Mediagazer: Vox Media Union workers walked out for an hour to push for a contract with management; hiring has moved toward part-time and contract jobs since staff unionized (Joshua Benton/Nieman Lab)

4:10 PM ET, May 29, 2019

Top News:

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Google's Digital News Initiative is expanding its funding to North America, opening application for an “innovation challenge” offering projects up to $300K — Projects, which should be related to local news or revenue generation, can receive up to $300,000 in funding.

Discussion: The Keyword, @peggyktc and @googlenewsinit, more at Techmeme »

Evan Sernoffsky / San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco police obtained search warrants targeting journalist Bryan Carmody's phone records before their raid on his home and office — San Francisco police executed seven search warrants as they tried to find out who leaked a police report to a freelance journalist …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @freedomofpress, @poynter, @trevortimm, @juliacarriew, @trevortimm, @jon_allsop, @brooklynmarie, sfpoa.org, Techdirt, Editor & Publisher, Chicago Sun-Times, Reason and Freedom of the Press …

VICE:

Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde says the company is looking into how white nationalists and supremacists use the platform to determine if they should be banned — “Is it the right approach to deplatform these individuals? Is the right approach to try and engage with these individuals?

Discussion: @oneunderscore__, @monteiro, @angryblacklady, @josephfcox, @oneunderscore__, @oneunderscore__, @kantrowitz, @crislopezg, @oneunderscore__ and @hshaban, more at Techmeme »

Alex Johnson / NBC News:

NBC officially launches NBC News Now, a free streaming news service with 8 hours of programming every weekday, expects to have it running 24/7 by 2020 — The service, which doesn't require cable service authentication, is intended to go round the clock by next year.

Discussion: MediaPost, TVNewser, Latest Streaming & …, Axios, Engadget, Variety and @rolandsmartin

Aaron Kirchfeld / Bloomberg:

KKR is in talks with the founding family of Axel Springer SE, publisher of Bild, about a potential bid to take the publisher private — - Offer from family, buyout firm could be made in coming weeks — KKR & Co. is in talks with Axel Springer SE's founding family about a potential bid …

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

Vox Media Union workers walked out for an hour to push for a contract with management; hiring has moved toward part-time and contract jobs since staff unionized — Many editorial and video employees at Vox Media are, at this hour, finishing up a walkout to protest their employer's stance …

Discussion: Thinknum Media, @sarahannelloyd, @dlind, @andyjayhawk, @sokane1, @vox_union and @jbenton

David Uberti / VICE News:

Researchers say Facebook has weakened or disabled tools they use to track political ads and content on the platform, just as 2020 campaigns ramp up ad spending — The Iowa caucuses are still eight months away, but the Facebook primary has already begun. — President Donald Trump has poured …

Discussion: @vicenews, @daviduberti, @fabiochiusi, @daviduberti, @eff, @ghoshd7, @jason_kint, @digiphile and @daviduberti, more at Techmeme »

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:

Kik and Facebook, which are building their own blockchain tech, could finally make micropayments to access single articles behind paywalls a reality — It's a problem that's long flummoxed media outlets, and also one that's increasingly frustrating consumers: The inability to pay a small sum …

Axios:

An analysis of Time magazine since 1923 shows 428 covers featured only women, 3,199 featured only men, 230 covers featured both, and 682 covers featured neither — 2019 is on pace to have the highest percentage of Time covers featuring only women in the magazine's nearly 100-year history.

Discussion: @sarafischer, @raju and @verambergen

Amy X. Wang / Rolling Stone:

A look at the effects of cheap music marketplaces and sampling on copyright after the rise of Lil Nas X, who bought Old Town Road's beat for $30 on BeatStars — Inside the new world of cheap music marketplaces that has the music industry scrambling — No one saw Lil Nas X coming.

Discussion: @rollingstone and @amyxwang

Matthew Wall / BBC:

Since GDPR, Ireland's Data Protection Commission says it has launched 19 cross-border investigations, 11 of which focus on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram — Social media giant Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp have been the subject of most data investigations in the Republic …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Ius Laboris The Word, @niemanlab, @jason_kint, MediaPost, Fortune and Axios

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Meredith has sold the Sports Illustrated IP rights to Authentic Brands for $110M, will pay a licensing fee to run editorial operations for at least two years — Sports Illustrated over the decades has chronicled stellar match-ups, blow-outs, squeakers, sudden deaths and photo finishes.

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's The Times and Sunday Times say the number of subscription cancellations fell by 49% among users receiving AI-created tailored email newsletters — Digital subscriber cancellations at the Times and Sunday Times fell by half during a trial of new artificial intelligence software …