Online TV series recapping has become a booming cottage industry, bringing lots of traffic to the obvious entertainment sites, but also "unlikely outlets from political magazines to local news affiliates," writes John Jurgensen. This very thorough discussion of the phenomenon includes input from a wide variety of sources, from a TelevisionWithoutPity recapper who explains what substances (from "5-Hour Energy drink" to "stovetop expresso") help keep him awake to recap up to three shows a night, to "The Good Wife" executive producer Robert King, who monitors recaps "to help guide storytelling decision," according to Jurgensen. "The rise of recaps has …

Quartz, Atlantic Media's digital-only business pub, is outpacing the web site of competitor The Economist in U.S. visitors, roughly 11 months after first launching -- "and is closing in on the Financial Times," writes Seth Fiegerman. The Economist's global digital publisher, Nick Blunden, told [Fiegerman] that comScore's numbers 'significant[ly] underestimate our traffic.'"

Unlike its competitors, Al Jazeera America will have only six minutes of commercials each hour when it launches next Tuesday. This low ad ratio is "one of our key competitive advantages," according to CEO Ehab El Shihabi, cited in a piece by Sam Thielman. "There will be less opinion, less yelling, and fewer celebrity sightings," said El Shihabi. "We are not infotainment."

Media buyers and marketers should re-evaluate "the role of cinema advertising, and other high-impact media, in the media mix,"  neuromarketing expert Peter Steidl tells the Asia Media Journal. "The heightened visual and audio intensity that a cinema provides can be especially effective in making an ad or brand message easier to remember," according to the Journal, in this piece that discusses how neuroscience can aid marketing and advertising.

In June, ailing fashion pub Lucky got its third editor in 13 years, courtesy of Anna Wintour, "who appointed [Eva Chen] editor... in one of [Wintour's] first major moves as Condé Nast creative director," writes Marisa Meltzer. Chen, first hired as a Lucky consultant, had quickly replaced then-editor Brandon Holley, who was brought in just as unceremoniously to topple founding editor Kim France off the masthead in 2010. "Many industry observers believe the promotion of Ms. Chen — who is social-media savvy and casually tweets about everything from Jane Austen to the thief who stole her credit card …

Conde Nast just released research showing that "content, including advertising, in its flagship magazines is viewed in much the same way, and with similar dwell times, whether in print or digital editions," writes Arif Durrani. "The leading glossy magazine publisher is calling its new research the first known like-for-like data for print and digital tablet reader relationships."

Will there be advertising fallout from the "increasing controversy over Russia’s recently passed “anti-gay propaganda” law"? asks Peter Lauria. "So far, brands that have bought advertising time on NBC remain committed, but with six months left to go before the opening ceremonies and the potential for a boycott rising, a lot can happen that could change their minds," he writes.

With more and more publications creating in-house divisions to handle sponsored content for advertising clients -- most recently the Huffington Post and Wired -- "it’s key for these in-house agencies to maintain independence from editorial departments, lest conflicts of interest arise," writes Kira Witkin. She provides a rundown of major companies that have ventured into this area, noting that Monocle magazine, "with 20 percent of pages in last issue devoted to native ads, has blurred this line without so much as an eyebrow raise from industry commentators."

Several Southern California-based TV viewers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Time Warner Cable, asking for reimbursement for the current blackout of CBS-owned channels due to the carriage-fee dispute between TWC and CBS. "The plaintiffs claim in the suit that if they had known there might be a program blackout, they would not have become TWC subscribers," writes Alex Ben Block.

In his first-ever post on LinkedIn, WWP chief executive Martin Sorrell revealed "an ambitious new target in WPP's race to maintain its digital edge over rivals, aiming for as much as 45% of the marketing services giant's total... revenues to come from digital sources by 2018," writes Mark Sweeney. That goal outpaces the current total of 30% of the company's revenue as digital.