Happy Friday! This one feels like it's been a long time coming. Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Chris.

Two-thirds of Brits say Covid-19 pandemic has made them appreciate journalism more — www.pressgazette.co.uk

Take this one with a heap of salt. A study commissioned by Newsworks has apparently found that the pandemic has increased the British public's appreciation for journalism. The findings are being spun as proving that newsbrands are more important for finding and understanding the news, as opposed to social media and search results, which tend to be overwhelming. That's especially true, says Newsworks, even for the under-35s.

I don't doubt that many people trust the individual newsbrands they go to for information. Nor do I believe that efforts by newspapers to provide context for coronavirus aren't invaluable. In fact I've previously argued that more papers need to follow the lead of the FT and The Atlantic in making their coronavirus coverage free to access precisely because that might lead to them trusting journalists more. But the Newsworks conclusion flies in the face of ongoing trends and against the latest Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism results as well. I suspect some leading questions and wishful thinking.

What is interesting, though, is the second part of the research, around news deprivation and saturation. It reaffirmed that the context through which information is presented can influence and change public behaviour, and that by depriving someone of their favourite newspaper in favour of another you can change their views. Perhaps there's some hope for habitual Sun readers yet - if we can only get them to read other sources for a while.

Fact-checkers need to work together to create better models for distributing our fact-checks online — www.poynter.org

The efficacy of a fact-checker is only as good as its reach. It doesn't matter if you thoroughly debunk something if nobody sees it. This article from The International Fact-Checking Network argues that organisations including Full Fact need to band together to treat equally with internet companies in order to spread the truth around more effectively.

Surfer Magazine’s long ride may be over — www.nytimes.com

Sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees. Amid the many magazine closures precipitated by Covid, this oral history of Surfer magazine makes plain how much each title will be missed by the communities they served. A six decade-long ride wiped out by a pandemic.

Google poised to strike deal to pay French publishers for their news — uk.reuters.com

Not content with handing publishers $1bn (to stave off further costs down the line) Google is set to reach a deal to pay French publishers for their news. It's the latest move to placate media groups and head off regulators siding with the publishers seeking a level playing field.

This week's pod:

The Week Junior Editor in Chief Anna Bassi on why a print magazine for kids is growing strongly — voices.media

This week, we hear from Anna Bassi, Editor in Chief of The Week Junior. They’ve had a milestone couple of months, recently releasing their 250th issue and increasing circulation during lockdown by 22% year on year. She talks about why a print magazine for children is doing so well in 2020, how they approach really difficult topics like protests and pandemics, and how their podcast is doing a year on.

Lessons from award-winning publisher podcasts: The Spin’s Geoff Jein — voices.media

The latest in our mini-series is live, featuring The Guardian's The Spin podcast producer Geoff Gein. Geoff says editing is an essential part of the podcasting process, don’t underestimate how much time it takes. And although podcasting is not rocket science, get expert advice to help you build out infrastructure and fix formats quickly.