Mediagazer: What's New in Digital and Social Media Research: How Facebook rumors spread, and the rise of the collaborative news clip (John Wihbey/Nieman Journalism Lab)

1:45 PM ET, May 2, 2014

Top News:

John McDermott / Digiday:

Newspapers are lagging behind in the mobile traffic boom — The Internet is becoming an increasingly mobile medium, but it appears that newspaper publishers are not only struggling to make the transition, they're falling behind. — This year, for the first time ever …

Discussion: @elanazak and @pottsmark

Cassie Walker Burke / Politico:

The White House Beat, Uncovered — What the hacks of 1600 Penn really think. — The White House Correspondents' Association began as a response to Woodrow Wilson's threat to end presidential press conferences. A century later, White House reporters no longer have to line up outside …

Discussion: Mediaite, NewsBusters blogs, The Huffington Post, The Week and Yahoo! News

Felix Salmon:

On the scoop culture, and why we should move away from journalism-for-journalists — Scoops: When journalists masturbate … This quote is beginning to get some press attention, so I ought to correct the record: I said “masturbatory”, not “masturbating”. Glad that's cleared up.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @nickreisman, @djbentley, @rafat, @emilybell, @antsilverman, @mehdirhasan, Guardian, @jyarow, @jaredbkeller, @simonhurtz, Poynter, @vaswani_, @pkafka and @jayrosen_nyu

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

CBS, BuzzFeed, Sky News Journalists Detained In Ukraine — A group of Western journalists from a number of news outlets was detained by pro-Russian militants in Eastern Ukraine on Friday. — CBS reporter Clarissa Ward and her news crew, along with BuzzFeed's Mike Giglio and reporters from Sky News …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, Associated Press, Gawker, CBS News, New York Magazine and NBC News

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Quartz has a large global audience and strong mobile advertiser base, 19 months after launch — The newsonomics of Quartz, 19 months in … Quartz, at the tender age of 19 months, can hardly be considered a father to Vox, FiveThirtyEight, and The Upshot. Clearly, though, it's a major influence.

Discussion: @justin_b_smith, @niemanlab and Talking Biz News

Los Angeles Times:

Pay-TV field could shrink again with AT&T bid for DirecTV — A DirecTV employee installs a satellite on a home in Bixby, Okla. (Paul Taggart / Bloomberg / June 27, 2011) — A rush among the nation's largest pay-TV and Internet providers to get even bigger could have profound effects on consumers and competition.

Discussion: New York Times, USA Today and @joetrippi

News Corp:

News Corp To Acquire Harlequin — Acquisition Will Extend HarperCollins' Global Platform — News Corp announced today that it has agreed to acquire Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corporation. Harlequin will become a division of HarperCollins Publishers, a News Corp subsidiary.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Times, Globe and Mail, CNNMoney.com, Deadline.com, Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Toronto Star, @sladurantaye, Financial Post, @raju, Bookseller news, Talking New Media, @fagstein and ctvnews.ca

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

W.S.J. unveils digital video portal, called Signal — The Wall Street Journal unveiled plans for a “digital video magazine,” called Signal, at its presentation for the Digital Content Newfronts on Friday morning in Midtown. — “Signal will curate an eclectic mix of short video dispatches …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

John Wihbey / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What's New in Digital and Social Media Research: How Facebook rumors spread, and the rise of the collaborative news clip — Editor's note: There's a lot of interesting academic research going on in digital media — but who has time to sift through all those journals and papers?

Discussion: @niemanlab

Bethany Usher / Press Gazette:

Mail Online has grown ten-fold since its 2008 relaunch, but is it journalism? — Mail Online managed a 690 per cent increase in audience in the first five years since its relaunch - from 18.7m visitors a month in May 2008 to 128m in May 2013. — It makes it the industry's biggest current success story …

Discussion: @abeaujon, @ryanchittum, @niemanlab, @gordonmacmillan and @pressgazette

Andy / TorrentFreak:

Tarantino is Back, Now Claiming Gawker is an Illegal Downloader — Earlier this month, news publication Gawker and Quentin Tarantino traded early blows in their dispute over the the leak of a screenplay to Tarantino's potential upcoming movie The Hateful Eight. — The background is relatively straightforward.

Michael Meyer / Columbia Journalism Review:

As membership models spread across news outlets, lessons from the Voice of San Diego — Part of the club — Voice of San Diego's membership model has once again earned the organization a place in the national spotlight. If the model succeeds in San Diego, can it succeed elsewhere?

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Sorry Wikipedia: YouTube Says It's the New Encyclopedia — Sorry, Wikipedia: YouTube says it is the world's new encyclopedia. — YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki went before advertisers Wednesday to offer them the chance to buy ads during the site's most desirable videos. It's an initiative called Google Preferred.

Discussion: @cschweitz

John McDuling / Quartz:

The reinvention of MTV, chapter one million — “MTV, more than any network, has an imperative for reinvention. The network must anticipate changing tastes and trends among its young audience,” declared Viacom's CEO Philippe Dauman on the media conglomerate's earnings call this morning.

Discussion: @qz