Mediagazer: USA Today Network launches secure website for sources and government whistleblowers using SecureDrop (USA Today)

4:40 PM ET, February 23, 2017

Top News:

J.D. Durkin / Mediaite:

Fox News contributor Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's former on-air debating partner, has died at age 66 — Longtime radio and cable news broadcaster Alan Colmes is dead at the age of 66 after reportedly battling a brief illness. — Fox News moments ago reported on Colmes' death with a segment narrated …

Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:

Disney lays off 80 from digital media unit, including from Maker Studios, and plans to shrink Maker talent network, which once had 55K+ creators — Maker Studios' talent network, which at one time grew to 55,000 creators, also is being slimmed down. — Disney is laying off 80 employees across …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Digiday, The Wrap, Variety and Polygon

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:

Google's Jigsaw unveils Perspective, an AI-powered tool for publishers to weed out abusive comments, available as an API for free — A research team tied to Google unveiled a new tool on Thursday that could have a profound effect on how we talk to each other online.

Discussion: Jigsaw - Medium, Nieman Lab, Washington Post, Computerworld, Wired, Boing Boing, New York Times, Reuters, New York Magazine, Forbes, BetaNews, Softpedia News, Consumerist, @martinsfp, Mashable, @jigsawteam, The Verge, @jigsawteam, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, BBC, @dovseidman, Yahoo and The Drum

Hadas Gold / Politico:

James O'Keefe's 2009 undercover audio recordings of CNN employees have landed with little impact, though not all hours of tape have been made available — For a few days, Project Veritas founder and conservative activist James O'Keefe has been hyping the release of what he said were hundreds …

Discussion: @hadas_gold, @oliverburkeman, TVNewser, Project Veritas, Washington Post, The Wrap, @kelseymsutton, @sopandeb, @morningmoneyben, @karaswisher, @matthewnussbaum, @jamesokeefeiii, @politico and @byrontau

Hadas Gold / Politico:

The New York Times is using the Oscars to launch a multi-faceted ad campaign about “The Truth”, the paper's first TV ad push in a decade — The New York Times is taking the unusual and expensive step of advertising during the Academy Awards on Sunday, joining companies like McDonalds …

Discussion: AgencySpy, Business Wire, @alexweprin, @niemanlab, Ad Age, @dylanbyers, @alexweprin, @alexweprin, @kelseymsutton, @dylanbyers and @hadas_gold

Kurt Wagner / Recode:

Facebook begins testing ad breaks in partner videos, sharing 55% of ad revenue; Live videos from Pages with 2K+ followers will get an ad break option — Many publishers have trouble making money off Facebook videos — this could change that. — Facebook is ready to make money from all the videos …

Discussion: Facebook Media, TechCrunch, Adweek, Wallaroo Media, Fast Company and Variety

Joe Mayes / Bloomberg:

Sources: The Financial Times is eliminating 20 editorial jobs globally to cut costs as print revenue declines — The Financial Times, the salmon-colored newspaper bought by Japan's Nikkei Inc. in 2015, is eliminating 20 editorial jobs globally through attrition to cut costs as print revenue declines …

Discussion: @business, @wan_medialex, @newslambert and @mskimberlychin

Oliver Darcy / Business Insider:

Interview with an anonymous co-founder of The Reagan Battalion, the conservative Twitter account that brought down Milo Yiannopoulos — One of the mysterious men behind Reagan Battalion, an anonymous conservative Twitter account, seemed floored recalling the events of the past 72 hours.

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, @michellefields, @oliverdarcy and @businessinsider

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Spotify expands its push into original content with three new podcast series on music and pop culture, with more originals to be announced later this year — Spotify is expanding its podcast selection today, with the announcement that it's adding three new original podcast series on its service …

Discussion: news.spotify.com, Variety, Billboard, The Verge, Tubefilter, @techcrunch, Fortune and hypebot

USA Today:

USA Today Network launches secure website for sources and government whistleblowers using SecureDrop — The USA TODAY Network has launched a secure website for sources who want to share information with reporters covering government institutions from city halls to the White House.

Discussion: Adweek, @jguynn, @nchute, @mickeyshueypi and @nathanielcary

Garett Sloane / Ad Age:

41% of online ads are larger than industry standards, slowing down websites and annoying users with crawling load times, according to Ad Lightning — Ads need to go on a diet. — More than 40% of online ads are larger than industry standards, which slows down websites and annoys users …

Discussion: @jarroddicker, @adage and @niemanlab

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

UK regional daily newspapers lost print sales at an average rate of 12.5% YoY in 2016, with Wigan Evening Post hit hardest, dropping 36% — UK regional daily newspapers audited by ABC lost print sales at an average rate of 12.5 per cent year on year in 2016, according to figures released today.

Discussion: @domponsford, @rlwjones, @domponsford, @domponsford, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @domponsford

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:40 PM ET, February 23, 2017.

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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

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More News:

Washpostpr / Washington Post:
John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman, is joining The Washington Post as a contributing columnist

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @timebner, @brentscher, @dylanbyers, @tomkludt and Poynter

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Tronc Q4 profit swings to $19.4M from year-earlier loss of $77K, expands digital audience by 16% YoY, but advertising drops 16% for the quarter

Discussion: tronc, inc., Adweek, Los Angeles Business Journal and Seeking Alpha

Shawn W. Crispin / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Interview with Dang Xuan Dieu, a reporter with Vietnam Redemptorist News who was jailed for over five years before being exiled to France

Discussion: @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom and @janbeanland

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:
Russia's foreign ministry unveils effort to label news it considers to be fake, includes articles from NYT, Bloomberg, Daily Telegraph, NBC, and more

Discussion: Fortune, The Verge, CNNMoney, @nytimesworld, @gordonnyt, @stevinazo, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Hill, BuzzFeed and @cressman

Earlier Picks:

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
District court judge blocks California law preventing IMDb from publishing ages of actors, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment

Discussion: Techdirt, @jack_morrissey, @politico, @adgo and @joshgerstein

Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
Sources: Facebook is hosting off-the-record meetings with journalists to improve relations; source says FB discussed boosting publisher ad revenue from videos

Discussion: The Guardian, @perlberg, @matthewjsinger, @miriamelder and @daweiner

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:
The New European, set to print for four weeks post-Brexit, gets 1M pageviews/month with 20K circ.; print serves as “visible articulation” of readers' values

Discussion: @pilhofer, @niemanreports, @niemanlab, @jbenton, @newsalliance, @vischella, @jbenton, @brianstelter, @ylichterman and @simonmacmichael

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
The journalists Trump called “enemies of the people” include veterans, the son of Mexican immigrants, a farmer's daughter, and many other Rust Belt natives

Discussion: Forbes, USA Today, CNNMoney, The Guardian, NPR, Fortune, @farhip, @kenroth and MediaFile

From Techmeme:

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November

Wall Street Journal:
Gina Raimondo says holding back China in the chips race is a “fool's errand”, and investment, more than export controls, will keep US ahead of Beijing

Bloomberg:
Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region

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