Mediagazer: Apple Revives Ping As “Connect”, Letting Artists Share A Feed Of Music, Videos, And Social Media (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

5:50 PM ET, June 8, 2015

Top News:

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

For news organizations, this was the most important set of Apple announcements in years — There wasn't a lot of buildup beforehand, but today's Apple keynote turned out to be the most important for publishers in years. (To be clear, there have been many more Apple important announcements for Apple.

Discussion: CNNMoney, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, ReadWrite, Medium, AppleInsider, @robhorning, @lainnafader, @mattdpearce, @antderosa, @antderosa, Talking New Media and Poynter

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Apple News looks like Flipboard and replaces Newsstand on your iPhone or iPad — Rumors suggested Apple was planning to kill off Newsstand, and now the company is making it official: News will replace Newsstand. News brings content from publishers across the world, and content owners can customize the way articles are displayed.

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Guardian, Re/code, The Next Web, @jonsteinberg, @robertandrews, @robertandrews, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, CNET, @matthewkeyslive, @gaberivera, @tcarmody and @jessicalessin

D.B. Hebbard / Talking New Media:

Publishers get 100% of ads they sell with Apple's News Publisher, 70% of ads sold by iAd; offers targeting and reporting — Apple releases News Publisher guidelines for including content in the upcoming News app — Apple's News app will launch in the fall with the release of iOS 9 …

Discussion: WebProNews

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Apple's News app might help Apple. It probably won't help the news. — I have to assume that in some culture (maybe my own), there is an allegory about an ill patient being tended to by scores of doctors, all of whom offer different remedies, breaking into factions focused on one strategy or another …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Capital New York, @ryantate, Talking New Media and The Verge

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Apple announces Apple Music: music streaming, human-curated playlists, Beats 1 24/7 radio, Connect to allow artists to interact with fans — Apple Launches Apple Music Subscription Service — Apple officially introduced its new music streaming service, dubbed Apple Music …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, VentureBeat, Forbes, AdAge, Re/code, VentureBeat, The Verge, @applemusic, Rolling Stone, @samgustin, Pocket-lint, @penenberg, CNET, @laurengoode, @cnet, @antderosa and Wall Street Journal

Business Wire:

Apple Music launching June 30 on iOS, Mac, and PC with 3 months free, then $9.99 per month, coming to Apple TV and Android phones this fall — Introducing Apple Music — All The Ways You Love Music. All in One Place. — SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Apple® today unveiled Apple Music™ …

Discussion: Re/code, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Huffington Post, Guardian, ZDNet, NerdWallet Credit Card Blog, Engadget, MacRumors, Android Police, @lanceulanoff, 9to5Mac and USA Today

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Apple Revives Ping As “Connect”, Letting Artists Share A Feed Of Music, Videos, And Social Media

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News and VentureBeat

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

One year after launch, Slate Plus has 9,000+ subscribers, generating around $500K a year — One year in, Slate draws 9,000 paying subscribers — For Slate, getting readers to pay for content was going back to the future. Back in 1998, it was one of the first sites to try a paywall, which quickly failed.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @raju, VentureBeat, @mathewi and Mediashift

Julia Turner / Slate:

Slate launches metered paywall for non-US readers, five free stories a month, cites inability to monetize international readership through domestic ads revenue — Hello, International Reader — We're launching a paywall for users abroad. Here's how it will work.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Media Wire Daily

Steven Perlberg / Wall Street Journal:

CNN launches Courageous, a new studio producing branded content for advertisers — CNN Unveils New Studio to Produce Content for Advertisers — CNN is creating an in-house studio that will produce news-like content on behalf of advertisers, a move that reflects marketers' growing desire …

Discussion: TVNewser, Politico, @raju, @perlberg, @edgecliffe, @markharrisnyc, @joshsternberg and Adweek

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:

Clinton Donated $100K to New York Times Group the Same Year Paper Endorsed Her — A little-known private foundation controlled by Bill and Hillary Clinton donated $100,000 to the New York Times' charitable fund in 2008, the same year the newspaper's editorial page endorsed Clinton …

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, @continetti, @redsteeze, @andrewstilesusa, FishbowlNY, @dylanbyers, @glennthrush and @liz_cheney

Dylan Byers / Politico:

New York Times spokesperson rejects Free Beacon report on Clinton donation, says it is preposterous — Clintons gave $100k to NYT fund in '08 — Bill and Hillary Clinton's Family Foundation gave $100,000 to a New York Times' charitable fund in 2008, the same year that the paper endorsed Hillary Clinton …

Discussion: Hot Air, @davidsirota, @dylanbyers, @alanagoodman, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon and The Week

Wall Street Journal:

Publishers Expect More Facebook Instant Articles Later This Month — Facebook had the media world buzzing last month when it debuted its Instant Articles product, which lets media companies publish content directly to the social network instead of driving iOS mobile users back to their own sites.

Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider:
Publishers haven't shared any Instant Articles on Facebook since the initial launch

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Net Worked and @torystarr3, Thanks:@atechmemefan

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

Larry Kramer steps down as USA Today publisher, joins board of new Gannett — USA Today publisher Larry Kramer is leaving the newspaper to take a seat on the board of Gannett's new publishing company. — Kramer, who was named publisher and president of USA Today in 2012 …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, AdAge, Politico, USA Today, @rafat, @vivian, @katies, @raju and The Wrap

Nasser Karimi / Associated Press:

Jason Rezaian's mother says reporter is “very tired, very distressed” — US Reporter's Mother Speaks While Son Is in Iran Court — The mother of detained Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian said Monday that Iran has charged her son for simply “reporting on a country that he loves …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review and Associated Press