Nieman Lab
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The Nieman Journalism Lab is an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age.
The Internet has brought forth an unprecedented flowering of news and information. But it has also destabilized the old business models that have supported quality journalism for decades. Good journalists across the country are losing their jobs or adjusting to a radically new news environment online. We want to highlight attempts at innovation and figure out what makes them succeed or fail. We want to find good ideas for others to steal. We want to help reporters and editors adjust to their online labors; we want to help traditional news organizations find a way to survive; we want to help the new crop of startups that will complement — or supplant — them.
We are fundamentally optimistic.
We don’t pretend to have even five percent of all the answers, but we do know a lot of smart people. Primary among them are our readers; we hope your contributions will make the Lab a collaborative exchange of ideas. Tell us what’s happening around you, or what should be.
We hope you enjoy the work we do, and that you’ll join the conversation as it evolves. Source
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Media Outlet details
| Scope | National |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesHow newsrooms are bringing their archives to life
Journalists at The Economist, Charlie Hebdo, Archivi.ng, and RetroNews share how — and why — they are putting their past articles to work with new features. This story was originally published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Journalism is, by design, perishable. A piece is valued for its immediacy — at best it circulates for a few weeks — and then disappears into the archives.
The BBC’s new director general is former Google executive Matt Brittin
The BBC’s new director general is former Google executive Matt Brittin LINK: www.bbc.co.uk ➚ | Posted by: Neel Dhanesha | March 25, 2026 Today the BBC announced it had selected a new director general: Matt Brittin, the former president of Google’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. One might see this news and wonder about Brittin’s editorial experience.
“I was surprised how upset some people got”: A conversation with the creator of TomWikiAssist, the bot that edited Wikipedia
“It’s almost like people were really quite disoriented and terrified by it. And to some extent I get it and I’m trying to empathize with how they’re feeling.” Behind the scenes at Wikipedia, some editors were alarmed recently when they saw a flurry of edits and new articles by a contributor known as TomWikiAssist. It turned out that Tom was a bot and was making edits and creating articles that the bot believed were interesting. The editors then blocked Tom from doing any more editing or writing.
When left-leaning journalists produce right-leaning stories
Plus new research on: Local newspapers’ pitches for financial support, what makes for a good news interview, and Meta’s fact-checking efforts Editor’s note: Longtime Nieman Lab readers know the bylines of Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis. Five years ago, they launched a monthly newsletter on recent academic research around journalism and we’re happy to bring each issue to you here at Nieman Lab.
The creator of Wordle is back with a new game about cryptic crosswords
The creator of Wordle is back with a new game about cryptic crosswords LINK: www.parseword.com ➚ | Posted by: Neel Dhanesha | March 10, 2026 The quickest way to feel dumb, in my experience, is to attempt a cryptic crossword. As Simon Parkin explains in the New Yorker: American, or “concise,” crosswords are typically exercises in trivia more so than wit.
“Podcast” meant nothing and everything at On Air Fest
Brooklyn: Rachel Martin didn’t quite believe that anybody had figured out the economics of audio. “If anyone claims they know how to do it, they’re lying,” she said. “A couple of people are making money, but they’re not here.” It was the opening session of On Air Fest, a two-day audio festival spread across a couple of trendy hotels in Williamsburg, and Martin, host of the NPR show Wild Card, was on stage with Brian Reed, the host of Question Everything.
How AI is transforming freelance journalism
Feb. 18, 2026, 1:32 p.m. One freelancer said he’s been offering editors access to his Google Docs version histories as evidence that he does the writing himself. This story was originally published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. A spate of articles by a freelance journalist named Margaux Blanchard appeared in major English-language publications in 2025.
In the video game News Tower, as in real life, running a newspaper isn’t easy
Feb. 12, 2026, 2:44 p.m. The game, which puts you in the shoes of a newspaper publisher in the 1930s, is a test of your management skills — and your ethics. My newspaper had a bat problem, in that bats — of the baseball variety — were the preferred weapon of the mobsters intimidating my employees and smashing up my office.
Journalism coops seem utopian. What’s it like working in one?
Feb. 3, 2026, 4:41 p.m. Defector almost didn’t exist. When 19 former Deadspin staffers — who’d resigned in November 2019 after parent company G/O Media told them to “stick to sports” — decided to launch a new website, “we looked at more traditional forms of funding,” Jasper Wang, 38, vice president of revenue and operations, told me. “We talked to all the venture capitalists in New York media, and we had some offers.” The pandemic changed Defector’s course.
What a safety expert thinks journalists should know about “less than lethal” rounds and chemical irritants used by ICE
Jan. 29, 2026, 12:54 p.m. “The consideration that we make with all of our recommendations is ‘what is the safest thing you can use while still getting your assignment done?’” On January 18, a photograph of a pair of safety goggles in a hardware store floated across my Instagram timeline. “#JOURNALISTS covering #iceprotest in #Minneapolis: Less lethal projectiles move 400-600 feet per second. Z87.1 glasses no longer provide the protection required,” read the caption.