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Tuesday, August 2, 2016
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Google AMP is about to become a much bigger deal, showing up in everybody’s mobile search results“Make the web great again,” Richard Gingras, Google’s head of news and social products, joked. (Or was it a joke?) By Shan Wang. |
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The New York Times is publishing a print-only novel excerpt this Sunday“The New York Times audience is full of voracious readers, not only of quality journalism but also of important works of fiction as well…We plan to offer more selected works of fiction in the future.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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Hot Pod: How can news organizations better prepare the next generation of editors?Plus: Best of Car Talk will sign off next year, the early days of podcasts in France, and the value of dedicated spaces for local podcast recording. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Instagram
Instagram introduces “Instagram Stories,” takes cues from Snapchat →
“With Instagram Stories, you don't have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want.”
Digiday / Grace Caffyn
Giphy sees opportunity in live-events GIFs →
“Giphy started life as a search engine for GIFs, but now it's looking to become a real-time branded-content platform.”
Medium / Embedly
Embedly has been acquired by Medium →
Embedly’s used by publishers and others to gather and present information about articles (headlines, authors, art).
Bloomberg / Leila Abboud
How Facebook beat the adblockers →
“The ads within the mobile Facebook app (and its photo-sharing app Instagram) can’t be stripped out by blockers. They’re delivered by Facebook servers with none of the usual identifiers.”
The Wall Street Journal / Yoree Koh
The NFL is getting a Snapchat Discover channel →
“The two parties have extended a partnership that adds the NFL to Snapchat's roster of Discover partners, making it the first sports league to get a media channel on the popular messaging app when its season starts this fall. The NFL will compile news analysis and behind-the-scenes shots catered to the brief, animation-friendly delivery format that resonates on Snapchat.”
Kickstarter / City Bureau
Chicago’s City Bureau is launching a Kickstarter to expand its programming →
We profiled City Bureau earlier this year: It’s “a community newsroom on the city's South and West Sides that helps high school– and college-aged youth to cover their neighborhoods while receiving mentorship and journalism training.”
Storybench / Felippe Rodrigues
As the 2016 Olympics approach, here’s a look back at how The New York Times prepared for the 2014 Sochi Games →
“More than six months before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, The New York Times began planning their coverage of the event. With a team of almost thirty people, the award-wining digital graphics department eventually created a mosaic of scroll-through interactives, embedded video, three-dimensional graphics, interviews and explanatory captions.”
Ad Age / Jeremy Barr
Digital publishers continue their slow march toward TV →
“For digital publishers, TV is seen as a great opportunity to reach a huge new audience and potentially make a lot of money from advertising and licensing deals in the process, at a time when the industry is looking for new revenue streams.”
The Drum / Jessica Goodfellow
Six major British newspaper groups are looking into a joint ad sales venture →
“In discussion is the joining up of advertising sales operation across of all the newspapers' assets in print, digital and mobile, combined with the centralisation of all their data sources.”
Digiday / Lucinda Southern
How Germany’s Bild is using VR and 360-degree video for breaking news →
"The goal is to reduce post-production from something like five weeks to one day to use full VR in breaking news-environment, that's something we are working on." said Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief Bild Digital. The aim is to be able to do this in time for the U.S. election on November. "It's obviously ambitious, but it's realistic, at least the news will still be relevant for a few days."
Journalism.co.uk / Caroline Scott
6 ways India’s Hindustan Times is using Snapchat as a content management system →
“The publisher has found many ways of utilising the platform to improve its output and manage the workflow of its growing team of mobile journalists”
IDC
Tablet shipments dropped 12% in Q2 worldwide →
Apple leads with 25.8% global market share, followed by Samsung (15.6%), Lenovo (6.6%), Huawei (5.6%), and Amazon (4.0%).
Poynter / Butch Ward
The lessons of breaking news coverage can make your newsroom better every day →
“How can they collaborate more, create a more involved and inclusive atmosphere, take more risks and produce coverage that more often connects with their community?”
Wired / Davey Alba
Facebook isn’t just good at mobile. It’s how mobile works now →
“On an average day in June, the company said, more than 1 billion people across the world accessed Facebook using a mobile device. Mobile ads generate 84 percent of the company's ad revenue.”
Nytimes / Sydney Ember
Vice is launching its nightly news show on HBO on Sept. 26 →
“The show, called "Vice News Tonight," will run weeknights for 48 weeks a year. Josh Tyrangiel, who was previously the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek and chief content officer for Bloomberg Media, was hired by Vice last October to oversee the show.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Shelley Hepworth
Exit interview: Aron Pilhofer on the digital landscape, buyouts at The Guardian →
“Last week, The Financial Times reported that more than 250 staff had taken voluntary buyouts as part of cost-cutting measures. Amid the news, Pilhofer announced—separately from the buyouts—that he will be leaving the organization in October to take up the James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University.”
Ad Age / Garett Sloane
Facebook is testing midroll ads in Facebook Live →
“The ads are eligible to appear five minutes into a broadcast, and they last up to 15 seconds or shorter, according to one agency executive, who has discussed the ads with Facebook.”
International News Media Association / Grzegorz Piechota
What do Facebook’s algorithm patents reveal about how its News Feed works? →
Patents confirm that it prioritizes stories from a user’s personal life (births, graduations, new jobs). Facebook also takes into account something it calls "a reputation metric of a publishing entity."
Medium / Breaking News
How publishers can boost traffic to their original breaking stories →
“More than 400 publishers are Breaking News partners, but some aren’t taking full advantage of it. Here’s how it works.”
NPR / Rob Byers
Public radio reporters share their favorite mics →
“Here's what a few public radio reporters told us they recently used, along with some pros and cons (some answers have been lightly edited for clarity)”