Top News:
Alex Koppelman / CNNMoney:
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll defends the news wire's story about meetings Clinton took as secretary of state, says tweet was “sloppy” — Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll is defending her organization's controversial investigation into meetings Hillary Clinton took …
Trevor Timm / Freedom of the Press Foundation:
Questions for those cheering the demise of a media organization at the hands of a legal system — Gawker.com, the pioneering and controversial media blog, officially died yesterday. It was killed by billionaire Peter Thiel in his successful quest to bankrupt Gawker Media Group through …
Discussion:
Guardian, @gaberivera, @mims, @trevortimm, @mmasnick and Magforum
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Jeet Heer / New Republic:
Gawker's demise signifies the end of a golden age of blogging, done in by social media, podcasts, GIFs, and broader media consolidation — The demise of Gawker.com also marks the end of the utopian promise of blogging. Here's what killed them. — For the media-savvy members of a certain generation …
Brian Feldman / New York Magazine:
To serve advertisers, digital media companies are shifting away from text and pictures toward video, a hard move for small web properties with few resources — It's been a big, weird year for the media industry. Gawker, the pioneering blog, declared bankruptcy and was sold off to Univision …
Discussion:
USA Today, @medium, @noahchestnut, @mariekshan, @lauraelizdavis, Business Insider and The Wrap
Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:
Russia increases flow of false news stories from outlets like Sputnik and RT, which spread in EU and US via social media and spill into traditional news media — STOCKHOLM — With a vigorous national debate underway on whether Sweden should enter a military partnership with NATO …
Discussion:
@stephwillerton, @samtamiz, @jimhake, @politechris, @empireburlesque and @mspaaz
Oliver Darcy / Business Insider:
The dominance of Drudge, Breitbart, Hannity, and Coulter and their Trump support have damaged Republican party, some other conservative media figures say — Sean Hannity, sitting comfortably in his air-conditioned New York studios on a hot August afternoon, was on a fiery rant.
Discussion:
@albertocairo, @jayrosen_nyu, @danshafermke, @monkbowlin, @erikashaker, @danriehl, @toayc, @oliverdarcy, @realmreynolds, @melodgrl, @kylegriffin1, @baboomfitness and BuzzFeed
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Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:
As business challenges hit college newspapers, those owned by for-profit entities face bigger squeezes or a shutdown — The Central Florida Future, the student newspaper at the University of Central Florida founded in 1968, published its last issue August 4.
Discussion:
The Lantern, @niemanlab and @niemanlab
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Although Hillary Clinton has held no press conferences in 2016, she's given 350 interviews in first seven months the year, favoring national TV and local radio — Hillary Clinton has not held a single press conference since the start of 2016, triggering charges that she's trying to duck questions from reporters on the campaign trail.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Wrap and @danmericacnn
Michael Wolff / Hollywood Reporter:
Univision's $135M Gawker buy is a desperate play for millennials to build toward a face-saving IPO — The Spanish-language broadcaster's flawed strategy to chase bilingual young audiences with the doomed Fusion TV network has given way to a new obsession with English-only sites like The Onion …
Nausicaa Renner / Columbia Journalism Review:
Interview with The Coral Project's director Andrew Losowsky on Trust, Ask, and Talk, the open source tools it's developing for improving comment sections — NPR last week announced its decision to shut down comments on its website in favor of comments on social media—saying “the audience itself has decided.”
Discussion:
@evesamples and @cjr
Quartz:
Sources: Facebook letting go of entire Trending Topics editorial staff, consisting of 15-18 workers contracted through a third party — Facebook will no longer employ humans to write descriptions for items in its Trending section, which attracted controversy over allegations of political bias in May.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, @nathanjurgenson, @mcwm, @charlesarthur, @codybrown, @marginoferror, @caitlin__kelly, @glennf, @michaelroston, @_alastair, @daveyalba, @oneunderscore__, @dseetharaman, @digiphile, @dsilverman, @walldo, @geoffreyfowler, @auerbachkeller, @schwindter, @resnikoff, @fmanjoo, @phogan, @leibelm and @mattdrange
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Facebook Newsroom:
Facebook will now select stories and excerpts automatically for Trending topic pages, show topics instead of story descriptions in Trending section
Facebook will now select stories and excerpts automatically for Trending topic pages, show topics instead of story descriptions in Trending section
Discussion:
@naaceceo, @marshallk, Refinery29, Recode, The Verge, The Wrap, New York Magazine, The Drum, TechCrunch, Washington Post, @emptywheel, @zeynep, @zeynep, @goc9000, fox13now.com, Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, GeekWire, CNET, @rsingel, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Ad Age, Fortune, The Huffington Post, SocialTimes, Business Insider, CNNMoney and Forbes
The Verge:
Inside NBC's Olympic live streaming operation, which required a remote support staff of 1,100+ in Stamford, Connecticut — For NBC, this year's Olympic Games coverage was more than just a series of household rating points: it was a moment of truth in a fast-changing media world.
Lauren Zumbach / Chicago Tribune:
Amazon is opening an offline bookstore in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood next year; the online retailer opened its first store in Seattle last fall — Construction signs are posted Aug. 24, 2016, at 3443 N. Southport Ave., the Lakeview neighborhood location where Amazon plans to open a Chicago bookstore in 2017.
Discussion:
GeekWire and Publishers Weekly