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Thursday, February 11, 2016
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With an interface that looks like a chat platform, Quartz wants to text you the news in its new app“The content type is always messages, and that's always true whether you're getting the message inside the app or as a notification.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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Can the Business Insider diet of irreverent, shareable finance and tech stories take off in Germany?Business Insider Deutschland, one of eight other BI editions outside the U.S. and a growing part of the BI “international newsroom,” is doubling its staff and expanding original coverage. By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Mike Nakhimovich
How The New York Times improved the startup time of its Android app →
From 5.6 seconds to 1.6 seconds on a Nexus 5.
Ad Age / Jeremy Barr
Midroll and MailChimp are trying out product placement in podcasts →
“In the episode, one character, a junior sports agent, asks her assistant: “Can you go over the mailing list from MailChimp for next month’s fundraiser? ” (It’s a brief mention.)”
WSJ / Jack Marshall
It’s getting easier to generate ad revenue from Facebook Instant Articles →
"A lot has changed," said Joe Speiser, co-founder of LittleThings.com, which publishes stories and videos optimized for social sharing. "The biggest stumbling block with Instant Articles was that we were making less there than with visits to our own site. We are now seeing parity with our mobile Web version," he said.
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
As local retail declines, it’s taking local news with it →
At McClatchy, the shift to online retail led to a 22 percent drop in preprint insert advertising.
Fast Company / Rose Pastore
The number of Twitter users did not grow at all in the final quarter of 2015 →
“Excluding SMS Fast Followers, who access Twitter solely via text message, the total number of monthly active users actually declined, from 307 million to 305 million. In the United States, the number of active users fell from 66 million to 65 million.”
Fact Magazine / Scott Wilson
Report: SoundCloud could be forced to close amid ongoing losses →
Its auditor says it’s dependent on further outside investment to continue.
The Guardian / Jasper Jackson
Myspace has been bought by Time Inc.; only seven more top friends to go →
The deal’s for user data: “Though MySpace is a shadow of its former self, Viant [its corporate parent] claims to have data from 1 billion registered users. Time and Viant say they plan to combine that data with its own subscriber information, providing it with a pool of data which it claims ‘rivals industry leaders Facebook and Google.'”
The Guardian / Mark Sweney and Luke Harding
The owner of The Independent is considering abandoning print →
“Evgeny Lebedev and his top lieutenants have not yet made a final decision, however it is widely expected that they will cease printing the 30-year old newspaper, leading to significant job losses.”
From Fuego
Gravitational Waves Exist: Here’s How Scientists Finally Found Them – The New Yorker —www.newyorker.com
With Quartz’s App, You Don’t Read the News. You Chat With It —www.wired.com
Time Inc buys what is left of MySpace for its user data —www.theguardian.com
Fuego is our heat-seeking Twitter bot, tracking the stories the future-of-journalism crowd is talking about most. Usually those are about journalism and technology, although sometimes they get distracted by politics, sports, or GIFs. (No humans were involved in this listing, and linking is not endorsing.) Check out Fuego on the web to get up-to-the-minute news.