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Friday, September 23, 2016
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Slate, now 20 years old, reflects on the value of taking the long view and not chasing digital media trends“One of the things you’ve seen across the marketplace for the last five years is a lot of companies are chasing the same kind of traffic from the same social distribution mechanisms…It’s not a recipe for producing a distinctive media brand.” By Shan Wang. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Sydney Ember
Jim VandeHei is working with NowThis to produce a Snapchat channel covering the U.S. election →
“The channel is separate from Mr. VandeHei's new media company, as yet unnamed, which has raised $10 million and will cover a wide range of subjects, including technology, business, media and politics. But there is a link between the two: Kenneth Lerer's firm, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, is an investor in both NowThis, whose short videos are all over social platforms including Facebook and Instagram, and Mr. VandeHei's new company.”
Fast Company / Chris Chafin
This American Fight →
“When This American Life signed a deal with Pandora, it amplified a raucous, behind-the-scenes debate over the future of public radio.”
Quartz / Josh Horwitz
China’s booming virtual reality arcades are bringing the niche technology to the masses →
Most of them charge users a fee to wear a headset and experience VR for a set amount of time, eliminating the need for consumers to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy gear themselves.
CNBC / CNBC.com staff
Twitter is reportedly in talks with bidders like Google and Salesforce for potential sale →
“Twitter’s board of directors is said to be largely desirous of a deal, according to people close to the situation, but no sale is imminent. There’s no assurance a deal will materialize, but one source close to the conversations said that they are picking up momentum and could result in a deal before year-end.”
Disqus / Tony Hue
Disqus is now compatible with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project →
You can implement Disqus by using the amp-iframe component in your AMP page template. For complete details of the installation steps, check out the documentation on Github.
PRX / Maggie Taylor
PRX is launching a podcast training project for public media stations, with a $1 million grant from CPB →
Five stations will be selected to participate in a 20-week curriculum to develop new skills. PRX will provide technical training in key areas where broadcast and podcast strategies diverge. At the end of the curriculum, each station, in co-production with PRX, will launch a new podcast.
Ad Week / Chris O'Shea
CNN Digital hires Marcus Mabry as director of its mobile and off-platform team →
Marby is joining CNN from Twitter where he ran the platform’s Moments feature in the United States and Canada. CNN also today announced the hire of former Wall Street Journal editor Christina Cuesta Kline as a senior editor for mobile.
The Financial Times / Hannah Kuchler
Instagram now has 500,000 advertisers on its platform →
It’s been a year since it opened up advertising in more than 200 countries. Instagram also recently launched its own knockoff of Snapchat stories, which brands have experimented with, but that feature is not yet open to paid advertising.
Politico / Kelsey Sutton
USA Today Network launches get-out-the-vote campaign →
“And, of course, the initiative is also an opportunity to introduce participants to the work of USA Today and Gannett's local publications. The hub will pull together political news stories from all of the properties under the USA Today Network umbrella, and participants will get access to USA Today's morning political newsletter, For The Record. Yost says the hope is to attract new readers and subscribers interested in the political coverage from USA Today Networks' titles.”
Digiday / Lucia Moses
News Corp is testing a homegrown content recommendation tool →
“The initiative, called Project Hamilton, collects relevant articles from the publications and runs them at the bottom of individual articles. The story module is running on MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Realtor.com and parts of The Wall Street Journal. It does not include sponsor content.”
National Geographic News
The first issue of National Geographic was published 128 years ago this week →
“Volume One, Number One of National Geographic, printed in New Haven, Connecticut, with a cover price of 50 cents, was a very staid affair. Its chestnut brown paper cover lacked the distinctive yellow border (that wouldn’t appear until 1910), and not a single photograph was included within its 98 pages (that wouldn’t happen until 1905).”
The Information / Tom Dotan
Pressured by Google and Facebook, news sites slim down →
“News sites are working to reduce "ad tags," those pesky bits of code that clog mobile webpages and slow down loading times. The challenge they face is doing so without hurting advertising revenue.”
The Financial Times / Matthew Garrahan
Tabloids need more than Brangelina boosts →
“Over the past decade, print sales have sharply declined, accompanied more recently by shrinking ad sales. It is similarly tough online — even for scoopmeisters like TMZ, which is free to read, like most of its competitors.”
Politico / Peter Sterne
Guardian U.S. lost $15.85 million on revenue of $15.5 million last year →
“Late last year, Guardian U.S. CEO Eamonn Store laid out the company’s revenue projections for the next two years — $32.2 million in fiscal year 2016–17 (i.e. the 12 month period ending April 2017) and $44 million for fiscal year 2017–18. That would allow Guardian U.S. to finally break even by April 2018.”