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Thursday, April 14, 2016
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Newsonomics: With new roadblocks for digital news sites, what happens next?The digital startups were supposed to figure out how to replace the legacy news outlets. Now they’re facing their own headwinds. By Ken Doctor. |
What We’re Reading
Advertising Age / Jeremy Barr
E.W. Scripps acquires humor brand Cracked from Demand Media for $39 million →
The plan is to accelerate Cracked’s development of video and audio content that can be consumed through over-the-top services, according to Adam Symson, Scripps chief digital officer.
Capitalnewyork
The New Republic editor Gabriel Snyder is leaving the magazine →
While Snyder diversified TNR's newsroom, grew its web traffic, and positioned it to appeal to a younger audience, the sense internally is that new owner Win McCormack is more interested in returning TNR to an earlier era, Politico reports.
Motherboard / Sarah Jeong
Matthew Keys sentenced to 2 years in prison for giving a Tribune CMS password to hackers →
“An unknown person under the username ‘sharpie’ then went on to log into the CMS and deface a Los Angeles Times article. The article's headline and dek (the subtitle beneath the headline) remained defaced for about forty minutes before an editor noticed and changed it back.”
The Information / Amir Efrati and Cory Weinberg
Facebook and Twitter are pressuring publishers to stop promoting their Snapchats so much →
“In March, another prominent U.S. media company received a carefully worded email from a Facebook employee who suggested the company stop using a Snapcode as its Facebook profile picture. The Facebook employee implied that people would be less likely to click on the company's posts in News Feed if it didn't do so, according to a copy of the email viewed by The Information.”
The New York Times / Sydney Ember
The New York Times plans to spend $50 million over the next 3 years on international expansion →
The Times launched a Spanish-language news site earlier this year.
Medium / Kai Brach
Lessons learned in creating a sustainable independent print magazine →
Advice on content (how many stories should go in the inaugural issue?), production (which paper stock? What type of binding?), distribution (shipping copies to readers?), website (how do you nurture an online community?), and more.
JournalismJobs.com
The Denver Post is hiring a data journalist for its cannabis site →
“The reporter does not need to be located in Colorado but needs to be in a hotbed of legal cannabis discussion, including but not limited to Oregon, Washington state, California, Washington, D.C., or certain Canadian cities…As with every Denver Post position, a qualified candidate must successfully pass a drug test.”
New York Times Co.
The New York Times Magazine made a Minecraft world for a story →
“To play, you'll need a computer with Minecraft and a child who's familiar with the game.”
Financial Times / Hannah Kuchler
Facebook wants its bot platform to transform entire industries →
"Maybe what we're starting to build today will enable companies to build experiences of tomorrow that are a lot easier to use."
Current / Tyler Falk
NPR is reconsidering its formula for collecting programming and other fees from member stations →
Starting next fiscal year, all member stations will pay 3.5 percent more for newsmagazines, membership dues, Digital Services and fees for some non-newsmagazine programs, according to Tom Thomas, CEO of the Station Resource Group. NPR itself declined to confirm the percentage increase.
Business Insider / Nathan McAlone
Survey says: Teens are ditching Instagram for Snapchat at a stunning rate →
According to a survey of 6,500 U.S. teens by Piper Jaffray, 27 percent of teens now consider Instagram their most important social network, down from 33 percent last fall. For Snapchat, it’s 28 percent of teens, up from just 19 percent last fall.
Digiday / Jessica Davies
The UK digital ad market is holding up to challenges →
Digital ad spending in the U.K. grew 16.4 percent year on year to £8.6 billion ($12.2 billion) last year, predominantly driven by mobile, which accounted for almost 80 percent of the growth, according to an IAB/PwC Digital Ad Spend study released Thursday.
BuzzFeed / Matthew Zeitlin
Hundreds of jobs lost in the digital media bloodbath →
Online audiences have never been larger or easier to reach. But making money off them is proving trickier.
Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott
The challenges of making online video pay →
“We are spending a lot of time trying to understand there is a certain type of person that watches video and there are lots of people that never watch video,” said Vox’s Lindsay Nelson.
Above the Law
The law news site Above the Law is killing comments →
“Today the comments are not what they once were. Although occasionally insightful or funny, ATL comments nowadays are generally fewer in number, not very substantive (often just inside jokes among the commentariat), yet still often offensive. “
Digiday / Jordan Valinsky
HuffPost joins Snapchat Discover for 24 hours to promote sleep →
“HuffPost is the first real publisher to get a Discover pop-up channel. Publisher and commerce platform Brit + Co had a channel focusing on crafts over the holidays and brands, like Burberry and Sony have purchased these channels.”
From Fuego
Facebook and Twitter Pressure Partners Over Snapchat —www.theinformation.com
NYT Mag Cover Story on Minecraft Includes New Interactive World Within Minecraft | The New York Times Company —www.nytco.com
How an army of pro-Donald Trump trolls are taking over Reddit —www.msnbc.com
Brown-Philpot Tapped as New TaskRabbit CEO —recode.net
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.