Top News:
Barbara Ortutay / Associated Press:
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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Tom Stites / Poynter:
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 / Nieman Lab:
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 …
Max Willens / Digiday:
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.
Columbia Journalism Review:
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?
Discussion:
@oneunderscore__, @jbenton, @rebeccaaguilar, @rachelleingang, @macloo, Media, disrupted, @johnrobinson, @alexandrianeas and @michaelsocolow
Dan Rys / Billboard:
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 …
Discussion:
newsroom.spotify.com, Refinery29, New York Times, CNBC, The Guardian, Variety, TechCrunch, @joecoscarelli, CNET, Pitchfork and Noisey
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
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 …
Steven Greenhouse / Columbia Journalism Review:
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.
Discussion:
@cjr, @phirephoenix and @greenhousenyt
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
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
Wall Street Journal:
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
Discussion:
Business Insider, @shiraovide, @citronresearch, The Hill, The Drum, MacRumors, VentureBeat, The Verge, @jacknicas, AppleInsider and 9to5Mac
Matthew Lynley / TechCrunch:
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.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
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
Discussion:
Engadget, @antoniogm, @russellbrandom, @danielfletcher, @samanthamvb, @matt_cagle, @alansoon, Center for Cooperative Media and NPR, more at Techmeme »