Snowden scoop sees Guardian online challenge New York Times

Internal figures given exclusively to The Atlantic by the Guardian confirm that on 10 June 2013, the day after the British title revealed the identity of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Guardian’s websites attracted 6.97 million unique browsers. It was the highest level of traffic the sites had ever recorded for a single day, and also the first time that the news title’s US site had ever attracted more readers than guardian.co.uk.

Best practices for verifying UGC photos

The process of verifying user-generated content (UGC), particularly photos, has long been “more art than science,” as NPR’s Andy Carvin, who curates UGC from the Middle East on his 96,000-follower Twitter feed, said in 2011. But a recent study was able to identify fake photos with 97 percent accuracy, suggesting that technology will soon allow journalists to streamline the UGC verification process to the click of a button.

Stakeholder wants La Vie kicked out of Le Monde group over anti-gay marriage editorial

As stakeholder of Le Monde and an active supporter of gay rights, Pierre Bergé announced in a board meeting of the Le Monde newspaper group on Tuesday afternoon that he would like the French Christian weekly La Vie sold off and hereby disassociated with Le Monde following the magazine’s decision to publish an anti-gay marriage editorial.

Censored notes on a scandal: Mediapart, Le Point ordered to take down ‘Bettencourt Affair’ recordings

The Court of Appeal of Versailles ruled on Thursday that the French news organisations Le Point and Mediapart must remove all published copies and transcriptions of a series of recordings made at the home of France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt. Based on the claim that the recordings infringed upon Bettencourt’s right to privacy, the judicial decision has been condemned by some of France’s leading media figures as an attack on press freedom.

Free trial pays off for Ekstra Bladet freemium content

Seven weeks from launch, the 40% conversion rate from Ekstra Bladet’s free trial shows that some readers are willing to pay for quality content on tabloid (or so called ‘boulevard’) news websites.

Trinity Mirror doubles digital staff, perhaps to woo Sun readers

Trinity Mirror announced plans to recruit 25 digital editorial staffers, doubling the size its new media department in a bid to become “digital first.”

Wall Street shows faith in news publishers’ digital future

The willingness of some of the traditional news industry’s top players to take risks and experiment with their digital offerings is contributing to their recent success on the stock market. While circulation figures continue to fall and ad revenues diminish, some of the US’s most prominent news titles are reporting healthy rates on Wall Street.

Three years into The Times’ paywall, CEO says revenue’s worth lost reach

News UK Chief Executive Officer Mike Darcey said The Times’ strict, nonporous paywall has brought enough revenue to make it a success, three years since its introduction.

Sales of French national dailies plummeted in May

With the sole exception of La Croix, all national daily newspapers in France reported declining sales figures for the month of May, according to the OJD (Association pour la contrôle de la diffusion des medias).

RCS Mediagroup’s shareholders at loggerheads over plans for restructuring publishing business

Tensions are running high at the heart of RCS Mediagroup as key shareholders fail to agree on plans to turn around the ailing multimedia publishing company that controls the Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest daily news title.