Mediagazer: Netflix's content spend is not reckless; its strategy to capture paid users' leisure time gives it an edge over free content platforms like Facebook and YouTube (Matthew Ball/@MediaREDEF)

5:25 PM ET, July 10, 2018

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Univision confirms it hopes to sell Gizmodo Media Group and its stake in The Onion and has hired Morgan Stanley to help with the sale — Univision Communications is officially looking to unload the Gizmodo Media Group — which mostly comprises the sites it acquired in the bankruptcy auction …

Discussion: Radio & Television …, KABE-LP, @maxwelltani, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Mediaite, @shalini, @attackerman and @maxwelltani

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: @mantzarlis, @nbrownpoynter, @craigsilverman, @mathewi, @aroondeep, @iyengarish, Poynter and Techdirt

Jagmeet Singh / NDTV Gadgets 360:
To combat the spread of fake news on its app, WhatsApp is rolling out “Forwarded” label to indicate when messages have been forwarded to users

Discussion: Poynter, The Verge and The Hindu, more at Techmeme »

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: @jhoekemaphotog, @hadas_gold, @coreyhutchins, @ehernandez, @businessofnews and The Rural Blog

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Philo, a low-cost live-streaming TV service, has raised $40M Series C led by existing investors AMC Networks, Discovery, and Viacom — Internet TV provider launches service on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV — Philo has nabbed more dough: The low-cost live-streaming TV “skinny bundle” …

Discussion: The Wrap, Multichannel News and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:

Business Insider removed a post about portrayals of trans individuals in Hollywood following staff complaints, said article did not meet its standards — Business Insider removed a post about portrayals of trans individuals in Hollywood after staff complained internally about the column …

Discussion: Mediaite, CNNMoney, @davidharsanyi, The Daily Caller, @noahcrothman, Talking Biz News, @davidharsanyi, @leannagarfield, @elongreen, @bariweiss, @sethamandel, @davidklion, @thedailybeast and @runwithskizzers

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Amid his controversial quotes about HBO, John Stankey committed to increasing the network's programming budget, in order to compete with Netflix globally — Commentary: John Stankey's blunt talk was just what Richard Plepler wanted to hear — When a conversation from a high-level internal …

Discussion: The A.V. Club and VideoInk

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”

Discussion: Techdirt, The Wrap, Vanity Fair, Fortune, Engadget, @gavinpurcell, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, @sherman4949, Slate, BGR and @pkafka

Megh Wright / Vulture:

For a few hours, the Washington Post cited satire site Clickhole as a reputable source in a story on UK effort to push “American Idiot” to top of music charts — You may have heard the news that Brits are trolling Donald Trump ahead of his visit with Prime Minister Theresa …

Discussion: Washington Post, @washingtonpost, @samthielman, Mediaite, Fast Company, Bustle, @megh_wright, @samthielman, @ashleyfeinberg, The A.V. Club and @onthemedia

New York Times:

The New York Times says its 55 newsletters now have over 14M subscribers collectively — Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. — Chris Stanford likes to think of himself as a “news concierge.”

Todd Spangler / Variety:

BuzzFeed News partners with NPR's Audie Cornish for “Profile”, a live-recorded interview series filmed in front of an audience and broadcast on Facebook Watch — Facebook has funded BuzzFeed News' “Profile,” a weekly interview show hosted by Audie Cornish of NPR's “All Things Considered …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed and Current

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: The Guardian and @melsil

Rachel Dicker / Mediaite:

NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell deletes tweet saying Justice Anthony Kennedy had negotiated with Trump on his replacement, admits she had little evidence — NBC Capitol Hill reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell tweeted — then deleted — a claim about Justice Anthony Kennedy and President Donald Trump that got her in some hot water with the right.

Discussion: MediaPost, Jacobin, Politico, Fortune, The Daily Caller, @ddale8, @imillhiser, @jayrosen_nyu and Above the Law

The Keyword:

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 …

Discussion: The Drum, MediaPost and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

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

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 …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @hasanthehun, @repstevensmith, Associated Press, Fortune, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, WPMT FOX43, Digiday, @mantzarlis, Financial Times, Mashable, @issielapowsky, @caitlin__kelly, @kerrymflynn and @justinhendrix

Michelle Castillo / CNBC: YouTube taps six popular YouTubers to teach teens about false news and is creating a group of news advisers including Vox Media, Brazil's Jovem Pan, India Today

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

Discussion: Adweek, The Daily Caller, MediaPost, TechCrunch, MediaNama, VideoInk, Relay FM Master Feed, Variety, The Next Web, Business Insider, Engadget, The Verge and Boing Boing

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 5:25 PM ET, July 10, 2018.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:
EU's biggest TV broadcasters are combining resources to launch streaming video services in countries like UK, France, and Germany to compete against Netflix

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

Matthew Ball / @MediaREDEF:
Netflix's content spend is not reckless; its strategy to capture paid users' leisure time gives it an edge over free content platforms like Facebook and YouTube

Discussion: @justinspring3r, @ballmatthew, @sub8u, @tweettal, @kennethhite, @dkthomp and @modestproposal1

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

Discussion: @micahsingleton and New York Times

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
LAT Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine names leadership team: Scott Kraft, Kris Viesselman, and Kimi Yoshino, who was suspended briefly under Lewis D'Vorkin

Discussion: Poynter, @kyoshino, @mmaltaisla, @dhpierson, @shelbygrad and @megjameslat

Earlier Picks:

Charles V. Bagli / New York Times:
Disney is selling its West 66th Street location in Manhattan for $1.16B and is acquiring 99-year rights for land at 4 Hudson Square in a deal valued at $650M

Discussion: Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser and Bloomberg

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”

Discussion: Splinter, Mediaite, @stevesilberman, New York Times, @jonathanchait and @brianstelter

Sarah Sluis / AdExchanger:
WaPo researchers build Rhapsocord, a dynamic ad insertion tool for podcasts being tested in-house, as a step toward self-serve podcast ads or programmatic audio

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Hot Pod News and RAIN News

Antoni Slodkowski / Reuters:
Myanmar court charges two jailed Reuters journalists for violating the Official Secret Act, moving case into trial stage after 6 months of preliminary hearings

Discussion: Washington Post and Reuters

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Threads is testing AI-generated summaries of what users are discussing, in the app's Trending Now section in the US, and Search and Trending Now improvements

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page