Top News:
Tim Peterson / Marketing Land:
Facebook updates policy to let publishers post and tag paid-for content on verified pages — Facebook drops branded content restrictions for publishers — Facebook is letting publishers and other verified pages distribute branded-content for free, but it's unclear whether its labeling system is...
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Digiday, Nieman Lab, Facebook Media, Wall Street Journal, Tech Times, Facebook, The Wrap, @amir, Digiday, Fortune, TechCrunch, Inc.com, Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, The Verge, Business Insider, MinOnline, Ad Age, Fortune, InqPOP!^, internetretailer.com, Yahoo! Finance, SocialTimes, FishbowlNY, @hugeinc, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Re/code and Variety
Adam Goldman / Washington Post:
Syria releases American freelance photographer Kevin Patrick Dawes — The Syrian regime has freed an American freelance photographer who was abducted after traveling to the country in 2012, according to two U.S. officials. — Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, from San Diego, was released following …
Discussion:
@tlapamar, @zaoralekl, USA Today, @kjovano, @breakingnews, Wall Street Journal, Times of Oman, UPI, Associated Press, The Independent, BBC, Yahoo, Foreign Policy, The Independent, The Atlantic, FOX News Radio, KENS, New York Times, NPR, New York Daily News, Fox News, KNSD-TV, International Business Times, WVEC, NBC News and news.trust.org
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
How BuzzFeed got 800K concurrent Facebook Live viewers by exploding a watermelon using rubber bands — With 690 rubber bands and a watermelon, BuzzFeed creates Facebook Live's first driveway moment — It started innocuously enough. — Two BuzzFeed staffers sat around a small, circular table, wearing smocks and safety glasses.
Discussion:
CNBC, @stevesi, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, @charlesforelle, @cnbc, @_cooper, @samarthbhaskar, @fox40_ian, @jbenton, @edmundlee, @zpower, @cathyyoung63, @heerjeet, @ditzkoff, @trengriffin, Tech Insider, Mic, CNN, Adweek, SFGate Blog, The Daily Dot, Los Angeles Times, @emersongreg, @markgongloff, @editorialiste, The Verge, TIME and Digidave
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
How tech companies are using poets, novelists, playwrights, and TV writers to engineer the personalities of AI virtual assistants — SAN FRANCISCO — Until recently, Robyn Ewing was a writer in Hollywood, developing TV scripts and pitching pilots to film studios.
Discussion:
@anjalimullany and The Billfold
Peter Sterne / Politico:
Publishing startup Slant News, which paid writers 70% of ad revenue generated by their posts, is shutting down; funder Mobli pulled out — Publishing start-up Slant News shuts down — Online publishing start-up Slant News is shutting down, sources confirm to POLITICO Media.
Discussion:
@petersterne, Business Insider, USA Today, Gawker and @cenkuygur
Jeff Amy / Associated Press:
Appeals court overturns injunction against MPAA-backed Mississippi AG's Google investigation as premature, says Google can fight AG's actions in state court — Appeals court rules Mississippi can resume Google inquiry — JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's attorney general can resume …
Discussion:
Variety, Bloomberg and Hollywood Reporter
Sheila S. Coronel / Columbia Journalism Review:
Against the odds, investigative journalism persists in the Middle East — In the past year, a group of Arab journalists has been working secretly in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen as part of a global network of investigative reporters mining the so called “Panama Papers.”
Susannah Nesmith / Columbia Journalism Review:
How the Miami Herald's Steve Rothaus became an LGBT pioneer in mainstream journalism — Steve Rothaus, center, with colleagues Noel Gonzalez and Pierre Taylor in the Miami Herald offices in 2013. Photo by Carl Juste, used with permission. — When Steve Rothaus began covering the gay community …
Discussion:
@cjr
Nick Kostov / Wall Street Journal:
Vivendi acquires pay-TV business of Italy's Mediaset in bid to create European rival to Netflix — Vivendi Acquires Pay TV Business of Italy's Mediaset — Move is part of French media firm's bid to create a European rival to U.S. streaming-video giant Netflix
Discussion:
Variety, Reuters, NASDAQ.com, New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Reuters, Reuters and Bloomberg
Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:
Q&A with CNN war correspondent Clarissa Ward on Syria, female war reporters, and freelancers — CNN War Correspondent Clarissa Ward Talks Reporting in the Middle East as a Woman — Clarissa Ward is in New York from her base in London to talk to her U.S. colleagues about her recent six …
Discussion:
@jamiestelter, @saraewilliams and TVNewser
Kristen Hare / Poynter:
How The Marshall Project built a searchable encyclopedia for criminal justice journalism — Since it launched, The Marshall Project has collected a record of curated and original work. Thanks in part to everyone on staff, none of that work is going to waste.
Discussion:
Source, @ultracasual and @benmullin
Adam Davidson:
On the future of serious audio news, and what NPR leadership must do to avoid diminishing — On News, Mission, and Digital transformation in public radio — One of the strongest critiques of digital audio is that it is not newsy. It's fun, it's sometimes deep, often silly …
Discussion:
@jbenton, RAIN News, Editor & Publisher, Nieman Lab and @jbenton