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
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.
