Mediagazer: Three weekly newspapers in Wales shut down after their publisher Herald News UK ceases operations, six months after announcing plans to invest £1.5M (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

Top News:

Sources: Thomson Reuters hired an executive search firm to draw up a shortlist of internal and external candidates to succeed the current CEO Jim Smith — Thomson Reuters has begun the search for a chief executive to succeed Jim Smith, who has led the $34bn professional information group since 2012.

Discussion: Reuters and @arashmassoudi

Matthew Doran / ABC:

Major Australian newspapers black out text on their front pages Monday to protest secrecy laws passed over past two years, after raids of journalists in June — The nation's media companies have redacted their front pages to highlight the constraints on media organisations under strict national security legislation.

Discussion: Herald Sun, The Guardian, Financial Times, CNN, The Week, @mikejanda, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, @withmeaa, @julieposetti, @jpwarren, @studio10au, Reuters, @dobes and @supriya23bh

Dan Levin / New York Times:

Profile of The Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper in Ann Arbor, which has been the only printed local paper in the city for more than a decade — As more than 2,000 newspapers across the country have closed or merged, student journalists from Michigan to Arizona have stepped in to fill the void.

Discussion: @jcstearns, @hg_watson, @ennisnyt, @marthasjones_, @stephepburn, @dpd_, @rkobell, @alpaul, @samhoisington, @timmckayum, @revericatcheson, @benjaminsraven, @marclacey, @showusyourwork, @jswatz and @jswatz

Max Willens / Digiday:

How Verizon is pivoting its publishing strategy to focus on commerce by investing in original shopping-focused video and a new content management system — Verizon Media Group has long styled itself as an advertising platform. Now it wants to act like one that helps brands and retailers drive sales.

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's Global Radio to launch a new 24-hour LBC spin-off “pure news” station, without opinion or debate, from next Monday — Global Radio is launching a new 24-hour LBC spin-off station to create a dedicated space for “pure news” - without opinion or debate.

International Center for Journalists:

ICFJ global study: ~33% of newsrooms have fact-checkers, ~66% distribute content in at least four formats, 50%+ of journalists use digital fact-checking tools — Journalists are increasingly turning to digital technology to help address daunting challenges such as the spread of misinformation …

Discussion: @mediacareerngr, @justinarenstein, @justinarenstein and @hrvenkatesh

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Three weekly newspapers in Wales shut down after their publisher Herald News UK ceases operations, six months after announcing plans to invest £1.5M — Three Welsh weekly newspapers have been forced to close as their publisher suddenly ceased operations, putting 24 jobs at risk.

Isaac Alter / Center for Journalism Ethics:

Interview with Joel Christopher, executive editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, on how to report on extremism without spreading hateful messages — Journalists have always had to grapple with how to cover extremists and hate-filled ideologies. But in today's digital world …

Discussion: @spj_tweets and @niemanreports

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

On the tenth anniversary of Stylist, Q&A with EIC Lisa Smosarski on how the free, ad-backed magazine stayed “eternally stable”, putting out 400K+ copies/week — Women's magazine Stylist has a “long lifespan” in print yet, its editor-in-chief believes, as the free title celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.

Matthew Ball:

As Hollywood continues to scale with more TV and film assets, no studio has an integrated gaming division today, which ignores a fast growing media category — With all the individual differences from player to player, the TV and film industry has had a consistent response to the challenges …

Discussion: @ashkan, @ballmatthew and @ballmatthew

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

Publishers like Forbes, Reuters, WSJ, and Bloomberg are growing their events businesses for sponsors and building their own event franchises to boost revenues — Trade shows, conferences and summit events are nothing new for business-to-business publishers, who have a tight grip on catering to professional audiences.

Discussion: @rafat

Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:

Facebook opens ads in search results, which appear in news feeds and across its marketplace, to all advertisers for a select group of topics — Ads in Facebook Search Results are now open to all marketers for a select group of topics. The ad unit, which appears in Facebook News Feeds …

Discussion: Adweek