The history of TMZ, FT’s mobile revenue rises

Good morning. Almost there! Here are 10 or so stories.

1. The problem with making a graphic about diversity in top newsroom positions over the years: “there isn’t really any racial diversity at all,” Manjula Martin writes. “Any way you click it, of the 183 top editors of mainstream English-language media outlets [Vijith] Assar counted here, one is a black man. Nine are white women (and two of them are Tina Brown).” (Scratch)
2. Digital subscriptions up 33 percent at FT: Total circulation (677,000 across platforms) is up 13 percent over the first half of last year, FT parent Pearson reports in its half-year results. Mobile “now generates almost 50% of total traffic and 20% of new digital subscriptions,” and mobile ad revenue was up 9 percent. (Pearson) | But sales are down at Pearson, which will have cut 4,000 jobs through 2014. (Bloomberg News) | Related, from March: “How data from Financial Times readers lead to more readers and revenue” (Poynter)
3. AP’s Gaza-based staff wins the news co-op’s “Beat of the Week” award: In one instance, Senior Managing Editor Mike Oreskes writes in a memo to staffers, photographer Hatem Moussa called colleagues to help and then alerted a Red Cross team after he heard a woman under rubble say, “I’m here under the shop. God please, I can’t breathe.” Rescuers later pulled her from the rubble as well as her husband and her niece. (AP)
4. The history of TMZ: Anne Helen Petersen takes a long, fun look at the “well-oiled, money-making, gossip-generating machine” and asks whether it has “compromised the mission that set it apart from the rest of the gossip industry.” (BuzzFeed)
5. NowThis News changes name to NowThis: The moniker tweak “lets the edit team focus on what’s trending on social channels,” Lucia Moses writes. (Digiday)
6. Reddit’s live-blogging platform is out of beta: “RedditLive doesn’t have to be a publisher, though that’s technically what it is, but could be a really good source for you in the newsroom,” Karen Fratti writes. (10,000 Words)
7. BuzzFeed corrects posts with swiped material: Three posts by viral politics editor Benny Johnson contained unattributed text, J.K. Trotter reports. (Gawker) | BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith says Johnson will remain on staff. (Poynter) | On Wednesday, Johnson accused another publication of stealing his work, saying, “Repeat after me: Copying and pasting someone’s work is called ‘plagiarism’ (@bennyjohnson) | “Citing that tweet, Trotter told POLITICO: ‘I subscribe to Benny Johnson’s theory of plagiarism, under which Benny Johnson is guilty of plagiarism.'” (Politico)
8. Why Kevin Sablan took a buyout from the OC Register: “I didn’t see our digital efforts move forward. I was happy that we hired dozens of new journalists. I was excited about new weekly community papers. I couldn’t believe how thick our paper had gotten. But I didn’t see any real advancement for our online subscribers.” (Almighty Link)
9. Here’s today’s world news, edited by Kristen Hare: Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste is appealing his seven-year Egyptian jail sentence, Paul Farrell reported in The Guardian. Farrell reports that Greste plans to work with an Egyptian lawyer. | Journalists have been banned from covering fighting in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to a report from Reporters Without Borders. “Signed on 21 July by PRD “defence minister” Igor Strelkov and released yesterday, it is fuelling arbitrary arrests of journalists operating in the region.” | The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran is in government custody in Iran along with four other journalists, Ernesto Londoño reported Thursday in the Post. Jason Rezaian has worked for the Post since 2012, Londoño reported. | From The Province, published in Vancouver, Canada, a perfect Friday headline. (Front page courtesy Newseum.)

   

10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Joshua Topolsky, the co-founder and top editor of The Verge, will join Bloomberg as “the editor of a series of new online ventures,” Ravi Somaiya reported in The New York Times. He will be replaced by co-founder Nilay Patel, currently the managing editor of Vox.com. (Poynter) | Derl McCrudden has been named head of international video for the Associated Press. Formerly he was head of video newsgathering. Denise Vance, AP’s deputy director of U.S. video, has been named head of U.S. video and radio. Vaughn Morrison, former vice president for programming and production for TV Guide on Demand, has been named AP’s head of U.S. video production. (AP) | Jake Milstein has been promoted to news director of KIRO in Seattle. Previously, he was KIRO’s managing editor. (coxmediagroup.com) | Simone Eli is a sports reporter and anchor at Houston’s KPRC. Previously, she was a sportscaster at WALA in Mobile, Alabama. (@Simone_Eli) | Alexandra Peers has been named culture editor at the New York Observer. Peers is “a veteran arts writer” and has been a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, Joe Pompeo writes. (Capital New York) | Indrani Sen, formerly an interim editor at Quartz, will be deputy news editor there. She’ll be joined at Quartz by Heather Landy, who will be Quartz’ global news editor. Formerly, Landy was editor in chief at American Banker. (Mediabistro) | Job of the day: The Lamar Ledger in Southeast Colorado is looking for a news editor. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs)| Send Ben your job moves:bmullin@poynter.org.

Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.