Mediagazer: Atlantic's April redesign has tripled click-through rates, increased time spent on native ads to over four minutes, surpassing industry average (Lucia Moses/Digiday)

8:10 PM ET, October 18, 2015

Top News:

Jonathan Mahler / New York Times:

Interview with Mark Bowden and Seymour Hersh on covering Osama bin Laden's death, and how competing agendas create contrasting narratives on official stories — What Do We Really Know About Osama bin Laden's Death? … Mark Bowden was watching a ballgame — the Phillies versus the Mets …

Discussion: CNN, @daniellemattoon, @conncarroll, @davidwellsct, @adamshatz, @perrin68, @d_jaishankar, @hornokplease, @freddiedeboer, @trevortimm, @adamaton, @edcaesar, @michaelluo, @kathyf, @jonathanmahler, @spieckerman, bookforum.com and FishbowlNY

Mark Bowden / Vanity Fair:

The New York Times Magazine's suggestion that The Finish is fabricated has no factual basis — There's Just One Problem with Those Bin Laden Conspiracy Theories — They have no factual basis, despite what you may have read in The New York Times Magazine, argues the reporter who pieced together …

Discussion: @doctrine_man, @tweetsintheme, @nycsouthpaw, @tweetsintheme, @d_jaishankar, @coulterjones, @anneapplebaum and @kvanvalkenburg

Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:

Some VCs, appearing defensive, dismiss WSJ's reporting on Theranos, but should actually welcome investigative journalism — Some tech investors sure seem to be getting defensive lately ... Nobody likes to be questioned. — But lately, some of Silicon Valley's big tech investors seem …

Discussion: Monday Note, @nickbilton, @dangillmor, @bijans, Fortune, @stevekovach, @nitashatiku, @eringriffith, Tech Insider, New York Times, Tech Times, TechCrunch, Washington Post, New York Magazine and Hit & Run

Walt Hickey / FiveThirtyEight:

Analysis: Fandango's movie ratings are higher than IMDb's 79% of the time, and similarly higher than ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic — Be Suspicious Of Online Movie Ratings, Especially Fandango's — You were excited for the date: dinner and a movie. Your date picked a restaurant — “It got five stars on Yelp!”

Discussion: BGR, The Wrap, The Huffington Post, Ars Technica UK and The Verge

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sources: YouTube readying programming that will be exclusive to its upcoming subscription service, will announce some of it at an event in Los Angeles Oct. 21 — YouTube Will Make You Pay to See Some of Its New Videos — Coming to YouTube: Videos you'll need to pay to see.

Discussion: Engadget, Fortune, Variety, Forbes, ABC News, The Wrap, Australia Network News, Christian Science Monitor, Deseret News, Tech Times and Digital Trends

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Turner Broadcasting, Fox Sports, A+E Networks, and NBCUniversal among media companies signed up for YouTube's upcoming subscription service

Discussion: Seeking Alpha

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

After the success of recent collaborations with Huffington Post and Gawker, the Intercept is considering working with other newsrooms to broaden its reach — The Intercept mulls working with other newsrooms to maximize its impact … Readers who glanced at The Huffington Post's homepage Thursday morning …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, Tech Times, Foreign Policy and The Week

David Bauder / Associated Press:

CBS refuses to run advertising for Truth, a film about a 2004 discredited 60 Minutes report — CBS bans advertising for critical film — CBS bans advertising for critical film CBS has refused to run advertising for “Truth,” the film starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford that revisits …

Discussion: Associated Press, Salon, Mediaite, Forbes, Variety, Deadline, New York Times, ABC News, The A.V. Club, AceShowBiz.com, Fox News, Mediaite, The Wrap and The Wrap

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:
Truth review: story of botched 60 Minutes report that cost Dan Rather his job portrays him as hero, and makes journalistic errors appear as acts of martyrdom

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Atlantic's April redesign has tripled click-through rates, increased time spent on native ads to over four minutes, surpassing industry average — How The Atlantic gets people to spend more than 4 minutes on its native ads — The Atlantic took a user-friendly approach when it redesigned …

Adrienne Lafrance / The Atlantic:

Inside efforts to resurrect a Pulitzer-nominated 34-part story eight years after it disappeared from the web — Raiders of the Lost Web — The web, as it appears at any one moment, is a phantasmagoria. It's not a place in any reliable sense of the word. It is not a repository. It is not a library.

Discussion: The Content Strategist, NPR and Digg

Lauren Johnson / Adweek:

Time Inc. Is in Talks to Buy Jane Pratt's Millennial-Focused xoJane — Time Inc. is close to acquiring Jane Pratt's xoJane and xoVain sites for an undisclosed sum as it looks to increase its content targeting millennial women, sources tell Adweek. — The New York publisher is interested …

Discussion: Media Wire Daily

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

How hyperlocal news site Hoodline fuses data scraping bots with traditional journalism to cover 24 neighborhoods in San Francisco — With a neighborhood-level focus, Hoodline is trying to fill a gap in San Francisco news — For months, the fate of the beloved bakery chain La Boulange has captivated San Franciscans.

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

BBC Launches Japanese Language News Site To Extend Its Global Advertising Reach — BuzzFeed isn't the only global news heavyweight entering Japan. The BBC, the UK's national news organization, this week launched a Japanese site, which becomes its first dedicated non-English news website …

Discussion: Marketing Interactive and BBC