✉️ This article was originally published in Médianes' “10 liens” newsletter, sent out two Mondays a month at 2 p.m. Click here to sign up!
1. RECOMMENDATIONS (Médianes) — With summer just around the corner and the independent publishing industry facing challenging times, we wanted to share with you our current literary favorites and the books we plan to dive into in the coming weeks. There’s something for everyone: road trips to the four corners of the world, an essay on our relationship with young people, or a journey back to Oxford in 1828.
2. TECH (Médianes)— The issue of technological independence has emerged as a key challenge. But for media outlets that have been using certain tools and the associated methods for years, it may seem difficult to begin the transition to alternatives. How can this be done? We’ve compiled best practices from several media outlets across Europe, along with our advice.
3. ETHICS (The Conversation) — Should journalists warn their audience before covering topics related to environmental destruction? Unlike other sensitive topics (sexual violence, war, etc.), reports on ravaged ecosystems and dying flora and fauna offer no warning, help, or resources. The media could do a better job of addressing the distress these topics cause.
4. AI (Wired) — To improve the open rate of your newsletters, have you ever considered slipping in a few typos? Faced with growing suspicion toward AI-generated content, some authors and journalists are trying different techniques to enhance the authenticity of their writing. One of these is intentional typos. According to a test, emails with typos in the subject line have a higher open rate.
5. AI (Nieman Lab) — Nilay Patel, CEO of The Verge, is experiencing his own “Don’t Look Up” moment. The man who coined the term “Google Zero”—describing the day Google would stop sending traffic to websites—is finally seeing the asteroid crash. Faced with AI summaries that siphon off their content, several media outlets are threatening to block Google’s access to their sites—even if it means disappearing from search results.
6. MODEL (mind) — Will we soon see more advertising in independent media? Quatrième Pouvoir, an advertising agency dedicated to independent newsrooms, is launching this fall. While several media outlets have already expressed interest, others are less enthusiastic, highlighting a long-standing debate within the independent media community: whether to reject advertising altogether or to find a “responsible” way to make it compatible with their values.
Transparency note: Médianes' studio worked with Quatrième Pouvoir as part of its launch.
7. MODEL (Swissinfo) — Investigative reporting is expensive and time-consuming, especially for newsrooms driven by the need for clicks and breaking news. To address this, the Swiss journalist collective WAV positions itself as an “investigative partner” rather than a media outlet: its members launch investigations and then approach the most relevant newsrooms to publish them.
8. PLATFORMS (Marius) — It’s hard to do without WhatsApp, even with the best of intentions. Whether with family, neighbors, or at work, the app has become an essential part of our daily digital lives. This fictional scenario imagines what would happen if it suddenly disappeared and highlights our dependence on it, especially when WhatsApp serves as a vital channel for public services or healthcare.
9. TOOLS (Hypertexting) — Have you ever heard of RSS feeds (a way to create personalized news feeds), but they seem too technical or not quite right for your habits? If you’ve never taken the plunge, an app might help you warm up to the idea: Hypertexting uses the same principles as social media and aggregates only posts from your favorite sites—without any algorithms.
10. TOOLS (clipart.studio) — Looking for another creative project for the summer? Paper crafts are making a comeback, and with them, the art of cutting out and pasting images and text found in old magazines. Don’t have any on hand? This site lets you create collages online using a massive digitized archive. It’s also a great way to discover publications in categories as varied as fashion, cooking, and video games.
🎤 BEHIND THE SCENES: The Sphera Media Lab, our annual event organized in collaboration with European Lab, which brings together independent media outlets across Europe, returns on December 3 in Brussels for a new edition focused on technological, editorial, and economic independence. Would you like to be part of our program? Respond to our call for applications! Find all the details here.
💼 JOB POSTING: Vert is hiring an Administration and Finance Coordinator for a permanent position to assist senior management with administrative, accounting, and logistical tasks.
Learn more about our job openings.
