What We’re Reading

We keep an eye out for the most interesting stories about Labby subjects: digital media, startups, the web, journalism, strategy, and more.

Investigative Reporters & Editors / Jaimi Dowdell

NICAR is starting a Spanish-language listserv →

To promote data journalism in Latin America and other Spanish-speaking places. —JB

What else we were reading on October 8

Medium / Ev Williams

Medium opens up its publishing API, adds mentions, updated apps, and custom domains →

“In addition, we are going to be exploring new ways for professional and independent content creators to connect with both brands and their readers.” —LO

Philadelphia City Paper / Emily Guendelsberger

CEO of Broad Street Media says he’ll keep Philadelphia City Paper’s archives public →

“I think we’ll find out who gives the people the best availability, who’s going to really be a good steward of those archives. “ —LO

The Verge / Amar Toor

Harry Potter books come to Apple in exclusive digitally enhanced editions →

Interactive animations, custom covers, and annotations written by J.K. Rowling. —LO

The Guardian / Caspar Llewellyn Smith

The Guardian launches an international homepage for readers outside the U.K., U.S., and Australia →

“We hope the international homepage will help theguardian.com become a destination for readers living elsewhere, giving them the option to see a more global selection of stories when they visit the site.” Here it is. —LO

The Washington Post / Chris Cillizza

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza thinks annotation will save journalism →

“But in a world in which people are looking for context and commentary with their news and where primary source documents are becoming more and more the coin of the realm, annotation seems to me to hold almost limitless potential as a new avenue by which journalists can add value (and keep their jobs!).” —JL

Motherboard / Sarah Jeong

Former Reuters journalist Matthew Keys found guilty of hacking, faces up to 25 years →

“The statutory maximum for Keys’s crimes is 25 years, but in a statement given after the trial, a spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office said Keys would likely face less than five years.” —JL

USA Today / Roger Yu

Gannett is buying Journal Media Group for $280 million →

JMG includes the dailies in Milwaukee, Memphis, Knoxville, and a variety of smaller cities. (Trivia: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s predecessor was founded by Lucius Nieman, namesake of this site.) —JB

Digg / Gary Liu

Digg launches Dialog, a Q&A/commenting feature →

“When we discover and feature an exceptional article (or video), we will invite the journalist or an expert to come talk with Digg’s community.” —LO

The Globe and Mail / James Bradshaw

How Canada’s political parties went around its biggest TV networks for this year’s election debates →

Instead, English-language debates were held by print outlets — Maclean’s magazine and The Globe and Mail — and a nonprofit debating forum, with only spotty TV carriage. —JB

Digiday / Lucia Moses

Gawker gets one-third of its revenue from native and e-commerce →

“The classic interruptive advertising model doesn’t work with Gawker’s millennial readers, who ‘don’t want to be sold, they want to be entertained,’ [Gawker co-founder Nick] Denton said.” —JL

Business Insider / Matt Rosoff

Teens and millennials are abandoning traditional TV →

Viewing hours for 12- to 17-year-olds down from 25 hours to 15 hours in just four years. —JB