The New Republic / Aaron Timms
How digital media pursued viral traffic at all costs and unleashed chaos →“If his book [Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral] portrays an executive class mostly unbothered by the potential consequences of the digital era’s popularity contest, it also suggests that journalists—in particular those named Ben Smith—remain confused about their own role in this shrill and data-saturated new world.”
Bloomberg / Josh Eidelson
NBCUniversal told managers to fight unions in a 2019 role-playing exercise →“In the hourslong simulation, managers were tasked with running a television station called WSEE-TV that had to figure out how to prevent employees from unionizing with the Communications Workers of America. Training materials that accompanied the 2019 session laid out the importance of keeping unions at bay.”
The Wall Street Journal / Ann M. Simmons
Technologizer / Harry McCracken
The end of computer magazines in America →“Pretending that the internet didn’t exist sounds like a preposterous strategy for keeping a print magazine alive, but it somehow worked. Maximum PC and MacLife survived—scrawny, but with a pulse—until 2023.”
Variety / Brian Steinberg
The City / Safiyah Riddle
Al Jazeera / Brian Osgood
The Associated Press / Mark Stevenson