 |
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
 |
This project aims to “de-flatten” digital publishing by matching the best content with premium ads“The digital publishing system has the big inconvenience of flattening everything.” By Christine Schmidt. |
 |
If podcasts and radio move to smart speakers, who will be directing us what to listen to?Plus: Pandora leans into podcasts, NPR has a leadership crisis, and Limetown and 30 for 30 plan returns. By Nicholas Quah. |
Could a partnership with a global coworking space help streaming financial network Cheddar go local?
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Sydney Ember and Brooks Barnes
Disney ends its ban on Los Angeles Times critics getting film screenings amid fierce backlash →
“Disney's change of course came after a number of news outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and the A.V. Club, said they were boycotting advance screenings of Disney films in solidarity.”
Open Society Foundations / Maria Teresa Ronderos
13 journalism sites that will keep you up to date with the latest industry developments →
Including some good non-U.S./U.K. options.
Poynter / Daniel Funke
Weeks after his death, most of Paul Horner’s fake news sites are down. So what’s left? →
“According to an analysis conducted by Poynter, at least 20 fake news websites registered in Horner's name have gone offline since his death. None of the domains had expired as of his death Sept. 18, and only four have since then, according to the query protocol service Whois.com.”
Citizen Lab / Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Lotus Ruan, Jakub Dalek, and Jeffrey Knockel
What you can’t say about the 19th National Communist Party Congress on WeChat →
“Surprisingly, we found that even neutral references to official party policies and ideology were blocked in addition to references to the Congress, party leaders, and power struggles within the Communist Party of China.”
The Information / Juro Osawa, Serena Saitto, and Jessica E. Lessin
China’s Jinri Toutiao tried to buy Reddit last year →
“The previously unreported move reveals the Chinese company's ambitions to become a global media juggernaut, according to people familiar with the matter…More broadly, Toutiao’s management team has been studying the U.S. market and building relationships with US media company executives.”
Facebook / Hossam Tewfik
Facebook introduces “one-click control” for recirculating ads in Instant Articles →
“Today's public rollout of recirculation ads and the launch of the monetization tab are direct responses to the feedback we have heard from publishers asking for additional opportunities and more control over how they monetize their content in Instant Articles.”
BBC News
A Facebook test promoted comments containing the word ‘fake’ to the top of news feeds →
“The trial, which Facebook says has now concluded, aimed to prioritize ‘comments that indicate disbelief.’ It meant feeds from the BBC, the Economist, the New York Times and the Guardian all began with a comment mentioning the word fake.”
The Verge / Natt Garun
What is Broadcom, and why is it trying to buy Qualcomm? →
“Amid its legal battles with Apple and the United States Federal Trade Commission, chipmaker Qualcomm was offered an unsolicited bid by Broadcom for a $130 billion acquisition.”
Recode / Kurt Wagner
Ahead of Q3 earnings report, Snap's business isn't growing as fast as Wall Street once hoped →
Yesterday’s widespread service outage didn’t help.
CityLab / Julia Wick
Everyone should fear what happened to the Gothamist sites →
From the former editor-in-chief of LAist: “Some of the work we did might have seemed small, but the ‘small’ local stories we covered would often end up being part of larger patterns and louder stories—stories that our coverage helped build, and flesh out with context and nuance.”
The Intercept / David Dayen
How Twitter secretly benefits from bots and fake accounts →
An argument that Twitter’s bot problem is a lot like Wells Fargo’s fraud scandal.