Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Illustration: Jim Cooke (Photo: Getty) In the thousand years since Donald Trump sailed down an escalator and crash-landed with a wet thump in the Oval Office, a lot of Americans have changed, for good or ill. Many of us are more political or more cynical, impassioned or deflated, hopeful or entirely gutted. The time before…
Photo: Hamilton Nolan BURLINGTON, IOWA—There’s a very nice visitor’s center on the river here. Right by downtown. They’ll tell you everything about Burlington, including the fact that it’s about to flood. That visitor’s center was totally empty on Thursday, even though the national press corps was just two blocks away. We had much more stupid…
The president reportedly demanded the Justice Department file an antitrust lawsuit to hurt CNN. react-text: 218 /react-text by Win McNamee/Getty Images. Presidents don’t typically get involved in anti-trust matters before the Justice Department. But according to a new report, that’s precisely what Donald Trump did, in an apparent effort to hurt CNN and boost his…
Facebook Inc. has spent the better part of a year telling its users, Congress and the readers of this paper that we’re in charge of our personal data and the ads we see. The network has streamlined its privacy settings, shared more details about how data is used and highlighted how its ad controls work. If we take advantage of all these privacy controls, it shouldn’t still feel as…
Millions of smartphone users confess their most intimate secrets to apps, including when they want to work on their belly fat or the price of the house they checked out last weekend. Other apps know users’ body weight, blood pressure, menstrual cycles or pregnancy status. Unbeknown to most people, in many cases that data is…
A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett Co. GCI 0.52% , according to people familiar with the matter. MNG Enterprises Inc., one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, has quietly built a 7.5% position…
Amazon’s options for advertising include its delivery boxes. Photo: Amazon Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.25% handles nearly half of all online sales in the U.S., giving it a popular platform and a wealth of consumer data. Now it’s on track to become the next juggernaut of online advertising, and its rise threatens to upend Silicon Valley’s…
Digital publisher Mic Network Inc. has agreed to sell itself to women-focused publisher Bustle Digital Group for about $5 million, according to a person familiar with the matter—a fraction of Mic’s valuation less than two years ago. Mic laid off almost all of its employees ahead of the sale, another person familiar with the matter…
Recode, a technology website that was among the first in a wave of journalist-led media startups, is being folded into sister site Vox.com, its parent company said Thursday. Vox Media publisher Melissa Bell said in a memo that Recode would relaunch as a section of Vox.com starting next year. Recode will continue to exist as…
The U.S. digital ad market grew by nearly $12 billion last year, with Google and Facebook collecting 77 cents of each new dollar spent, according to eMarketer. Peter and Maria Hoey June 19, 2017 5:30 a.m. ET Facebook Inc. FB -2.59% and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL -0.02% Google tower so far above the rest of the…