Top News:
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
Kara Swisher and Jack Dorsey's #KaraJack chat showed Twitter needs major product fixes to make it easier to follow complex public conversations — Without major fixes to the product, the platform will never be a place for complex discussions. — Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey …
Discussion:
Recode, @jack, Recode, @karaswisher, Twitter, @karaswisher, @dangillmor, @recode, @digiphile, CNET, @caro_milanesi, @karaswisher, @klasfeldreports, @waltmossberg, @voxdotcom, @blackamazon, @kurtwagner8, BBC, @karaswisher, The Next Web, Fortune, 9to5Mac and The Verge
James Wagner / New York Times:
Profile of Sports Reference, a family of sports websites with 11 full-time staff, that its founder says had 1B page views last year — PHILADELPHIA — While writing a sermon in September, Cheryl Pyrch, the pastor of Summit Presbyterian Church, needed an assist.
Discussion:
@byjameswagner, @minorleagueball, @tinasturdevant and @oh_that_crab
South China Morning Post:
Xuexi Qiangguo, a propaganda app with Snapchat-like messaging features developed by China's Communist Party, becomes top free app on Apple's App Store in China — The Xuexi Qiangguo app is now most downloaded item on Apple's App Store in China, surpassing popular social media apps such as WeChat and TikTok.
Discussion:
Cult of Mac, shanghaiist, Tech in Asia, @robert_spalding, CNN, The Edge Markets, BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, China Media Project and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Jason Koebler / Motherboard:
Blippi, a YouTube star popular with kids, says he used DMCA takedown notices for years to remove Harlem Shake Poop, an embarrassing video he starred in 2013 — Someone claiming to represent Blippi filed DMCA copyright takedown requests to Google in order to get an embarrassing viral video hidden.
Discussion:
@cshirky, @charlielyne, @tiffanycli, @scout_finch, @arthur_affect and @jason_koebler, more at Techmeme »
Poynter:
Outgoing director of the International Fact-Checking Network reflects on how fact-checking changed since 2015, dealing with platforms like Facebook, and more — So long, fact-checkers … When I started as director of the International Fact-Checking Network in September 2015, there was very little there to direct.
Discussion:
@politifact, @newslitproject, @firstdraftnews, @digiphile, @dpfunke, @janebsinger, Nieman Lab and @mantzarlis
Wall Street Journal:
An account of the rise and untimely death of Vine and HQ Trivia cofounder Colin Kroll, based on interviews with and documents from friends, police, and others — Self-taught coder Colin Kroll shot to startup fame, allowing him to live life in a fast lane — Colin Kroll, a college dropout …
Discussion:
@daiwaka, @mattrosoff, @_danielsinclair, @poochmcgoo, @shalini, @antoniogm, @shalini, @shalini, @reaganbrad, @mikeisaac, @murraymatt, @apblake, @shalini and @kerrymflynn
Anna Altman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Interview with Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, who has been closely tracking how Fox News coverage influences Trump's tweets since 2017 — “There's a saying in politics that personnel is policy,” Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, said on a recent afternoon.
Discussion:
@mattgertz, @mattgertz, @susannahchen, @mattgertz, @mattgertz, @mattgertz and Washington Post
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Brazilian fact-checker AosFatos.org describes how it found an estimated 3M visits to fake news sites allegedly connected to its impersonator AosFatos.com — Someone is publishing fake news stories on a website that looks like a fact-checking organization. — On Wednesday, Brazilian fact …
Ashley Baker / Daily Front Row:
Interview with Conde Nast CRO Pamela Drucker Mann on transition from a publishing company to a full-fledged media company, content partnerships, and more — Bob is out and a new CEO is (eventually) coming... so what exactly is going on at Condé Nast?
Loyola Phoenix:
In editorial, journalists at Loyola University's newspaper describe how the university communications office has restricted media access to professors and staff — A Phoenix news reporter, on the trail of a story about Loyola's above-average abundance of women in STEM programs …
Discussion:
@johnrobinson, @mikemcdtweets, @crampell and @royalpratt
Duncan Cooper / Pitchfork:
While some artists whose music is used in TikTok videos are compensated through their labels' sales of blanket licenses, others forgo payment for exposure — The company behind lip-sync app TikTok is reportedly worth three times as much as Spotify, but the artists whose music powers the platform are seeing very little of that money.
Discussion:
@getalternative and @mattnavarra, more at Techmeme »
Kali Hays / WWD:
Challenger Gray study: 15.5K jobs cut in news, broadcast news, TV, film, and music in 2018, a 281% increase YoY, of which 11.8K were in news organizations alone — A study from an industry outplacement firm said 2018 was the worst year for media in a decade. This year isn't shaping up so well already.
Discussion:
@saraschonhardt and @wwd
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