Mediagazer: Walt Mossberg is retiring in June, shortly after the 2017 Code Conference, ending a 47-year career at publications including the WSJ, Recode, and The Verge (Walt Mossberg/The Verge)

3:25 PM ET, April 7, 2017

Top News:

Walt Mossberg / The Verge:

Walt Mossberg is retiring in June, shortly after the 2017 Code Conference, ending a 47-year career at publications including the WSJ, Recode, and The Verge — Thanks for reading, watching, listening — It was a June day when I began my career as a national journalist.

Discussion: @waltmossberg, Adweek, USA Today, @bankoff, Fast Company, @delrey, @jake_k, @reckless, @voxmediainc, Talking New Media, @loudmouthjulia, The Loop, CNET and Daring Fireball, more at Techmeme »

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

Mic raises $21M in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, putting the company's valuation at “mid hundreds of millions,” a source says — Plan is to fund new channels, ramp up premium video output — The millennial-focused web publisher Mic announced last week that it was rolling out nine new channels.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, TechCrunch, Variety, @jarroddicker, @digitalshields, @jamesliamcook and @torystarr3

Alexios Mantzarlis / Poynter:

Google is rolling out a “fact check” feature in its search results that will include who said each claim and its accuracy rating within a featured snippet — Google rolled out a new feature Friday morning that will help fact checks stand out in search results.

BuzzFeed:

Trump's most diehard alt-right media defenders, including Mike Cernovich, @BakedAlaska, and Paul Joseph Watson, have turned against him in wake of Syria strikes — “I'm officially OFF the Trump train,” tweeted Infowars' Paul Joseph Watson. — In the minutes after the Pentagon confirmed …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @borzou, @timobrien, @cwarzel, @miriamelder, Politico and @jasonleopold

Nausicaa Renner / Columbia Journalism Review:

First Draft News launches a Field Guide to Fake News, with exercises to help anyone understand how stories travel on social media — If there's one—and only one—thing we can say definitively about fake news, it's that it inspired some great reporting, of a kind that has never before been prominent in the public sphere.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @cjr, @nyguild, @cjr, Press Association, BetaNews and Business Insider

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn its order to unmask @ALT_uscis Twitter account that criticized Trump, prompting Twitter to drop its lawsuit — Just one day after being sued in federal court, the Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn its order to unmask the @Alt_USCIS account …

Discussion: @aclu, ZDNet and NPR, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Reuters begins appending a link to its Trust Principles at the bottom of stories and will also occasionally provide explanations for how pieces were reported — (NEW YORK) You may not be familiar with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles, but to us at Reuters they are our indispensable compass.

Discussion: Adweek, @ldelevingne, @reuterspr, @leeladek, @daviduberti, Press Gazette and @felixsalmon

Dave McNary / Variety:

The Intercept's 32-member staff has unionized with the Writers Guild of America East — The Intercept, the investigative journalism site founded by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, has voluntarily recognized the Writers Guild of America East as the collective bargaining representative of its 32-member staff.

Discussion: @caseyriankelly, @poynter and @dantherriault

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: FCC Chairman tells trade groups of plans to update net neutrality rules created under Obama, wants to keep basic principles but move enforcement to FTC — Republican could make his plans public as soon as this month — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai laid …

Discussion: The Hill, The Verge, Motherboard, Common Dreams, Consumerist, Axios, Engadget, Business Insider and Media Law Prof Blog, more at Techmeme »

Brian Raftery / Wired:

Oral history of Funny or Die as it turns ten, as told by its co-founders, CEO, writers, directors, producers, and celebrities — When Funny or Die launched on April 12, 2007, with “The Landlord”—a supercheap two-minute sketch pitting Will Ferrell against a swearing toddler …

David Reid / CNBC:

European Union approves 21st Century Fox bid to buy Sky TV channel for $14.5B — EU regulators have approved 21st Century Fox's £11.7bn ($14.5bn) takeover of UK broadcaster Sky TV. — Rupert Murdoch's company has won unconditional EU antitrust approval to buy the pay-TV group.

Discussion: @cnbc and @stevekopack

Pan Yue / China Money Network:

Sources: Chinese personalized news recommendation app Toutiao raises $1B Series D led by Sequoia and CCB International at over a $12B valuation — - 7 — Sequoia Capital and CCB International, an investment unit of China Construction Bank Co., have led a series D investment of around US$1 billion …

Discussion: @dtunkelang, more at Techmeme »

Mike Rosenberg / The Seattle Times:

Top editor of Tacoma's News Tribune, Karen Peterson, resigns as newspaper prepares for cuts of at least 10 jobs from staff of about 65 — The paper is also preparing for a more digital-focused strategy as part of a plan with its corporate owners.

Discussion: Talking New Media and @melissasantos1

Ben Popper / The Verge:

YouTube says it will only allow channels with 10K lifetime views to monetize videos, to help make sure revenue flows only to those who play by the rules — The rule change is meant to weed out bad actors — Five years ago, YouTube opened their partner program to everyone.