Mediagazer: Podcasting startup Castbox raises $13.5M Series B led by SIG China and says it has doubled its user base to 15M since October 2017 (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)

Netflix orders one of its first shortform series, Follow This, a weekly docuseries following BuzzFeed News journalists as they work, premiering July 9 — The shortform series will follow the journalists at BuzzFeed News as they report a variety of stories.

Discussion: YouTube, Nieman Lab, Variety, Fast Company, @mathewi, @believekarolina, The Daily Caller and Slate

Jason Rezaian / Washington Post:

Reporters without Borders has released its annual press freedom report-card and the US is ranked 45th in the world; Philippines slid to #133 and Turkey to #157 — Last weekend, as Nicaragua's police brutally cracked down on protesters demonstrating against President Daniel Ortega …

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, Japan Times, Al Jazeera English and Politico

New York Times:

Danish inventor Peter Madsen convicted of murdering journalist Kim Wall; court heard how he invited her on to his submarine with the intention of killing her — COPENHAGEN — A Danish inventor who admitted to dismembering a journalist and discarding her body from the submarine he built …

Discussion: CNN, The Wrap, @emilynussbaum, Politico, Committee to Protect …, @afreedma, @kennwhite, @erinlea7 and @ap

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

Report: billionaire investor Peter Thiel agrees with Gawker administrator to withdraw bid for the website and its archives — Peter Thiel won't be buying Gawker after all. — The billionaire investor who helped bankrupt the once-mighty gossip empire reached an agreement Wednesday …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Variety, @theseantcollins, @edmurrieta, @albertburneko, @smorgasboredom, @hamiltonnolan and @tomscocca, more at Techmeme »

Justin Baragona / Contemptor:

Infosec expert for Joy Reid says significant evidence exists that her old blog was compromised and some recently circulated posts were not on site at any time — Earlier this week, Mediaite published a bombshell report on the discovery of a large number of homophobic posts that had been discovered …

Discussion: Mediaite, @erikwemple, Fox News, Sean Hannity, @ggreenwald, @angryblacklady, @angryblacklady, @liamstack, @phonedude_mln, Web Science …, shoqvalue.com, @bernstein and Mediaite

Chris Butler / Internet Archive Blogs:
Wayback Machine says it declined to take down “fraudulent” blog posts after Joy Reid's lawyers contacted archive; robots.txt later excluded blog from archives

Discussion: TVNewser, Variety, The Wrap, Slate, CNNMoney, Contemptor, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, New York Times, PFLAG, The Daily Caller, New York Post, Fast Company, Splinter, BuzzFeed, @dangillmor, @kfile, Boing Boing, @ggreenwald, @kfile and The Intercept

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

The Guardian halves its losses to £19M in the year to the end of March and is on track to break even in 2018 — Publisher reports smaller than expected loss of £19m as benefits of tabloid switch filter through — The publisher of the Guardian and Observer halved its losses …

Discussion: @helenpidd

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Viacom says it is working with Snap on multiyear original content and ad deal that would include Snapchat influencers in new and existing shows — Viacom and Snapchat are working together to create new shows that would star top Snapchat stars. — In a multiyear original content …

Discussion: @kerrymflynn

Reuters:
Viacom Q2 earnings: revenues fell 3.3% to $3.15B with domestic affiliate revenue falling 4% to $934M

Discussion: The Wrap and The Wrap

Chronicle of Higher Education:

Drew Cloud, an “expert” on student loans quoted by WaPo, CNBC, and The Boston Globe, is a fictitious persona created by a student finance company — Drew Cloud is everywhere. The self-described journalist who specializes in student-loan debt has been quoted in major news outlets …

Discussion: @muckrakery, @mollyhc, @zittrain, @edpolicyhabash, @ralphehanson, @trace_urdan, @dynarski and Talking Biz News

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Comcast makes £22B bid for British broadcaster Sky, at £12.50 a share, sparking a bidding war with 21st Century Fox and Disney — The US cable behemoth Comcast has declared a bidding war with 21st Century Fox and Disney for control of Sky by making a formal bid for Britain's dominant pay-TV operator.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Business Insider

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Memo: staff in The Wall Street Journal's editing operation have been asked to reapply for their jobs following reorganization — Jason Anders, chief news editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Steve Wisnefski, editor of professional news, sent out the following message to the staff on Tuesday:

Discussion: @michellemanafy and @moorehn

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Podcasting startup Castbox raises $13.5M Series B led by SIG China and says it has doubled its user base to 15M since October 2017 — Podcasting startup Castbox has announced a fresh $13.5 million round of funding via a series B round led by SIG China, with participation from IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and GSR Ventures.

Discussion: TechCrunch

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Some YouTube thumbnails depicted bestiality, now pulled; YouTube says monitoring tech missed because bestiality thumbnails may lack signals of typical porn — There is bestiality on YouTube, and it's surprisingly easy to find. It's also surprisingly prevalent, but not in videos …

Discussion: Engadget, Business Insider, Mashable, The Verge, @pkafka, @jimwaterson, @gaywonk, @mattmittenthal, @cwarzel, @cwarzel, @cwarzel and YouTube Blog, more at Techmeme »