Mediagazer: G/O employees discuss Jim Spanfeller's dubious hiring practices, apparent disregard for C-suite diversity, micromanagement, and editorial interference (Laura Wagner/Deadspin)

6:35 PM ET, August 2, 2019

Top News:

Laura Wagner / Deadspin:

G/O employees discuss Jim Spanfeller's dubious hiring practices, apparent disregard for C-suite diversity, micromanagement, and editorial interference — When Jim Spanfeller and a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners took over G/O Media—formerly Gizmodo Media Group—in April …

Discussion: Mediaite, @austintylerro, @grahamstarr, @jonbernhardt, @rklein90, @erinbiba, @reasonablysober, @daciampaglia, @jamilahlemieux, @sokane1, @fmanjoo, @ryanlcooper, @alishagrauso, @bendwalsh, @bendwalsh and @grahamstarr

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Facebook says its local news subscription initiative has led to tens of thousands of new digital subscriptions and about $5M in value at 14 participating papers — It's been more than a year since Facebook announced that it would be funding a Local News Subscriptions Accelerator.

Discussion: @kenherts, @mathewi, @espiers and facebookjournalismproject.com

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: CBS and Viacom reach working agreement; CBS acting chief Joe Ianniello to oversee CBS's branded assets, Bob Bakish to become CEO of combined company — Working agreement calls for CBS acting chief Joe Ianniello to oversee all of CBS's branded assets and for Viacom boss Bob Bakish to become CEO

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, Broadcasting & Cable and The Wrap

AAJA Voices:

Survey of 70 respondents from seven top news orgs shows 65% of interns attended most selective four-year colleges; NYT, WaPo, WSJ recruited from top 1% — Two out of three summer interns from seven top newsrooms came from among the most selective colleges in America, our analysis shows.

Discussion: @ayoonhendricks, @nahaltoosi, @suhaunah, @sarahparvini, @thebeenster, @lshontz, @bcrodriguez and @nathanblawrence

Elaine Low / Variety:

CBS says CBS All Access and Showtime OTT together have 8M subscribers, plans to reach 25M by 2022; CBS All Access will offer at least 12 original shows in 2020 — CBS All Access is ramping up its offerings to at least 12 original series in 2020, said streaming service execs …

Discussion: MediaPost, Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, /Film and The Verge

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, Nieman Lab, The Wrap, @pewresearch, @niemanlab, @pewresearch, @moorehn and MediaPost

Colin Dixon / nScreenMedia:

Parks Associates: 39% of US broadband homes own a streaming media player, up 1% since 2018; Roku and Amazon Fire TV own 39% and 30% of the market, respectively — New research data shows that streaming media player growth is flattening. However, the number of connected TV homes continues to grow strongly, thanks to smart TV.

Discussion: MediaPost

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Inside Pennsylvania PBS39's nightly solutions-focused newscast, launched ~11 months ago after the station received $82M from spectrum sale — “It wasn't, like, 'bam bam soundbite soundbite you're done.'” — This was a serious case of lemons and (potentially) lemonade.

Discussion: @frankwords and @mccanntha

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Vimeo launches Vimeo Enterprise, a tool to allow companies to host, share, and manage video content internally, as it continues its pivot away from content — Vimeo, the 14-year-old video service that started as a platform for indie filmmakers, is launching Vimeo Enterprise …

Discussion: Advanced Television, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Turkey's TV and radio watchdog granted oversight of online content, including streamers and online news outlets; providers must now get broadcasting licenses — ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey on Thursday granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content …

Discussion: Middle East Eye

David Shepardson / Reuters:

FCC votes to tighten rules governing franchise fees paid by cable companies to local authorities, which could lead to public access channels going off the air — The U.S. Federal Communications Commision (FCC) on Thursday voted 3-2 to tighten rules governing the franchise fees paid …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

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 …

Discussion: 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: Vox, @maureenlinke, @moorehn, @blackwomenviews, @reasonvsfear, @amandacarpenter and CNN

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

Discussion: Associated Press, @jayrosen_nyu, @elaheizadi, Media Matters for America, @heathermallick, @brfreed, Breitbart, Variety, The Week, Broadcasting & Cable and Slate

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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

Discussion: American Press Institute, @alexkoppelman, @alexbreitler, @annehelen, @reidepstein and USA Today

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

Discussion: 9to5Google

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

Discussion: @alex_danco, @gilbert and @mcwm

New York Times:
Four initiatives reimagine local news: journalism as service, focus on schools and education, news via text message, and philanthropy

Discussion: @rispolimike, @niemanlab, @nwatzman and @lasharah

Earlier Picks:

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

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”

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @verambergen and Breitbart

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
The LAT's disappointing digital subscriber numbers attest to the importance of subscriber retention, which the paper should invest in like the NYT has

Discussion: @raju, @bensprecher, Poynter, 89.3 KPCC, CNN, American Press Institute, @vivian, @raju, @mattdpearce, @balajis, @jayrosen_nyu, 24/7 Wall St., @davewiner, @xor, @samanthamatsu, @jbenton and @emilyweinstein

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, the first time in 50+ years that the FTC has issued a regulation mandating an economy-wide change

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta rolls out multimodal AI in early access for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, mainly to help identify objects, translate signs, and write Instagram captions

Ming-Chi Kuo:
Sources: Apple cut 2024 Vision Pro shipments to 400K-450K units, vs. a 700K+ market consensus, and US demand has “fallen sharply beyond expectations”

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