Mediagazer: MA prosecutors drop a criminal groping case against Kevin Spacey, saying the accuser is unavailable as a witness; civil suit was dismissed earlier this month (Dan Mangan/CNBC)

Netflix:

Netflix reports Q2 revenue of $4.9B, up 26% YoY, and total paid membership of 152M, up 22% YoY, but it added 2.7M new subs, down from 5.5M YoY; stock down 10%+ — July 17, 2019 Fellow shareholders, As expected, revenue growth accelerated 400 basis points to 26%, and operating income increased 53% year over year in Q2.

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Netflix says it plans to launch a cheaper mobile-only streaming plan starting in India in Q3 — It'll be cheaper than Netflix's current plans that allow streaming on a TV — After giving it a test run in a few countries earlier this year, Netflix has confirmed it will officially introduce …

more at Techmeme »

Kerry Flynn / Digiday:

Twitter releases LiveCut, a tool to help publishers make, monetize, and share video clips of live broadcasts, similar to SnappyTV, which Twitter bought in 2014 — Twitter has a new tool to help publishers make more Twitter videos. — LiveCut lets publishers make, monetize and share video clips of live broadcasts through Twitter.

Discussion: @kerrymflynn and @mattnavarra

Kevin Roose / New York Times:

Reflecting on VidCon, it's clear that influencers' command of social media foreshadows future power in politics and elsewhere — As social media expands its cultural dominance, the people who can steer the online conversation will have an upper hand. — ANAHEIM, Calif. …

Discussion: @nytimesbusiness, @joshspero, @nytimesbusiness and @kevinroose, more at Techmeme »

Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:

US sports site The Athletic poaches Daniel Taylor from The Guardian and David Ornstein from the BBC, continuing its UK football journalism talent hiring spree — “It's a journalist transfer window.” — A US sports website that wants to dominate the British football market has made a series …

Discussion: Prolific North, @buzzfeeduk, Spectator, @markdistef, @mikelizun, @alexwickham, @markdistef and @chrislepkowski

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Sony unites its recorded-music operation, Sony Music Entertainment, and its publishing company, Sony/ATV, under Sony Music Group led by SME chief Rob Stringer — Sony has created Sony Music Group, an umbrella for both its recorded-music operation — Sony Music Entertainment …

Discussion: Billboard and RAIN News

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

Former Bloomberg Media CRO Keith Grossman joins Time as president, reporting to Time editor in chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal — Exclusive: The former Bloomberg Media CRO also spent 5 months at Engine — Time, the nearly 100-year-old brand, is getting a new president.

Discussion: MediaPost

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Facebook Journalism Project announces 22 projects receiving grants between $5,000 and $25,000 to fund community-building proposals over the next six months — In its latest quest to build community, Facebook is trying to develop a meta-community for local news publishers to then, you know, build that community.

Discussion: @amzam, @donnawares, @dorrine, @media_outlier, @sltrib, @dorrine and @mathewi

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

MA prosecutors drop a criminal groping case against Kevin Spacey, saying the accuser is unavailable as a witness; civil suit was dismissed earlier this month — KEY POINTS — Prosecutors in Masschusetts on Wednesday dropped a criminal groping case against actor Kevin Spacey …

Discussion: New York Times, Vanity Fair, CNN and @gabrielsnyder

Melynda Fuller / MediaPost:

NowThis is launching a newsletter called KnowThis, its first written product, summarizing the day's top news five nights per week — NowThis is launching a newsletter called KnowThis,slated to land in subscribers inboxes five nights a week. — The site approached the idea of a daily newsletter based …

Max Willens / Digiday:

Bloomberg launches Work Wise, a newsletter with work and career content, after noticing 48% of traffic to its company pages came from people under the age of 34 — Shortly after Julia Beizer joined Bloomberg Media as chief product officer last year, she had a conversation with David Harding …

Discussion: @juliabeizer and Bloomberg Media

Sara Guaglione / MediaPost:

Group Nine's animal-focused publisher The Dodo debuts a children's vertical called Dodo Kids, with a brand-safe YouTube channel — The Dodo, a digital publisher owned by Group Nine that focuses on animal content, launched a new vertical called Dodo Kids. — The division will produce kid …

Discussion: Axios, @benjlerer and Tubefilter

Sarah Jones / New York Magazine:

Some staffers wrote First Look Media's board in protest after Topic Magazine's closing and The Nib's de-funding, amid rumors First Look bought Passionflix.com — Employees are worried that one of the nation's largest and most prominent left-of-center media companies, First Look Media, has lost its way.

Discussion: Business Insider, @davidsrudin, @charliearchy, @jlichman, @irin, @tomgara, @tomtomorrow, @86_rsk, @mikkipedia, @felixgillette and @petersterne