Top News:
Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
A Three-Way Mostly Civilized Family Contest To Become The Next Publisher Of The Times — The issue of succession is a difficult matter not just for family-run businesses but for the families that run them. Take the Murdochs, for instance. Or the Binghams, the Kentucky newspaper clan that imploded in the 1980s.
Discussion:
Politico, CNNMoney, @felixsalmon, @jayrosen_nyu and @mgsiegler
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Behind Neetzan Zimmerman's Facebook strategy at The Hill, which has contributed to the huge rise of social engagement and traffic over the past six months — ‘I am the social’: Neetzan Zimmerman brings a little bit of Gawker to The Hill — Neetzan Zimmerman is having his comeback moment.
Steven Johnson / New York Times:
How creative work in music, TV, movies, and books persists and often thrives in the post-Napster era, contrary to initial fears by some — The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn't — In the digital economy, it was supposed to be impossible to make money by making art.
Discussion:
Future of Music Coalition, @skydylanrobbins, @freakonometrics, @borthwick, @ahmed, @stevenbjohnson and Techdirt
Katrin Kuntz / Spiegel Online:
How a 19-year-old from Amsterdam became one of the foremost cartographers of the ISIS conflict — The Dutch Teen Who Maps the Jihadists — One of the foremost cartographers of the Islamic State conflict is a 19-year-old from Amsterdam. Now that he's graduated from high school …
Shannon Bond / Financial Times:
European media giant investments in online video networks are growing fast — European media join push to support online video groups — Online video networks are receiving an influx of capital from European investors as the companies behind some of the most popular content on YouTube seek to reach bigger global audiences.
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
A Spanish-language website is working to document killings of undocumented immigrants — 31-year-old Rubén García Villalpando was shot twice in the chest this past March, after a traffic stop that police reports claimed turned into an altercation. Villalpando was unarmed at the time.
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Netflix Hitches With SoftBank For Japan Launch — Next week's launch of streaming video service Netflix in Japan will be boosted by a major partnership with Softbank Corp. The two companies may also be involved in local content. — With 37 million cellphone customers …
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, Bloomberg Business, Hollywood Reporter and Netflix
Garett Sloane / Digiday:
Google, Yahoo, and Bing are testing video ads in search results — ‘A gusher of money’: Google testing video ads in search results, industry sources say — Google is testing promoted video ads in search results, a format that could bring more brand dollars to marketing there …
Christophe Deloire / Washington Post:
Iran's imprisonment of Jason Rezaian is an affront to justice — The writer is secretary general of Reporters Without Borders. — Jason Rezaian must be acquitted and freed immediately. As the final hearing in the Iranian trial of The Post's Tehran correspondent was brought to a close Aug. 10 …
Henry Mance / Financial Times:
As budget cuts force BBC to cut some of its output, it risks losing appeal or eroding quality — What next for the BBC? — With its budget squeezed by the government, the world's most famous public broadcaster will have to slim down to survive — The proposal for Marvellous was not entirely promising.
Discussion:
@futbolsacountry
Jennifer Pagliaro / Toronto Star:
Canada's National Post takes down, edits, then reposts Margaret Atwood column criticizing Prime Minister Stephen Harper — Margaret Atwood's column criticizing Stephen Harper vanishes, then returns to, National Post website — Senior National Post vice-president said the column had been taken …
Discussion:
Guardian, BuzzFeed, @margaretatwood, @jayrosen_nyu, @jpags, @jpags, @margaretatwood, @goldsbie, @id4ro, @blm849, @gmbutts, @heerjeet, @margaretatwood, Mashable and @nutgraf1
Michael Blanding / Nieman Reports:
The Value of Slow Journalism in the Age of Instant Information — As news cycles speed up, ‘slow’ journalists take months—even years—to report and tell in-depth stories — Paleontologists in Ethiopia, where journalist Paul Salopek began a seven-year walk around the world …