Mediagazer: GroupM forms New Majority Ready Coalition with media and tech companies, excluding Facebook, to help brands adapt to US's changing demographics in advertising (Katie Deighton/The Drum)

5:50 PM ET, September 19, 2019

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Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:

Google is investing “several million dollars” in Project Neon, a three-year partnership with UK news publisher Archant, which will launch three local news sites — Google is investing “several million dollars” into a joint venture with a British local news publisher …

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Omar Sanchez / The Wrap:

Acorn TV, AMC's British film and TV show streaming service, has passed 1M subscribers in Canada and the US — Acorn TV, AMC's streaming service featuring British film and television programs, has passed one million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, the network has announced, calling it a …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline and The Streamable

David Cohen / Adweek:

Nielsen Social Content Ratings, which measure talent's promotion of TV shows on social media, now include Instagram in addition to Twitter and Facebook — Facebook and Twitter were already being tracked — The Nielsen Social Content Ratings now measure talent's promotion …

Discussion: Variety, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, Tubefilter and The Wrap

Katie Deighton / The Drum:

GroupM forms New Majority Ready Coalition with media and tech companies, excluding Facebook, to help brands adapt to US's changing demographics in advertising — The biggest players in US media - Facebook excluded - have formed a cross-industry coalition to better understand multicultural audiences …

Discussion: Adweek, MediaPost and Multichannel News

Marcela Kunova / Journalism.co.uk:

BBC tests a browser extension that blurs out text, images, and headlines of articles based on personalized trigger words that can prompt anxiety in readers — As one third of audience switches off from news, the public broadcaster is testing a tool that would allow readers to blur out stories that may impact their mental health

Discussion: Ad Age

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube to tighten creator verification in October, focusing on channels with a need for proof of authenticity and clarifying verification isn't an endorsement — YouTube's verification program is getting a massive overhaul, the company announced today, which will likely result in a number …

Discussion: Variety, Business Insider, @thetomska, @spiritawakennet, @joshscorcher, @rabbidluigi, @nathantbernard, YouTube Creator Blog, CNET, 9to5Google, @sarahintampa, The Verge, @caseyhall_ and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Roku OS 9.2 will feature Roku Zones, which aggregate content from particular genres, sorting it according to whether it's free, available for rental or purchase — The Ultra's remote can open whatever app you want with a single button press — Roku is unveiling its fall 2019 lineup …

Discussion: Roku Online Newsroom, Variety, TechCrunch, Multichannel News and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »

Timothy Libert / New York Times:

Study: news sites typically rely more on outside companies for advertising than non-news sites, promoting web tracking, more so in the US than in the EU — The same news organizations that do a great job of reporting on privacy problems — have privacy problems.

Seth Hettena / New Republic:

A look at The Epoch Times, a Chinese newspaper published in 35 nations and 21 languages, which won over fans in the far-right by pushing conspiracy theories — In 2017, Stefanie Albrecht, an investigative reporter for German broadcaster RTL, was in the midst of what would become …

Discussion: theepochtimes.com

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Hearst Television says its stations will sell ads based on audience impressions instead of ratings, a method NBCU/Telemundo local stations are using as well — Hearst Television said its stations will begin selling TV ads based on audience impressions, a shift away from traditional ratings.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Survey of nonprofit outlets: foundations supplied under 50% of funding for the first time on record in 2018, as earned income and individual giving increases — “Nonprofit news organizations have much in common even if their scope or mission differs. Their journalistic missions …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @jcstearns, Talking Biz News, @wburbizlab and @spj_tweets

Hilary Russ / Reuters:

DAZN reaches distribution deal with Comcast, its first in North America; Xfinity Flex box users will have access to DAZN starting today — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media and communications giant Comcast Corp has struck a distribution deal with digital global sports provider DAZN Group …

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Comcast will give internet-only customers free access to Xfinity Flex, its streaming platform with 10K+ movies and shows, which used to cost $5 per month

Discussion: Associated Press, Multichannel News, @xpangler, The Verge, corporate.comcast.com, The Wrap, Deadline, TechRadar.com, Fast Company, Engadget, Deadline, The Streamable, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Tumblr and WordPress.com parent company Automattic raises $300M Series D from Salesforce Ventures at a post-money valuation of $3B — Automattic, the company best known for WordPress.com and its contributions to the open source, non-hosted WordPress alternative, has raised $300 million …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Matt Mullenweg and Axios, more at Techmeme »

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Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
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