Top News:
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix signs multi-year film and TV deal with Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss; sources say the deal is worth $200M — David Benioff and Dan Weiss have signed a multiple-year film and TV pact with the streamer, which was bidding for the duo's services alongside Disney and Amazon.
Discussion:
Deadline, Business Insider, The Wrap, @snoodit, Slate, CNET, @hello_tailor, Engadget, @kaludiasays, @benttravers, The A.V. Club, @charlespulliam, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, Collider, Mashable, The Verge, TVWeek.com, Consequence of Sound, The Independent, BGR, Variety, /Film, NME, The Wrap and UPI, more at Techmeme »
USA Today:
USA TODAY office in McLean, VA was evacuated after police responded to what they say was a mistaken report of a man with a weapon — WASHINGTON — USA TODAY's headquarters in McLean, Virginia was evacuated Wednesday amid a heavy police presence to what authorities said turned …
Discussion:
@fairfaxcountypd, @fairfaxcountypd, @annecutler, @carenbohan, Mediaite, @alexptachick, @taylormaycan, @maxwelltani, @alexptachick, @abc7news, @meaghang, @emdrums, @brianstelter, @mikevwusa, ABC13, Deadline, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, fox5sandiego.com, The Independent, Variety, Talking Points Memo, NBC Chicago, Arizona Republic, WUSA, Politico, Fortune and NBC News
Nicholas Jackson / @nbj914:
Pacific Standard EIC says its board is shutting down the publication from next Friday after its primary funder cut off funding — Today is an extremely difficult day, the worst day—and I'm heart-broken and devastated. We learned this morning, without any warning, that our primary funder is cutting off all charitable giving and that our board is shutting down @PacificStand, effective next Friday.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Los Angeles Times, The Week, @ohkayewhatever, @jameshamblin, @saralibby, @lydiadepillis, @dylanmatt, @isabelaalhadeff, @sophiekasakove, @annehelen, @chrislhayes, @felixsalmon, @jennygzhang, @ryanj899, @thrasherxy, @strangerworks, @ianhurley77, @nycsouthpaw, @jamiattenberg, @samaugustdean, @jamilsmith, @felipedlh, @emilyctamkin, @chick_in_kiev, @rmc031 and The Wrap
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Viacom's Q3 revenue rose 4% YoY to $3.36B with ad revenue at its cable networks unit up 6% YoY, returning to US advertising growth for the first time since 2014 — The company, which is led by CEO Bob Bakish and has been in talks with CBS Corp. about a recombination, returned to domestic ad growth …
Discussion:
Variety, @richattbd and Viacom
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
CBS and AT&T strike a new carriage deal, ending a prolonged blackout of CBS programming — CBS and AT&T came to new terms on carriage of CBS stations on the telecommunications giant's DirecTV satellite service, ending a prolonged blackout of CBS programming. More to come......
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter and @benmullin
Marc Tracy / New York Times:
New York Times reaches a high of 4.7M total subscribers in Q2, with nearly 3.8M subscribers to digital products; digital-only subscription revenue grew 14% YoY — As digital revenue becomes more central to the newspaper business — and with a small boost from the launch of “The Weekly,” …
Discussion:
Business Wire, @raju, @nickconfessore, @nytimesbusiness, @elanazak, @martyswant, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Benzinga and Zacks Investment Research
RELATED:
Jack Shafer / Politico:
By expecting the New York Times to be the paper of resistance, something it has vowed to never be, liberals are positioned for perpetual disenchantment
By expecting the New York Times to be the paper of resistance, something it has vowed to never be, liberals are positioned for perpetual disenchantment
Discussion:
@politicomag, @owillis, @martinsfp, @betoorourke, @jayrosen_nyu and The Guardian
Gabriel Snyder / Columbia Journalism Review:
Dean Baquet acknowledges some subscribers expect The NYT to take an adversarial role against Trump, doesn't see this moment in history as particularly aberrant
Dean Baquet acknowledges some subscribers expect The NYT to take an adversarial role against Trump, doesn't see this moment in history as particularly aberrant
Discussion:
The Atlantic, @realdonaldtrump, @natesilver538, @ddale8, The Guardian, @realdonaldtrump, @jayrosen_nyu, @imillhiser, MediaFile, Digiday, @lizzieohreally, @bvivian14, @rynk, @neeratanden, @espiegler, @brianbeutler, @will_bunch, @timkarr, @moorehn, @maggienyt, Mother Jones, @marty_lederman, @mattzeitlin, New York Post, Ad Age, @jamesfallows, @hirschorn, @moorehn, Politico, @jbenton, The Daily Caller, @dloehr, @stuartetc, @dominicumile, @meredithshiner, @djkgamc, Talking Points Memo, @maryschmich, @topherspiro, @charlesarthur, @hbryant42, @gina_cole_, @neeratanden, The Wrap, @blogpalmsprings, @opus163, @froomkin, Vanity Fair, @danablankenhorn, @p_jeanne97, @mattyglesias, @nickmizaur, @lorig, @espiers, @jeffjarvis, @brianmc_fadden, @presswiz, @simonhoupt, @freemaneric, @ashleyfeinberg, @danmeisler and @amlwhere
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Roku reports Q2 revenue of $250.1M, up 59% YoY, loss of $10.4M, up from $0.1M a year ago, and $167.7M in platform revenue, up 86% YoY; stock up 10%+ after hours — Roku is now being used by 30.5 million households every month, and those users are a big reason the company grew revenues …
Discussion:
Multichannel News, Roku, VentureBeat, @ophirgottlieb, Fortune and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Researchers studying disinformation in the Philippines and countermeasures by Facebook and YouTube say little has improved since 2016, a red flag for elsewhere — Disinformation campaigns in the Philippines ahead of its 2016 election offered a preview of things to come to the United States.
Discussion:
@craigsilverman, @miriamelder and @momblogger, more at Techmeme »
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Federal judge rules that Ed Butowsky's libel suit against NPR for revealing his role in funding an investigation into the death of Seth Rich can go forward — A federal judge has rejected National Public Radio's bid to dismiss a Texas investment adviser's libel suit over news reports …
Discussion:
@justinhendrix, @gabrielmalor, @bmaz, @packerpoppa, @organizingpower, The Hill, @joshgerstein and @profcarroll
Stewart Clarke / Variety:
Ofcom: streaming services' subscriptions for Q1 in UK: Netflix posts the largest gains, up 26% YoY to 11.5M, Amazon Prime trails with 6M but is up 23% YoY — Almost half of all U.K. homes now take one of the major subscription streaming services, with Netflix at the front of the pack …
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
How Piano created a “propensity” paywall that uses machine learning with 76 metrics to predict how likely someone is to subscribe, and adjusts accordingly — They went from being the kid nobody wanted to talk with to one of the cool kids on the block. (Apparently showing the other kids how to make money helps.)
Discussion:
@hilmarschmundt, @roeiwrites, @iethics, @nisalahe, @kenherts, @niemanlab and @niemanlab, more at Techmeme »
Governing:
Governing magazine, owned by e.Republic, will cease print publication after September and will ramp down its web presence over the next few months — After 32 years, the magazine of record for state and local government will discontinue operations. — Governing magazine has told important stories for over three decades.
Discussion:
@daviduberti, @mattiekquinn, @conawayhaskins, @loujacobson, @bcburden and @myhlee
Alexandria Neason / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with three music journalists about how R. Kelly's story was handled by the media before Surviving R. Kelly, and the challenges it posed for the Black press — For decades, journalists ignored allegations of abuse — Evidence has been accumulating against R. Kelly for decades.
Discussion:
@cjr, @cjr and @cheriehu42