Top News:
Dylan Byers / Politico:
BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Mashable, others adopt rainbow avatars to acknowledge marriage ruling, marking an era of open allegiances for some in media — Should news outlets declare allegiances? … Following Friday's landmark Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriages …
Discussion:
@dangillmor, @caitleg, @reblavoie, @petersterne, @chris_perkins1, @nickmanes1, @kristenicoleast, @zpower and Re/code
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
Bill Adair and a team of Duke students test a database-driven, structured journalism approach to covering news in New York City about Uber, police, and housing — “Learning to write again”: A Duke team tests a new way of reporting on New York City government
Ken Doctor / Capital New York:
Huffington Post aims to increase site contributors from 100K to 1M through new self-publishing platform that requires only one-time editor approval — Arianna Huffington's next million mark — What's one million mean these days? If we're talking about unique visitors or even page views …
Discussion:
@joepompeo, @jny and @mathewi
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Meerkat launches new embeddable web player today, partners with Discovery to implement the player for Shark Week — Meerkat Outs An Embeddable Player, Hooks Discovery Channel's Shark Week — Livestreaming app Meerkat has launched an embeddable player so that content being broadcast …
Discussion:
9to5Google and Variety
Peter Elkind / Fortune:
Instead of hardening security defenses, Sony Pictures focused on offending North Koreans less, and was more afraid of security costs than risks — Part 2: The storm builds — We will take “a merciless counter-measure.” — On June 17, leaked emails show, Sony's appetite for mocking a “real persona” instantly diminished.
Discussion:
@danprimack, @fortunemagazine and Business Insider
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / Fortune:
Human editors can work at Apple, Twitter, and Snapchat with emotional content, but scale of content at Google, Facebook requires algorithmic automation — Why Apple, Snapchat and Twitter are betting on human editors, but Facebook and Google aren't — It's gone from one or two examples …
Discussion:
Stratechery and The Loop
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Heftig, Upworthy clone and third-largest German media company on Facebook with 1.7M fans, faces uncertain future as Facebook begins favoring original content — German site Heftig modeled itself after Upworthy, and what happened next will blow your mind — Three years ago …
Kevin Rothrock / Global Voices:
Russia Bans the Internet Archive's ‘Wayback Machine’ — It's so long to the “Wayback Machine” in Russia. Image edited by Kevin Rothrock. — The Russian government has blocked the Internet Archive, the San-Francisco-based website that provides the popular Wayback Machine, which allows users to view archived webpages.
Discussion:
BetaNews, Ars Technica UK, Techdirt and Beyond Search
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Google calls for anti-Isis push and makes YouTube propaganda pledge — Executives vow video site will not be used as a platform for ‘brutally violent propaganda produced by terrorists’, but argue against blanket censorship — Google has issued a call to arms against Isis …
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Sirius XM settles licensing suit for pre-1972 songs with Sony, Universal, Warner Music, and ABKCO for $210M — Sirius XM Settles Royalty Dispute Over Old Recordings — Sirius XM, the satellite radio service, will pay $210 million to the major record labels to settle a lawsuit over royalties …
Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:
The Wall Street Journal to shut its India edition, downsize India ops — The Wall Street Journal is downsizing its India operations and will pull the plug on its Indian edition, three sources have confirmed to MediaNama. The India website, http://www.wsj.com/india, will be merged into its global website.
Discussion:
@aruproy2611 and FishbowlNY
Tom Dotan / The Information:
YouTube ad-free subscription service hits roadblocks with creators and networks — YouTube Subscriptions Hit Creator Roadblock — Late last year, YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcicki began speaking up at conferences about a coming subscription service, where people would pay for an ad-free version of the video streaming site.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Ubergizmo and Engadget