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7:30 AM ET, May 11, 2016

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Michael Nunez / Gizmodo:
GOP Sen. Thune sends letter to Zuckerberg asking for more details about curation of Facebook's Trending Topics; Facebook says it looks forward to cooperating  —  The US Senate Commerce Committee—which has jurisdiction over media issues, consumer protection issues, and internet communication …
RELATED:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Facebook's News Feed reflects what we already like, with far more influence than curators of Trending Topics  —  I got my start writing for the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin.1  —  What is interesting about that statement is that the appropriate follow-up question is “Which student newspaper?”
Poynter:
Poynter media ethicist Kelly McBride says Facebook has a responsibility to be more transparent about how it curates news
Tom Stocky / Facebook:
Facebook VP of search Tom Stocky: we found no evidence contractors manipulated Trending Topics to suppress stories of interest to conservatives
Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:
Disney reports Q2 earnings of $1.36 a share, below estimates, and $13B in revenue; stock down over 5%  —  Media giant Walt Disney posted quarterly earnings Tuesday that fell short of Wall Street's expectations.  —  The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.36 per share on $12.97 billion …
Kevin Draper / Gawker:
As digital sites woo advertisers, they conflate metrics for digital video viewership and traditional TV  —  We are, right now, in the midst of a digital media upheaval.  What was previously conventional wisdom—that a media company with hopes of turning a profit needs, above all, to achieve scale—is being proven false.
Hank Green / Recode:
Vlogger Hank Green responds to Irving Azoff's open letter to YouTube, says the platform protects needs of independent creators from multinational companies  —  Dear Irving Azoff: Being on YouTube is good for artists and record labels, and everybody knows it.
Discussion: @irvingazoff, Music Ally and The Wrap
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Ripple.co launches out of beta, targets big cities with news feeds and contributed posts  —  Viki founder Razmig Hovaghimian launches a “city-focused news platform.”  —  The internet is a good place to learn lots of things.  What's happening in your neighborhood is not one of them …
Discussion: @niemanlab
Oliver Roeder / FiveThirtyEight:
USA Today and Gannett sever ties with Timothy Parker, crossword puzzle editor accused of plagiarism  —  USA Today has permanently severed ties with the longtime editor of its crossword puzzle, Timothy Parker, after allegations of plagiarism by Parker were investigated by FiveThirtyEight.
Discussion: New York Times and The Wrap
AAP:
Fairfax and APN confirm they are in preliminary discussions to merge their New Zealand operations by year end  —  Fairfax and APN are talking about a merger of their NZ operations to create a nationwide media and entertainment business attractive to advertisers.  —  Source: AAP
Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:
How a presence on Beats 1, heavy promotion on iTunes, and a TV ad campaign helped Drake reach 1M album sales in a week  —  Feat is rare achievement in age of rapid streaming growth, declining sales of downloads and CDs  —  Hip-hop star Drake sold more than one million copies of his new album …
Discussion: Fortune
Chris Welch / The Verge:
ESPN settles lawsuit with Verizon over ‘skinny’ FiOS cable bundle  —  ESPN and Verizon have resolved a legal battle that began when the popular sports network sued the FiOS provider over its unconventional “Custom TV” channel packages last year.  Verizon announced more flexible (and slimmer) …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon unveils Amazon Video Direct, open to any video creator, with four ways to earn money: per-hour royalty, add-on subs, digital rent/sale, or ad-supported  —  Initial partners include Conde Nast, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Machinima, StyleHaul  —  Amazon, which touts itself as Earth's biggest store …
 
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 More News: 
Jasper Jackson / Guardian:
Online petition to fire BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg taken down after it draws abusive and misogynistic language
Hamza Hendawi / Associated Press:
Egypt arrests 4 members of a street satirical group
Discussion: BBC
 Earlier Picks: 
Christopher Williams / Telegraph:
Channel 4 escapes privatisation after Downing Street intervention
Discussion: Guardian, C21Media, Politico and Guardian
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
McClatchy moving IT work to India's Wipro; sources say the move affects 120-150 jobs
 

 
From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview
 
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