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Friday, March 11, 2016
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The Boston Globe is shutting down its Catholic vertical Crux, citing a shortfall in advertisingBut the site may live on under other management. “We simply haven't been able to develop the financial model of big-ticket, Catholic-based advertisers that was envisioned when we launched Crux back in September 2014.” By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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The Washington Post is trying to make it easier to read long featuresIn a feature that came out this week, the Post introduced a number of tools that let readers bookmark their place in a story and come back to it. By Joseph Lichterman. |
What We’re Reading
The Guardian
The Guardian asks its readers why they use adblockers →
“I have a lot of sympathy for publishers losing revenue, I really do, but I've yet to hear a case convincing enough that I'm willing to give up my adblocker.”
Digiday / Jordan Valinsky
A day in the life of The New York Times’ first VR editor →
"I'm the first full-time virtual reality editor at any publisher, so nobody knows that that means”
The Washington Post / Julia Beizer and staff
How The Washington Post built a virtual reality feature for the Web →
“If this technology becomes one of the new ways we bring readers into our stories, we didn't want to limit our audience to only those with headsets.”
Wall Street Journal / Sarah E. Needleman
Gannett plans a VR news show to launch this spring →
VRtually There “will be the first regular news program developed for VR. Initially the content will be designed for viewing on a low-cost VR device, such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google Cardboard, which retails for about $15.”
The Guardian
Opera adds built-in adblocker to its browser →
“Because it is building the feature directly into its browser, page-load times are 40% faster than with existing adblocker plugins or browser extensions, the company claims.”
Garcia Media / Mario Garcia
New products: real ones and some on my students’ wish lists →
“I was looking forward to judging the 8 entries in the WAN IFRA Digital Media competition, some of which I show here.”
Digiday / Brian Morrissey
Slate’s Keith Hernandez: Being all-in on platforms isn’t feasible for most publishers →
“While many publishers are building out Snapchat content teams…[Slate] poured resources into podcasting.”
Poynter / Alexios Mantzarlis
Univision launches a Spanish-language, U.S. fact-checking project →
The project, “Detector de Mentiras,” will “‘put a focus on issues that are central to the Hispanic population’ such as immigration, education and health care.”
From Fuego
The Scrum: Video Emerges to Suggest WaPo Reporter Ben Terris Misidentifies Lewandowski in Fields Incident – Breitbart —www.breitbart.com
Washington Post reporter rebuts Breitbart story about possible mistaken identity in Michelle Fields incident —www.washingtonpost.com
GM Buying Self-Driving Tech Startup for More Than $1 Billion —fortune.com
MediaShift Podcast #189: Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker; Rave on Amazon Echo; Sarah Frank from NowThis —mediashift.org
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.