NAA Roundup

By Lindsey Loving February 19, 2016

NAA Roundup is a weekly blog post featuring NAA member announcements and staff changes; NAA announcements; what’s on our reading list this week; and what’s hot on social media.

If you would like an announcement included in the NAA Roundup, please email lindsey.loving@naa.org.

Member Announcements:

AP and AMD bring journalism to virtual reality (VentureBeat)
AP will collaborate with chip maker Advanced Micro Devices to create media that can be viewed in VR, building a virtual reality experience channel as the home for next-generation journalism.

The New York Times Wins Three Polk Awards (The New York Times)
Polk Awards were presented to New York Times reporters in multiple categories this year, including Foreign Reporting, Legal Reporting and Military Reporting.

The Washington Post Wins Two Polk Awards (The Washington Post)
The Washington Post recently received two George Polk awards in the National Reporting and Regional Reporting categories.

Staff Announcements:

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.: Paul Semple will retire as publisher of the Effingham Daily News and the Shelbyville Daily Union on March 31.

Cox Media Group: Rachel Williamson has been named vice president and general manager of Gamut, a digital media services company owned by Cox Media Group.

Hearst Newspapers: Michael Gorman has been promoted to vice president of consumer marketing for Hearst Newspapers. He will also maintain his role as vice president of circulation for the Houston Chronicle.

Lee Enterprises: Kevin Mowbray, previously EVP and chief operating officer, has been elected president and chief executive officer of Lee Enterprises.

Tribune Publishing: Editor Gerould Kern has retired from The Chicago Tribune after nearly eight years and will be succeeded by Bruce Dold, the longtime editor of the Tribune’s editorial and opinion pages.

NAA Announcements:

NAA Announces “Top 30 Under 30” Awards Program at NAA mediaXchange 2016: NAA has launched the inaugural “Top 30 Under 30” Awards program to honor young industry leaders. The program provides an opportunity to showcase the energy, innovation and vitality of the news media industry – and its rising stars. To qualify, applicants should be employed at an NAA member news media company (journalists or those in business or technology departments) and must be under the age of 30 as of March 31, 2016. Entries for the program will be accepted today through Friday, March 11, 2016. The winners will be recognized at NAA mediaXchange 2016, taking place April 17-20, 2016 in Washington, DC. To nominate yourself or a colleague, click here.

What We’re Reading:

Facebook is opening up Instant Articles to newsrooms everywhere. Will a flood of distributed content follow? (Poynter)
Facebook will open access to all publishers, from individual bloggers to large newsrooms, on April 12.

How The Washington Post built its tool to “re-engage” the attention of distracted readers on mobile (Nieman Lab)
The re-engage feature observes how long a reader remains idle on a page or how quickly a reader begins swiping the screen to scroll to the bottom of the story, and then offers a small pop-up suggesting other Post stories.

Official Launch Date for Google AMP Confirmed (AdAge)
Google will be introducing its Accelerated Mobile Page initiative on February 24. AMP is a direct response to Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News, but AMP is an open source – meaning anyone can use it.

Time Inc. anticipates more restructuring in 2016 (Politico)
Time Inc. says that it will continue to restructure and consolidate its business units and products, even as it finds new areas in which to invest.