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Facebook to shut down Trending and is testing new features like a breaking news label for publishers, a Today In section, and a News Video in Watch section — NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is shutting down its ill-fated “trending” news section after four years, a company executive told The Associated Press.
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BuzzFeed, @daphnehk, Facebook, Mumbrella, Newser, The A.V. Club, Fortune, NPR, Scroll.in, Urban Hollywood 411, TechCrunch, The Week, @pt, Washington Post, CNNMoney, Business Insider, Columbia Journalism Review, @numbersmuncher, The Hill, The Verge, Press Association, Marketing Land, @flyosity, Gizmodo, Recode, CNBC, The Next Web, MacRumors, CNET, @johnghendy and @craigsilverman


UNC to launch a searchable database of newspapers and online news sites in late June to track the spread of news deserts; study to be published in September — The data will be available in late June and the latest study will be shared online when it's published in September.


Samm Farai Monro of Zimbabwe's Zambezi News discusses satirizing Robert Mugabe's regime, state-controlled TV, and how the internet has helped with distribution — “On the one hand, we know that quite a few government ministers actually watch our stuff....So these dudes, they do watch it …


Delivering exclusive or early access podcasts is expensive, labor-intensive, or leaky as dominant platforms by Apple and Google don't support paywalling content — In theory, premium podcasts should be a great tool for publishers that want to retain and grow their subscriber bases.


Bill Grueskin, Felix Salmon, and Alexandria Neason reconsider the age-old question of whether we need journalism schools; all say high costs must be weighed — One of the things we teach in journalism school is the need to scrutinize your sources' motives. Why are these people talking to you?
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@oneunderscore__, @jbenton, @rebeccaaguilar, @rachelleingang, @macloo, Media, disrupted, @johnrobinson, @alexandrianeas and @michaelsocolow


Spotify updates its hateful content and conduct policy, says it will no longer use the provision that led to removal of R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from playlists — Three weeks after Spotify announced a new policy regarding hate content and hateful conduct on its service …
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newsroom.spotify.com, Refinery29, New York Times, CNBC, The Guardian, Variety, TechCrunch, @joecoscarelli, CNET, Pitchfork and Noisey


UK trade body AOP data found 29.9% of ad impressions on desktop blocked, down from 31.7% at mid-2016 high, calculating a nearly £14M revenue loss over 12 months — The General Data Protection Regulation may have usurped the threat of ad blocking in alarming media headlines lately …


Like before, newsrooms unionize for job security, better salaries, protection from business interests, but they now demand more diversity and work-life balance — The reasons for unionizing haven't changed much in the last 80 years — It was 1933, and the Great Depression was pummeling the newspaper industry.
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@cjr, @phirephoenix and @greenhousenyt


In countries without press freedom, fact-checking efforts are stymied by distrust of fact-checkers living abroad, small audiences, lack of access to information — TORONTO — When he talks about fact-checking, Farhad Souzanchi alternates between a stony face and wide grin.
Discussion:
@benweinthal


Sources: Apple is working on a new ad network for app promotion, in talks with Snap, Pinterest, others to distribute its search ads for apps — Increasing ad sales could help offset slowing iPhone growth, but effort would face stiff competition from Google and Facebook
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Business Insider, @shiraovide, @citronresearch, The Hill, The Drum, MacRumors, VentureBeat, The Verge, @jacknicas, AppleInsider and 9to5Mac


Pinterest says it will make it possible for advertisers to show promoted videos that take up the width of the screen — Pinterest is continuing its push into video as a potential avenue for advertisers by today saying that it will offer advertisers a promoted video tool that takes up the width of the entire screen.


Facebook's new promoted content rules block some ads from Vice, Newsmax, others, classifying ads as political and requiring advertiser verification via mail — 'Everything we've tried to do in the past couple days has just been shut down,' says one publisher
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Engadget, @antoniogm, @russellbrandom, @danielfletcher, @samanthamvb, @matt_cagle, @alansoon, Center for Cooperative Media and NPR, more at Techmeme »