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Thursday, August 11, 2016
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“It feels antiquated”: The job of the publisher is evolving (and even disappearing) at media companies“When you hear it, you think of someone at a company publishing books or periodicals. We’re a digital-first company now, and the job titles should reflect that.” By Ricardo Bilton. |
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How 3 publishers are using Instagram stories for visually compelling storytellingDespite their similar functions, media outlets are using different strategies when it comes to Instagram Stories versus Snapchat. By Taylyn Washington-Harmon. |
What We’re Reading
Politico / Alex Spence
British media’s Brexit bounce →
According to U.K.'s Audit Bureau of Circulations data, in June “British consumers bought an average of 90,000 newspapers a day more than they had in May.” Publishers like The Guardian saw record traffic to their websites.
The Verge / Jacob Kastrenakes
Adblock Plus has already defeated Facebook’s new ad blocking restrictions →
Facebook announced on Tuesday it would be showing adblocker-proof ads. By Thursday, Adblock Plus found a workaround, but Facebook says regular non-ad posts are also being removed, and is “planning to address the issue.”
Pew Research Center / Alex T. Williams
Newspaper companies lag behind their broadcast siblings after spinoffs →
Gannett’s 2014 operating profit margin was 39 percent. After it spun off its broadcast assets into a separate company called Tegna in 2015, Tegna maintained an operating profit margin of 37 percent. Its publishing-only sibling Gannett? 13 percent.
The New York Times / Richard Sandomir
NBC Olympics TV viewership among 18- to 34-year-olds is down 32 percent from 2012 →
“Although NBC's prime-time broadcast is falling short of expectations — and will almost certainly require the network to offer free commercial time to make up for the lower viewership — it is still giving NBCUniversal, a part of Comcast, what it craves: large, smashing victories over CBS, Fox and ABC.”
WWD / Maghan McDowell
Facebook and Instagram dominate as top social media networks for the magazine industry →
“According to the Magazine Media 360° Social Media Report, Facebook is the clear leader, claiming almost half of the total magazine media industry likes and followers on social networks and platforms.”
Vice / Daniel Tepper
This is (one place) where war reporters go to learn how to stay alive on the front lines →
“The course teaches participants how to treat everything from bee stings to blast injuries, and almost 300 freelancers have taken the course in New York, London, Nairobi, Kiev, and Kosovo since it began in 2012.”
BuzzFeed / Charlie Warzel
Inside Twitter’s 10-year failure to stop harassment →
“Twitter has, over a chaotic first decade marked by shifting business priorities and institutional confusion, allowed abuse and harassment to continue to grow as a chronic problem and perpetual secondary internal priority. On Twitter, abuse is not just a bug, but — to use the Silicon Valley term of art — a fundamental feature.”
Medium / Brittany Hoffman
How Snapchat can keep up with Instagram Stories →
“I have a lot of respect for what Snapchat has done, but unless they start putting compelling quality content I can't find anywhere else, my personal attention is no longer there”
fipp.com
How native ads killed the banner ad as the primary display unit →
“Native ads have supplanted banners as the primary display medium, and with more attention, higher clickthrough rates and lower effective costs, that's great news for brand advertisers.”
Recode / Peter Kafka
Turner and Scripps are investing $45 million in digital publisher Refinery29 →
Turner and Refinery29 will create content together, that will run on Refinery29 and could also run on Turner’s TV channels.
New York Post / Claire Atkinson
The New York Post: The New York Times is weighing ending its print Sunday magazine →
"This is nothing more than very badly informed rumor and speculation," a Times spokeswoman responded.
Digiday / Sahil Patel
‘E! News’ is betting on Facebook Live and Snapchat Discover →
"We've centralized leadership overseeing content, production, technology, social, everything in order to have a unified strategy.”
Digiday / Jessica Davies
Politico’s Brexit strategy will become blueprint for future expansion plays →
"We hadn't laid much of a base in the U.K. [audience-wise] before Brexit. For Politico, it was a great opportunity because people needed to know about the kind of Brussels stories we report on every day.”
Politico / Kelsey Sutton
Sources: The new Salon will have a lot less political writing and a lot more culture, lifestyle, and business →
According to one person who worked with Salon’s newly appointed CEO Jordan Hoffner, the politics section “will be gutted after the November election.”