Top News:
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
Profile of American Media CEO David Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump who says the National Enquirer supports the president because its readers do — The tabloid is defined by its predatory spirit. Why has it embraced the President with such sycophantic zeal?
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Sources: Pandora founder and CEO Tim Westergren plans to step down, will likely stay until a replacement is found — The streaming music giant doesn't have a replacement for its founder lined up. — Pandora co-founder and CEO Tim Westergren plans to step down as the streaming music company's leader …
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook courts talent agencies as it prepares to debut TV-quality shows by late summer with budgets of up to $3M/episode, as well as short-form videos — Facebook is talking to Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows with an eye toward launching original programming …
Discussion:
Home Media Magazine, The Wrap, @shalini, Vanity Fair, Light Reading, Axios, Business Insider, AOL, Marketing Week, BGR, CNBC, @jkaonline, Tubefilter, VideoNuze Analysis, The Verge, Fast Company, Engadget and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Vimeo says it will not be launching the subscription video service it announced three years ago — Cross one off the list. — Everyone wants to sell internet video subscriptions. Except Vimeo: IAC's video unit, which had announced three years ago that it wanted to launch …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Ad Age, Home Media Magazine, The Wrap, Deadline, Tubefilter, Engadget, The Verge, TheStreet, @pkafka, IndieWire, @pkafka, @pkafka and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Fox Sports is eliminating its ~20-person web writing staff, based in Los Angeles, to invest in online video production — About 20 staffers will lose jobs in department's transition — Fox Sports 1 gains in ratings against ESPN with opinion shows — 21st Century Fox Inc.'s sports department …
Discussion:
Multichannel News, TVNewser, Radio & Television …, Awful Announcing, @chrisvannini, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @yourmandevine
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Uptime, YouTube's experimental app for watching videos with friends, opens to all — YouTube's experimental app Uptime, which lets you watch videos with friends while reacting and commenting, has now opened up to all users. The app was first launched in March of this year …
Discussion:
Adweek, 9to5Mac, The Verge, iClarified, Engadget and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »
Al Tompkins / Poynter:
NPR is planning to roll out a regional hub system to make it easier for local stations to share resources, with plans to launch four pilots in the next year — NPR's top news executive announced plans to roll out a regional hub system at a speech for the Public Radio News Directors convention in Miami on Friday.
Discussion:
@kellymcb, @mdy1, @kristenhare, @atompkins and @benmullin
Alexis Sobel Fitts / Wired:
A look at some Alt-Right wiki sites, which were created as an alternative to Wikipedia and its perceived liberal bias — Vox Day thinks that Wikipedia is the worst. But the things that bug him aren't the typical complaints you'll hear about the crowd-sourced encyclopedia …
The Conversation:
News and commentary site The Conversation launches in Canada, will be run by University of British Columbia professors Mary Lynn Young and Alfred Hermida — The launch of The Conversation Canada is an opportunity to contribute to the quality of explanatory journalism in this country …
Discussion:
Globe and Mail, @scott_white, @kathyenglish and @stephenkhan
Sheila N. Dang / Reuters:
Time Inc. licences Fortune brand to Barclays for stock indexes based on Fortune 500 — Time Inc (TIME.N) said Monday it will license its Fortune brand for stock indexes based on the Fortune 500 in a new partnership with Barclays PLC (BARC.L) in an effort to diversify Time's revenue into the growing index-investing business.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Jon Passantino / BuzzFeed:
Source: CNNMoney executive editor Rich Barberi tells staff not to publish any content involving Russia before clearing with him and a CNN VP — The decision came after the network deleted and retracted a post on Friday. — CNN is imposing strict new publishing restrictions …
Discussion:
The Hill, TVNewser, The Wrap, Mediaite, @passantino, @nickpistor and Talking Biz News
Catalina Albeanu / Journalism.co.uk:
Inside Blankspot, a fully reader-backed reporting initiative to cover underreported stories in Sweden, started by journalist Martin Schibbye — The organisation has story-specific Facebook groups where the public can contribute their knowledge or follow journalists on reporting trips