Top News:
Elizabeth Williamson / New York Times:
Plaintiffs in Sandy Hook defamation suits claim Alex Jones illegally deleted content considered evidence; staff deleted material after Twitter policy violation — WASHINGTON — Lawyers for the families of two Sandy Hook shooting victims are accusing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones …
Discussion:
Rolling Stone, The Hill, sandiegouniontribune.com, The Wrap, The Splice Newsroom Archive, Motherboard, New York Post and Blog Network
Bloomberg:
Source: Amazon is working on a DVR that will record live TV, wirelessly connect to Fire TV boxes, and stream the video to smartphones — - Box would record live TV and stream that video to smartphones — Device competes with offerings from TiVo, Dish's Slingbox
Jaclyn Reiss / The Boston Globe:
The US Senate passes a resolution by unanimous voice vote affirming the media “is not the enemy of the people” and condemning attacks on the free press — The US Senate on Thursday passed a resolution by unanimous consent affirming that the media “is not the enemy of the people.”
Discussion:
European Federation …, Global Investigative …, CBS News, Poynter, CBS Los Angeles, TucsonSentinel.com and Fortune
RELATED:
The Guardian:
Malaysia has repealed its “fake news” law; deputy minister says police will instead be empowered to deal with the phenomenon — Critics say legislation was deployed during Najib Razak's time in office to silence criticism — Malaysia has repealed its “fake news” law …
Christopher Barca / Queens Chronicle:
Ocasio-Cortez campaign says she was “mobbed” by reporters at a Bronx community meeting, leading to a press ban for two listening tour stops — Media was barred after reporters ‘mobbed’ her at an earlier event — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Monday that stops on her …
Discussion:
Washington Post, @ocasio2018, @seungminkim, @seungminkim, Fox News, Hit & Run, The Week, New York Post, The Hill, ABC News, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Heavy.com
Ian Burrell / The Drum:
How The Sun climbed above the Mail Online's digital reach, registering 29.7M UK users in June vs. Mail Online's 28.3M, despite earlier paywall missteps — It is exactly five years since Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper stable made its audacious - and we can now say almost calamitous - move to put The Sun behind a digital paywall.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Viacom lays off more than 30 Awesomeness employees following last month's acquisition; Awesomeness CEO Jordan Levin has left the company — As expected, Viacom has made a round of layoffs at Awesomeness, pink-slipping more than 30 employees of the digital-media company it acquired last month from NBCUniversal, Verizon and Hearst.
Discussion:
VideoInk, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, Tubefilter and Deadline
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
comScore: pure play streaming services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now reach 5% of US Wi-Fi households, up 58% since last year — The number of U.S. households watching streaming TV services - those that deliver cable TV-like programming over the internet - has grown a remarkable 58% over last year, according to new data from comScore.
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Aditi Sangal / Digiday:
The Seattle Times has attracted 36K digital subscribers since starting a metered paywall in 2013, uses its 183K newsletter readers to drive subscriptions — While The New York Times and The Washington Post crow about attracting big digital subscriber numbers, the sledding is tougher for local newspapers.
Discussion:
@jbenton and What's New in Publishing
Rob Arcand / The Outline:
PEOPLE, a free to listeners, non-commercial audio publishing platform focused on musician collaboration and works-in-progress, to launch on August 18 — PEOPLE, their new streaming platform that prioritizes collaboration and de-emphasizes the algorithm, launches this weekend.
Discussion:
Billboard, Music Business Worldwide and RAIN News
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Globe & Mail to launch C$999/year subscription newsletter on cannabis, hire at least five journalists for the beat, invest in major live events to demystify it — When life gives you nationwide legalization of recreational cannabis, you make high-priced subscription products covering the industry.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News and @someday_deane
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Amazon plans an ad campaign in the US, UK, and Germany to boost its music streaming service — - Music has become one of the most popular requests for Alexa — Amazon is turning up the volume in the music business. — The world's largest online retailer will mount the first national TV campaign …
Discussion:
VentureBeat and @lucas_shaw