Media Insider: Pinterest Plots World Domination, Snapchat Daily Video Views Hit 10 Billion, Bloomberg Explores Robot Journalism

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round up of journalism, blogging and freelancing stories from the week.

Photo by The People Speak! used under CC BY 2.0.

Pinterest’s Plans for World Domination (Business Insider)

For a long time, the majority of Pinterest’s users were in the United States. Now, with just over half of its 100 million-plus monthly active users being international, Pinterest recently announced some global plans. Business Insider reports Pinterest is launching a new feature in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, and Brazil called Featured Collections. It’s also launching its first advertising campaign in the UK.

Inside Business Insider’s Aggressive European Expansion (Digiday)

A lot has changed in the 18 months since Business Insider made its U.K. debut, Digiday reports. The U.S.-based digital media company has seen its U.K. traffic grow from 2 million monthly uniques to more than 5 million monthly readers, according to comScore. It’s added staff in London and generated “triple-digit growth” in advertising revenue. But there’s still work to be done.

Bloomberg Turning to Robots to Deliver the News (New York Post)

New York Post reports Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait recently told his 2,400 journalists in a memo about plans to form a 10-person team to study automation in writing and reporting. Micklethwait called the robot-generated copy “smart automated content (SAC),” New York Post says. Micklethwait noted that one irony of automation is that “it is only as good as humans make it.”

Snapchat User ‘Stories’ Fuel 10 Billion Daily Video Views (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg reports the majority of people using Snapchat Inc.’s application are making videos, fueling a boom in watching them. More than a third of the company’s daily users create “Stories,” broadcasting photos and videos from their lives that last 24 hours. Now users are watching 10 billion videos a day on the application, up from 8 billion in February, Bloomberg reports.

Why Facebook Live is Ready for its Closeup (Digiday)

Live video no longer is struggling to gain a foothold on the web. It seems like everyone’s now doing it. Digiday reports that Facebook has made a serious bet on live streaming video — and publishers have been quick to adapt, with outlets from The Washington Post to TMZ, all producing live content.

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Christine Cube is a senior audience relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. Follow @cpcube or check out her latest on Beyond Bylines on PR Newswire for Journalists.