Top News:
Jack Marshall / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: publishers struggle to extract as much ad revenue from Facebook's Instant Articles as they do from their own sites; Facebook mulls changes to ad rules — Facebook Mulls Ad Changes for Instant Articles After Publisher Pushback — Publishers encountered challenges because of restrictions imposed by the social network
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Talking New Media, Forbes, Engadget, @scottthurm, The Digital Reader, @martinsfp, @sims and @abrams
Ben Popper / The Verge:
YouTube Music standalone app launches on iOS and Android; YouTube Red subscribers get offline listening and no ads — YouTube Music is here, and it's a game changer — YouTube is first and foremost a video portal, the world's largest and most popular online collection of moving images.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, App Store, VentureBeat, Forbes, New York Daily News, Reuters, Tech Insider, The Technology Chronicles, CNET, Wired, USA Today, Billboard, EW.com, Re/code, CNET, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Lifehacker, SlashGear, Vulture, Variety, @caseynewton, PhoneDog.com, 9to5Mac, @drew, @stevekovach, Tubefilter, Ars Technica, The FADER, hypebot, Engadget, YouTube Blog, The Next Web, Mashable and ZDNet
Kurt Wagner / Re/code:
Facebook launches Notify, an iOS app that sends notifications for news and other timely content, with 70 media partners, including CNN, NYT, Hulu, and Techmeme — Here's Notify, Facebook's New Twitter-Like App for Following Publishers — Facebook is already dominating peoples' phone time …
Discussion:
App Store, Adweek, Fortune, Facebook, bizjournals, Tech Times, Sporting News, Mashable, @whatthebit, Pocket-lint, Ubergizmo, Tubefilter, VentureBeat, Guardian, The Verge, @pkafka, mUmBRELLA, Forbes, App Advice, Washington Post, Computerworld, ZDNet, CNNMoney, Business Insider, SocialTimes, Fast Company, Refinery29, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, The Verge, Gigaom, New York Times, Digiday, PhoneDog, TrustedReviews, The Huffington Post, Motherboard, Reuters, CNET, E! Online, Variety, VentureBeat, Tech Insider and TechCrunch
Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Tribune Publishing approves buyouts for 7 percent of its employees … Tribune Publishing has approved buyouts for approximately 7 percent of its eligible 7,000 employees across its media portfolio, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Discussion:
Associated Press, @allymarotti, @joepompeo and @romenesko
Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:
CNN's iReport to shift from users contributing photos and videos to directly sourcing them from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter users — Defeated by social media, CNN overhauls iReport — Big platforms' media dominance is forcing traditional publishers to change many parts of how they do business …
Raphael Minder / New York Times:
El País cancels column by Miguel Ángel Aguilar after he criticizes growing debt and dependence of Spanish news media — El País Columnist Says Dismissal Tied to His Criticism of Media Independence — MADRID — A veteran journalist said on Wednesday that El País …
Discussion:
The Spain Report and The Spain Report
David Harris / Boston Business Journal:
Comcast launches Stream, its $15/month streaming service in Greater Boston; available only for Xfinity customers, and only within subscribers home — Comcast launches standalone streaming service in Boston area, but there's a catch — Comcast said Wednesday that its new $15-per-month …
Discussion:
PR Newswire, The Next Web, FierceCable, DSLreports, Multichannel News, The Verge, BetaBoston and Multichannel News
Madeline Welsh / Nieman Lab:
The New York Times hopes its first virtual reality film, The Displaced, plus mass distribution of Google Cardboard kick off greater VR adoption — The New York Times hopes its first virtual reality film, “The Displaced,” kicks off mass adoption of VR — “This is probably …
Discussion:
Fortune, Washington Post, TOWCenter and The New York Times Company
Kristen Hare / Poynter:
Student journalists at University of Missouri talk about covering a local story that has become national — How student journalists at Mizzou are telling a local story that's become national — Missourian newsroom. Photo by David Rees/Missouri School of Journalism
Discussion:
Refinery29, MMAjunkie, @commlibraryuiuc, @amyfiscus and @katieyaeger
Rami Musa / Associated Press:
Libyan Center for Freedom of Press says journalist Motaz Kraif kidnapped in Tripoli — Rights group says Libyan journalist kidnapped in Tripoli — BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan rights group says armed men have kidnapped a Tripoli-based journalist in front of his home.
Sam Biddle / Gawker:
Sources share the inside story of the Lerer family's The Dodo, with low morale, meddling family members as editors, and purchased Facebook traffic — How an Animal Lover Turned Her Father's Investment Into The Dodo, a Money-Burning Website With a Miserable Staff
Discussion:
@ericmdavisfl, @mattbors, @ali_drucker, @petersterne, @simonowens, @samfbiddle, @kdbyproxy, @jackmirkinson, @ericgeller, @lpolgreen, @seanmcelwee and @ryanj899
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
The Verge's car coverage now drives as much as 30 percent of its traffic — Since launching four years ago, The Verge has come to mean more than just consumer tech as it's extended its coverage to science, movies and music. But the Vox Media vertical has found a ready audience in covering …