Top News:
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
YouTube says it will invest $25M in grants to news organizations looking to expand video operations as part of Google's larger $300M Google News Initiative — FOLLOWING A YEAR in which YouTube has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theory videos during breaking news events like the shootings in Parkland …
RELATED:
YouTube Blog:
YouTube overhauls how it handles breaking news, adding previews of articles from credible sources, showing info from third parties, testing local news in TV app — The work of trusted journalistic organizations is as critical as ever, especially when it comes to seeking information about current events online.
Discussion:
MediaPost, TechCrunch, MediaNama, The Next Web, Relay FM Master Feed, VideoInk, Variety, Business Insider, Engadget, The Verge and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Excerpts from AT&T executive John Stankey's talk with HBO staff: “I want to see more investment in product and platform” — John Stankey had a lot to tell Richard Plepler and his team last month. You can read (almost) all of it here. — Did the AT&T executive in charge …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Techdirt, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, @gavinpurcell, @sherman4949, Slate, BGR and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Taylor Kate Brown / BBC:
A look at how the loss of local newspapers, combined with dwindling regional coverage, is affecting American cities like Boulder and Denver — In the past decade, hundreds of local US newspapers have closed or merged. What happens to the communities they leave behind?
Discussion:
The Rural Blog
Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:
NYT's Dean Baquet acknowledges that four stories in six days on Alan Dershowitz being “shunned” was too much: “We should have coordinated better and done fewer” — Even publicity-savvy, Alan Dershowitz is astonished at the flood-the-zone coverage that The New York Times …
Travis M. Andrews / Washington Post:
Billboard's latest record-breaking chart numbers reveal the challenges it faces in figuring out a streaming equivalent to an album purchase or a song download — Drake and Kanye West — two reigning kings of pop music — both flooded the American consciousness with music this summer in strikingly different manners.
Discussion:
@micahsingleton, New York Times and The Verge
Matthew Ball / @MediaREDEF:
Netflix's content spend is not reckless, its strategy to accrete paid users' leisure time gives it an edge over free content platforms like Facebook, YouTube — Even when underestimated, Netflix's ever-escalating, industry-leading content spend remains a point of fear and fascination in the media industry.
Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
A reporter hired to cover local politics, as part of BBC's “Local Democracy” partnership with regional papers, was fired after complaint from local politician — A Local Democracy Reporter has been dismissed one month after being given the role in North Yorkshire following …
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Newsletter startup Substack now has 11K paying subscribers, with revenue split between 10 medium-sized publications — On average, they're paying just under $80 per year. About 40 or so indie publishers with paid offerings are making what Substack calls “meaningful money.”
Thanks:@nicolasmagand
Rishi Iyengar / CNNMoney:
WhatsApp is using newspapers to fight fake news in India, taking out full-page ads offering news literacy tips in leading English-language and Hindi titles — Here's why quitting Facebook is so hard — WhatsApp is using old media to tackle its misinformation problem in India.
Discussion:
@aroondeep and Techdirt
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Reese Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine partners with AT&T to launch subscription channel on DirecTV, DirecTV Now, and U-Verse — Hello Sunshine, the actress/producer's production company, will have two unscripted series available on AT&T's DirecTV — for a monthly fee for current subscribers.
Discussion:
@melsil
Jerry Dischler / Google:
Google expands use of machine learning for advertisers by launching Responsive search ads, Maximize lift for YouTube, and more — The ways people get things done are constantly changing, from finding the closest coffee shop to organizing family photos. Earlier this year …