Mediagazer: Hearst is building Hearst Audience Select, a self-serve ad platform for small brands to advertise across Hearst properties, to launch in time for Q4 (Sarah Sluis/AdExchanger)

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Pew: 27% of papers with Sunday circulations of ~50K+ faced layoffs in 2018 vs. 32% in 2017; 14% of digital media sites laid off staff in 2018 vs. 20% in 2017 — If you work at a U.S. newspaper and didn't have layoffs in the last two years, consider yourself lucky.

Discussion: Pew Research Center, @moorehn, @pewresearch, @pewresearch and MediaPost

Wall Street Journal:

Data shows hundreds of possible bot social media accounts promoted misinformation and content on race during recent Democratic presidential debates — Data shows suspicious social-media accounts targeted Kamala Harris, including with conspiracy theories, during both Democratic gatherings

Discussion: @blackwomenviews, @reasonvsfear and @amandacarpenter

Hank Stuever / Washington Post:

CNN's overproduced, conflict-obsessed debates were full of cable-news alarmism and resembled prime-time game shows and reality TV, rather than democratic debate — Lately there's a strange caution in the air about the intellectual pitfalls of comparing American politics to the performing arts — or worse, to showbiz.

Discussion: Variety, Breitbart, @brfreed, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline and Mediaite

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
CNN's first debate, featuring divisive questions, frustratingly short response times, and outsize attention to fringe candidates, was a lost opportunity

Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:

Facebook details its first takedown of inauthentic accounts linked to the Saudi government, alongside a separate takedown of accounts linked to UAE and Egypt — Washington (CNN Business)Facebook said Thursday it had found evidence of something cyber security and national security experts …

Discussion: Facebook, Reuters, MediaNama, @jamesrbuk, The Daily Beast, @jackshafer, CNET, Mashable and Adweek, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Four initiatives reimagine local news: journalism as service, focus on schools and education, news via text message, and philanthropy — What happens when the presses stop rolling? Who will tell the stories of touchdowns scored, heroes honored and neighbors lost?

Discussion: @lasharah and @nwatzman

Ben Paynter / Fast Company:

How The Daily Show covered the first Democratic debate live on social media, making memes and jokes that helped it beat other late-night shows in engagement — At 7:30 p.m., roughly a dozen comedy writers and digital producers gathered around a large rectangular wooden table inside …

MIX / The Next Web:

Sensor Tower: YouTube remains world's top-grossing video app, generating $138M in user spending in Q2 2019, up 220% YoY; US users generated ~70% of this revenue — Google must be happy. YouTube is the world's top-grossing app in the photo and video software category for a second quarter in a row.

Discussion: 9to5Google and Sensor Tower Blog, more at Techmeme »

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

Print generated $25B+ in revenue in 2018; its steady cash flow attracts investors who realize that lowering overhead reduces costs at a faster rate than revenue — Hedge funds have found that they are able to wring profits out of an ailing product: the print newspaper. But for how long?

The Guardian:

Mexico's El Monitor de Parral to temporarily halt print edition after bombing; digital edition will not publish crime stories or news with a “political slant” — El Monitor de Parral said it will continue its digital edition, but will not cover any crime stories or news with a ‘political slant’

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @verambergen and Breitbart

Sarah Sluis / AdExchanger:

Hearst is building Hearst Audience Select, a self-serve ad platform for small brands to advertise across Hearst properties, to launch in time for Q4 — Hearst is building a self-serve ad platform so advertisers can overlay their audience data against Hearst's to reach readers across sites like Cosmopolitan …

Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:

Holloway, which publishes in-depth guides about running a startup, raises $4.6M in seed funding from The New York Times, NEA, Lightspeed, and others — Founders need to get smart quickly about the many nuanced aspects of building a company, from understanding weird language in a big term sheet to hiring a key software developer.

more at Techmeme »

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

YouTube has significantly changed its algorithm to boost what it deems “quality” children's videos following FTC probe into its use of personal data from minors — A software update that came in July, without explanation, was designed to promote “quality” children's videos

Discussion: Digiday, @mhbergen, @lucas_shaw, Tubefilter, Business Insider, The Verge and CNET, more at Techmeme »