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The Washington Post has appointed an Instagram editor — digiday.com

What do you want to be when you grow up? Editor-in-chief? News editor? How about Instagram editor?

The Washington Post has assigned Travis Lyles to the newly created role overseeing its main Instagram account. His first job will be to build out a team to 'ramp up vertical, visual storytelling' on the platform. His longer term objectives are to promote the Post brand and convert Instagram followers into paying subscribers.

Focusing on “shareable headlines”, the Post’s Instagram account had its most engaged month in January, with more than 12 million engagements. Ahead of his promotion to Instagram Editor, Lyles already ran the publication’s main Instagram account, growing it from from 675,000 followers to 4.5 million since he joined the paper in 2017.

Google thinks it may have found a replacement for third-party cookies — adage.com

A technology called FLoC is reportedly giving advertisers at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent vs. cookies. Using an algorithm built into the Chrome web browser, FLoC observes what websites a user visits. It then uses that browsing information to put users into a group with similar browsing habits that can be used by publishers and advertisers to serve up targeted ads.

Journalism's Twitter tug of war — www.nytimes.com

We've spoken and written about the debate around the rights and wrongs of journalists expressing opinions on social media. This piece from Ben Smith looks again at the 'tug of war between the voice of the brand and of the individual' and for the piece he initiated a poll asking if journalists should all shut up on social media. Unfortunately the responses don't help us decide either way - this one is going to run and run.

URL Media to help sustain “high-performing Black and brown media organizations” — www.niemanlab.org

Last year brought big changes to the way media organisations deal with diversity. Many apologised for past misbehaviours and promised to change. But waiting for change isn't enough for URL Media, introducing itself with the statement, "We don’t want the next 4 years to look like the last 4 or 400" and a mission to support existing 'Black and brown' news outlets that are often overlooked.

This week's podcast:

Mr. Magazine Samir Husni on why magazines are new media — voices.media

This week Dr Samir Husni tells us why magazines are the ultimate new media. He explains the wild ride that was magazine publishing in 2020, his print evangelism, the benefits that digital brings and his favourite magazine.

Media Voices Conversations:

Pugpig’s Jonny Kaldor discusses the state of the digital publishing market — voices.media

In our latest Conversations episode, I was joined by Pugpig founder and CEO Jonny Kaldor to discuss what’s been happening in the world of digital publishing, and what to expect from 2021.