Top News:
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook to survey users to measure trust in publications, data will affect News Feed rankings; news will make up 4% of News Feed posts, down from 5% — Tech giant will rely on user surveys of trustworthiness to try to preserve objectivity — Facebook Inc. FB .57% plans to start ranking news sources …
Lydia O'Connor / HuffPost:
Los Angeles Times employees vote 248 to 44 in favor of joining NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America union — A day before the vote, senior editors had made a last-ditch effort to quash the unionizing campaign. — Los Angeles Times staffers have voted to unionize …
Sarah Rabil / Wall Street Journal:
Ross Levinsohn, publisher and CEO of LAT, to take an unpaid leave of absence as Tronc hires outside law firm investigate allegations of misconduct — Parent Tronc has hired outside law firm to investigate allegations of misconduct — Ross Levinsohn, the publisher and chief executive …
Discussion:
@haileybranson and Ad Age
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Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab:
Amid stories about LA Times' CEO, a look at Tronc's plans for a “Los Angeles Times Network”, borrowing from Lewis D'Vorkin's work on Forbes' contributor network — The Tronc rollercoaster continues: Just as it tries to unveil a familiar strategy ("gravitas with scale"!), its top digital leader's past catches up with him.
Discussion:
@shansquared, The Wrap, Variety and Splinter
David Folkenflik / NPR:
LA Times CEO Ross Levinsohn has been defendant in 2 sexual harassment suits, and colleagues questioned his conduct over 2 decades; Tronc says it's investigating
Discussion:
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Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Leaked Snap memo to staff threatens them with termination, financial liability, and even jail time if they leak confidential information about the company — Snap Inc. has a simple message to its employees: leak information and you could be sued or even jailed.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Business Insider, The Daily Beast Latest …, @jimprosser, @joshconstine, @funnymonkey, Fast Company and Mashable, more at Techmeme »
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Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Snap laid off about 24 people across 8 teams, mostly in the content unit that curates users' videos; some staff were asked to relocate to Los Angeles
Discussion:
The New York Observer, Digiday, CNBC, Fortune, Android Police, Tubefilter, The Drum, Variety, TechCrunch, @alexeheath, Engadget, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, @alexeheath, The Wrap and Fast Company
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:
Sources: YouTube plans to create Intelligence Desk to seek out inappropriate content using Google data, user reports, social media trends, outside consultants — YouTube is planning to proactively seek out and police inappropriate or offensive content following public backlash …
Discussion:
Business Insider and 9to5Google
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Nicholas Quah / Nieman Lab:
At Slate, podcasting has gone from zero to 25% of its revenue since 2014; Slate could become “a podcast publisher with a significant written web engine” — Plus: WBEZ tries to turn a podcast into a franchise, Science Friday joins WNYC Studios, and Gimlet opens up the HBO playbook.
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Google suspends Reviewed Claims fact-checking feature after criticism from conservative news outlets over erroneous link debunking a Daily Caller story — Google is suspending a search feature that displayed fact checks associated to publishers after receiving criticism from conservative news outlets.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
Vice worked to address its culture problem ahead of NYT article in order to protect its image as a maturing brand and its somewhat improbable $5.7B valuation — After months of rumormongering and speculation, Shane Smith's media empire seems to be surviving a highly anticipated Times story by reforming its culture—and publicizing it.
Discussion:
@vanityfair, @raju and @vanityfair
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica:
Twitch debuts Video Producer that lets creators pre-record, post-produce, rerun videos; brings in four of YouTube's popular gamers to create exclusive content — Four of YouTube's most popular gamers will produce “exclusive” Twitch content. — The Amazon-owned video site Twitch announced it's introducing …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Tubefilter, VideoInk, Engadget, VentureBeat and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Boing Boing:
Boing Boing and EFF file a motion to dismiss Playboy lawsuit that would set a dangerous precedent by making publications liable for linked content — A few weeks ago we were shocked to learn that Playboy had, without notifying us, sued us over this post (we learned about it when a journalist DM'ed us on Twitter to ask about it).
Discussion:
Fast Company, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hit & Run, Techdirt and TorrentFreak, more at Techmeme »
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
Sources: Facebook's lead liaison with Beijing, Wang-Li Moser, resigned in December after a three-year tenure in a fresh setback to its China charm campaign — HONG KONG — The executive in charge of Facebook's efforts to court China has left the company, a fresh setback for the social network …
Discussion:
@michaelschuman, @paulmozur and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »
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