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Friday, September 8, 2017
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Factchecking works better when it’s between friends. (Then again, who wants to be the “snoper”?)Plus: Facebook sold (at least?) $100,000 worth of political ads to Russia, and its factchecking partners are annoyed again. By Laura Hazard Owen. |
What We’re Reading
Poynter / Benjamin Mullin
Snapchat inks a Discover deal with student newspapers →
“Four student newspapers — The Daily Californian of the University of California at Berkeley, The Battalion of Texas A&M, The Daily Orange of Syracuse University and the Badger Herald at the University of Wisconsin at Madison — are the first participants in the program, called Campus Publisher Stories.”
Wall Street Journal / Deepa Seetharaman
Facebook could spend as much as $1 billion to cultivate original shows for its platform →
“Facebook's thirst for video content pits it against traditional broadcasters such as Time Warner Inc.'s HBO and deep-pocketed tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc., which all are banking on video to capture the fleeting attention of users and seize billions of dollars in advertising that is expected to migrate from television to digital video. Apple Inc. is preparing its own billion-dollar war chest for content.”
The New York Times / Paul Mozur
Blocked in China, Facebook is said to be seeking a Shanghai office →
"We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways," a Facebook spokeswoman said in response to questions about the office plans.
Digiday / Max Willens
“It’s a stepping stone”: What increased measurement opportunities mean for podcasting →
“You're not going to know that a 29-year-old from Staten Island who likes dogs is listening to a podcast.”
The Daily Beast / Ben Collins
Russia’s Facebook fake news could have reached 70 million Americans →
“$100,000 on Facebook can go a surprisingly long way, if it's used right. On average, Facebook ads run about $6 for 1,000 impressions. By that number, the Kremlin's $100,000 buy would get its ads seen nearly 17 million times. But that average hides a lot of complexity, and the actual rate can range from $1 to $100 for 1,000 impressions on an ad with pinpoint targeting. Virality matters, too. Ads that get more shares, likes, and comments are far cheaper than boring ads that nobody likes, and ads that send users to Facebook posts instead of third-party websites enjoy an additional price break. Finally, there are network effects, which can vastly multiply the number of users who see a promoted Facebook post.”
Meduza
A source close to Russia’s “troll factory” says Facebook has deleted 80 percent of its groups →
“A source close to the agency told the newsletter The Bell that administrators have shut down 25 Facebook communities with a total subscriber count of more than 3 million accounts, and 32 groups on Instagram with 2 million subscribers. The same source says Twitter also blocked 50 of the Internet Research Agency's accounts with a combined follower count of 600,000 users.”
Washington Post / Abby Ohlheiser
What even is Verrit, the news source endorsed by Hillary Clinton? →
“My very best and most charitable guess, based on Daou's interviews and its own social media presence, is that Verrit is supposed to be something that's useful for Clinton supporters who like to argue online about politics.”
Pew Research Center / Jeffrey Gottfried and Elisa Shearer
Americans’ online news use is closing in on TV news use →
“As of August, 43% of Americans report often getting news online, just 7 percentage points lower than the 50% who often get news on television, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August. This gap between the two news platforms was 19 points in early 2016, more than twice as large.”
Columbia Journalism Review / Meg Dalton
The inside story of Politico’s ever-evolving media coverage →
The site has been trying to move away from straight media industry news toward the intersection of media and politics. "To be honest, I think we all felt like on the media desk, we weren't quite trained to approach media in that way," Tom McGeveran, who led the media vertical, said. "We had always written about it as a business and not as a politics story or a culture story."
Recode / Eric Johnson
Mother Jones is making between $15 and $16 million a year →
Mother Jones EIC Clara Jeffery speaks with Peter Kafka.
New York Post / Julia Marsh and Lia Eustachewich
The lawyer who sued Gawker with Hulk Hogan is now suing Jezebel →
“Hogan's attorney Charles J. Harder filed a defamation suit Thursday against the website for labeling a bizarre therapy group called Superstar Machine a ‘cult’ in a 2016 story….Superstar Machine’s leader, Gregory Scherick, is suing author Anna Merlan and former Jezebel editor-in-chief Emma Carmichael, who the lawsuit noted was the managing editor of Gawker.com when it published Hulk Hogan's secretly recorded sex tape.”