Top News:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
CNN drops the series Believer with Reza Aslan after Aslan, an Iranian-American religious scholar, called Trump a “piece of s**t” in a tweet after London attack — CNN no longer believes in “Believer,” the non-fiction series it launched earlier this year with Reza Aslan, the Iranian-American author and religious scholar.
Discussion:
@rezaaslan, @seanhannity, New York Times, Washington Post, CNNMoney, Deadline, iMediaEthics, Newser, @shakestweetz, @kennycoble, @charlesjaco1, @reaganbattalion, @daveweigel, @brianstelter, @umairh, @imraansiddiqi, Politico, Business Insider, IndieWire, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, Multichannel News, Fast Company, @djrothkopf, @yashar, Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, BuzzFeed, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine and TVWeek.com
Paul Bass / New Haven Independent:
Hearst buys New Haven Register and other local news outlets, reportedly for under $50M, plans to hire ten new journalists — As print-daily newsrooms continue to shrink across the nation, the New Haven Register's new corporate boss said he plans to add reporters and increase local coverage.
Discussion:
Connecticut Post, New Haven Independent, New Haven Register, WWD, MarketWatch, Associated Press and Adweek
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Apple will finally offer basic analytics for podcasts, enabling podcast creators and advertisers to get significant listener feedback for the first time — Basic analytics are (finally) coming to Apple's podcast app in an upcoming refresh. It's a big deal.
Discussion:
@anildash and @caseynewton, more at Techmeme »
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Jason Snell / Six Colors:
Apple's Podcasts app to report to podcasters how many people are listening and where listeners stop or skip, and will enable downloads of full seasons
Discussion:
Engadget, 9to5Mac, @nbashaw, @pkafka, MacRumors, @mlieber, @ericjackson, @nwquah, @matthew_bogart and @dkiesow, more at Techmeme »
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
Assassin masqueraded as a reporter for Le Monde in Ukraine for more than a year before attempting murder during an “interview” — KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainians have long struggled with fake news from Russia, but last week, they discovered something even more insidious: a fake journalist.
Discussion:
@maddow, @comradewong and @clarajeffery
Amy Qin / New York Times:
A large number of Chinese celebrity news blogs have shut down in recent days as media censors tighten online publishing regulations — BEIJING — Whether read openly and voraciously or behind closed doors, celebrity gossip plays an integral role in the entertainment world …
RELATED:
Josh Horwitz / Quartz:
Tencent launches a new WeChat feature to collect and debunk online rumors, but government sources debunking political articles in the app may cause confusion — Today Chinese internet giant Tencent launched a new feature (link in Chinese) for its WeChat app designed to collect and debunk online rumors …
Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:
GMG CEO Raju Narisetti cites revenue growth and 53 new hires as evidence of Fusion merger success, but some staffers say Gawker spirit wanes as talent leaves — The man tasked with overseeing Gizmodo Media Group after the demise of Gawker.com says he never regularly read the site in the first place.
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy, @rafat, @susie_c, @jeffjarvis, @katiedrumm, @katiedrumm and @ajs
BuzzFeed:
NowThis News requires its staffers to sign a non-compete that bars them for two years from taking a job at places like CNN, Vice, BuzzFeed, and Vox — New hires at the social news outlet must sign a contract that forbids them from taking a job at places including CNN, Vice, BuzzFeed and Vox.
Discussion:
@maggiekb1, @mikeisaac, @dangillmor, @johnaugust, @danrivoli, @mathewi, @ali_gharib, @perlberg, @mikeisaac, @perlberg, @rachelfeltman, @mathewi, @legalinspire, @commagere, @sarahfrier, @mattyglesias, @tomnamako, @maxwellstrachan, @pkafka, @benmullin, @clarajeffery, @mekosoff, @tomgara, @perlberg, @willsommer, @mattzeitlin, @nkulw and @mccarthyryanj
RELATED:
Washpostpr / Washington Post:
The Washington Post is experimenting with audio articles using Amazon Polly, a service that converts article text into lifelike speech — The Washington Post today announced it has started experimenting with audio articles using Amazon Polly, a service that converts article text into lifelike speech.
Discussion:
GeekWire
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Comey hearing draws nearly 20M broadcast and cable TV viewers, according to Nielsen, while Twitter says 2.7M viewers tuned into its Bloomberg stream — A congressional hearing rarely attracts much attention, but Thursday's testimony by fired FBI Director James Comey brought major ratings …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Postmates acquihires Secret CEO David Byttow's startup Bold; Bold will shut down its enterprise blogging tool, plus the anonymous publishing space IO — The founder of one of Silicon Valley's most famous flameouts, anonymous social app Secret, is the new product lead for Postmates' app.
Discussion:
@joshconstine, more at Techmeme »
Robert Little / NPR:
Slain NPR journalists Gilkey and Tamanna weren't random victims; their convoy was targeted by attackers tipped off to the presence of Americans in Afghanistan — NPR journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna died a year ago this week, ambushed on a remote road in southern Afghanistan …
Discussion:
Adweek, Editor & Publisher and @chadgarland
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