Mediagazer: Analysts say Facebook's recent licensing deals with music labels, including Universal and Sony/ATV, could signal plans to move more deeply into music business (Financial Times)

8:10 PM ET, March 6, 2018

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Gwilym Mumford / The Guardian:

The 2018 Oscars experienced a 16% decline YoY in ratings, with 26.5M US viewers watching the four-hour broadcast; Trump mocked the figures on Twitter — Broadcast for 2018 Academy Awards attracted 26.5m viewers, a 16% drop on last year's ceremony … US president Donald Trump has mocked …

Discussion: @realdonaldtrump, Variety, New York Times, NPR, Fast Company, Splinter, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Forbes, Decider, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, Fox News Insider, Mediaite, Fortune, Fox News, Mother Jones, Breitbart, Vanity Fair and Variety

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Technology news aggregator Techmeme, sister site of Mediagazer, is launching a daily podcast called the Techmeme Ride Home — Because everyone has a podcast. (That's a good thing!) — Techmeme is an influential site that provides concise, headline-length summaries of the day's tech news.

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Felix Salmon / Wired:

Serial's success, followed by Gimlet Media's proven effort to commercialize the format at scale, and then NYT's The Daily paved the way for daily news podcasts — How publishers are racing to own the money-printing machine that is the daily news podcast. — I USED TO think that podcasts …

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Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:

Axios founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen chastised “the media” for coverage of former Trump staffer Sam Nunberg while Axios fed the same flames — “Awful scandal porn” shouted an Axios headline Tuesday. The unit of content, by Axios principles Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen …

Discussion: CNNMoney, New York Magazine, Washington Post, @hadas_gold, Mediaite, Fox News, Vanity Fair, Poynter, @brianstelter, Mediaite, Splinter, Newser and Mother Jones

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

The Independent says BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan must have “misremembered” anecdote about traffic-boosting headline, mentioned during speech about press at uni — The Independent has said BBC media editor Amol Rajan “must have misremembered” an anecdote claiming he made a column …

Amol Rajan / BBC:
Transcript of BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan's lecture at the University of Kent in England, on the myths surrounding journalism

Discussion: Press Gazette

Bloomberg:

Weinstein Co. buyer Maria Contreras-Sweet said her group is pulling out of its deal to buy the studio after an examination raised questions about its viability — Weinstein Co. buyer Maria Contreras-Sweet said her group is pulling out of its deal to buy the failing film and TV studio …

Discussion: New York Times, Deadline, The Wrap, Financial Times, Crain's New York Business, Variety, TVWeek.com, The A.V. Club and Glamour

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Subscription-based sports media site The Athletic has raised $20M Series C led by Evolution Media, plans to double staff from 120 to 200-350 employees in 2018 — The two-year-old startup plans to double staffing and expand across the U.S. and into international markets

Discussion: @bill_shea19, @dcsportsbog, @chadgraff, @rafat, @_brian_hamilton, @benmullin and Awful Announcing

Dani Deahl / The Verge:

Apple confirms it will stop taking submissions for iTunes LPs, with bundled items like videos or bonus tracks, as of this month; existing LPs will be available — Existing iTunes LPs will still be available going forward — Apple has confirmed to The Verge that it will stop taking new iTunes LP submissions as of this month.

Discussion: Metro.co.uk, TechCrunch, MacRumors, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Mashable, Fast Company, Engadget, MacStories and AppAdvice.com, more at Techmeme »

Silvia Foster-Frau / MySanAntonio.com:

Co-founder of conspiracy theory website Side Thorn arrested with partner for harassing father of Sutherland Springs victim, told him shooting didn't happen — Two conspiracy theorists who have pushed the idea that the mass shooting at Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5 didn't happen were arrested Monday …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, @prehstrcforest, @erinscafe, @brianstelter, @evenbev, @johnamato and @lenpoz

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Fox is aiming to reduce TV ad time to 2 minutes an hour by 2020, its ad sales chief Joe Marchese claimed at a private industry event in LA last week — Network announced the target at an event it hosted to discuss TV advertising's challenges — Fox Networks Group's ad sales chief …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Wrap

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Funny Or Die is retiring its website and migrating over to Vox Media's platform; both are exploring potential collaborations on long-form entertainment — Funny Or Die is putting its aging web platform out to pasture. — Starting this summer, the digital comedy outfit will move FunnyOrDie.com …

Discussion: @mtmoe1, @jackallisonlol, @zkahn, @reckless, Splitsider, @clockwerks, @bankoff, @melissabell and Tubefilter

New York Times:

Right-wing journalist Peter Schweizer plans to release a documentary on tech companies' role in filtering the news, casting them as censorious and oppressive — Conservatives are zeroing in on a new enemy in the political culture wars: Big Tech. — Arguing that Silicon Valley is stifling …

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More News:

Financial Times:
Analysts say Facebook's recent licensing deals with music labels, including Universal and Sony/ATV, could signal plans to move more deeply into music business

more at Techmeme »

Amol Rajan / BBC:
Ex-investigator for Sunday Times says he used illegal techniques to target Labour officials from 1995-2010; paper denies it commissioned anyone to act illegally

Discussion: @byline_media, @yorkierosie, @jacquihames and @dadgey

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:
Lawmakers and experts worry Facebook will suffer the same problems with disinformation and “dark” ads during 2018 US midterms as it did during 2016 election

Discussion: @morroweric, @kantrowitz, @kantrowitz, @lisatozzi and @codybrown, more at Techmeme »

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Penske Media, owner of Variety and Deadline, has acquired SheKnows Media, including SheKnows.com, Stylecaster, and events business BlogHer

Susan Heavey / Reuters:
Office of Special Counsel: Kellyanne Conway violated federal law in 2017 interviews with CNN and Fox News by using WH position to weigh in on a political race

Discussion: The New York Observer, Variety, The Wrap, Oversight Democrats and CNBC

Dan Primack / Axios:
HQ Trivia says it has raised $15M at a $100M post-money valuation, led by Founders Fund, to grow out its engineering team

Discussion: Variety, Tubefilter, Recode, TechCrunch, @axios and @teddyschleifer, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
In a letter to AG Sessions, members of Congress ask Trump administration to require Qatar-based Al Jazeera to register as a foreign agent under US law

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, @repjoshg, @uptownberber and @vpafernandez

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
A look at the attempted revival of Rolling Stone under Jay Penske; sources say he approached Ryan Lizza about a job at the publication, after talks with staff

Discussion: @sisario, @pkafka, Politico, @joepompeo and @joepompeo

Yahoo! Finance:
Indonesia blocks Tumblr for ignoring order to remove pornographic content, says 360 accounts contained porn, will make it accessible when Tumblr complies

more at Techmeme »

Sydney Ember / New York Times:
Profile of Phillip Picardi, chief content officer of Teen Vogue since January, who has launched a digital LGBT community platform for Condé Nast, called Them

Discussion: Fashionista

Alex Nichols / The Outline:
A look at the tweets of those making money from private accounts with Premo: John Schindler appears to earn $17K/month and Eric Garland $3K/month

Discussion: Anthony De Rosa, Fortune, @thegarance, The Daily Caller, @ninjaeconomics, @joshuatopolsky, @mazmhussain, @lowenaffchen and @20committee, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

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

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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