Top News:
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:
@danprimack, The Verge, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Adweek, The Wrap, Variety, @marcoarment, @danprimack, Engadget, @loudmouthjulia, @reckless, @chillmage, @whatthebit, @chronotope, Business Insider, @alicegoldfuss, @hunterwalk, Gizmodo, Boing Boing, Mashable, @mathewi, @gaberivera, @photomatt, Polygon, @mikeisaac, @anthony, Ars Technica, CNET, The Week, @karlbode, 9to5Mac, @bluechoochoo, @stevekovach, @stevekovach, @shiraovide, @stephgwhiteside and @danprimack, more at Techmeme »
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, @mims, @hshaban, Columbia Journalism Review, Jezebel, Rolling Stone, @adriennelaf, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, The A.V. Club, The Week, The Independent, CNN, @carnage4life, @noupside, Politico, @bariweiss, @emilypothast, @jayrosen_nyu, @cwarzel, The Daily Dot, Mediaite, Vox, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check and Mother Jones
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.
RELATED:
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 and @campbell_brown
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, @jessebrown, @canadaland, @garossino, @mattythehammer, @jayrosen_nyu, @goldsbie, @jayrosen_nyu, @canadaland, @film_girl, @bruce_arthur and @canadaland
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 …, @ringerunion, @rodger, @latguild, @onlxn, @jasonschreier, @yourmandevine, @haleymlotek and @jbenton
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
Jeremy Littau / @jeremylittau:
[Thread] A bleak prognosis for the future of journalism education in the US amid demographic changes, declines in student enrollment and newspaper readership — 1/ So this is the last day of #AEJMC19. For my non-academic followers, it's the major annual gathering of journalism/mass comm educators. Mostly U.S. but increasingly international. Before I leave, I want to hammer out a takeaway of interest to academic and non-academic friends.
Discussion:
@rafat, @timschreiner, @markcoddington, @vekstra, @dkiesow, @lauracastaneda, @emilybell and @kellyfincham
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
The work of J.D. Salinger, including “The Catcher in the Rye”, finally launches digitally after his son relents, filling a major e-book gap — In the five decades since J. D. Salinger published his final short story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” his small, revered body of work has stayed static, practically suspended in amber.
Discussion:
@dankennedy_nu, Fast Company, Publishers Weekly, @ykomska, @catchoris, @cliftonchestnut, @michaelwalkerjr, @ykomska, @jomecki, The Guardian, Engadget, Slate, 9to5Mac, The Verge, The A.V. Club, CNET, Rolling Stone and Deadline
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.