Mediagazer: Why Publishers Should Care About Wearables, And How They Can Prepare (Paul Lentz/Mediashift)

2:55 PM ET, April 13, 2014

Top News:

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

Sun-Times kills comments until it can fix ‘morass of negativity, racism, and hate speech’ — The Chicago Sun-Times has temporarily eliminated story commenting on its website until it can develop a system that will “foster a productive discussion rather than an embarrassing mishmash …

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, @ksablan and @amzam

Yoree Koh / Wall Street Journal:

Report: 44% of Twitter Accounts Have Never Sent a Tweet — Twitter is having no trouble signing up users. But some new research provides an update on the size of an ongoing problem: getting people to tweet. — A report from Twopcharts, a website that monitors Twitter account activity …

Discussion: @borthwick, Forbes, @wsjeurope, @sulliview, Gigaom, Mashable, Consumerist and Business Insider

Michael Kinsley / Vanity Fair:

Serious Newspaper Journalism Is Not Over — In most hand-wringing debates about the future of newspapers, high-quality journalism is seen as doomed by the Internet. The author—V.F.'s newest columnist—begs to disagree. — My friend Nicholas Lemann, who recently stepped down as dean …

Discussion: @dvnjr and @vanityfair

Simon Houpt / Globe and Mail:

What does the future hold for the CBC? — Nothing focuses the mind like a crisis. — That seemed hold true for Heather Conway, the executive vice-president of English-language services at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on Friday morning, less than 24 hours after helping break …

Discussion: @colvinius, @digiphile, @mathewi and @jayrosen_nyu

Paul Lentz / Mediashift:

Why Publishers Should Care About Wearables, And How They Can Prepare — Everyone is talking about wearable tech and Internet-connected or “smart” devices. And rightfully so. According to the research firm Canalys, the market is expected to triple in size next year alone based on mainstream consumer adoption.

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

The New York Times hyped social ad product fades away — The New York Times' Ricochet has stopped rebounding. — When it launched the social ad program in 2012, the Times touted Ricochet as a “new model of digital marketing” that would create a whole new type of inventory — socially driven inventory.

Discussion: @raju and @ampress

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Texas Monthly to file lawsuit over hiring of Jake Silverstein as editor of NYT Magazine — Texas Monthly to Sue New York Times Over Magazine Editor — The publisher of the Texas Monthly is expected to file a lawsuit against The New York Times and Jake Silverstein, the Monthly's editor …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Texas Monthly owner: We aren't suing Jake Silverstein

Discussion: @buzzfeedben

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Viacom Looks to Set Social Media Guarantees — Partners with Mass Relevance on Tool to Measure Engagement Across Social Media — Cactus — Viacom is taking steps toward offering advertisers guarantees for the social media impact it can give them. — The company, which owns networks …

Discussion: Marketing Land

Diego Cruz / Journalism in the Americas:

Digital vulnerability could endanger online media's private information — The vulnerability can affect news organizations' websites, as well. — Earlier this week, experts discovered a code defect in software used by almost two thirds of the Internet to encrypt private information …

Discussion: Gigaom, The ProPublica Nerd Blog, ReadWrite, The Next Web and USA Today

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Publishing to take on $325 million in debt — Tribune Publishing, the newspaper division of Chicago-based Tribune Co., will carry at least $325 million of debt when it spins off as a standalone company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday.

Discussion: @jeffjarvis and @dangillmor

Paul Bischoff / Tech in Asia:

Weibo's content gap: just 5% of users post nearly all original content — Another scathing report documenting Sina Weibo's decline hit the press yesterday, just one week before the Twitter of China lists on the US stock market. — This one comes from the South China Morning Post via Hong …

Discussion: South China Morning Post

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Android TV: Why Google Needs a Second Path to Television — Google has a runaway hit with Chromecast, the cheap, lightweight adapter for slinging Internet video to HDTVs, selling millions of the $35 dongles (just 30 bucks on Amazon!) since its launch last summer.