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 …
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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
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:
MediaPost, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, MediaNama, VideoInk, Relay FM Master Feed, The Next Web, Variety, Business Insider, Engadget, The Verge and Boing Boing, 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:
The Rural Blog
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:
The Wrap, Gizmodo, @gavinpurcell, Techdirt, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, @sherman4949, Slate, BGR and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »
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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
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:
Multichannel News and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
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:
MediaPost and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »
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
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
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 …
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 …
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.
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.