Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Simona Bisiani

Nieman Lab @niemanlab.org · 9h

83% of local nonprofit news organizations have increased revenue growth by at least 10% over the last three years, compared to 71% of state and regional publications and 76% of national and global outlets.

Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows

Nonprofit news outlets of all types are enjoying revenue growth — but those that focus specifically on local news, rather than state, national, or global news, are doing especially well, according to…

www.niemanlab.org

10 18

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 6d

Professor Agnes Gulyas approached me to work on a report drawing from academic research on local media to signpost priority directions for industry and policymakers working to make this industry sustainable and protect the value it brings to communities and society.

Report is out!

Challenges and opportunities for UK local media: Insights from academic research : CCCU Research Space Repository

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/9w1yz/challenges-and-opportunities-for-uk-local-media-insights-from-academic-research

repository.canterbury.ac.uk

2

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 9d

you are defending on my birthday. this can only bring you luck. I'll eat cake for the both of us 🎉

1

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 14d

i've written a short blog about how to quickly prototype prompts in openai and use them programmatically. used this workflow today to speedup a manual research task.

I Spent $11 to Hire an AI model as a Researcher Digging into Newspaper Buyouts

Here's how I did it, and what I found

open.substack.com

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 16d

Late night tales from your one and only.

How Local Is Local News? And Does it Matter?

I'm asking you.

open.substack.com

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 19d

academic dopamine hit: two papers accepted by @comphumresearch.bsky.social this week 📚
journal article on LLMs for toponym resolution and conference paper on deriving a typology of subnational media based on coverage spatial properties. off to Luxembourg in December to present :) links to come!

2

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · 26d

Last night, I wrote on The Local News Cartographer about my early phd work on building a database of all local news outlets in the UK. One year of research inside a 10(?) minute read. Learn the perks and pain of gathering your own phd data.

How I accidentally spent one year building a database about local news outlets

The PhD detour that might help track Britain's local news crisis?

open.substack.com

1

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Sep 5

are you a philosopher? sounds like you 🤓

1

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Aug 28

@mediareformuk.bsky.social I think you can feel me there

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Aug 28

incredible dry humour by AI summarising what it’s like to end up in a local news merger operation.

1 2

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Aug 28

Yep, I'm on Substack: to make my research accessible and useful, I'll translate my work into digestible posts that explain how I study the local news market at scale, through text mining, to ask questions about media ownership, news deserts, and democracy: shorturl.at/q3VKI

1 2

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jul 22

Seeing David Lazer in the flesh at #ic2s2 in my habitual Norrköping feels surreal and moving to say the least.

4

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jul 22

Mobility and Urban Science 2 chaired by the one and only @lecoursonnais.bsky.social. #ic2s2 is off to a great start.

4

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jul 18

What an awesome past few days attending @dh2025lisbon.bsky.social and getting to see *oh so beautiful* Lisbon at the same time. Still on a high from @icwsm.bsky.social, I feel honoured and humbled to having the chance to be in the room with scholars I admire and learn from. @ic2s2.bsky.social next!

7

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jul 2

don’t these look pretty? when I did my MSc at @iasliu.bsky.social’s then-just-begun CSS program many of these early graduates were our (very friendly and patient) TAs. Nice to see what they were up to beyond dealing with us, and the pool of graduates from IAS growing.

3 12

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jun 27

To all my newfound connections at @icwsm.bsky.social coming to @ic2s2.bsky.social in beautiful Norrköping (p.s. I'll be around, hit me up to see the best bar + city gems), the wonderful @hendrik-erz.de at @iasliu.bsky.social has built a tool to get you on top of things when it comes to schedule!

Hendrik Erz @hendrik-erz.de · Jun 21

+++ NEW ARTICLE +++

I built an interactive schedule for my field's largest conference and, if you'd like to, yours, too!

www.hendrik-erz.de/post/i-built...

I Built an Interactive Schedule for my Field's Largest Conference (and yours, too)

How do you communicate the what and where of various events at large conferences? This seems to be still a relatively unsolved problem, at least in …

www.hendrik-erz.de

2 6

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jun 27

So fulfilling to see the database I have built at the @publicinterestnews.org.uk being leveraged by @mediareformuk.bsky.social and the fantastic Tom Chivers for the 2025 edition of "Who Owns the UK Media?"

To know more: www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/local-news-m...

Media Reform Coalition @mediareformuk.bsky.social · Jun 5

🏚️ Decades of cuts, closures & corporate consolidation have left the UK's local media in ruins

3 publishers, Newsquest, National World & Reach, control 51% of local newspapers. These corporate giants also hold 8/10 of the publicly funded Local Democracy Reporter contracts

5 6

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jun 27

Your coffee obsession is hilarious. I would love to see a dataset of all coffee-related posts you have written over the years (and what is the relative volume of these). Do you thoughts on this?

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Jun 24

So excited to hit @icwsm.bsky.social conference with a dataset paper from my PhD research at @peoplecentredai.bsky.social. I will present tomorrow at @aau.dk in cyclist-friendly Copenhagen! Find me at the poster madness session in the afternoon!

2 10

Reposted by Simona Bisiani

The Institute for Analytical Sociology @iasliu.bsky.social · May 13

🚨We’re hiring postdocs in Computational Social Science!
📍The Swedish Excellence Centre for Computational Social Science (SweCSS)
📅 Apply by June 3
🔗 liu.se/en/work-at-l...

Marc Keuschnigg @marckeuschnigg.bsky.social · May 13

We are hiring postdocs in Computational Social Science
📍SweCSS, Norrköping, Sweden
⏰Deadline June 3
🔗https://liu.se/en/work-at-liu/vacancies/26854
Please apply // help us spread the word

14 16

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · May 17

well done BBC

1

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Feb 2

Thrilled to announce my submission was accepted for the Local News Researchers Workshop 2025 at @uncchapelhill.bsky.social! Excited for my 1st ever U.S. trip and connect with global researchers in this domain. I will share insights on large-scale local news text analysis. Event: shorturl.at/OSRRn

Local News Researchers Workshop

tarheels.live

4

Simona Bisiani @simonabisiani.bsky.social · Nov 28

simply adorable <3

1