Mediagazer: California news site Berkeleyside launches a direct public offering, giving readers a chance to invest, with up to $800K in preferred stock available (Ricardo Bilton/Nieman Lab)

1:40 PM ET, October 12, 2016

Top News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches subscription streaming service Music Unlimited, costs $7.99/mth for Prime members, $3.99/mth for Echo owners, and $9.99/mth for all others — Rumors have been swirling around Amazon's plans to launch its own, standalone music streaming service, and now those reports have been proven out …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Pandora launches Pandora Plus, its $5/month ad-free service that also gives users offline playback, more song skips and replays — Pandora is not taking today's debut of Amazon's new, on-demand music streaming service lying down. The company has conveniently timed the launch of its own new paid tier …

Discussion: Pandora Blog, RAIN News and VentureBeat

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker tells reporters writing must be sharper, shorter, and more creative as newsroom turns focus to digital — The Wall Street Journal is in the middle of a newsroom overhaul. And, according to its top editor, that transformation will include a sharper focus on cutting out editorial flab.

Discussion: @charliebeckett, @itsren, @jonathanhaynes, @brizzyc, @jdye, @bristei and @lydiadepillis

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Newsroom memo: Huffington Post's Executive Editor Liz Heron is departing the site — Liz Heron, managing editor of The Huffington Post, is leaving that organization about a year after being appointed the newsroom's second-in-command. — Heron was hired on in September 2015 after serving …

Discussion: Liz Heron, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, Editor & Publisher, @mlcalderone and Politico

Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:

California news site Berkeleyside launches a direct public offering, giving readers a chance to invest, with up to $800K in preferred stock available — Based solely on the numbers, the Green Bay Packers shouldn't exist. Its stadium, Lambeau Field, has a max capacity of 81,435 people …

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

BuzzFeed aims to grow commerce revenue with Shop BuzzFeed, its online shop which sells merchandise created by the site's illustrators and designers — If you like your socks with milkshakes and French fries, good news: BuzzFeed has a store for you. — This summer, the online news …

Discussion: Business Insider

Caitlin Dewey / Washington Post:

The Washington Post tracked Facebook's Trending Topics section over three weeks, uncovering five fake stories and three profoundly inaccurate ones — The Intersect ran a little experiment a few weeks ago: During the work day, we'd check in with Facebook each hour, on the hour …

Discussion: Gizmodo, @mlcalderone, @vijayshekhar, @laurahelmuth, @caitlindewey, @brendannyhan, @mantzarlis and Mother Jones

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

NYT renames global edition “New York Times International Edition”, with focus on deeper coverage; homepage will deliver geotargeted content to non-US readers — As of yesterday, there was something called the International New York Times.

Discussion: Guardian

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Playboy launches nudity-free magazine in Apple iTunes, Google Play stores, available for $5.99 an issue or $17.99 a year — Playboy's 63-year-old magazine — recently stripped of nude pictorials — is now an app. — Playboy Enterprises is selling digital copies of the Hugh Hefner's …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Sources: Billy Bush to be dropped from NBC's Today show; one source says announcement will happen “in the coming days” — On Saturday night NBC was going to throw a surprise party for Billy Bush in Greenwich Village. Now it has been cancelled. — “Surprise,” indeed.

Lexology:

France adopts Digital Republic Act, which includes changes to laws surrounding net neutrality, data portability, video games, and copyright — Introduction — One year ago the French government launched a new democratic experiment: an online public consultation on the draft bill on the ‘Digital Republic’.

Washington Post:

Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages deindexed or taken down outright by abusing firms' policies on defamation — There are about 25 court cases throughout the country that have a suspicious profile: — All involve allegedly self-represented plaintiffs …

Discussion: @orinkerr, @cstross, @xor, Beyond Search, Techdirt, CL& and Softpedia News

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 1:40 PM ET, October 12, 2016.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Local Government Reporter, IA — The Gazette

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Editorial Assistant, Remote US — Launch Potato

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

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Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
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Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
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Philip Bump / Washington Post:
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From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
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Financial Times:
Sources: Palantir and Anduril are in talks with OpenAI, SpaceX, and more to form a consortium to bid for US defense contracts and plan to announce it in January

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