Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Entry Text The conventional wisdom is that Internet users have the attention span of a goldfish — the shorter, the better. That’s what makes the runaway success of Bloomberg Businessweek’s “What Is Code?” — a 38,000-word opus on software engineering that took up an entire double issue of the magazine — all the more surprising….
Keith Olbermann, the television anchor who left ESPN amid controversy, then left MSNBC amid controversy, then left Current TV amid controversy, is once again leaving ESPN amid controversy, less than two years after returning to the organization. Jim Miller, the author of the definitive book on ESPN’s history, reported Wednesday that Olbermann will leave the sports network…
Safari Content Blocker, Before and After Wednesday, 8 July 2015 Dean Murphy wrote an iOS 9 Safari Content Blocker, and tested it against iMore: With no content blocked, there are 38 third party scripts (scripts not hosted on the host domain) running when the homepage is opened, which takes a total of 11 seconds. Some of…
We’re hearing that the editorial staff of the The Daily What, one of the aggregator sites that pre-figured the current virally contorted media environment, is being laid off and that the site is potentially being shut down. Founded by Neetzan Zimmerman—who left to become Gawker’s viral editor and then Whisper’s editorial director—The Daily What was…
In May, a Vanity Fair article about Bill Simmons’s departure from ESPN said that Grantland had 6 million unique visitors in March but that “ESPN’s internal numbers … had the site reaching 10 million uniques in April.” Late last year, The Wall Street Journal noted that Buzzfeed had 74.6 million monthly uniques, but that its…
For women of color, she’s right. Instagram users can choose from over 20 filters, but as subjects, we don’t have a choice in how our images are processed once a filter is in place. In the name of enhancing or beautifying our photos, filters inevitably alter our appearances beyond recognition. In the name of enhancing…
On the first Friday in May, a line of advertising and media people stretched down New York’s West 22nd Street, waiting to hear from Shane Smith, the 45-year-old bearded and bearish co-founder of Vice. One of the media world’s most flamboyant ceos had an announcement to make. The occasion was the Digital Content NewFronts, a…
It’s hack week at Vox Media, and Melissa Bell is in her element. The meetup, which is taking place in downtown Philadelphia, has drawn more than 90 employees, all hoping to come up with the next innovation for the company, whether it’s a virtual reality application or interactive video. Bell, the company’s newly named vp…
Last month, Gawker Media’s editorial staff voted to unionize. Today, the editorial staff of Salon.com announced that they want to do the same thing. In a press release that went out this morning, Salon staffers say they are united in their desire to join the Writers Guild of America, East—the same union that Gawker now…
What’s a sex tape with no images? The press will find out. A Florida judge ruled the press should be allowed to stay in the courtroom during Hulk Hogan’s entire trial in his $100 million invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media. A coalition of media organizations, including First Look, CNN, AP and Vox Media…