Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Added by PressForward
Private-equity firm Great Hill Partners has agreed to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision Communications Inc., the companies said, ending the Spanish-language broadcaster’s foray into English-language digital media. James Spanfeller, the former chief executive of Forbes.com and president of consumer magazines at digital publisher Ziff Davis, will become chief executive of G/O Media Inc., a…
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…
Often top referrers to articles in our network include a mix of the usual suspects: Google search, Google News, Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Drudge Report. But one day at the beginning of October I was looking at a story in Currents and noticed another referrer in the mix: SmartNews. SmartNews is an app that aggregates and…
Mozilla’s user research, and research conducted by universities and independent experts, consistently shows that most people who use the web do not approve of many of the ways in which their personal data is collected and shared for targeted advertising. In fact, people consider some practices to be invasive, creepy, and even scary. User tracking…
Joshua Topolsky, the chief executive of the Outline, doesn’t want his digital-media company to get too big too fast. The startup has closed a $5.15 million fundraising round, the company’s second, Mr. Topolsky said. The new financing values the Outline at $21.15 million, he said, up from the company’s $11 million valuation from the last…
Digital publishers are reckoning with the potential impact of Facebook’s planned changes to its news feed, with reactions ranging from trepidation to confidence to reflection on the folly of depending on the social network for web traffic in the first place. Facebook on Thursday said it will introduce changes to the feed in coming months to promote content shared…
Nov. 17, 2017 5:00 a.m. ET Less than a year after Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei launched the media startup Axios with plans to upend the way news organizations deliver stories and advertising, the company is plotting a major expansion of its newsroom. To fund the expansion, Axios has raised $20 million, according to Axios co-founder…
The alignment of new laws, reader advocacy, and technology has opened up a challenge to user tracking tools. While some express concern that an end to unbridled tracking will hinder the digital ecosystem, this is an enormous opportunity for publishers to take the lead in building the next generation of personalization technology. However, this evolution…
You’re half-way through a gaming session and the world is breaking apart around you as you run from attacking aliens. Firing as you go, you turn a corner and suddenly your view is filled with the sight of a brand new sedan. You see a cute dog at your local coffee shop. When you lean…
On the web, content fraudsters run sites that generate millions of views, get hundreds of thousands of fans, and even claw their way up to the top of search pages. Some of these sites are nothing but one person. With low cost cash grabs taking over search and social how can publishers win? To fix…