Mediagazer: It's not a secret: Facebook influences News Feed by rewarding publishers that post what it wants, which is video at the moment (Peter Kafka/Recode)

7:20 AM ET, May 12, 2016

Top News:

Peter Kafka / Recode:

It's not a secret: Facebook influences News Feed by rewarding publishers that post what it wants, which is video at the moment — Spoiler: It's not a secret. — Guys. Look. Let me show you the real Facebook media influence story. — That's a 47-minute (!) long video of a walk through a New York City park.

Discussion: Digiday, Fortune, New York Times, FishbowlNY, Marketing Land, @pkafka, Yahoo! Finance, @lzimm, @jeffjohnroberts and Slate

Michael Nunez / Gizmodo:
GOP Sen. Thune sends letter to Zuckerberg asking for more details about curation of Facebook's Trending Topics; Facebook says it looks forward to cooperating

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Facebook's News Feed reflects what we already like, with far more influence than curators of Trending Topics

Discussion: Guardian, The Loop and Fast Company

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:

Knight Foundation report: users spend 5% of mobile time on news sites and apps, Reddit users spend five times as much time in Reddit app than any other news app — People read the news on their smartphones (duh). They will even read longform (to a certain extent).

Discussion: medium.com, Poynter, Knight Foundation, Medium, @poynter, @jcstearns, @knightfdn, @ejimbo_com, The Rural Blog, Knight Foundation, Medium and Medium

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Apple denies report that it will end iTunes music downloads within the next few years — “Not true.” — The future of music is streaming, not downloads. — But that doesn't mean Apple, the company that essentially invented the market for music download sales, is going to stop selling downloads anytime soon.

Discussion: Digital Music News, The Next Web, BuzzFeed, AppAdvice.com Latest, MacRumors, iMore and AppleInsider

Leon Neyfakh / Slate:

Apple Destroyed My Will to Collect Music — I once used iTunes to organize albums, bootlegs, demos, and deep cuts—until it made that nearly impossible. Will Apple Music finish the job? — Last week, an astonishing blog post by a man named James Pinkstone circulated on social media.

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:
How a presence on Beats 1, heavy promotion on iTunes, and a TV ad campaign helped Drake reach 1M album sales in a week

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Digital Music News and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Local news startup Ripple apologizes for taking other people's news — Information doesn't want to be that free. — Yesterday we told you about Ripple, the startup that wants to deliver local news but doesn't create the news itself. — Today several publications that are in the business …

Discussion: @laurahazardowen

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Ripple.co launches out of beta, targets big cities with news feeds and contributed posts

Discussion: @jensabella, @pmontoro, @jakedobkin, @johnness, @jake_bittle, @scottbrodbeck, @bechang8, @jensabella, @bechang8, @jakedobkin, @jakedobkin, @jakedobkin, @jakedobkin, @jakedobkin, Journalism.co.uk, PR Newswire and @niemanlab

Ellen Emmerentze Jervell / Wall Street Journal:

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner wants to become the leading US digital publisher; company now has minority stake in 12 companies — Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner wants company to become the No. 1 digital publisher in every market it enters — BERLIN—German media giant Axel Springer SE …

Ellen Emmerentze Jervell / Wall Street Journal:
Axel Springer Q1: revenue up 4.6% to €783.4 adjusted, digital contributed to 67% of earnings, profit up to €203.2M

Discussion: @rafat, The Star Online, Bloomberg and Reuters

Davey Alba / Wired:

YouTube tests letting users share and talk about videos in group message threads within the app, which others can be invited to join — We've all had it happen: You're talking with a friend, and the conversation turns to something that a YouTube video perfectly encapsulates.

Discussion: SlashGear, Mashable, Droid Life, Adweek, Tubefilter, Engadget, Bloomberg, The Next Web, The Verge, iMore, Washington Post and MediaNama

Hank Green / Recode:

Vlogger Hank Green responds to Irving Azoff's open letter to YouTube, says the platform protects needs of independent creators from multinational companies — Dear Irving Azoff: Being on YouTube is good for artists and record labels, and everybody knows it.

Discussion: Digital Music News, @irvingazoff, Tubefilter, Billboard, Music Ally and Variety

Mădălina Ciobanu / Journalism.co.uk:

Seven months after launch, El Español finds it challenging to pursue both high traffic and subscriptions — Web traffic to the crowdfunded media outlet is higher than expected, says co-founder María Ramírez, but subscriptions are not keeping up — Credit: Screenshot of El Español

Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:

A conversation with Edward Snowden on interacting with the press, how facts can be drowned out on social media, and the impact of journalism — The Tow Center for Digital Journalism's Emily Bell spoke to Edward Snowden over a secure channel about his experiences working with journalists and his perspective on the shifting media world.

Discussion: RT

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:

From bingo games to brackets, The Washington Post is building “alternative story forms” — Did The Washington Post correctly guess your age and income, based solely on the apps on your phone? (For the record: I am, based on my phone apps, “a single guy younger than 32 who makes more than $52,000/year.")

Discussion: Poynter and STAT

Alastair Reid / First Draft News:

Reuters study: 24% of UK journalists say publishing unverified info is sometimes justified — One in four UK journalists believe it is “justified” to publish unverified information, according to new research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Discussion: Reuters Institute …