Creator journalist Bisan Owda wins Emmy

Before we jump into today’s main attraction(s0, a few notes:

📝 The Project C/Trusting News survey is live NOW and waiting for you to weigh in on framing standards for ethical independent creator journalism. Remember, the more data the better – so take five minutes to complete it now, then encourage your peers, friends and even a few frenemies to do the same.

🙏 HUGE thank you to everyone who turned up for Saturdays’ ONA Going Solo: Creator Journalist Workshop in Atlanta. A special shout out to my co-facilitators Ryan Kellett (who just kicked off a year as a Nieman-Berkman Klein fellow at Harvard University where he is studying creator journalism), Blair Hickman (one of the best strategists to have on your team when it comes to building audience and figuring out new cool things) and Caitlin Dewey (author of one of my very favorite newsletters, Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends). A big thanks also to OG newsletter creator Matt Kiser (WTF Just Happened Today?) for weighing in with some fab lessons learned throughout eight years of DOING IT. In the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing some of what we taught in Atlanta. But, stay tuned, because we’re thinking about taking our workshop on the road – the virtual road.

💸 Project C is free to everyone and that’s by design. Independent creator journalists aren’t known for having six-figure incomes and definitely don’t have expense accounts. Still, I don’t get paid for writing Project C. It’s a passion project that I do alongside my consulting gigs. If you can afford it, punch the button below to upgrade a to a $80 yearly subscription. There’s no premium content or secret club your subscription will unlock. What it will do, though, is help me keep paying the bills so this newsletter can continue to remain free for everyone who needs it. And if you can’t afford it, no worries. I got ya.

Okay, and with that, on to the main event.

Bisan Owda’s work in Gaza recognized by Emmys

Despite weathering criticism from some pro-Israeli groups for her nomination, Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda’s work was recognized Wednesday evening with an Emmy win in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story–Short Form category for their documentary, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m Still Alive.” Owda won the award along with AJ+. The network has been amplifying and supporting Owda’s work from Gaza since she started sharing first-person accounts of life via Instagram in Gaza post Oct. 6th. In May, Owda and AJ+ also won a Peabody Award for the coverage. Accepting the award on behalf of Owda, AJ+ Supervising Executive Producer Jon Laurence said, “This award is testimony to the power of one woman armed only with an iPhone who survived almost a year of bombardment. [Al Jazeera]

Link-o-Rama

• Google is now highlighting content creators as trusted sources in search results across a growing range of topics encompassing things like baking, magic, religion and science, though “journalism” or “news” does not seem to be on the list. In a quick experiment in Googling several folks who might qualify for a “Content Creator (News)” knowledge panel subtitle, the default subtitle for most indie journalists I tried is “American Journalist” or in the case of one of France’s biggest journalism creators, Hugo Travers, “French journalist and YouTuber.” Which, honestly, seems fine. The whole piece is worth reading – lots of tips and context re: to help boost your own credibility. But if you’re a journalism creator out there with any thoughts or an opinion on how you’re jamming on, or dinged by, the Google algorithm - write me. [Search Engine Land]

• Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) is one of those creators who is, like, living the dream. (Google knowledge panel subtitle? American YouTuber.) Brownlee started out posting tech-gadget focused videos when he was in high school and has since gone on to, as they say, make it: 19.5 million followers on YouTube, tons of collabs with pubs, a Forbes 30 Under 30 spot, his own sneakers and even a chief creator gig at an accessories company. He may have gone too far with his latest venture, though – a $49/year phone wallpaper app. Brownlee announced the app in his review of the new iPhone 16. It should be noted that his iPhone reviews are some of his biggest yearly posts, which opened up a big discussion for me and one of my favorite media ethics theorists about the relative ickiness of capitalizing on what many will view as journalism to promote one’s own associated product. The criticism out there goes deeper, though, into questions around pricing and data privacy. How could a guy who gets so much so right get this so wrong? (FWIW, when Taylor Lorenz asked Brownlee earlier this year if he has a posted ethics policy he replied, “I don’t, but that’s a good idea.” He goes on to say he does have this video posted re: trust that touches on his approach to ethics, which is well worth watching, fwiw. [Garbage Day]

• Google is opening up a new cohort via Google News Initiative. The 6-week online Journalistic Creators Lab “aims to support a new generation of short- and long-form video creators who are building an audience around fact-based news, knowledge, and information.” Click on the link to register for an upcoming Oct. 1 information session about the free cohort and how to apply. [Google]

The rest

• Despite sexist attacks, these female journalists have built massive online audiences on their own [Reuters Institute]

• Mehdi Hasan’s MSNBC Substack-based Zeteo has 31,000 paid subscribers and $3 million in annual revenue in just four months [Washington Post]

• The rise of fake influencers [Axios]

• Training: AI, Copyright and Legal Considerations for Journalists, Freelancers and News Organizations [ONA]

• TikTok Expands Subscriptions for Creators [Social Media Today]

• Over half of journalists considered quitting due to burnout this year, per new report [Poynter]

• Patreon added some new tools, including a recommendations tab and one-time purchases [Patreon]

• Using Stripe? Read this [The Information - paywall]

Thanks for reading this far. Why stop now: Take the Survey!