Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
end of ShanesHouse1 Facebook Instant Articles are here, and it feels like a cross between Christmas and a funeral in the media world. Christmas because everyone gets to write a navel-gazing hot take on what this means for the future of the fourth estate; a funeral because many, including some New York Times newsroom vets, are…
1. The manner in which Instant Articles are seen within Facebook’s News Feed is nearly as important as they way they’re hosted. Yes, they load faster. But the way they are previewed in the feed—differentiated fonts, auto-playing video—gives them a second advantage over everything around them. 2. The first batch of articles is very very…
It could represent a seismic change for both the publishing industry and for the media company itself. Mark Thompson, President and CEO, The New York Times Company. Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images Wednesday morning, in what marks a tectonic shift in the publishing industry, the New York Times is expected to officially begin a long-awaited partnership with…
Begin: WordPress Article Content It was an interesting day at AOL.As you probably saw, Verizon has reached an agreement to acquire AOL for $4.4 billion. There’s a general feeling that this deal was mostly about AOL’s ad business (Verizon’s John Stratton said “the principal interest was around the ad tech platform”) — so what does…
According to numerous sources, while it has been negotiating its deal to sell to Verizon, AOL has also been in advanced discussions with a number of parties to spin off its flagship Huffington Post content unit. The talks have been most serious with Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate, but a number of private equity…
AOL’s short second life as an independent media and online advertising company will end as it’s agreed to be bought by Verizon for $4.4 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. The all-cash deal will give Verizon, a wireless and internet data provider, a digital video and advertising business, along with AOL’s expensively acquired news properties like…
Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to buy AOL Inc. in a $4.4 billion deal aimed at advancing the telecom giant’s growth ambitions in mobile video and advertising. The all-cash deal values AOL at $50 a share, a 23% premium over the company’s three-month volume-weighted average price. AOL shares rose 18% in morning trading to $50.18. Verizon shares fell 1.7% to $48.98….
As a rule, conspiracy theories are more elaborate than the truth, requiring subscribers to suspend their judgment. Someone called every Jewish person in the World Trade Center, and told them to stay home on the morning of 9/11, when the planes brought down the twin towers. The United Nations, along with the vast majority of the…
Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of US Navy SEALs was nothing at all like the official accounts given by the United States government and military, according to a controversial article in the London Review of Books by veteran investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh: Rather than hiding in Pakistan, bin Laden was a prisoner…
As of mid-April, when a Pentagon flack announced it in Kiev, and as barely reported in American media, U.S. troops are now operating openly in Ukraine. Now there is a lead I have long dreaded writing but suspected from the first that one day I would. Do not take a moment to think about this….