Top News:
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Writers at Vice Media vote to unionize by joining Writers Guild of America East — Writers at Vice Media Vote to Unionize … Writers at Vice Media have voted to unionize, said people familiar with the matter, giving organized labor its biggest foothold yet in digital media newsrooms.
Discussion:
Gawker, The New York Observer, FishbowlNY, WWD, The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, @michaelroston, @petersterne, @jasonabbruzzese and @mlcalderone
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
GOP debate was watched by 24M viewers, highest-rated primary debate in TV history — Fox's GOP debate had record 24 million viewers — Fox's GOP debate was watched by 24 million viewers on Thursday night, according to Nielsen data, making it the highest-rated primary debate in television history.
Discussion:
TVNewser, Politico, Media Nation, Deadline, Vox, CNNMoney, SPLICETODAY.com, The New York Observer, New York Times, TIME, New York Times, capitalnewyork.com, @richarddeitsch, Hollywood Reporter, Syracuse Post-Standard, New York Daily News, @brianstelter, Washington Post, @bernie16info, @twitterdata, Fortune, @frankluntz, Sun-Times National, BuzzFeed, Plain Dealer, The Hill, Sun-Times National, Business Insider, Guardian, Talking Points Memo, OnPolitics, New York Times, The Huffington Post, TVbytheNumbers, Newsweek, The Week, Mashable, FishbowlDC and The Daily Caller
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
New York Times used a Chrome plug-in to publish a liveblog of GOP debate from posts written and edited in Slack — The New York Times liveblogged last night's GOP debate directly from Slack — If you weren't satisfied simply watching the spectacle that was the first Republican presidential debate …
Discussion:
@moriogawa, @moriogawa, @moriogawa and New York Times
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
California district court dismisses $20B discrimination lawsuit against Comcast, TWC, Al Sharpton, NAACP, and others — Comcast, Al Sharpton Beat $20B Racial Discrimination Lawsuit — The judge rejects a complaint over too few African-American-owned TV channels on air.
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline and Variety
Gurman Bhatia / Poynter:
How newsrooms are using machine learning to make journalists' lives easier — Much of what many journalists do every day doesn't involve gathering news. — Just consider the typical process for publishing a story: The reporter reports, writes (or produces) the content, and the editor makes suggestions for revision.
Ana Radelat / Ad Age:
US Senate committee, four state legislatures are considering lowering tax breaks on advertising costs — The Taxman Once Again Trains His Eye on Advertising — Four States Consider Ad Tax; Senate Finance Committee Sees $169B in Potential Revenue — $137.8B
Discussion:
AdExchanger
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / Guardian:
Report finds an increase in mafia threats to journalists in Italy, with 2,060 reported between 2006 and October 2014 — Surge in mafia attacks on journalists in Italy — Organised criminals increasingly using violence and intimidation as well as legal threats to silence journalists, says parliamentary committee
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
Lisa Beilfuss / Wall Street Journal:
E.W. Scripps Q2: overall $31.4M loss, TV and digital operating revenue up 50% to $167.4M — E.W. Scripps Reports Wider Loss, Driven by Merger — Media company completed its merger with Journal Communications in April — Media company E.W. Scripps Co. said its loss widened in the latest quarter …
Discussion:
NetNewsCheck Latest, Broadcasting & Cable, Knoxville News-Sentinel, PR Newswire and AllAccess.com
Christina Warren / Mashable:
Fox News livestream faced issues for most of GOP debate; Sky News version on YouTube was cut at end of debate after Fox copyright complaint — Fox News web stream and mobile app fail during GOP debate — If you were hoping to settle in for Thursday's second GOP debate online or in the Fox News app for iOS, you were out of luck.
Discussion:
Guardian, Fortune, The Verge, Techdirt, @rafat, TorrentFreak, Times of San Diego, @matthewkeyslive, Ars Technica UK, @matthewkeyslive and US News
Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:
Wal-Mart Joins in Campaign to Cover Up Cosmopolitan Magazine — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the latest retailer to cover Cosmopolitan Magazine, according to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the organization in charge of a campaign to conceal the covers of the women's magazine.
Discussion:
The Hairpin, The Hill and Fusion
Agence France-Presse:
Thai man jailed for 30 yrs for ‘insulting’ royals on Facebook — A Thai man was jailed for 30 years on Friday for “insulting” the monarchy on Facebook, in one of the toughest known sentences passed under the junta-ruled kingdom's draconian lese majeste law.
Discussion:
Engadget and Ars Technica UK
New York Times:
Iran grants the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper a short-term reporting visa in an unusual move — Iran: Jewish Newspaper Was Granted Visa in Rare Move — Iran granted an unusual short-term reporting visa last month to the Jewish Daily Forward, one of the most widely read and respected newspapers among American Jews.
Discussion:
@nytimesworld
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