Mediagazer: Twitter's TV Commercial Is Just Like Twitter: Full of Content That's a Little Hard to Follow (Kurt Wagner/Re/code)

4:05 PM ET, November 1, 2015

Top News:

Distribution without talent sets up companies for failure, which is why ESPN had to shut down Grantland — Grantland — We can debate the financial viability of “Grantland” all day long. But we cannot debate the fact that the site was synonymous with Bill Simmons, and without him it's toast.

Discussion: @fcollective, Hunter Walk, @joshelman, @adamsinger and @rezendi

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Grantland's journalistic innovations: a focus on the “so what” and “now what” of news, and writers who roamed across subject areas — Why Grantland mattered to journalism — ESPN shut down Grantland, its boutique sports and pop culture site, on Friday.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

ESPN Media Zone:
ESPN suspends publication of Grantland, effective immediately

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, SI.com, @jimmiller, Re/code, FishbowlNY, @natesilver538, Mashable, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Guardian, Motley Fool, Washington Post, The Wrap, USA Today, The Big Lead, The Atlantic, Deadspin, Fusion, Media Wire Daily, Fortune, Adweek, Gawker, Talking Points Memo, LA Observed, The New York Observer, Mediaite, LAist, Vanity Fair, Mashable, The Week, @danpfeiffer, @eoinmcdevitt, @unclegrambo, @jayrosen_nyu, @pkafka, @thinkprogress, @rustyk5, Politico, NPR, Broadcasting & Cable, The Daily Caller, @rachsyme, @afelser, @jamilsmith, @edmundlee, @brianstelter, @lucas_shaw, @speechboy71, @hollyanderson, @nickdfw, @edsbs, @hollyanderson, @pixie_casey, @jimmiller, @speechboy71, @davidsirota, @tcarmody, @willow_catelyn, The Huffington Post, @petersterne, @edsbs, @edsbs, @joshbaumgard, Politico, @brianstelter, @thrmattbelloni, @heoj and @pkafka

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
Closure of Grantland affects about 40 journalists; ESPN remains “totally committed” to FiveThirtyEight and The Undefeated

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadspin, Poynter, The Big Lead, The New York Observer, ThinkProgress, @brianstelter, @bro_pair, @rembert and @mtthwrose

Jonathan Lansner / Orange County Register:

Freedom Communications, owner of Orange County Register, files for bankruptcy, second time in 6 years; CEO Rich Mirman, local investors hope to gain control — With bankruptcy filing, local group bids for ownership of Freedom Communications — Freedom Communications Inc. …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @mathewi, FishbowlNY, Freedom Communications, Inc., Navel Gazing, 89.3 KPCC, @ocweekly, @ckrewson and @johnasbury

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Instagram Builds Its Own Version of Snapchat Live Stories — Instagram is taking cues from Snapchat and Twitter with its latest update — curated content streams for specific events, in this case, Halloween. — If you open the Instagram app in the U.S. on Saturday, you'll see a new prompt …

Discussion: Wired, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Engadget, @semil, VentureBeat, @samsheffer, Forbes and Mashable

Ellen Barry / New York Times:

2 Men Who Published Writings Critical of Extremism Are Stabbed in Bangladesh — NEW DELHI — Two businessmen who had published the works of Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-American known for his critical writings on religious extremism, were stabbed on Saturday by groups of men in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, the police said.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, CNN, @deborahblum, Agence France-Presse, TIME, BBC, @ellenbarrynyt and NPR

Erik Eckholm / New York Times:

Harvard's Law School Library is digitizing more than 40M pages of legal decisions, free access to the entire collection to be available online in 2017 — Harvard Law Library Readies Trove of Decisions for Digital Age — Shelves of law books are an august symbol of legal practice …

Discussion: TeleRead, Beyond Search and Techdirt

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Critics question LA Times' funding its education reporting through foundations, including charter-school advocate The Broad Foundation — Foundations fund L.A. Times' education reporting. A conflict? — The Los Angeles Times announced what seemed like good news for its readers in August …

Discussion: Diane Ravitch's blog, @mzinshteyn, @rweingarten, @kaplanlarry, @jackshafer, @tvnewslab and @romenesko

James Warren / Poynter: Los Angeles Times buyout offer prompts 15 percent of newsroom to raise their hands

Simon Houpt / Globe and Mail:

Rogers is pulling premium fashion magazine Flare from newsstands next year, says that channel isn't effective for reaching younger readers — Rogers pulling Flare magazine from newsstands next year — Flare magazine, one of Canada's premium fashion monthlies aimed at millennials …

Discussion: Canadian Magazines

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Twitter's TV Commercial Is Just Like Twitter: Full of Content That's a Little Hard to Follow — Twitter's TV Commercial Is Just Like Twitter: Full of Content That's a Little Hard to Follow — Twitter has a new television commercial that perfectly sums up Twitter.

Discussion: CNET, BBC, Engadget, The Next Web and Adweek

Chialun Huang / World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA:

French documentary website Spicee has attracted 800 subscribers in its first four months, 35% are under 30, 20% outside of France — Vice with virtue, new documentary website Spicee takes off in Paris — It was 7 pm on a recent Friday evening in Paris. The small, crowded office of Spicee …

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Newspapers taken over in Turkey are printing again, and they're now pro-government — A protester holding a placard demonstrates across the street from the headquarters of a media company in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015. Police in Istanbul have carried out a dawn raid at the building …

Discussion: Guardian

Desmond Butler / Associated Press:
Editors from around the world urge Turkey to protect media

Discussion: Agence France-Presse

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Forget short attention spans, The Economist is going long on digital video — While most publishers are trying to figure out how to get video shorter to distribute on platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, The Economist is betting on a long-form approach. — Its 4-month-old …

Edward Wong / New York Times:

China Ranks Last of 65 Nations in Internet Freedom — BEIJING — China ranks last in the world for openness among countries studied in a new report on Internet freedom by a prominent American pro-democracy group. — The report, “Freedom on the Net 2015,” the latest such annual study by the group …

Discussion: TIME, Sky News, Hong Kong Free Press, Metro.co.uk, RFA, ChinaPost.com.tw, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Foreign Policy, International Business Times, NBC News, The Epoch Times, Voice of America, New Yorker, Tech in Asia, WebProNews, Globe and Mail, US News and Voice of America

Noah Kulwin / Re/code:

SXSW Bungles Announcement of ‘Online Harassment Summit,’ and Panelists Are Pulling Out — This morning, SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest released a statement apologizing for canceling two controversial panels earlier this week, and announcing a March 12 “Online Harassment Summit” …

Discussion: The Open Gaming Society, The Drum, @nkulw, @randileeharper and @randileeharper