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.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

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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:

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Tech stocks fall in late trading after President Trump announced new tariffs: Amazon drops as much as ~6%, Meta ~5%, Nvidia ~6%, Alphabet ~3%, and Microsoft ~3%

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo shares Switch 2 details: a 7.9", 120fps, 1080p display, 4K at 60fps when docked, a custom Nvidia processor, 256GB of storage, and a new Pro Controller

New York Times:
Sources: Amazon has put in a bid to acquire all of TikTok, but various parties involved do not appear to be taking it seriously, ahead of the April 5 deadline

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