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Friday, March 4, 2016
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This.cm wants to deliver the only links you’ll really read each evening“We don’t want to be a social newspaper, but a social magazine.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
ProPublica
ProPublica is using Genius to annotate information on Navy ships that might help Vietnam vets obtain benefits →
The investigative outfit is using the annotation tool to collection information on more than 700 ships that either saw combat in Vietnam or whose activities may have exposed it to Agent Orange.
Journalism.co.uk / Catalina Albeanu
Calling its tablet edition a success, La Presse doesn’t plan to focus on smartphones →
La Presse publisher Guy Crevier said he hasn’t seen a business model that works on mobile. “We didn’t want to compete with these people, that’s why we have the tablet product. Maybe they will grab 50 or 60 percent of the market, but we want to be the best one of the 40 percent that’s left.”
The Wall Street Journal / Rolfe Winkler and Douglas MacMillan
Snapchat raises $175 million from Fidelity at the same $16 billion valuation from one year ago →
The messaging company’s inability to raise funds at a higher valuation than a year ago may be a sign investors have grown more cautious about the company's prospects.
BBC News / Dave Lee
Inside Medium: an attempt to bring civility to the internet →
“We are going to take things down that are unsafe, that are hate speech, that are harassment. It’s not a legal obligation, it’s an obligation to the ecosystem of the site.”
Business Insider / Lara O'Reilly
Taboola is launching a tool that will let publishers know whether Facebook or Google is earning them more money →
“The move will likely be welcomed by publishers who are looking to assess whether a Facebook user, for example, is worth more than someone arriving in via a Google search result. There are plenty of tools out there, like Chartbeat or Google Analytics, that publishers can use to get a sense of where their traffic is coming from, but the new Taboola tool should, in principle, make it easier to assess the relative value of each of those types of referrals.”
Reuters / Alastair Sharp
The Toronto Star expects its tablet edition to break even in 2017 →
The Star Touch tablet edition, introduced five months ago, “has been downloaded 200,000 times and has 65,000 weekly and 26,000 daily users, who typically spend more than 22 minutes a day on it.” The publisher “expects the venture to break even in 2017.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
Trinity Mirror and The Telegraph test blocking the ad blockers →
“In the main, people turn them off.”
IJNET / Sam Berkhead
An interview with the editor of The Guardian’s Mobile Innovation Lab →
“I think if we’re successful in our mission, we’ll do things that don’t work, that people don’t respond to or that fall flat, which is a weird way of saying that success is failure,” said editor Sasha Koren.
Business Insider / Will Heilpern
What the editors of The Sun and The Guardian think about the future of newspapers →
“Last year, the revenue we got from print readers actually went up.”
Talking Biz News / Chris Roush
Investor’s Business Daily to become a weekly →
“IBD has been profitable, but we recognize that readership trends don’t favor daily newspapers.”
New York Times / K.J. Dell
The New York Times rebrands its parenting blog, Motherlode, as “Well Family” →
“The Times is introducing Well Family, a new online report with expanded coverage of parenting, childhood health and relationships to help every family live well. While the name ‘Motherlode’ will be retired, the Motherlode team will be moving to Well, where you'll still find my weekly columns, as well as regular contributions from your favorite Motherlode writers, including the child psychologist and best-selling author Lisa Damour, The Times's Your Money columnist Ron Lieber and the educator Jessica Lahey.”
MediaShift / Sonya Song
Chartbeat study: How news consumption gets less diverse around major events →
“People generally receive more diverse content through Google searches than through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. During major events like the Paris attacks, people rush to a few brand-name media outlets for updates and this kind of news consumption appears the least diverse for all the referrers.”
Marketing Land / Tim Peterson
Facebook is reportedly planning to open Messenger up to publishers →
“Facebook Messenger will soon let publishers distribute their content automatically through the social network's messaging service, according to three people familiar with the company's plans. Facebook plans to announce the move with a number of participating publishers in April at its annual developer conference F8, the people said.”
Online News Association / Trevor Knoblich
Want to present at ONA? You can now submit ideas for panels →
The deadline is March 31. ONA’s annual conference will be in Denver this year from Sept. 15-17.
Current.org / Henry Schneider
Podcasts tied to TV shows pave way for larger strategy at WGBH →
The Masterpiece podcast, which recently featured “Talking Downton” roundtable discussions, has been downloaded and streamed over 1 million times in less than 2 months.
From Fuego
ONA supports Apple in fighting FBI’s ‘master key’ demands —journalists.org
Trump Reverses His Stance on Torture —www.wsj.com
Reporter, Facebook Stories – PRO Unlimited @ facebook – Job Board —pro.applytojob.com
Digital Media Brief March 4 by MediaShift Podcast —soundcloud.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.