Good morning. Here are 10 media stories.
- Politico, AJC launch redesigns
Politico’s new presentation aims to give readers a “cleaner, more organized design that seeks to crowd out some of the noise of our information overload moment,” Editor Susan Glasser writes in a welcome note. (Politico) | “Today is the formal beginning of the biggest transformation of [Politico] in eight years,” CEO Jim Vandehei writes in a memo to staffers. The publication’s visual retooling echoes expansion plans “into Europe and other states,” but VandeHei says “Washington will always be the central nervous system of [Politico].” | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also has a new design, a “bold new look” that will spread to other Cox Media Group free newspaper sites, CMG says in a release. Take a tour: (AJC) | From June: “AJC reorganizes newsroom for digital with topic teams inspired by Quartz’s ‘obsessions’” (Poynter) Somewhat related to the Politico stuff: The Washington Post, whose publisher used to be president and COO of Politico, plans to get its journalists on TV more. (WP)
- Facebook, BuzzFeed, ABC News team up on political data
Facebook’s “sentiment analysis” data “isn’t a substitute for polling, in part because the huge sample of Americans on Facebook still isn’t co-extensive with the electorate, but the sentiment data has the potential to be an important and telling complement to it,” BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith writes. (BuzzFeed) | BuzzFeed looked to certain Twitter conversations to help it call races during the midterms. | Related: NBC News is teaming up with Facebook on a series of 24 stories in 24 hours about fighting Ebola. “Starting Monday, people on Facebook will see a message at the top of their News Feed with an option to share stories and donate to three charities International Medical Corps, the Red Cross and Save the Children,” NBC News says in a release. (NBC News)
- Newsweek removes editor’s note from Zakaria archives
In late September the magazine placed a note on Fareed Zakaria‘s author page asking “readers with information about articles by Mr. Zakaria that may purportedly lack proper attribution” to get in touch after anonymous media critics @blippoblappo and @crushingbort started torching Zakaria’s work. On Friday the magazine said “the only submissions we received were from the same two self-styled watchdogs,” and placed corrections on “articles that Newsweek staffers felt warranted them.” Newsweek also interviewed Mr. Blappo and Mr. Bort, who say they’ve found others who may warrant their attention: “it would probably be a good idea for major newspapers to revisit standard practices when it comes to sourcing,” @crushingbort says. (Newsweek) | They’re not light corrections. For instance, this one: “Note: Newsweek has established that this article does not meet editorial standards. It borrows extensively from ‘Osama bin Laden’s growing anxiety’ by Fawaz Gerges without proper attribution. Newsweek acknowledges the error.” (Newsweek)
- Vice goes to Guantanamo
Its series “about prisons and the people inside them” launches with a collection of stories about Gitmo. (Vice)
- News literacy in 2014
What Jay Rosen expects his students to know by the end of term. (PressThink)
- Bloomberg TV’s going over the top
Its online video viewing numbers jumped in September, Tom Cheredar writes. It doesn’t require you to “authenticate that you’re already paying for Bloomberg via cable or satellite TV monthly service” and has launched “a group dedicated to OTT ad sales and partnerships, with the sole purpose of translating the OTT side to the rest of the company’s business strategy.” (VentureBeat) | A year ago Peter Lauria wrote about Bloomberg TV, which he said was prized internally “behind the almighty terminal and the news unit.” (BuzzFeed)
- Life as a pot critic
Denver Post freelancer Jake Browne is a “supertaster” whose reviews emphasize sensation but avoid pretentiousness, Jessica Bennett writes. And, no, he doesn’t get to expense his weed. (NYT)
- Breitbart botches hit piece on Obama’s AG nominee
The news site said Loretta Lynch had a Whitewater connection in two posts — apparently confused by a California attorney with the same name. (Media Matters) | One post is gone, the other sports a correction.
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
The Washington Post’s “N-word project” lands on the front page with a big, ugly, stippled “N.” (Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Jonathan Salant is now Washington correspondent for NJ Advance Media. Previously, he was a political reporter for Bloomberg. (Email) | Meredith Homet is now executive director of retail at GQ. Previously, she was advertising director of W. (Email) | Serge Kovaleski is now an investigative reporter for The New York Times’ culture department. Previously, he was a national correspondent there. (Romenesko) | Stephen Gibson is now chief financial officer at The Washington Post. Previously, he was chief financial officer for Allbritton Communications. Beth Diaz is now vice president of audience development and analytics at The Washington Post. Previously, she was director of research and analytics there. Kristine Coratti is now vice president of communications at The Washington Post. Previously, she was director of communications there. (Washington Post) | Ed Kosowski is now news director at KCTV in Kansas City. Previously, he was news director for KWGN in Denver. Michelle Palmer is assistant news director for WSMV in Nashville, Tennessee. Previously, she was an executive producer there. (Rick Gevers) | Job of the day: Dow Jones is looking for a bureau chief. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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