Mediagazer: SEC filing: AT&T gained 200K+ paying video subscribers in Q4, “entirely driven by DirecTV Now”; DirecTV Now launched on November 30 (Todd Spangler/Variety)

6:55 PM ET, January 20, 2017

Top News:

How newsrooms are gearing up to cover the Trump presidency and why media is entering one of its most challenging periods of the past century — Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, on March 1, 2016. (Ty Wright / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Michael Massing / The Nation:
To understand what's driving Trump's supporters, editors need to create a series of new beats focusing on religion, blue-collar workers, poverty, and more

Discussion: bookforum.com, Editor & Publisher, @jackshafer, @spguaglione, @alicesperi, @gpingersoll and @katrinanation

Paul McLeod / BuzzFeed:

David Brock's True Blue Media, billed as the left's answer to Breitbart, hires watchdog investigative reporter David Sirota as its new CEO — WASHINGTON — True Blue Media, pitching itself as the left's answer to Breitbart, has picked an investigative reporter critical of Republicans and Wall Street Democrats alike as its new CEO.

Discussion: @buzzfeedben, @xeni, @davidsirota, @brendannyhan, @davidsirota, @ggreenwald, @olivianuzzi, @lachlan, @nmuscavage, @daviduberti, @alexckaufman, @buzzfeedben, @wgladstone, @mlcalderone, @anthony and Politico

Politico:

Sources: President Trump will tap GOP commissioner Ajit Pai, a fierce critic of net neutrality, to lead the FCC — President Donald Trump will tap Ajit Pai as his pick to lead the FCC in the new administration, elevating the sitting GOP commissioner to the top spot overseeing …

Discussion: Deadline, GeekWire, Axios, Motherboard, Engadget, Business Insider, Light Reading, Recode, Variety, @karlbode, @byersalex, @mcdowelltweet, The Verge, @karlbode, @byersalex, @jonhumbert, Fortune, Techdirt and @tonyromm

Todd Spangler / Variety:

SEC filing: AT&T gained 200K+ paying video subscribers in Q4, “entirely driven by DirecTV Now”; DirecTV Now launched on November 30 — Telco also discloses $1 billion charge in quarter related to pension and postemployment benefit plans — AT&T added more than 200,000 …

Discussion: Thomson IR, BGR, Ad Age, TechCrunch and Multichannel News

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab app is experimenting with iOS 10 expanded push notifications to cover Trump's inauguration — Plus a look back at some Inauguration Day digital innovations of the recent past. — As Donald Trump takes the oath of office Friday and parades down Pennsylvania Avenue …

Discussion: @gdnmobilelab, @guardian, @niemanlab, @guardian and The Guardian

Paul Resnikoff / Digital Music News:

Norwegian newspaper: Tidal publicly claimed 3M members in March 2016, but paid music labels for just 850K subscribers a month later — How many subscribers does TIDAL really have? A new study is now accusing the Jay Z-owned service of completely fabricating their numbers. And not by a little bit.

Discussion: The Verge, RAIN News, Variety, Engadget, HotNewHipHop.com and Business Insider

Liz Spayd / New York Times:

NYT was too timid in posting stories on Trump-Russia ties pre-election, with FBI discouraging publication and with stories posted only after government action — LATE fall was a frantic period for New York Times reporters covering the country's secretive national security apparatus.

Discussion: @franklinfoer, @keitholbermann, @hadas_gold, @lrozen, @chuckrossdc, @maggienyt, @hboushey, @charlottealter, @carolinabolado, The Guardian, @hadas_gold, Media Matters for America and The Week

Joe Pompeo / Politico:

Since Meryl Streep's plug at the Golden Globes, the Committee to Protect Journalists has received $300K from about 2K individual donors — THE MORNING MEDIA PROFILE: CPJ'S AMERICAN MOMENT - “This is new,” Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, was telling Morning Media on the phone yesterday.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, magazine.org, @mlcalderone, @joelcpj, min Online and New York Magazine

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube says it found an error that inflated lifetime view counts on channels on 21 days in past 6 months, will issue a patch in the next few days — YouTube said that it has discovered an error in how it tabulates lifetime view counts on channels — a bug that may have inflated total video views to date.

Discussion: support.google.com and Tubefilter

Joe Concha / The Hill:

Fox News signs former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, a major backer of Brexit who campaigned for Trump, as a contributor — Fox News has signed former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage as a contributor. — Farage — a major backer of Brexit who campaigned for President-elect Donald Trump

Discussion: Mediaite, @thehill, @dylanbyers and @ggreenwald

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Business Insider is launching a sub-Saharan version of its site in conjunction with Ringier Africa Digital Publishing on January 23 — Business Insider announced Friday that it will launch a sub-Saharan version of its site in conjunction with Ringier Africa Digital Publishing. — The site will debut on Jan. 23.

Discussion: naija247news.com, @jamesliamcook and @talkingbiznews

Corinne Grinapol / FishbowlDC:

Ozy Media launching year-long project, States of the Nation, with politics reporter Nick Fouriezos spending a week reporting in every state, starting January 22 — There are 52 weeks in a year and 50 states in our country, a math that allows OZY Media to take a year to explore what's happening …

Discussion: @neil_s_parmar

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Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

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

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

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California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

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More News:

James Warren / Poynter:
Fake news likely did not sway the election, according to a new study by Stanford and NYU academics

Discussion: New York Magazine and @craigsilverman

Brian Fung / Washington Post:
Exit interview with outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on net neutrality, privacy, cybersecurity, zero-rating, closed captioning, and more

Discussion: @freepress

Alexandra Ellerbeck / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Q&A with First Amendment attorney James Goodale on press freedom and the challenges facing journalists as the Trump administration prepares to take office

Discussion: @ibnlarry, @pressfreedom and @joelcpj

Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed:
How WhatsApp's intimacy and immediacy have greatly increased the spread of misinformation in India, its largest market

Discussion: @regajha, @mat, @nitashatiku and @stephaniemlee

Earlier Picks:

Brian Flood / The Wrap:
Fusion TV launches Fusion Fights, a cross-platform project elevating social justice issues that impact young and diverse communities overlooked by the press

David Bauder / Associated Press:
Nielsen: Tucker Carlson averaged just under 3M viewers in his first week in Fox's primetime line-up, 10% more than the 2.72M Megyn Kelly averaged last year

Discussion: @marksimoneny

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Quartz ends three-year-old Next Billion conference, lays off three, will focus on projects like new subscription business

Discussion: @bmorrissey and @rafat

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Wayne Barrett, who spent 37 years at the Village Voice investigating developers, landlords, and politicians, dies at 71

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

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