By Gene Policinski Inside the First Amendment In the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's ...

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1789","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"413","height":"276","alt":""}}]]Pop quiz: What do Kim Kardashian and Bob Woodward have in common? If that question were posed Wednesday, the answer might be that both had written books — one about selfies, the other about presidential self-destruction.

With Apple, Facebook and Google promoting powerful news-delivery platforms, the best days may be in the rearview mirror for the dedicated news apps produced by media companies and a host of independent players. Leveraging their enormous audiences, vast troves of user data and state-of-the-art targeting algorithms, the Silicon Valley behemoths have created master applications to deliver personalized feeds to serve everyone’s individual news, information and entertainment needs.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1787","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"315","height":"159","alt":""}}]]Working with newspapers like the Houston Chronicle and sites like The Tulsa Frontier, The Marshall Project wants to bring more attention and accountability to capital punishment cases. Source:

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1786","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"418","height":"217","alt":""}}]]AP announced the formation of a new branded content department on Wednesday. Named AP Content Services, the multimedia department will use video, photo and other storytelling techniques for creating packages for brands.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1785","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignnone size-full","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":""}}]]It’s early September, which means it’s time for a new round of Apple announcements. Today’s round didn’t feature any update on Apple News, which is set to debut this month, but it did feature big news about the Apple TV, which I suspect will become a significant driver of news video views.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, has carried the ball for the National Newspaper Association on efforts to establish a new system for measuring service times for rural mail. Although he does not sit on the U.S. Postal Service Oversight Committee in the Senate, Blunt has asserted his expertise on postal again and again on behalf of NNA’s members. He will discuss his outlook on USPS and other top-of-mind issues at an NNA plenary session Oct. 3. Building on a background as a public servant, university president, and teacher, Blunt was elected to the U.S.

There are still a few publishers who remember the years when the greatest share of a paper’s display advertising simply walked in the door. There’d be a full-page slick from National Foods or some other grocery chain, a weekly J.C. Penney Co. display ad, another Goodyear Tire or Firestone slick needing only the local dealer’s logo and even a somewhat regular ad from the Illinois Central Railroad. All of that nationally placed advertising has disappeared from smaller communities the last 30 years.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1775","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"369","height":"146","alt":""}}]]Here’s a recap of the biggest stories in the media and advertising world this season: Source: Top 10 Media and Advertising Stories of Summer 2015 - CMO Today - WSJ

The Headliners Foundation is accepting submissions for its 2015 Showcase Award for Enterprise and Innovation in Journalism. Entries are being accepted for display in the Showcase section of the Headliners Foundation’s web site by qualifying news organizations or reporters, editors and other members of the professional media community for stories whose initial publication or broadcast has been since June 1, 2015. The 2015 deadline to submit fourth quarter 2015 stories is Jan.