The transformation of media in Asia delivered weekly to your inbox.

From this week

Platforms

Zuck was prepared. The Senators weren’t.

Tuesday’s 5-hour Congressional hearings showed how little American politicians understand, let alone how to regulate them. The lawmakers, who came across as out-of-touch old men, had no points to make, apart from trying to score soundbites (compare this with Singapore’s grilling of Facebook a few weeks back). They couldn’t figure out what ad tech is, how advertising works, or what data Facebook collects. Zuck seemed nervous but confident — he’s been coached by internal and external consultants on this. His team even reconfigured a conference room to look like a congressional hearing room. Never underestimate this guy’s ability to learn. Investors were encouraged by Zuck’s performance, and the lowered risk of regulation. They sent the stock up 4.5% at the end of the testimony on Tuesday.

CNN

Zuck bought himself some time with his performance at the hearings.

But one question that’s still on the table: Should he resign? Wired explores the options for a Zuck-free Facebook and who could do the job.

Wired

Civil society groups in Myanmar didn’t like what Zuck said in the Vox interview last week.

He claimed that FB successfully curbed hate speech through a system that scans Messenger chats. Six organizations in Myanmar are calling bullshit. This is their response.

Google

Zuckerberg apologized for not acknowledging the role of activist groups in Myanmar in containing the harmful messages in Myanmar.

They got back to him promptly with requests for details, as well as more investment into regional moderation services on Facebook.

Gizmodo

Google Analytics announced new granular data retention controls.

This allows users to decide how long their user and event data is held on Google’s servers. Anything older will be deleted. Good timing, GA!

Google

Governments & policy

China removed four news apps from several app stores, including the popular aggregator Toutiao.

The authorities say they want to “regulate order in the broadcasting environment.”

SCMP

China ordered Toutiao to pull its joke-sharing “Neihan Duanzi” app.

China’s media watchdog said the app “caused strong disgust amongst netizens”. It also told Toutiao to regulate similar content on its other sites.

Reuters

China banned its online retailers from selling the Bible.

“It sounds like the opposition force within the Chinese authorities who oppose the Vatican-China relations have their voice.”

New York Times

Stores offering wifi to customers in the Chinese city of Qingdao have been ordered by police to replace their routers with government-approved ones.

Failure to comply could result in a $18,600 fine. The approved routers are made by Beijing-based BHU, with “long-term close collaboration” with the country’s Public Security Department.

Abacus News

Singapore rejected New Naratif’s application to set up a business subsidiary, alleging it’s receiving external funding for political activities in the country.

“Our position is that none of them can be allowed to fund Singaporean organisations or individuals participating in our domestic politics.” Co-founder Kristen Han says the allegations are “unfounded.”

Mumbrella

Vietnam’s smartphone users have been asked to submit selfie photos of themselves to their telco providers.

The government says this will help prevent the use of fake SIM cards. Users have two weeks to comply or will risk getting cut off. “Even registering ownership of a car or property doesn’t require photos,” complained one phone subscriber.

VnExpress

Iran blocked Telegram, the most widely used chat app in the country.

The government is concerned about its use for political activity — but it also wants to get Iranians to use locally created apps, presumably because they’re easier to regulate.

The Star

Transformations

Singapore Press Holdings, the print monopoly that owns the Straits Times, reported a 25% drop in Q2 profit from the previous year.

It’s still a very profitable company — $30 million in profit for the quarter is still a point of envy for many. But advertising revenues continue to slide — it’s down 9% for the quarter. The company talked up its digital subscription plans and integrated marketing platforms, which seems to be their only bet for shoring up revenues.

Channel NewsAsia

Straits Times launched a weekly newsletter covering highlights from Asia.

Drops on Monday evenings. Long overdue. Comes at a time when SCMP is ramping up coverage of the region (and doing it far better). Subscribe here.

Straits Times

After a long transformation, Summit Media in the Philippines declared it’s finally a “digital-first” magazine publisher.

It closed six print editions of Cosmopolitan, Preview, YES!. Top Gear, FHM, and Town & Country, shifting them online.

Summit Media

Raju Narisetti is leaving Gizmodo after reportedly being pushed out by parent company Univision.

This could be the start of a wider restructuring in the business.

The Daily Beast

Talent

Shen Lu left China to study journalism in the U.S. She writes perfectly in both languages.

But she finds it hard to get the career she wants on either side. She faces press restrictions in China, while U.S. newsrooms aren’t keen on hiring Chinese journalists. “If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I doubt I’d make the decision to study journalism again, because the news industry—both in China and in the U.S.—seems to be a world designed to keep people like me out.”

China File

Design

Facebook launched a News Feed feature that gives more background on publishers.

The product design team wrote about their research, process, and prototyping. This included recent fieldwork in Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Designing for credibility is difficult — and more important than ever before. But design can be a powerful way to make a habit stick, and media hygiene is a good one to work towards.

Medium

A design firm took a crack at designing more transparency into Facebook.

NewDealDesign is known for their product work for Intel, Google, and Fitbit. The operating principles for their redesign exercise are more philosophical than visual, but they’re on the right track. They include more user agency with what data is being used and how, they use reminders, updates (a “Data Activity Feed”) — oh, and ad revenue-sharing with users. Now we’re talking.

Co.Design

Oh, Instagram. Did you really think tricking me into syncing all my contacts was a good move?

Have you learned nothing from the follies of your parent company? Just when we thought you were the good guy.

Twitter

Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore, spoke of design thinking as the reason for the country’s dramatic pivot from third world to first.

In his address to the Singapore University of Technology and Design, he described the process of policy design: identify social issues, define the problems, create solutions, prototype ideas, test them, and continuously iterate. “That is the essence of design thinking.”

Channel NewsAsia

A year after they jumped on, The Economist gets over 7 million viewers a month on Snapchat.

Their daily Snaps are deep topical dives into things like racial divisions, vaping, the possibility of another cold — or World — war, and office predators. The experience is true to the medium (brisk, anonymous-but-personal) but also true to the brand (highly produced, perfectly-researched, documentary-style editing). Surprisingly, some of the visual design can be downright hideous: for a timeline of sexual harassment, they choose to go with white, drop-shadowed text against a background image of a cave painting. “Others are “top-Snap only” content. These often have lots of text on them... intended to be shareable/screenshot-able primers on a topic.” Huh. The ads are programmatically annoying (I got one that promised more Instagram followers). But I love how The Economist is using the platform, as do millions of Snapchatters. This day in the life of Lucy Rohr, their Snapchat editor, is revealing, and it's the only reason I have exhumed my Snapchat app after my short-lived and bewildered run-in with it many years ago. Okay fiiiiine, I also want to Boost My Brows.

Digiday

This work by Al Jazeera photojournalist Showkat Shafi about Rohingya refugees is truly incredible.

This is storytelling at its very best. Do take a moment to see this.

Al Jazeera

I saw The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Singapore’s Esplanade last week.

The design of the production, by the otherworldly talent Bunny Christie, is brilliant, sensitive, frantic, filled with more LED wattage than a slap upside the head, and it has many more decibels than are physically available in the world. Christie, winner of a mountain of awards, is known for designing “psychology as well as space”, and she certainly redesigned my psychology for good. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the production comes in another flavour: Relaxed. I think this is excellent design that addresses a very real need for audiences in the market for a different pace. From the programme: “Sound and lighting cues are modified to be less startling. Leaving the auditorium to take a break is fine and there is a designated Quiet Area available. There is an easy-going attitude to noise and movement, doors remain open and lights are dimmed staying on throughout the show.” Nice. Now if only life came with a Relaxed mode.

The Guardian

The still-in-testing Chrome Canary has easier emoji functions.

So you are going to be able to right-click a context menu and emoji at will. (I tried rushing off to download the new browser just to be bleeding edge, but it said: “Be forewarned: it's designed for developers and early adopters, and can sometimes break down completely.”) Fine. But did you know Cmd + Ctrl + Space on a Mac gave you an emoji menu? Neither did I! 🤯

Twitter

ProPublica is looking for an Editorial Experience Designer in NYC.

You’ll be “crafting forward-thinking user experiences for some of the most important investigative journalism anywhere.” Damn straight.

ProPublica

Adobe has shut down Muse, its ‘code-less’ website builder app.

I was a fan when they started developing this eight years ago, but stopped when I realised code was my friend. Muse had its moment, but it knew its limitations. But I'm really impressed by Adobe's support strategy: they will continue to offer tech support for two more years. Now that's how you lifecycle a product.

Adobe

Notables

There’s a very compelling train of thought in here about an “unscaling” of the media business.

Could new technologies like AI and advanced personalization make it viable for publishers to create an audience of one?

Nieman Lab