Mediagazer: Hearst plans Snapchat Discover pop-up channels for Seventeen, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar (Sahil Patel/Digiday)

4:05 PM ET, May 11, 2016

Top News:

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, Knight Foundation, @poynter, @jcstearns, @knightfdn, @ejimbo_com, Medium, The Rural Blog, Medium and Medium

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 — Italy's Mediaset and France's JC Decaux report disappointing results — FRANKFURT—Shares in Axel Springer SE fell sharply Wednesday despite it reporting …

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

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 …

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: Tubefilter, Billboard, @irvingazoff, Music Ally and The Wrap

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

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Hearst plans Snapchat Discover pop-up channels for Seventeen, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar — Snapchat users perusing the app's Discover section the last three weeks might have periodically noticed a prom-themed channel pop up from Hearst-owned Seventeen magazine.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Paul Dallison / Politico:

Bloomberg gave $362,000 to keep Britain in European Union — BRUSSELS — Media giant Bloomberg gave $361,675 to the campaign fighting to keep Britain in the European Union, according to a watchdog that regulates election financing. — The donation, which the Electoral Commission listed as being in cash …

Discussion: @miriamelder

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 — The US Senate Commerce Committee—which has jurisdiction over media issues, consumer protection issues, and internet communication …

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, Fast Company, The Federalist and The Daily Caller

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Ripple.co launches out of beta, targets big cities with news feeds and contributed posts — Viki founder Razmig Hovaghimian launches a “city-focused news platform.” — The internet is a good place to learn lots of things. What's happening in your neighborhood is not one of them …

Discussion: PR Newswire, @niemanlab and Journalism.co.uk

Oliver Roeder / FiveThirtyEight:

USA Today and Gannett sever ties with Timothy Parker, crossword puzzle editor accused of plagiarism — USA Today has permanently severed ties with the longtime editor of its crossword puzzle, Timothy Parker, after allegations of plagiarism by Parker were investigated by FiveThirtyEight.

Discussion: Guardian, New York Times, New York Times and The Wrap

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 — Feat is rare achievement in age of rapid streaming growth, declining sales of downloads and CDs — Hip-hop star Drake sold more than one million copies of his new album …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon unveils Amazon Video Direct, open to any video creator, with four ways to earn money: per-hour royalty, add-on subs, digital rent/sale, or ad-supported — Initial partners include Conde Nast, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Machinima, StyleHaul — Amazon, which touts itself as Earth's biggest store …