Doing a little word puzzle as the world burns
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Wednesday, August 10, 2022
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Doing a little word puzzle as the world burns“I started playing word games as a way to stop reading the news first thing in the morning.” By Lyz Lenz. |
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“Puzzles pair well with reading the news”: Why news outlets are getting into games (again)“Some subscribers would rather game than sift through the wreckage. Can you blame them?” By Luke Winkie. |
What We’re Reading
New York Times / Adam Satariano and Scott Reinhard
Russia is rerouting internet traffic in occupied Ukrainian territories to block news websites →
"They came to them and put guns to their head and just said, 'Do this,'" said Maxim Smelyanets, who owns an internet provider that operates in the area and is based in Kyiv. "They did that step by step for each company."
Pew Research Center
About 67% of American teens use TikTok — and 16% report using it “almost constantly” →
“YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms covered in the Center's new survey, as it is used by 95% of teens. TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67%), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six-in-ten teens.”
Galaxy Brain / Charlie Warzel
On watching the Alex Jones trial with an ex-Infowars staffer →
“I struggle with covering Jones as a journalist.”
Adweek / Mark Stenberg
The satirical site Reductress has been acquired →
The site’s “tongue-in-cheek feminism” has “skewered sexist tropes through comedy since 2013.” Right now, Reductress generates roughly 60% of its revenue through the sale of its merchandise and satire-writing educational courses.
WSJ / Meghan Bobrowsky
A former Twitter employee was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia after passing on private user info →
Ahmad Abouammo, 44, passed on the info for dissidents and critics of the kingdom in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Hollywood Reporter / J. Clara Chan
BuzzFeed’s stock has dropped roughly 50% in price over the past six months →
BuzzFeed brought in more revenue than forecast but total time spent by users declined to 154 million hours, representing a 19% drop year over year.
Jezebel / Jezebel Staff
Talib Kweli is suing Jezebel for “emotional distress” →
“Much as we'd like to, we can't link to or quote from the Jezebel story in question (per our lawyers), because doing so would risk restarting the statute of limitations clock and creating a multi-part arc that could easily fill out a Law & Order episode.”
The Assembly / Margaret Moffett
What’s left of the Greensboro News & Record after years of media-conglomerate cuts? →
“The News & Record has been abandoned, mostly due to decisions made after BH Media bought the paper in 2013. At that time, it employed 23 journalists. Today, just six are left to cover the news in a city of 300,000. Once-robust bureaus in High Point, Asheboro, and Eden have shuttered.”
CNN / Oliver Darcy
Media critic Margaret Sullivan will retire her column and depart The Washington Post →
Sullivan will take a position at Duke University and turn her attention to other projects, including writing “a fictional series about a laid-off local newspaper reporter who turns her investigative skills to solving crimes.”
Washington Post / Elahe Izadi
How a former Florida political operative broke the Mar-a-Lago FBI story →
Peter Schorsch, the publisher of the state politics news site FloridaPolitics.com, tweeted his scoop and added, "I'm not a strong enough reporter to hunt this down."
Wurdworks / Madhusmita Bora
Press Gazette / Alexandra Turner
The magazine Management Today experimented in the metaverse. Here’s how that went. →
"Instead of just writing another feature we could go a bit deeper and do it ourselves, which helps enrich our storytelling."
New Lines Magazine / Rasha Al Aqeedi
An Iraqi actress is suing The Economist for using her photo to illustrate a story about obesity among Arab women →
"Audiences have loved me for many years. It was disappointing to see an international outlet label me as if all my accomplishments mean nothing. I am healthy and happy with the way I look, and to me that is all that matters," Taleb told New Lines.
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