Facebook organic reach drop steepens to 52% for publishers’ Pages (MarketingLand, 8/6/16)

It might be easy to call out the joke that publishers are easing their own pain by simply not relying on Facebook as much, but that’s not a joke, that’s a good thing. Video is seen as a solution but it’s a short-term one that’s only as good as Facebook will continue to let it be. The only answer – the ONLY answer – is to make your publication’s distribution not overly tied to one platform, which is the problem publishers got themselves into. Facebook lured them in then slowly began changing the terms of the deal. Now it’s on those other companies to be master of their own fates again.

Snapchat’s 7 Brand Partners for the Summer Olympics (Adweek, 8/6/16)

A quick look at what some brands are doing by way of Snapchat ads during the Olympics. Some interesting stuff here.

Marketers see Periscope as Twitter’s glimmer of hope (Digiday, 8/8/16)

Seems marketers are, in some cases, gravitating toward Periscope because it offers better organic engagement than Facebook Live, where you have to fight and pay to get through the clutter. But to make it really work for everyone, Twitter’s going to have to do more with it than it currently is.

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Yahoo launches a TV watching site, Yahoo View, in partnership with Hulu (Techcrunch, 8/8/16)

Well this is an interesting development on a number of fronts. Not only is this Yahoo’s 17th attempt at a video portal but Hulu going subscription-only on its own site brings it more closely in-line with Netflix et al.

NBCUniversal to Produce Snapchat Shows for ‘The Voice,’ ‘SNL’ and More (Variety, 8/8/16)

These are sure to be interesting experiments, sure. But the question remains whether this is what people want from Snapchat. And if it is, then doesn’t discovery and profile organization need to improve? Basically, the form factor for success isn’t there and it’s questionable if the audience is either.

The New York Times is launching its film and TV recommendation site Watching (in limited release only) (Nieman Lab, 8/8/16)

I’m fascinated by recommendations as a form of journalism, mostly because they seem to be largely separate from criticism. Recommendations don’t seem to be so concerned with the larger cultural picture, it’s more about keeping you up to date in your circle of friends, connections and acquaintances.