Top News:
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Comcast Q2 earnings beat estimates with Sky accounting for a 23.6% YoY revenue spike; NBCU revenue fell 0.8% to $8.2B, but earnings grew 8.1% YoY to $2.3B — Comcast's second quarter earnings beat analysts estimates but total revenue came in just shy of expectations.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, AdExchanger, Reuters, The Wrap and CNBC
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Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
NBCUniversal to launch its ad-supported streaming platform in April 2020 with the same infrastructure as Sky's, will develop originals tied to its content — Comcast units are double down on the content and streaming wars as NBCUniversal plans to launch its advertising-supported streaming platform …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, MediaPost, The Streamable, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair and CNET
Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Facebook's ad library is so plagued by bugs and technical constraints that researchers say it is effectively useless to adequately track political advertising — The social network's new ad library is so flawed, researchers say, that it is effectively useless as a way to track political messaging.
Discussion:
@firefox, @edbott and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »
Michael Barthel / Pew Research Center:
Study: in 2018, US newspaper circulation reached its lowest level since 1940; digital ad revenue, which grew 23% YoY, has nearly tripled since 2011 — Every year since 2004, Pew Research Center has issued an assessment of the state of the news media, tracking key audience and economic indicators …
Discussion:
The Wrap, @pewjournalism and @dkiesow
Douglas A. McIntyre / 24/7 Wall St.:
About 2,100 newspapers have closed in the USA since 2004, almost all of which are weeklies, leaving ~7,000 still in publication, many with declining revenues — The newspaper industry has continued its relentless downward spiral, which started with the advent of the internet and accelerated during the Great Recession.
James Walker / Press Gazette:
Paul Dacre says he “bears a heavy responsibility” for the belief that journalism costs nothing because of his role in launching the free Metro and Mail Online — Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has said he blames himself for helping create a culture in which news content is given away for free.
Discussion:
Spectator
Max Read / New York Magazine:
Amazon's now-deleted tweet of a Quillette article signaled approval of its thesis: critical coverage of labor conditions will push the company to automate jobs — Like a lot of predictable liberals, I've long imagined Amazon to be a terrible place to work.
Discussion:
@amazonnews, @rmac18, @jwherrman and Mashable
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Alphabet lumps YouTube's revenue with Google's in filings, making insights hard to come by, though YouTube's annual revenue is likely $16B-$25B, topping Netflix — YouTube probably generates $16 billion to $25 billion in annual revenue, making the video service big enough to crack the top half of the Fortune 500.
Discussion:
@nytimesbusiness, @puiwingtam and @nytimesbusiness
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Parliament members weigh extending UK's Freedom of Information Act to cover private contractors performing public services — A Lib Dem peer has pledged to introduce a Private Member's Bill designed to “update and improve” the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if Boris Johnson's government fails …
Terricha Phillips / Columbia Journalism Review:
After Mississippi candidate for governor denied access to a reporter because she is a woman, other journalists say this is common on the political beat — Mississippi's Republican gubernatorial primary, just two weeks away, has been marked by a scandal over the ways female reporters are treated.
James Walker / Press Gazette:
Vice UK, which has about 50 staff, recognizes Vice UK union after four months of negotiations; a unionization attempt three years ago was rejected by management — Vice UK has recognised a National Union of Journalists' chapel representing editorial and production staff following four months of negotiations.
Discussion:
@viceukunion, @hannahrosewens and @simonchilds13
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
FTC announces a $5B fine against Facebook for repeated privacy violations as part of a settlement that requires federal oversight of its business practices — The settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook ends a 16-month probe that began after revelations of the tech giant's entanglement with Cambridge Analytica
Discussion:
@ashk4n, @chopraftc, @alexstamos, Mark Zuckerberg, MIT Technology Review, Facebook, Federal Trade Commission, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Business Insider, @chopraftc, @leakissner, Naked Security, Vox, Quartz, CNET, @aprilaser, @kimmaicutler, @alexstamos, Variety, @eff, @rashadrobinson, @pkafka, @pkafka, @reckless, @moonalice, @pkafka, @chopraftc, @kottke, @sarahfrier, @privacymatters, @mikeisaac, @joesimonsftc, @nickconfessore, @markseibel, @ashk4n, @reckless, @daviduberti, Facebook, Wired, Boing Boing, Vox and Reuters, more at Techmeme »