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You might have heard: Led by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Re/code split off from The Wall Street Journal a year and a half ago
But did you know: Re/code is joining Vox Media’s rapidly growing media empire (New York Times)
Vox Media is acquiring the tech news site Re/code in an all-stock deal, giving Re/code access to a wider audience it has struggled to build. Re/code began under The Wall Street Journal as AllThingsD. Re/code says its 47 employees are expected to join Vox, and both Mossberg and Swisher plan to stay with the company as well.
+ Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff says by acquiring Re/code, Vox is strengthening its leadership in technology coverage (Vox) and Mossberg and Swisher say Re/code has plans to collaborate with The Verge (Re/code)
+ Nilay Patel, editor of Vox Media-owned The Verge, says they have decided The Verge is not a business site: “Bringing Re/code into the Vox Media fold means that The Verge can remain focused on being the best mainstream technology and lifestyle site in the world, and Re/code can dig even deeper into how the money and business of technology works” (The Verge)
+ Noted: After being acquired by Knowingly Corp., Gigaom will relaunch in August (Fishbowl NY); Time Inc. acquires FanSided, a digital sports network with than 300 websites (Time Inc.) and an argument for why Time Inc. might need to sell Sports Illustrated in order to save it (Medium); AOL was approached by three other companies for an acquisition (Re/code); Gawker writers plan to vote on unionizing next week (Capital New York); In addition to Twitter, Google and Yahoo have also held talks about acquiring Flipboard (Wall Street Journal); Politico launches The Agenda, a daily magazine for “conversation around the ideas reshaping the country” (Politico); Web video companies are pushing branded content over non-branded media (Wall Street Journal); BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti launches The Open Lab, a new lab for open-source invention (Wired)
API UPDATE
New report: News organization culture shift essential to propelling innovation
Today, we’re releasing a new report on how news organizations can foster innovation, finding that innovation is a product of culture and even small changes can have an effect on advancing innovative practices. Supported by the Knight Foundation, researchers conducted interviews relying on human-centered design and observed a wide variety of American news organizations to understand the factors that enable or stifle innovation.
+ Read the full report here: A culture-based strategy for creating innovation in news organizations
+ A new related Strategy Study by Craig Silverman: The best practices for innovation within news organizations
How to make sense of data by bringing reporters and coders together (Columbia Journalism Review)
To get people with coding skills into the newsroom, The Daily Press in Newport News, Va., opens up its office for the monthly meeting of Code for America, a nonprofit that builds open-source technology to make government more transparent and responsive. It teaches skills and technology that newsrooms like The Daily Press need in data reporting. The paper’s editor says: “I would recommend it for any journalism organization that either doesn’t have a database person on staff or can’t really afford to pay for one in the market it’s in.”
After going digital-only 7 years ago, a U.K. magazine returns to print (HoldTheFrontPage)
The Salford Star, a magazine with a focus on investigative journalism, returned to print last week seven years after it went online-only. The print edition was reinstated after a team of volunteers raised money from readers, with enough money already raised for one more print edition. Future print editions will depend on advertising.
Why better products start with trust for your customers (Fast Company)
When designers start working on new products, they often assume that they know better what needs to be created than the client they’re working with. But making better products also starts with trusting the people you’re creating the product for. Listen to their needs and involve them in the process, making their priorities yours as well.
Lessons from the maligned gay marriage study: Prioritizing speed leads to relaying bad information (Poynter)
When digital competition and social media make speed a priority, James Warren says newsrooms are more likely to transmit bad research, such as the fraudulent gay marriage study. Without the resources needed to thoroughly double check research, Warren says many newsrooms are likely to blindly trust information if it seems to come from a reputable organization or individual. Philadelphia Inquirer editor Bill Marimow says: “It is fraught with peril to look at study and go on the air or on the Web.”
Ad blocking software is now able to filter sponsored content (Quartz)
Ad blocking software is now able to recognize sponsored content, possibly threatening a viable source of revenue in media. But what’s more troubling is the way it’s filtering it: Adblock Pro identifies and removes phrases such as “sponsored content” or “sponsored by,” making it nearly impossible for users to identify editorial content from sponsored content. However, filtering sponsored content also moves away from ad blockers’ goal of removing invasive advertisements as it removes what could be a credible alternative for publishers.
+ The rise of mobile doesn’t necessarily mean desktop is dying: Mobile is “unlocking” new Web time in the mornings and evenings, so while its overall share of traffic is growing, traffic as a whole is growing as well (Wall Street Journal)
+ Six of the ten highest paid CEOs last year worked in media, with the most highly paid CEOs at Discovery Communications, Viacom, Walt Disney, Comcast and Time Warner (Associated Press)
+ Journalists and media top the list of Twitter’s verified users, with a quarter of Twitter’s verified users (Medium)
The post Need to Know: May 27, 2015 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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