• Second Life CEO Says Virtual Reality Remains Work In Progress
    Will Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR -- and renewed excitement for virtual reality -- breath new life into Second Life? Maybe, but Ebbe Altberg, the recently appointed CEO of Second Life-maker Linden Lab, doesn’t want everyone (i.e., the media) getting overly excited about the prospect. “We have to be careful,” he tells Engadget. “We’ve learned from the past that -- even though we’ve made tremendous things -- it's still a pretty steep learning curve."  
  • YouTube, Sirius XM Partner For Radio Show
    YouTube is launching a weekly radio show on Sirius XM’s most popular pop music station, Hits 1. “The YouTube 15” will be hosted by YouTube personality Jenna Marbles, and air on Fridays at 6 p.m. With the show, “YouTube is lending Sirius XM its name and data around video views to help Sirius programming executives choose which songs to play,” The Verge reports. 
  • 'Wall Street Journal' Making Staff Cuts in Newsroom
    The Wall Street Journal is "eliminating certain positions" in its newsroom, among them the job that John Seeley held as founding editor of the paper's metro section, Greater New York, writes Joe Pompeo.
  • Curiyo Helps 'USA Today' With On-Site Searches
    USA Today has enlisted Curiyo -- a start-up founded by Answers.com founder Bob Rosenschein -- to increase its stickiness among site visitors. Quite simply, “Curiyo lets you click on a word or name to find out more about them,” Mashable reports. “The idea is to discourage readers from navigating away from the page they’re reading to research on Wikipedia or elsewhere.” Rosenschein tells Mashable that the add-on is especially attractive to publishers because it only requires a single line of Javascript, and thus doesn’t slow down their sites. 
  • Remembering Technorati's All-Powerful Ranking System
    Marking the end of an era -- which actually ended a few years ago -- Technorati has dropped its once reigning ranking system. “There was once a time when Technorati.com meant something to online publishers,” The New Web recalls. “It was their professional reputation, and featuring on it was the goal of many.” Moving forward, Technorati plans develop its own ad network. 
  • Gawker's Growth Strategy
    Gawker Media hopes to increase its unique monthly readership from about 68 million to around 80 million by the end of the year. Still, “80 just seemed a little, I don’t know, sad,” Gawker’s editorial director Joel Johnson told staffers in April. As Capital New York reports, the broader growth effort will likely require more writers and salespeople. Back in April, Johnson projected that the publisher could double its staff before 2016. 
  • Yahoo Scores Michael Isikoff
    Joining Katie Couric and David Pogue, Yahoo just added Michael Isikoff to its growing roster of star journalists. “The investigative reporter who recently left NBC News, is joining Yahoo News as its chief investigative correspondent,” The New York Times reports. “The move is another example of an established journalist moving to Yahoo from a print or television outlet.” 
  • Is "Time Spent" Ready To Replace The Pageview?
    As a number of major publishers switch from an impression-based ad model to one that prioritizes the time that users spend on their sites, Buzzfeed -- and several of its publishing peers -- weigh in on the trend. “Behind all the attention is a concern among publishers that a new metric isn’t ready to take the place of the reviled page views system,” it notes. 
  • Report: AMC To Launch Online Video Channels
    AMC Networks is "preparing to break from the long-established cable television business model and launch several subscription video websites," according to anonymous sources cited by Amir Efrati. "AMC’s video sites will each focus on a specialized category, with documentaries and horror expected to be two of the initial genres."
  • Mic Sheds "Policy" Pigeonhole, Pushes Advertising
    Going after a larger share of young, intelligent readers, PolicyMic is shortening its name to Mic, and expanding its scope beyond politics to include sports, science, and health. The digital publisher is also getting serious about advertising with the help of recently named CRO John Schneider. “A digital media veteran, Mr. Schneider has logged top sales jobs at Yahoo and Federated Media,” CMO Today reports. 
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