adverts from major publishers appearing on Reddit, of all places. The Financial Times, the Guardian, and Mill Media are all UK titles experimenting with ads on the platform to supplement their existing activity on there — but it remains early days. Would love to hear your thoughts about the viability of Reddit for audience development!

Waaay back when, we interviewed Mill Media founder Joshi Herrmann. Back then the local newspaper-based business was still focused on its first market in Manchester, but there was already talk of launching in new areas. Well, in light of the Evening Standard shuttering its daily edition, the Mill Media team believes the time is right to expand to the capital of England. It’s ambitious, I’ll give it that!

Hey, and if you’re interested in finding out exactly how newsletters can contribute to your own business model, come along to the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summit this Wednesday! 🎧🎙️📧

And here’s your double dose of my content for the day. I took a look at where some publishers are seeking to grow their ecommerce revenue by investing in underindexed verticals with growing consumer interest. There was a lot I didn’t get time to explore in this one so I’ll be coming back to ecommerce very soon — which speaks to the importance it has for media businesses.

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