Mediagazer: London Assembly economic committee to issue report saying local papers' decline undermines democracy, sped by some councils' taxpayer-funded “news” publishing (Conor Sullivan/Financial Times)

4:10 AM ET, August 21, 2017

Top News:

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Inside Spiegel's 60+ year-old “dokumentation” team, a fact-checking group of 70 specialists who work with journalists in a consultative role — German media company Spiegel-Gruppe has had a fact-checking team since the 1950s, several years after its print weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, published its first issue.

Mike Allen / Axios:

Sources: Steve Bannon has told friends he sees a massive opening to the right of Fox News, raising the possibility that he's going to start a network — Unshaven and working from home in cargo shorts as he moves into “Bannon the Barbarian” mode, Steve Bannon is thinking bigger than Breitbart.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Breitbart, New York Times, Splinter, AOL, Politicus USA and jonathanswan

Conor Sullivan / Financial Times:

London Assembly economic committee to issue report saying local papers' decline undermines democracy, sped by some councils' taxpayer-funded “news” publishing — The decline of local newspapers is undermining democracy and is being quickened by some councils producing their own …

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

A look at challenges facing Verizon's Oath as the integration of NYC's AOL and SV's Yahoo struggles along, after 2,100 were laid off in mid-June — Can two once-great Internet behemoths come together harmoniously in an age of mergers, roll-ups, and distribution plays?

Emily Steel / New York Times:

James Murdoch's letter and ADL pledge prompt speculation about whether they signal change at Murdoch-controlled conservative media empire — At 5:55 p.m. on Thursday, James Murdoch sent an email to a list of blind-copied recipients offering a striking repudiation of President Trump and a pledge …

Discussion: @tpm, @metronorthrider, @lordcfalconer, Salon, Newsmax, @dave1oakns, @brianklaas, @dcherring, @mmfa, @profpcdoherty, @ezlusztig, @imran_jan, @mszlawie and @benjaburns

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: government review of AT&T's $85B takeover of Time Warner has reached an advanced stage, as AT&T lawyers discuss merger conditions with the DoJ — Markets are also growing more optimistic about the $85 billion takeover deal's chances — The government review …

more at Techmeme »

Mădălina Ciobanu / Journalism.co.uk:

Inside Pop-Up Newsroom, which launched in June to foster innovation in newsgathering, partly inspired by Electionland — The project will document the learnings from each Pop-Up Newsroom to allow anyone in the industry to build on the findings — Credit: Screenshot from Pop-Up Newsroom

Discussion: @mattcooke_uk

Brendan Pierson / Reuters:

US judge dismisses lawsuit by the former head of Venezuela's National Assembly accusing The Wall Street Journal of libeling him — NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the former head of Venezuela's National Assembly accusing The Wall Street Journal of libeling …

Wall Street Journal:

Radio revenue in India has seen steady growth in recent years thanks to privatization, adoption of mobile phones with FM receivers, and small-town consumption — Media companies are rushing to get new stations and talent on the air — RJ Gaurav, a DJ at FM station Radio City, broadcasts from the studio in Mumbai.

Discussion: @wsj

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:

GroupM relaxes its video ad viewability standards, says ads in news feeds don't have to have sound on or be user-initiated to count — Ad buying giant says video ads in news feeds don't have to have sound on or be user-initiated to count — Ad buying giant GroupM is relaxing …

Ken Schwencke / ProPublica:

The Daily Stormer receives DDoS protection from CDN service BitMitigate, whose founder says he believes in free speech and wants to promote his company — The neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer was back online Friday with help from a small company whose founder said he wanted to defend free speech …

Discussion: Namecheap Blog, @namecheap, @slpng_giants, @leolaporte, TechCrunch, The Verge, @limthenick, @wilfredchan, Business Insider, GeekWire, Splinter and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google is rolling out autoplaying AI-generated silent 6-second previews for videos in search results, while on Wi-Fi in Android Chrome and Google apps — Google announced a major update to its mobile search results pages today. Whenever your query brings up a video, Google will now show …

Discussion: Business Insider, BetaNews and Android Police

BBC:

Liz MacKean, who worked on the investigation of disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile that the BBC shelved in 2011, dies at 52 after a stroke — Ex-BBC News correspondent Liz MacKean has died after suffering a stroke. — MacKean, 52, worked for the corporation for more than 20 years but left …