In the news: Controversial editorial decisions kick up two separate Twitter firestorms in the same week.

This week, the New York Times found itself in hot water twice after publishing two controversial stories. The first reveals potentially identifying information about the whistleblower whose complaint launched the House impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump; the second involves a misleading story about voters, says Gabriel Snyder of the Columbia Journalism Review. He doesn't mince words in his opening line: "The New York Times has a Twitter problem."

For a newspaper whose policy is not to let Twitter users dictate its editorial decisions, the Times spends an awful lot of time on the platform. Snyder says: "Though executive editor Dean Baquet told his staff that he won't allow the paper to be edited by tweets ... responding to Trump's favorite social-media platform is taking up more and more of the Times' mental space."

Immediately after the NYT published the whistleblower piece, Twitter erupted. The hashtag #CancelNYT started trending. Executive editor Dean Baquet issued a statement on his decision to publish the story, but it was too little too late for Twitter readers, who felt that the story needlessly compromised the whistleblower's safety. Read more here.

Elsewhere, Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise faced criticism over a story about 2020 voters. On Twitter she characterized the story as one about swing voters who opposed impeachment, but the article features inverviews with likely Trump voters, not swing voters. Tavernise later deleted the tweet and apologized for mischaracterizing the article, reports Lindsey Ellefson of TheWrap.com. Read more about the tweet in question here.

Also Notable

Vox Acquires New York Magazine

Last week, Vox Media announced that it was purchasing New York Media, owner of New York Magazine. This is Vox's first foray into magazine publishing, says Anthony Ha of TechCrunch.com. "Along with the titular website, Vox also owns SB Nation, Recode, The Verge and other online properties," he notes. "It's also launched shows on Netflix and PBS, and has a multi-year deal with Hulu." Read more about the acquisition here.

The announcement has left staffers at both companies shaken. Kerry Flynn of CNN Business reports that "the Times published a story on the deal, featuring a photo of Bankoff and New York Media CEO Pamela Wasserstein, both smiling. Many staffers at the merging companies discovered the story on Twitter, after one of its authors, Edmund Lee, now of the Times but formerly managing editor of Recode, tweeted it at 8:53 p.m. ET." For staffer reactions to the merger, read Flynn's full piece here.

How Will Publishers Handle New Facebook Privacy Policies?

Earlier this year, Facebook announced its intention to focus more on privacy in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But six months later, publishers still don't know what this shift will mean for them, says Tim Peterson of Digiday.com. Read more here.

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