Mediagazer: Gawker Media files new motion as part of bankruptcy proceedings, asking court to authorize investigation into Peter Thiel's financing of lawsuits against it (David Bixenspan/LawNewz)

4:30 PM ET, October 12, 2016

Top News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches Music Unlimited, a subscription streaming service that costs $4/month for Echo owners, $8/month for Prime members, and $10/month for all others — Rumors have been swirling around Amazon's plans to launch its own, standalone music streaming service, and now those reports …

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, Variety and VentureBeat

David Bixenspan / LawNewz:

Gawker Media files new motion as part of bankruptcy proceedings, asking court to authorize investigation into Peter Thiel's financing of lawsuits against it — On Tuesday, Gawker Media, the largely defunct media company that recently sold most of its assets to Univision at auction …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Hollywood Reporter

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Gawker Media's court filing shows it's trying to build a case against Peter Thiel over his financing of cases against Gawker, despite “heavy burden” of proof — Back in June, rumors floated that Gawker was exploring a lawsuit against Peter Thiel for “tortious interference and racketeering” …

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, @bristei, @lydiadepillis and @jdye

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

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

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 …

Discussion: @mathewi

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: Fortune, @dangillmor, @lauraolin, @mlcalderone, @vijayshekhar, @badnetworker, @laurahelmuth, @caitlindewey, Gizmodo, @brendannyhan, @mantzarlis and Mother Jones

Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:

Pluto TV raises $30M from ProSieben, Scripps Networks, and more for European expansion of ad-supported streaming service; sources say its valuation is now $140M — Pluto TV, the free internet television service, has raised new funding from investors including ProSieben of Germany …

Discussion: Multichannel News and Variety

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: @rafat, @mathewi and Guardian

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Playboy launches nudity-free magazine on Apple iTunes, Google Play stores, available for $5.99 per issue or $17.99 per 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: Fortune and FishbowlNY

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:30 PM ET, October 12, 2016.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Ed. - Gen. Assignment Desk, DC — WaPo

EU Technology Reporter, Brussels — Bloomberg

Breaking News Reporter, NY — Guardian US

Harrisburg Reporter, PA — PCBC

Senior Editor - Styles, NY — NYT

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter, Ireland — Newsweek

Assistant Digital Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Senior Editor - Visuals (Temporary), DC — NPR

Copy Editor, Remote US — ProPublica

Markets Reporter, NY/CA — Sherwood Media

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Food Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Staff Writer, NV — Las Vegas Weekly

Pharma Editor, Remote — Endpoints

Higher Ed. Reporter, Remote CA — EdSource

Politics Reporter, Brussels — Politico

Investigations & Enterprise Ed., WI — Cap Times

Social Strategy Editor, NY — WSJ

Senior Narrative Editor, CA — Cloud Chamber

Editor-in-Chief, NY (flexible) — The 74

Housing Reporter, OK — The Frontier

Writer/AI Content Reviewer, CA — Outlier

Writer/Editor, Remote — Mediaite

Multi Media Reporter, NC — Cardinal & Pine

Afternoon/Night Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Education Lab Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Senior Editor, Remote US — PCWorld

State Worker Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Executive Editor, NM — Searchlight

News Assistant, NY — Quanta Magazine

Local Editor, NJ (Remote) — Patch

News Writer, CA — Hollywood Reporter

News Editor/Reporter, KS — Blade-Empire

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:

Lexology:
France adopts Digital Republic Act, which includes changes to laws surrounding net neutrality, data portability, video games, and copyright

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

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

Scott Dadich / Wired:
Wired's Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich on how the magazine collaborated with President Obama as he guest-edited the magazine's November issue

Discussion: @markbao, @wired and @sdadich

John Cook / Gizmodo:
Facebook policies force publishers to tag underwritten content as if it were produced “with” a sponsor, even when that isn't the case

Discussion: @weareyourfek, @backlon, @s_m_i, @baekdal, @jwherrman and @johnjcook

Earlier Picks:

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Rolling Stone asks that UVA case, due to start Monday, be postponed as ABC's 20/20 to air deposition footage on Friday, saying it will prejudice jury

Discussion: @robbysoave and @eriqgardner

Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Google acquires FameBit to better connect YouTube creators with brands

Discussion: ClickZ, Wall Street Journal, Variety, @pakman, ZDNet, YouTube Blog, Business Insider, 9to5Google, Michael Jones, Engadget, @famebit, @nealmohan, @seajayinla, @dipson and @peterpham

Philip Bump / Washington Post:
How Newsweek journalist Kurt Eichenwald implied connections among Trump, WikiLeaks, and Russia that don't hold up under scrutiny

Discussion: Techdirt, @mmasnick, @mmasnick, Vanity Fair, emptywheel, Bloomberg, Refinery29, Guardian, Ad Age, New York Magazine, Media Matters for America, Business Insider, Common Dreams, Fast Company, Hit & Run, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Mother Jones

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
Sources: Billy Bush to be dropped from NBC's Today show; one source says announcement will happen “in the coming days”

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

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

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