Good morning. Here are 10 media stories.
- What happened at Pando? Nitasha Tiku reported yesterday that Pando fired David Sirota and Ted Rall, sackings that “Apparently…came from complaints from investors in Pando,” according to an unnamed source. “[A]ny decision to hire or fire writers would be mine,” Pando editorial director Paul Carr told Tiku. (Valleywag) || Carr’s Twitter feed is worth a glance this morning. || Sirota: “This news was unexpected” (Facebook) || Rall: “someone at Pando leaked the story.” (Ted Rall)
- The New York Times plans to shutter about half of its blogs: Some “got very, very little traffic, and they required an enormous amount of resources, because a blog is an animal that is always famished,” Assistant Managing Editor Ian Fisher told this blogger. (Poynter) || The Lede is closing down (Poynter)
- Jose Antonio Vargas documentary will air on CNN: “Documented” will air Sunday night. (HuffPost) || Vargas: “I get introduced a lot as ‘the former journalist,’and then I remember asking myself, ‘Wait a second, did I, like, turn over my card or something?'” (TVNewser)
- Condé Nast makes cuts: Cost-trimming and a hiring freeze follow two disappointing quarters for ad sales. (WWD)
- Publish first: “Only 20% of journalists always check their facts before publishing.” (ING)
- Gawker Media exec pish-poshes sale rumors: “In an email to Gawker management obtained by Gawker, VP of Operations Scott Kidder strongly denied the alleged sale: ‘For the record: we are not selling to News Corp.'” (Gawker)
- A reminder to be careful when emailing sources: “During an email exchange last week, the [Orange County] Weekly accidentally sent [OC Register owner Aaron] Kushner a rough draft of this story. After receiving the document, Kushner, who had already responded to earlier questions, replied, taking issue with the Weekly’s coverage of his recent travails and stating he ‘got the sense that you enjoy tearing things down much more than building things up.'” (OC Weekly)
- What’s next for Aereo? After yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, the Web TV service vowed to “continue to fight for our consumers.” But it has few options, Keach Hagey reports. (WSJ) || Local TV news “dodged disaster” with the ruling (CJR) || “The losers are innovators and the consumers they hoped to serve.” (The New Republic) || Tale of the tape: Who reported the ruling first? (The Washington Post)
- World Cup stuff: Brazilian newspaper runs photo that reveals World Cup security center’s WiFi password (The Register) || Sponsor Adidas pumps out World Cup content from a command center in the headquarters of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, a Brazilian soccer team (Mashable) || The surge of interest in soccer is bogus, Matt Saccaro argues: “Americans will latch themselves onto the next viral train that leaves the station, forgetting all about soccer until 2018 when it’s fun to tweet and share image macros about it again.” (The Daily Dot) ||
- Facebook releases its diversity report: Globally, 57 percent of its employees are white, 34 percent are Asian, 4 percent are Hispanic and 2 percent are black. “Worldwide, men hold 77 percent of top jobs at the company.” (The Verge)
BONUS LINK: A Perfectly Reasonable Question for a Colorado publication? A reader objects to Westword’s doughnut coverage: “Or do you smoke so much pot you can’t stop thinking of donuts?” (Westword)
Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.
