Mediagazer: Kanye West's new album is a hit, but unconventional digital rollout confuses would-be buyers (Joe Coscarelli/New York Times)

12:40 PM ET, February 19, 2016

Top News:

New Chinese rule bans foreign companies from publishing online without state approval and licensing, requires mainland servers, starting March 10 — China requires approval for foreign firms to publish online … BEIJING (AP) — A new Chinese regulation announced this week …

Discussion: Quartz, South China Morning Post, Forbes, Fortune, Gizmodo, Tech in Asia and American Press Institute

Maureen Morrison / Ad Age:

Israeli ad blocking company Shine partners with 30M subscriber-strong European carrier Three Group to offer network-level ad blocking — European Carrier Blocks Ads at Network Level — Shine and Three Group Team Up to Offer Ad Blocking — Free Webcast — The Skinny on Scope Management: 2016 Keys to Success

Discussion: Telegraph, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Guardian, Business Insider, International Business Times, CNET, @emilybell, @bodil, Wired.co.uk, The Drum, The Stack, The Drum, Engadget, Ars Technica UK, Ubergizmo and Mashable

Axegrinder / Press Gazette:

Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief Stephen Hull suggests unpaid articles are more authentic than paid-for stories, which is “something to be proud of” — Stephen Hull and the blockheads: Backlash against HuffPo ed's claim unpaid articles are ‘more authentic’

Discussion: @mathewi, New Statesman, @tigerbeat, @laurenduca, @natashadevonmbe, terribleminds, @markloundy, @jilliancyork, @mathewi, @jimspencesport and Guido Fawkes

James Rainey / Variety:

Source: Nicole Seligman to step down as president of Sony Entertainment and Sony Corp. of America next month — Nicole Seligman Stepping Down as President of Sony Entertainment — Nicole Seligman, president of both Sony Entertainment and Sony Corp. of America, is stepping down from the twin posts …

Discussion: Re/code, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Re/code and Los Angeles Times

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Turkey detains Syrian journalist Rami Jarrah, co-founder of ANA Press — Turkey detains journalist who risks his life to report from Syria — Reporter raised in London is held after applying for residency in a border city — A Syrian journalist who was raised in Britain …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, International Business Times, BBC, BuzzFeed, @kreasechan, Facebook and telesurtv.net

Jeremy Kessel / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter transparency report: in the last 6 months, copyright takedown notices were up 89% to 35K, requests for account information increased 27% — Providing more #transparency into legal requests to remove content — Since our first transparency report was published in 2012 …

Discussion: @wexler, Twitter Transparency Report and @digiphile

Steven Perlberg / Wall Street Journal:

Report finds advertisers to spend about $35.1M on podcasts this year, up about 2% YoY, but lack of audience measurement remains an issue — Podcasts Face Advertising Hurdles — Industry contends with marketers' doubts about measurement, scale — Since the hit podcast “Serial” …

Discussion: Galleys, @jazer, @noahchestnut, @jakek, AdExchanger, RAIN News and @niemanlab

Joe Coscarelli / New York Times:

Kanye West's new album is a hit, but unconventional digital rollout confuses would-be buyers — Kanye West's ‘The Life of Pablo’ Is a Hit, but It's Not for Sale — In the week since Kanye West debuted his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” with an elaborate listening session-fashion show …

Discussion: XXL Mag, The FADER and HotNewHipHop.com

Elspeth Reeve / New Republic:

How Tumblr's teen comedy geniuses find fame, build audiences, outsmart ad networks, strike it rich, then lose it all, without adults ever noticing — The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens

Discussion: @contagious, @bshoup, @raphaelbw, @hunterschwarz, @mollylambert, Boing Boing, @c_s_green, @ldavidson02, @elspethreeve, @dylanmatt, @imbadatlife, @nickbaumann and @laurenkozak

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Publishers like Vice, Refinery29, Condé Nast, and Complex inflate traffic numbers by including sites they handle ad sales for but don't own — The favorite publisher trick that makes their digital audiences look bigger and younger — The pressure is on digital publishers to show …

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: after launching a year ago, Sling TV now has more than 600K subscribers; Chief Executive Roger Lynch says “vast majority” are not pay-TV subscribers — Dish Network's Sling TV Has More Than 600,000 Subscribers — Hasn't been breaking out the subscribers publicly for Sling TV since launch a year ago

Discussion: Digital Trends

Chava Gourarie / Columbia Journalism Review:

Behind the Another Round, Unorthodox, and Good Muslim Bad Muslim podcasts that serve underrepresented communities — Podcasts and community — Tracy Clayton's laughter is magnificently contagious. — Clayton is the host of BuzzFeed's Another Round podcast, during which she and co-host …

George Slefo / Ad Age:

Sources: Google's AMP initiative to speed mobile pages to launch Wednesday, with Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, and Washington Post among those participating — Official Launch Date for Google AMP Confirmed — Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages Is Launching Feb. 24, Ad Age Has Learned

Discussion: Digiday, Street Fight, AdExchanger, Search Engine Land and American Press Institute

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 12:40 PM ET, February 19, 2016.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Commissioning Editor - Practical Law — Reuters

Energy Markets Reporter, London — WSJ

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — Toronto Star

Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — Newcomer

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

News Reporter, MA — Berkshire Eagle

Multimedia Journalist, PA — Observer-Reporter

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

Senior Media Editor — Digiday

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Staff Reporter, CA — Daily Kos

Data Editor, NY — ProPublica

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Tom Dotan / The Information:
Yahoo shuts down Originals TV programming division, lays off its chief, Ian Moffitt

Discussion: @cityofthetown and Business Insider

Todd Spangler / Variety:
HBO signs exclusive deal with Nippon TV's Hulu Japan to license Games of Thrones, Sopranos, Girls, more

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and @lucas_shaw

Madeline Welsh / Nieman Lab:
Guardian compares covering dog show on Periscope and Facebook Live, finds more initial engagement on Periscope, more eventual reach on Facebook Live

Discussion: UK Blog on The Huffington Post, American Press Institute and @gdnmobilelab

Earlier Picks:

Drip:
Drip, which provided subscription services and communities for musicians and fans, announces it will close on March 18

Discussion: Pitchfork, @om, @valenti, @philipsherburne, @aten, @zackshave, @simoncarless, @drip, @skullcat, @valenti and FACT Magazine

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:
BBC is using anonymous location-based chat app Yik Yak to engage with readers in special coverage of mental heath issues

Discussion: @schmalie

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: T-Mobile's network was among the systems hacked by the China-linked Salt Typhoon group, and some foreign telecommunications firms were also compromised

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ByteDance is valuing itself at about $300B as part of a recent buyback offer, one of its highest valuations ever

Gavin Anderegg / anderegg.ca:
Bluesky is working to become fully decentralized but it could take years amid financial concerns as it makes money only by selling domains for usernames

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page