Mediagazer: ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok and newsfeed app Toutiao, has doubled its headcount to ~40,000 in one year and now operates more than 20 apps (Yunan Zhang/The Information)

Top News:

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

Modifying metadata to highlight publication dates, like the Guardian is doing, is one of several ways of better contextualizing articles shared on social media — This is a great idea: In order to reduce the number of its old stories that get recirculated as new, The Guardian is making …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @klasfeldreports, @niemanlab, @kathviner, @equartey, @chrismoranuk, @jbenton and Press Gazette

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Interview with Susan Smith Richardson, new CEO of the Center for Public Integrity, on increasing representation, using databases to connect trends, and more — Thirty years after it was founded, the D.C.-based investigative nonprofit Center for Public Integrity operates in a very different news environment …

Discussion: Center for Public Integrity, Columbia Journalism Review, @dabeard, @jenny8lee and @publici

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Conde Nast names Roger Lynch its first global CEO; Lynch was president and CEO of Pandora prior to its acquisition by Sirius XM — Roger Lynch has been named Condé Nast's first global CEO, with the former Pandora and Dish Network exec stepping into the role April 22.

Discussion: New York Times, Recode, @pkafka, WWD, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, Broadcasting & Cable, Adweek, Folio, @katierosman, MediaPost and WWD

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Snap emphasizes that its approach to privacy is different than others as it adds integrations like sharing buttons, with The Washington Post as a launch partner — Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wants to have it both ways: Keep Snapchat insulated from the darker sides of the internet, and also open it up to some of the rest of the web.

Discussion: Digiday, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Recode, Fast Company, The Wrap, Bloomberg and @lucas_shaw, more at Techmeme »

Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Snap announces plans for the Snap Audience Network, which would sell vertical video ads on others' ad inventory, taking a percentage of revenue

Discussion: The Verge, Adweek, Variety and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »

Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Snap announces 10 new original shows from Indigo Development, a joint venture of Snap and NBCUniversal, BuzzFeed, New Form, and others

Discussion: Adweek and Engadget

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announce a divorce settlement that will leave him with 75% of their Amazon stock and their full stake in The Washington Post — In a tweet Thursday, MacKenzie Bezos said that her divorce from Jeff Bezos was finalized and that she would give her ex-husband voting control of her Amazon shares.

Discussion: @mackenziebezos, Fast Company, TechCrunch, CNBC, @jackshafer, @sdkstl, @ebboyd, @eriqgardner, @pkcapitol, @edmundlee, @yashar and @edmundlee, more at Techmeme »

Paul Karp / The Guardian:

Australia passes law penalizing content service providers and hosting services for failing to quickly remove abhorrent violent content, despite tech opposition — Labor supports legislation in response to Christchurch shooting that threatens jail for executives, despite media companies' concerns

Discussion: The Wrap, @donie, New York Times, Facebook, ZDNet, iTnews, ARN, Mumbrella, aph.gov.au, Boing Boing, NPR, @baekdal, Engadget, MIT Technology Review and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

The Guardian:

Facebook will try to prevent political ad buys by non-Australians ahead of elections and won't roll out other transparency features like Ad Library until later — Facebook will not be rolling out transparency features it introduced in the UK, US, EU, India, Israel and Ukraine

Discussion: @nickevershed

Jack Crosbie / Splinter:

The BuzzFeed union accuses the company of union-busting as recognition drags; the company only wants to recognize specific titles, not the newsroom as a whole — I don't know where he was today. It's a Wednesday, so I'm assuming he was at work, or doing work somewhere.

Discussion: @maxwelltani, TechCrunch, Fast Company, The Daily Beast, @nycmayor, The Wrap, @bfnewsunion, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, @espiers, @yashar, @mattdpearce, @haymarketbooks, @kfile and @daveyalba

New York Times:

iHeartMedia files for an IPO, whose sale proceeds it would use to pay its debts, as it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy — Is there room for radio in the age of Spotify? — That is the question underlying a securities filing on Wednesday by the broadcast giant iHeartRadio for what it says could be an initial public offering.

Discussion: NBC News, Reuters, @maradavis, Billboard, Talking Biz News, Forbes, Variety and RAIN News

The Guardian:

Leaked UK government plans propose that social media companies be policed by an independent regulator, with annual “transparency reports” on harmful content — Exclusive: Long-awaited white paper proposes regulator to enforce duty of care and fine offenders

Discussion: Adweek, Variety, HBR.org and Real Clear Politics, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

SiriusXM and Pandora announce Pandora NOW, a station that streams on both services, spanning genres and letting users influence which songs get played — More changes are coming to Pandora, following the $3.5 billion acquisition by SiriusXM last year. The company today launched …

Discussion: Variety and RAIN News

Yunan Zhang / The Information:

ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok and newsfeed app Toutiao, has doubled its headcount to ~40,000 in one year and now operates more than 20 apps — To grow fast in China, apparently, you've also got to get big. — ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok …

more at Techmeme »