Top News:
David K. Li / NBC News:
Radio shock jock Don Imus, an early pioneer of the genre known for his controversial and often offensive statements, dies at 79 — He had announced on Jan. 22 that he was retiring, telling fans: “Turn out the lights...the party's over. — Radio shock jock Don Imus, one of the early pioneers of his genre …
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George P. Slefo / Ad Age:
Spotify will suspend political ads in early 2020, citing the lack of tools to review them; source: political ads are not a significant source of its revenue — Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and the RNC are among Spotify advertisers — Spotify is suspending the sale of political advertising …
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VentureBeat, Breitbart, The Wrap, @slpng_giants, @digiphile, @zck, @emilyglazer, @john_henson, @whotargetsme, @seanspicer, New York Daily News, @logandobson, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, NPR, Vanity Fair, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CNN, Engadget, TechCrunch, Variety, The Verge, VICE, Marketing Land and Fortune
Sarah J. Jackson / New York Times:
In 2010s, Twitter enabled young and marginalized people to be heard, held news organizations accountable, and pushed largely ignored issues into the mainstream — It's impossible to avoid news about how harmful social media can be. The Cambridge Analytica scandal. The ubiquitous Russian bots.
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David Porter / 8tracks blog:
As 8tracks prepares to shut down on December 31, its co-founder shares a post-mortem of what went wrong with the once-promising music streaming startup — 8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We're sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind …
Discussion:
@chr1sa, @joshconstine, @ow, @robinsloan, @rrhoover, @caseynewton, @mathewi, @hasief, @jherskowitz, @agaresia and @davidporter, more at Techmeme »
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Snapchat will launch Bitmoji TV, a personalized cartoon show featuring a user's avatar and their friends in regularly-scheduled adventures, starting in February — Snapchat's most popular yet under-exploited feature is finally getting the spotlight in 2020.
Discussion:
@mattlynley, @joshconstine and @joshconstine
Mark Ledwich / Medium:
A new study finds that YouTube's late 2019 algorithm actively discourages users from watching radicalizing content, directing them to more mainstream videos — In 2018, Kevin Roose published a piece in the New York Times in which Caleb Cain, a liberal college dropout, described his experience …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Comcast is in advanced talks to acquire Xumo, which offers an ad-supported video streaming service, as Comcast prepares to launch NBC's Peacock — Deal would help cable giant's digital-video ambitions as it prepares to launch its own video-streaming service
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Beet.TV, Variety, The Streamable, New York Post, MediaPost, @digitalshields, @tomventimiglia, @aagave, @benmullin, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget and Hollywood Reporter
Heather Bryant / Nieman Lab:
In 2020, the question of how to save newsrooms will start to shift to how to save journalism as a process, emphasizing more collaboration and inclusiveness — Heather Bryant is founder and director of Project Facet. — There are always two conversations happening in any given field.
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@kainazamaria, @ihearttheroad, @dskok, @mandyvandeven, @thischrishorne, @thensim0nsaid, @nikkiusher, @antonioattolini, @matt_kiefer and @antonioattolini
Matteo Moschella / First Draft:
Q&A with Lee Mwiti, the chief editor of Africa's first independent fact-checking website Africa Check, on disinformation and media manipulation on the continent — Lee Mwiti is the chief editor of Africa Check, the continent's first independent fact-checking website.
Alexander Lim / Storybench:
Q&A with NYT designers Antonio De Luca and Sasha Portis about creating an interactive story on New York City's subway map for the map's 40th anniversary — For the 40th anniversary of the New York City subway map, The New York Times created an interactive story that all but places you directly inside the map.
Discussion:
@journalims
Emma Grey Ellis / Wired:
How The Dodo has achieved viral success by posting heartwarming videos about animals, racking up 2.3B views each month — The media empire's heartwarming (and highly shareable) animal videos rack up 2.3 billion views each month. It might be our favorite website of the decade. — Frog is a rooster.
Discussion:
@groupninemedia, @wiredculture and @wired
Sara K. Baranowski / Nieman Lab:
2020 will be the start of an exciting era for community news with local outlets producing high-impact reporting that experiments with new formats and engagement — Sara Konrad Baranowski is editor of the Iowa Falls Times Citizen. — The attention of the news industry …