Mediagazer: The rapid rise of Vox Media's Melissa Bell: An explainer (Lucia Moses/Digiday)

7:00 PM ET, July 6, 2015

Top News:

Ellen Pao / Redddit:

Ellen Pao apologizes again, announces new role of Moderator Advocate to be moderators' contact with Reddit, pledges improvements to mod tools — We apologize — We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years. We haven't communicated well …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Ad Age, Digital Life : NPR, USA Today, VentureBeat, Digiday, CNNMoney, TechCrunch, Mediaite, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, Mashable, VatorNews, mUmBRELLA, CNET, Washington Post, New York Times, Washington Post, Business Insider, TIME, The Verge, Engadget and NPR

Jeremy Barr / Capital New York:

AJ Daulerio to relaunch Ratter as tabloid site with focus on commentaries and essays, aims to build new Gawker — A.J. Daulerio readies Ratter 2.0 — When he was launching the digital media enterprise Ratter last year, former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio envisioned a network of local tabloid blogs …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and @felixsalmon

Edmund Lee / Re/code:
Hulk Hogan Sex Trial Against Gawker to Hear New Court Date in October

Discussion: Poynter and Guardian

Madeline Welsh / Nieman Lab:

The New York Times is publishing on WhatsApp for the first time, covering Pope Francis — That unique confluence of New York Times readers, pope watchers, and WhatsApp users must have been excited on a recent June morning when The New York Times announced it would be experimenting …

Discussion: Business Insider

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Verge turns off comments for a bit because tone was getting a little too aggressive and negative — We're turning comments off for a bit — From the very start, community has been at the heart of The Verge — we are unique among almost every major media brand of our size in having a vocal …

Discussion: @saramorrison, @cshbell and Poynter

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Inside the dispute between Lowell Bergman and Frontline that led to his documentary about gambling in Macau being shelved — Why Did ‘Frontline’ Kill Lowell Bergman's Gambling Documentary? — Recriminations and accusations are flying after the PBS series shelved veteran reporter Lowell …

Discussion: @kimmasters, @bilgeebiri, @g_knapp, @corbinhiar and @ralstonreports, Thanks:@justinjm1

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

The rapid rise of Vox Media's Melissa Bell: An explainer — It's hack week at Vox Media, and Melissa Bell is in her element. The meetup, which is taking place in downtown Philadelphia, has drawn more than 90 employees, all hoping to come up with the next innovation for the company …

Discussion: @bankoff, @karaswisher, @lizzieohreally, @laurengoode, @megangarber, @lpolgreen and E&

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

UK high court weighs whether GQ piece by Michael Wolff created substantial risk that News of the World phone-hacking trial would be seriously impeded — GQ article on phone-hacking trial was in contempt of court, judges told — High court considering whether piece by US journalist Michael …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Ex-News of the World features editor Jules Stenson gets four-month suspended sentence

Discussion: Associated Press, BBC, Express & Star and The Standard

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

After 80 per cent circulation drop in ten years, NME print edition to go free — NME is to be made into a free weekly magazine from 18 September, publisher Time Inc. has announced. — According to ABC, the music magazine - which current costs £2.60 - recorded an average weekly circulation of 15,384 in the second half of 2014.

Adam Sherwin / The Independent:
Relaunched NME will downgrade music coverage, focusing on fashion, politics, film, fashion, television, politics, gaming, and technology

Discussion: Guardian, NME, @mark_samuels, Mediatel, Music Week and @adamsherwin10

Severin Carrell / Guardian:

Scottish investigative site The Ferret to launch Indiegogo campaign for £3.8K for first investigation, plans to generate revenue via subs, crowdfunding — Crowd-funded investigative journalism site the Ferret to launch in Scotland — Site needs 2,000 backers to begin tacklingdecline …

Discussion: Street Fight, allmediascotland, @patronsaintofca, @edibreakingnews and @irvinewelsh

Justin Ellis / Nieman Lab:

How research (and PowerPoints) became the backbone of National Journal's membership program — In fall 2011, Atlantic Media chairman David Bradley wrote an memo about his career, leading right up to when he bought National Journal and The Atlantic Monthly. It was a roadmap wrapped around …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @mathewi and @clarajeffery

Wall Street Journal:

German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer in early stages of merger talks, could face antitrust hurdles — German Media Giants in Merger Talks — Negotiations between ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer at an early stage — German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 AG …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Reuters and Financial Times

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg Business:

U.S. Women's World Cup Finale on Fox Sets Soccer Ratings Record — The Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan drew a record U.S. audience for a soccer game carried by a single network, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings released by Fox. — An estimated 15.2 percent …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Ad Age, NPR, Variety, Forbes, @felixsalmon, @jasonhoppin, Reuters, The Big Lead, The Wrap, Deadline, NESN.com and Wall Street Journal

Guardian:

Lebedevs have ploughed £111m into Independent, Standard and TV station — Russian moguls invested £18m more last year as London Live struggled to pull in audiences, latest figures reveal — Evgeny and Alexander Lebedev have pumped more than £111m into the Independent …