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Nextdoor is quietly replacing the small-town paper
A few weeks ago we wrote about the local news app News Break announcing $115 million in new funding. Its founder Jeff Zheng said at the time that there’s “strong user demand” for local news but “weak supply”. We asked if local titles in the UK would ever willingly partner up with a third party app to deliver local news and hopefully recoup some of the advertising spend from small and mid-sized regional businesses.
Turns out there might be a bigger roadblock to that proposition: Nextdoor. The local community app – perhaps best known for being a seething hotpot of neighbourly aggression – has smoothly become a real source of local news. The Tow Centre’s Emily Bell has stated: “Anecdotally, Nextdoor has gone from being kind of sub-Facebook to actually being the main platform you hear people discussing as a vector for local news and events and discussions”.
This breakdown from Will Oremus examines the rise of the platform, and the issues that arise when a relatively small moderation team is suddenly charged with policing news content. The reality is that this change has taken many people unaware – seemingly including Nextdoor itself – and now the local news industry has yet another adjustment to make.
If you don’t cast, you’re last: inside big tech’s podcasting goldrush
A good article and a better headline from The Drum’s John McCarthy, in this longread about the big names investing in podcasting. We’ve discussed it on the podcast many times before, but this is a great snapshot of who is investing – and why.
Rupert Murdoch’s News UK loses ruling to reclaim digital newspaper tax
More bad news for Murdoch as the Court of Appeal said in a decision that it would be “impermissible” to extend tax relief for newspapers to their online siblings. A ruling the other way would have allowed News UK to claim back millions.
