Vox Turns to Facebook to Publish New Gadget Blog

Online news company Vox Media launched its gadget-news source called Circuit Breaker on Monday, taking the unusual step of publishing the content primarily though Facebook.

The move underscores a tension in the online news world, in which publishers are often at the mercy of monolithic tech companies like Facebook and Google to reach readers and ultimately make money. Google’s tweaks to its search algorithm can cause a site’s traffic to drop or soar, and scoring a virally shared story on Facebook or Twitter can be a boon for readership. But advertising arrangements are still emerging between Facebook and publishers.

Although Circuit Breaker will be a blog section on Vox’s larger technology news site The Verge, editors’ primary focus will be “playing the News Feed game,” Helen Havlak, who oversees social media distribution for The Verge and now Circuit Breaker, told the New York Times.

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Blows Facebook Live Demo With Hasty Exit

Vox plans for Circuit Breaker to focus on live video, a fixation of Facebook‘s that the company is giving more prominent placement in users’ news feeds by design. The company will use Facebook’s Instant Articles, which Facebook hosts itself to make them sleeker and more quick to load.

Vox is simply chasing the places it sees the most potential, which has shifted in the last few years to apps like Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff told the Times.

The focus on gadgets also is a strategic move for the company, honing in on readers that are more likely to be in the frame of mind of buying something — an attractive characteristic for advertisers.

“Circuit Breaker brings the best of old-school blogging together with a sophisticated, aggressive modern platform distribution strategy,” The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel said in a statement. “We’re going to expand the already huge Verge audience by giving passionate gadget fans tightly-focused coverage of device categories that are poised to change the culture all over again.”

10 'Game of Thrones' Characters Most and Least Likely to Die, According to Science (Photos)

So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?
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This boy king is virtually dead already. Tommen Baratheon has a 97 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm. Considering his grandfather, father, older brother and sister have all been murdered, and basically every person with any power in Westeros is vying to steal his seat on the Iron Throne, this doom may not be the biggest surprise.

Also Read: ‘Game of Thrones': Most Upsetting, Shocking and Disturbing Deaths So Far (Photos)
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Tommen's uncle, Stannis, is a close runner-up in the algorithm's ranking of who's next to die. He has a 96 percent chance of being offed. Of course, our last glimpse of Stannis was of him lying defenseless on the ground as Brienne of Tarth swung her sword at him for the kill, so...

Also Read: All 47 ‘Game of Thrones’ Main Characters, Ranked Worst to Best (Photos)
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It doesn't look good for fan favorite Khaleesi. Daenerys Targaryen has a 95 percent of dying, putting her at No. 3 in the close race to the grave.
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Davos Seaworth, Stannis Baratheon's once right-hand deputy, has a 91 percent chance of doom. After barely surviving the battle at King's Landing in Season 2, this Onion Knight may not have long left.
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Petyr Baelish's cunning vaulted him to money and power, and it's saved him from more than one dire scrape. But he has a 91 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm, so his wiles may not get him much farther.
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Among those most likely to survive, Roose Bolton is No. 5 on the "might just make it" list. And even though he makes it into that elusive top 5, he still has a 28 percent likelihood of dying.
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Margaery Tyrell's fate is rosier than her young husband, Tommen, at a 64 percent likelihood of dying. Her father, though, has the best chances in the Tyrell family, at only 18 percent doomed.
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Most people love to hate Cersei Lannister, but her conniving ways earn her a solid chance of surviving. She is only 16 percent likely to die, putting her at No. 3 on the list of survivors.
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Bless the all-knowing algorithm! Jon Snow is alive! At least, there's only an 11 percent chance that the Night's Watch mutiny that left him bleeding in the snow actually killed him. Only one other character has a better likelihood of survival.
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Place your bets now. Although she jumped from the heights of Winterfell's high wall in the finale of the last season, machine learning assures us Sansa is the most likely character of all to survive the "Song of Ice and Fire." She her likelihood of death is only 3 percent.
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Is Jon Snow dead or alive? A machine-learning algorithm pegs the percentage chance of every ”Game of Thrones“ character surviving or perishing

So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?

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10 'Game of Thrones' Characters Most and Least Likely to Die, According to Science (Photos)

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