"Management sims are all about decisions; in News Tower, my first decision was the name of my newspaper. This being Nieman Lab, I decided to call my newspaper The Experiment. Some things about the game are all too familiar to anyone who's paid any attention to the state of journalism lately. When you first start the game, the paper is struggling: You have a few options for getting out of the hole."
"You can take out a loan, for instance. Or you can turn to the same mobsters who smashed up your office for help, just as your father and uncle (who cofounded the paper) did. But to get their help, you have to print stories that are friendly to them - or avoid stories that might make them look bad, like coverage of a gruesome murder."
Players step into the role of a 1930s New York City newspaper publisher. Initial problems include mobsters using baseball bats to intimidate staff and damage offices. Players can take loans or accept mob assistance in exchange for favorable coverage or suppression of damaging stories. Multiple factions—the mafia, the mayor, wealthy socialites, and the military—vie to influence content. Favoring factions yields rewards, such as lower construction costs for tower expansion. Decisions affect both the paper's finances and its editorial integrity. Survival requires balancing interests; avoiding factions entirely proves a losing strategy, prompting selective mission acceptance.
Read at Nieman Lab
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