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Friday, June 30, 2017
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If you think nobody’s shared any fake news with you recently, maybe you should think harderPlus: How information overload makes fake news worse, the similarities between investigative journalists and people who spread conspiracy theories, and a Vox infographic that wasn’t. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
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There is a Swedish city where the CueCat lives on as a monument to media’s digital failures“I think the learning story there is that you should think about the consumer when you develop a product, because nobody wanted to read the magazine in front of the computer.” By Jake Batsell. |
What We’re Reading
The New York Times / Melissa Eddy and Mark Scott
Delete hate speech or pay up, Germany tells social media companies →
“Social media companies operating in Germany face fines of as much as $57 million if they do not delete illegal, racist or slanderous comments and posts within 24 hours, under a law passed on Friday.”
Poynter / Benjamin Mullin
With big plans to staff up, ThinkProgress is the latest publisher to leave Medium →
In doing so, ThinkProgress joins an exodus away from Medium that began early this year after the company announced that it was laying off 50 staffers in a pivot away from advertising-supported publishing. Several of Medium’s marquee publishers, including Pacific Standard, The Ringer and Film School Rejects have already left, citing chagrin with the company’s new direction.
Spin / Jordan Sargent
MTV News: The good, the bad, and the contradictory of an ill-fated experiment →
“While the staff believed it did ‘amazing work,’ MTV ‘lives and dies with its relationships and talent’ which meant that critical journalism and voice-driven opinion writing ‘never really had a shot’ there.”
Financial Times / Matthew Garrahan
The Wall Street Journal is reportedly cutting its print edition in Europe →
“Free copies and unprofitable hotel ‘amenity deals,’ where hotels buy bulk copies at a discount, are also being scrapped.”
Poynter / Kristen Hare
The Houston Chronicle has a BBQ podcast, and big plans for turning niche audiences into subscribers →
“Lisa Gray, editor for the Chronicle’s web magazine Gray Matters, is now part of the paper’s niche strategy team. One of the keys, she said, is realizing that not everyone has to do everything. Now, they're trying to figure out: Who's good at podcasts? Who can shine with a newsletter? What tools work with each specific journalist?”
Digiday / Max Willens
Amazon’s new video device, Echo Show, is getting some publisher attention →
"With all of these platforms, it does pay to be a first mover. When people install [these devices] and set them up, if you're not there, a lot of people don't go back."
GeekWire / Kurt Schlosser
Zillow drops its complaint against architecture criticism Tumblr ‘McMansion Hell’ after backlash over copyright claims →
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation called Zillow's legal complaints ‘baseless’ and its allegations ‘unfounded and unsupportable’ and laid out a variety of legal arguments for why Kate Wagner’s blog McMansion Hell was not bound by Zillow's terms of use and why her use of photographs sourced from Zillow are indeed protected by fair use.”
BuzzFeed / Steven Perlberg
The News Corp-owned conservative outlet Heat Street is folding →
“The operation will be restructured under the MarketWatch umbrella, with the goal of strengthening cultural, entertainment and gaming coverage,” Dow Jones, which owns the property, said in a statement.
Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin
Twitter is looking for ways to let users flag fake news, offensive content →
“The feature, which is still in a prototype phase and may never be released, is part of the company's uphill battle against rampant abuse on its platform. It could look like a tiny tab appearing in a drop-down menu alongside tweets.”