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Tuesday, November 1, 2016
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As The Verge turns five, here’s how it’s thinking about building a news site for the distributed age“The way I’m thinking about it right now is that we’ve moved from RSS readers and desktop web to very much having our stuff mediated by a series of icons on homescreens.” By Joseph Lichterman. |
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Hot Pod: Will 60dB’s algorithms and user experience give it a lead over other audio platforms?Plus: Gimlet announces a new slate of shows, NPR focuses on internal talent development, and Audible puts one of its shows outside the paywall. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Medium / Michael Sippey
Public-chat app Talkshow is already shutting down →
“While we have enjoyed the conversations that have happened on Talkshow, and are grateful for the community that has formed around the product, we don't see it getting big enough to have the impact we had hoped for…while Talkshow the product is shutting down, the company lives on…and we're working on something new.”
WAN-IFRA / Anton Jolkovski
Dallas Morning News Editor Mike Wilson on their evolving newsroom →
“The most important change we made is we put the breaking news team, the audience team and the photo/video team in the center of the newsroom. The rest of the newsroom is arranged a bit more haphazardly.”
The White House / Kori Schulman
Obama won’t get to take the @POTUS Twitter handle with him after his term ends →
“On Twitter, for example, the handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. The account will retain its more than 11 million followers, but start with no tweets on the timeline.”
Instapaper
Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone →
Includes “Send to Kindle” via bookmarklet and mobile apps, no ads, etc.
Montreal Gazette / Karen Seidman and Paul Cherry
Montreal police tracked a journalist using his phone →
“Montreal police strongly defended a highly controversial decision to spy on a La Presse columnist by tracking his cellphone calls and texts and monitoring his whereabouts as part of a necessary internal police investigation — while the journalist involved called what they did ‘indefensible.'”
Lifehacker / Eric Ravenscraft
The Daily Mixer wants to get you to read the news before you know the source →
“The site takes the RSS feeds of thirteen different news outlets across the political spectrum and puts them on a single feed with no labels for where the stories came from. Once you get to the end of a story, you can click the source link to go to the original site to see where it came from.”
Poynter / Rick Edmonds
Native ads will provide 25 percent of ad revenues by 2018, says media association →
“I’m guessing that those who chose to respond may have skewed to outfits heavily into native advertising, but the result is still testimony to the fast rise and strong prospects of the format.”
Journalist's Resource / David Trilling
How news photos sway support for foreign wars →
“Regarding ISIS, respondents who view peacekeeping photos are roughly 10 percentage points more likely to support intervention” than those who saw photos of soldiers with weapons.
Association for Computational Linguistics / Erika Varis Doggett and Alejandro Cantarero
New paper: Identifying Eyewitness News-Worthy Events on Twitter →
“By applying these steps we can extract a complete picture of the event as it occurs in real-time, sourced entirely from social media.”
The Washington Post / Lazaro Gamio
Election maps are telling you big lies about small things →
“Part of the goal is to keep a map that is recognizable, but map the area to the value you’re interested in.”
ProPublica / Scott Klein
ProPublica is taking over several of Sunlight Labs’ projects →
“We're sad to see Sunlight Labs shut down, but we remain convinced of the power of data to help regular people scrutinize their government, live better lives, and to understand their world. We're grateful to the Sunlight board for entrusting us with these projects, and we're eager to help see that the mission that animated their creation continues.”
Sunlight Foundation / Kat Duffy
ProPublica and The Marshall Project are among the other nonprofits stepping in to take over some of Sunlight Labs’ tools →
“As many in our community know, taking on someone else's open source project is akin to adopting a pet. It's an act of love, and it's likely to be messy while everyone figures out how to make things work day to day. “
CNN
CNN adds stories from its on-air coverage to Amazon Echo →
“We are aggressive in the voice service space because we believe that Amazon Echo and other services like it can be a powerful way to deliver real-time, personal news to our audience.”
The Wall Street Journal / Christina Passariello
Facebook: Media company or technology platform? →
“A media company is about the stories that it tells. A technology company is about the tools that it builds.”
Politico / Joe Pompeo
The Wall Street Journal is an anxious place →
“Serious belt-tightening is now underway, apparently triggered by a recent decline in print advertising that was more dramatic than anticipated — a familiar theme this year at newspapers in the U.S. and Great Britain. A source briefed on company financials said the Journal has recently been about 30 percent off budget.”
Bloomberg / Paul Barbagallo
The Gannett/Tronc deal collapsed over financing →
“The companies' handshake deal early last month, in which Gannett would buy Tronc for about $18.75 a share, collapsed when bankers wouldn't line up to fund the transaction, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.”
The New York Times / Leslie Picker and Sydney Ember
Gannett abandons its effort to buy Tronc →
“In a statement released Tuesday morning, Gannett said that the acquisition was an attractive opportunity but ‘in the end the terms were not acceptable.’ Tronc shares plunged nearly 30 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday on the news. Gannett shares were up 6 percent.”
The Guardian / Mark Sweney
Thomson Reuters to cut 2,000 jobs worldwide →
“‘We do not expect any impact on headcount in the newsroom,’ said a spokesman for the company.”