Mediagazer: After documenting botnet attack on ProPublica, DFR Lab faced its own attack from bots and impersonators, including one tweet saying DFR staffer had died (DFRLab)

3:35 PM ET, August 31, 2017

Top News:

Sources: Lifezette has become an uncomfortable place for women to work, with CEO Peter Anthony often making sexually suggestive comments about female staffers — LifeZette, the politics and culture website founded by prominent ally of President Donald Trump and longtime talk radio host Laura Ingraham, is in trouble.

Discussion: @justinjm1, The Wrap, @mattgertz, @noahshachtman, @noahshachtman, @clarajeffery, @marlownyc, @lachlan, @noahshachtman, @nycjim, @joshtpm, @evepeyser, @clare_oc, The Daily Caller, @brianbeutler, @joshsternberg and Mediaite

Jazmine Hughes / New York Times:

Profile of Elaine Welteroth, EIC of Teen Vogue, which is monetizing its progressiveness with a coming TV integration, a reader convention, a line of merchandise — The editor in chief has taken on a seemingly impossible task: reinventing the glossy magazine for a hyperempathetic generation.

Discussion: @taffyakner, Jezebel, @jakesilverstein, @hezelanna, @nicoleblades, @susandominus, @ellieshechet and @dstfelix

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

How The Houston Chronicle's ~200 journalists are covering Harvey, reporting from home, jogging to work, wading through water, filing from a stranded car, more — Albert Gonzalez tugged a pallet piled with newspapers through a maze of donated clothes, pillows and blankets on Tuesday.

Discussion: @benbartenstein, @andy_ed_brown, @ben_brasch, @kristenhare, @johnastoehr, @dsilverman, @lydiadepillis, @lizentman, @benmullin, @votreami, @poynter and @reporterlknake

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

The appointment of neoconservative journalist Bari Weiss to The New York Times' op-ed team reinforces the paper's lack of viewpoint diversity — Controversy erupted on April 14 over the New York Times' hiring of neoconservative climate-skeptic and anti-Arab polemicist Bret Stephens …

Discussion: @mariabustillos, @alexbkane, @theintercept, @ggreenwald, @jkirchick and Jezebel

Natt Garun / The Verge:

Instagram rolls out Stories to desktop and mobile web starting today, with ability to upload from mobile web coming in next few months — Mobile web upload is coming soon — Instagram is adding the ability for you to view Stories on desktop and mobile web so you can see the ephemeral posts on larger screens.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Fast Company, BuzzFeed and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Disney is prepping budget cuts of 10% in Disney/ABC Television Group, including job reductions of up to 300, at ABC News, local TV stations, more — As many as 300 jobs could be cut in aim to reach 10% reduction in costs — Walt Disney Co. is preparing significant budget cuts …

Discussion: The New York Observer, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, Variety, Vanity Fair, C21Media, FierceCable, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, TVNewser, TVWeek.com, Deadline, Broadcasting & Cable, @joshsternberg and @jbflint

Alison Weissbrot / AdExchanger:

HowStuffWorks is spinning off from parent company System1 as an independent podcast network with a $15M Series A investment from The Raine Group — Digital media publisher HowStuffWorks is spinning out from parent company System1 as an independent podcast network with a $15 million Series …

Discussion: Recode

DFRLab:

After documenting botnet attack on ProPublica, DFR Lab faced its own attack from bots and impersonators, including one tweet saying DFR staffer had died — Twitter bots unleashed in a social media disruption tactic — Overnight from August 28 to August 29, a major Twitter botnet opened …

Discussion: @sieverts, @jonathanstray, @grahambrookie, @maksczuperski and Krebs on Security

Max Willens / Digiday:

Gannett plans to throw more than 500 events this year and in the past two years has doubled the size of its events strategy group — To grow its events business, Gannett is thinking nationally and acting locally. — After years of letting its individual newspapers handle events on their own …

Discussion: @jcstearns

Michael Blanding / Nieman Reports:

How some news outlets are covering climate change well, amid a dearth of coverage from networks, uneven newspaper coverage, and issues with false balance — A look at news outlets bringing innovation, urgency and new audiences to stories on climate change — The assignment was simple …

Discussion: @niemanfdn, @benswasey, @benswasey and @niemanreports

Casey Newton / The Verge:

How YouTube started using Google Brain's AI to improve video recommendations in 2015, which now drive 70% of videos' watch time — Google Brain gave YouTube new life — Sometime late last year, as I was playing a video game named Dishonored 2, I did a routine YouTube search about how to beat a tricky section of the game.

Discussion: Beyond Search

Al Jazeera English:

Al Jazeera English disables comments on its website, finds social media to be the preferred platform for online debate — Today, we disabled the ability to comment on stories on aljazeera.com. It's a decision that we've given much thought to, and one that we feel ultimately best serves our audience.

Discussion: Al Jazeera English and Press Gazette

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More News:

Jacksonville Journal Courier / Journal Courier:
Hearst acquires The Journal-Courier, the oldest continuously published paper in Illinois, and its sister publication, The Telegraph of Alton, from Civitas Media

Discussion: The Edwardsville Intelligencer, The Telegraph and @mediablotter

Caroline Scott / Journalism.co.uk:
How Vox used crowdsourcing to help plan its new six-part Borders documentary series, coming this fall, with audience suggesting locations, activities, more

Discussion: @carolinescott91 and @storybench

Mark Brown / The Guardian:
BBC Radio 3 outlines plans to broadcast more “slow radio”, including chanting of Benedictine monks, voices of people with dementia, more

Discussion: BBC

Mike DeNardo / CBS Philly:
Philly.com to limit free stories to 10/month starting 9/5; print subscribers can get digital access for $0.25-$0.30/week, with digital-only subs at $3/week

Discussion: @glenngabe, @ckrewson and @bydanielvictor

Shane Bauer / Mother Jones:
News outlets erred in Berkeley protest coverage by focusing on scattered violence, ignoring bigger story that Bay Area has become targeted by far-right groups

Discussion: Washington Post, @shane_bauer, @jtlol, @schradie and @shane_bauer

Earlier Picks:

The Guardian:
Over 21M comments have been submitted to FCC on its proposed neutrality roll-back as it closes submissions, although many are duplicates or created by spambots

Nick Cumming-Bruce / New York Times:
UN human rights chief rebukes Trump's repeated verbal attacks on some media outlets and journalists, says the claims could amount to incitement

Discussion: @whca, @phelimkine, Reuters, Mediaite, @glennkesslerwp and Washington Post

Ross Benes / Digiday:
USA Today Network reformats mobile site to provide personalized homepages for users, plans rollout to all users for all of its properties within six months

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
A year after Philippe Dauman was ousted as CEO of Viacom, the company has continued to struggle, with its stock price plummeting another 30%

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Publishers are letting writers go as they turn to video and try to replicate success of Vice, which is said to be valued at $5.7B or twice that of the NYT

Discussion: Forbes and Digital Content Next

From Techmeme:

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Cisco details a hacking campaign that penetrated multiple governments' networks using two zero-day flaws in its VPN and firewall Adaptive Security Appliances

Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors charge two founders of Samourai Wallet, saying the crypto mixing service facilitated more than $100M in money laundering transactions

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
IBM agrees to buy HashiCorp, which helps companies manage cloud infrastructure, in a deal valuing HashiCorp at $6.4B and expected to close by the end of 2024

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