Top News:
Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
WordPress.com owner Automattic will buy Tumblr from Verizon for an undisclosed amount, taking on about 200 staffers — Carrier sheds blogging site for nominal amount as part of media unit revamp — Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to sell its blogging website Tumblr to the owner …
Discussion:
@marcoarment, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Polygon, @anthony, The Verge, @karlbode, @markarms, 9to5Mac, @shiraovide, @stephgwhiteside and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
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Axios:
WordPress.com owner Automattic says it will buy Tumblr from Verizon, taking on ~200 staffers, and will keep the porn ban; source: it sold for “well below” $20M — Verizon is set to sell the social network Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the owner of online publishing tool Wordpress.
Discussion:
Tumblr Staff, TechCrunch, @photomatt, @bluechoochoo, @stevekovach, @stevekovach and @danprimack
Charlie Warzel / New York Times:
Dueling hashtags on Twitter, blaming Clintons and Trump for Epstein's death, predictably amplified by the media, show how poisoned our information ecosystem is — With each news cycle, the system grows more efficient. — Mr. Warzel is an Opinion writer at large.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Atlantic, Columbia Journalism Review, @mims, @adriennelaf, @hshaban, The A.V. Club, Mediaite, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, The Week, The Independent, CNN, @carnage4life, Politico, @noupside, @bariweiss, @emilypothast, @jayrosen_nyu, @cwarzel, The Daily Dot, Vox, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Mother Jones, Slate and Rolling Stone
Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:
Facebook's licensing of content from news outlets for its upcoming news tab signifies a change in strategy that history shows it may eventually lose interest in — Facebook's announcement this week—that it plans to syndicate news stories on its app—has set off a train of “What does it mean for journalism?” questions.
Discussion:
@fhuysmans, @bgrueskin, @campbell_brown and @jeffjarvis
New York Times:
How YouTube radicalized Brazil, diverting users to conspiracy and far-right channels, elevating Bolsonaro's party, and possibly creating a public health crisis — NITERÓI, Brazil — When Matheus Dominguez was 16, YouTube recommended a video that changed his life.
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HuffPost:
Since YouTube changed its recommendation algorithm in January to deprioritize conspiracy theories, monthly views of Fox News' YouTube channel more than tripled — Conspiracy channels all over the platform are funneling increased traffic to Fox. — Early this year, YouTube adjusted …
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy, @jessreports and Rolling Stone
Sean Craig / CANADALAND:
Sources: Postmedia, Canada's largest newspaper company, has directed all of its papers, to shift to the political right and become more reliably conservative — It was not out of the ordinary at Postmedia, Canada's largest newspaper chain, for editors to have their knuckles rapped for failing …
Discussion:
@canadaland, @garossino, @mattythehammer, @goldsbie, @jayrosen_nyu, @canadaland, @canadaland, @jayrosen_nyu, @canadaland, @film_girl and @bruce_arthur
Tom Ley / Deadspin:
The editorial staff of The Ringer announces it has formed a union with WGA East and seeks voluntary recognition from management — Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF — The editorial staff of The Ringer announced this morning that they have formed a union with the WGA East.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @ringerunion, Writers Guild of America …, @rodger, @jasonschreier, @yourmandevine, @jbenton, @ringerunion, @latguild, @onlxn and @haleymlotek
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
FT says 27 polls it ran since March to increase retention in FirstFT, its newsletter with 100K+ subs, drove the highest click-through rates of all other links — The Financial Times has started incorporating polls into its email newsletters in an effort to encourage readers to interact …
New York Times:
A review of popular conservative media platforms shows how the language used by the El Paso killer echoes the incendiary words of right-wing media stars — Tucker Carlson went on his prime-time Fox News show in April last year and told his viewers not to be fooled.
Discussion:
@keithboykin, @betoorourke, @jwpetersnyt, @kylegriffin1 and Mediaite
Max Willens / Digiday:
Amazon's Onsite Associates program, which puts product guides in search results and gives pubs a commission, could backfire if users start going to Amazon first — Amazon's latest attempt to fit publisher content into its platform is showing promise for participants, sharpening …
Jo Becker / New York Times:
Investigation: US and Russian domains that traffic in disinformation are linking to Swedish far-right sites, helping drive their rapid growth in the country — Sweden was long seen as a progressive utopia. Then came waves of immigrants — and the forces of populism at home and abroad.