Mediagazer: Die Welt's head of social media sheds light on how the strategy of engaging with readers in comments on its Facebook page is helping bolster ties with readers (Shan Wang/Nieman Lab)

2:50 PM ET, August 22, 2017

Top News:

The Village Voice is ending its print edition, will focus on digital operation — The company is doubling down on its digital operation. — Peter Barbey, who purchased the legendary alt-weekly The Village Voice in 2015, has decided to no longer produce a print edition.

Michael J. Socolow / Washington Post:

A reflection on Gawker and its journalism, like its coverage of Trump long before his presidential campaign, a year to the day since it was forced to close — Gawker wasn't perfect. But in the age of Trump, it's hard not to miss its voice. (Henri Grivot/AP) — One year ago today, Gawker shut down.

Discussion: Nieman Lab and The Daily Caller

Sruthi Gottipati / The Guardian:

Kim Wall's disappearance is a reminder that the safety of female journalists is not an issue restricted to developing countries — Kim Wall has reported on stories around the world. But she was to disappear in a country known for gender parity: Denmark — met Kim last year.

Discussion: @hyltonanne, @rorypecktrust and @gosruthi

BBC:

Copenhagen police say a woman's headless torso has been found in the search for missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall; it has been sent for forensic analysis — A woman's headless torso has been found by police searching for a Swedish journalist who went missing during a trip with a submarine inventor.

Discussion: cphpost.dk, NPR, Business Insider, Gizmodo and The Guardian

Max Willens / Digiday:

HuffPost's homepage traffic is up 23% YoY since unveiling its tabloid redesign in April — This spring, HuffPost's new editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, announced that she wanted the Oath-owned title to become a grand tabloid for the underserved. — It appears to be resonating with HuffPost's core audience.

The Guardian:

Activist group Avaaz launches first steps of a judicial review to challenge Ofcom over its report declaring the Murdochs “fit and proper” owners of Sky — Avaaz threatens to challenge regulator's ruling that Sky would remain ‘fit and proper’ to hold broadcasting licence if it was bought by 21st Century Fox

Discussion: Press Gazette, Bloomberg, @arusbridger, @annettedittert, Telegraph and @pguk10

The Daily Beast:

Sources: fired CNN contributor Jeffrey Lord, who was sacked after tweeting a Nazi salute, is in preliminary talks to join Breitbart — It's been nearly two weeks since Jeffrey Lord, the former Reagan administration official and pro-Trump political commentator, was sacked from his contributor job at CNN.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, The New York Observer, The Wrap and Mediaite

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Medium will pay writers based off number of “claps” they get, from subscribers' $5/mo. fee, redesigns its logo, and introduces a metered paywall — At the beginning of the year, Medium announced a big change: 50 staffers were being laid off as the company shifted away …

Discussion: Fast Company, @ziyatong, @kenjennings, 3 min read, The Verge and @benmullin, more at Techmeme »

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

In sweeping masthead shakeup, media veteran Ross Levinsohn named publisher and CEO of the LA Times, as Jim Kirk of the Chicago Sun-Times becomes interim editor — In a dramatic shakeup at the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago-based parent company has installed new leadership and plans to invest …

Discussion: TheStreet, CNNMoney, Variety, The Daily Caller, Ad Age, @daviduberti, LA Observed, @jamesliamcook, Fortune, @rdotinga, The Wrap, @joypress, @jakesherman, @claudiakoerner, @mlcalderone, @melbournecoal, @charlesornstein, @nickriccardi and @abeaujon

James Warren / Poynter:

Q&A with American Prospect publisher Amy Lambrecht on how the interview with Bannon has affected the magazine — Amy Lambrecht, publisher of The American Prospect, faces a tough challenge every day: How can she make her magazine stand out in a wickedly competitive media universe …

Discussion: @benmullin

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:

Die Welt's head of social media sheds light on how the strategy of engaging with readers in comments on its Facebook page is helping bolster ties with readers — “The ability to recognize a brand — this is a huge thing right now. We don't want people to say, 'I read this on Facebook.'"

Jason Lynch / Adweek:

CNN announces it will launch The Update, a daily Snapchat news show at 6PM ET, one month after NBC debuted its twice-daily news program — The Update debuts a month after NBC News rolled out its own twice-daily program — Just one month ago, there weren't any daily news shows on Snapchat.

Discussion: Fortune, TVNewser, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Recode, Engadget and Mashable

Andrew Feinberg / Politico:

A former White House correspondent for Sputnik News Service reflects on five strained months at the Russian-owned propaganda network — I thought they'd let me be a real journalist at Sputnik news. I was wrong. — “What would you do if we asked you to write something that wasn't true?”

Discussion: @c_stroop and @benimmo

Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the only local news org among Facebook Watch's first batch of partners, sees it as a way to attract viewers outside of Texas — “Watch is appealing because it's not just about getting as many of those singular people watching, but also developing a community …

John Herrman / New York Times:

After wave of neo-Nazi bans, tech firms' censorship policies were shown again to be arbitrary, not derived from moral awakening or newfound sense of civic duty — White supremacist marchers had not yet lit their torches when the deletions began. The “Unite the Right” Facebook page …

Discussion: @nkulw, @freedarko, @chashomans, @willystaley, @louiseroug, @mims, @jwherrman, @jayrosen_nyu, @max_read and Boing Boing

Alastair Sharp / Reuters:
Domain name registrar of conservative Canadian site The Rebel has denied it service, says Rebel Media founder Ezra Levant

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Daily Caller, @blakersdozen and @cwarzel