Mediagazer: Cox is shutting down Flare services: remote storage, video game service FlarePlay, and Flare Kids, a free video app, because it was not able to monetize them (Shalini Ramachandran/Wall Street Journal)

1:25 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, The Drum, The Drum, @bodil, Engadget, Ars Technica UK, @emilybell, Ubergizmo, Wired.co.uk, The Stack 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, @markloundy, @jilliancyork, @natashadevonmbe, @mathewi, @jimspencesport, terribleminds 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 …, @kreasechan, International Business Times, BuzzFeed, BBC, 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

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Cox is shutting down Flare services: remote storage, video game service FlarePlay, and Flare Kids, a free video app, because it was not able to monetize them — Cox Is Shutting Down ‘Flare’ Digital Media Products — Effort for videogame service, Web offerings spanned three years

Discussion: Multichannel News and Variety

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

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 …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Verizon Revamps ‘Skinny’ FiOS TV Bundles After Spats With ESPN, Others — Verizon Communications is overhauling the lower-priced FiOS Custom TV bundles, and will now offer two basic packages — one with sports channels, and one without them. — The new “skinny” TV packages, launching Sunday …

Discussion: Multichannel News, PR Newswire, Reuters, Bloomberg Business and Variety

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

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More News:

Chava Gourarie / Columbia Journalism Review:
Behind the Another Round, Unorthodox, and Good Muslim Bad Muslim podcasts that serve underrepresented communities

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

Discussion: @cityofthetown and Business Insider

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

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

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

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

Earlier Picks:

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

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

Discussion: RAIN News, 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

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