Mediagazer: Nexstar Media completes $7.2B acquisition of Tribune Media, creating the biggest US broadcaster, reaching 39% of US households with TV stations in 115 markets (Jon Lafayette/Broadcasting & Cable)

6:55 PM ET, September 19, 2019

Top News:

Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund makes first grants: $5.25M to three Philadelphia recipients to support new models for local journalism — Fund's first grants to support new local journalism models, advanced technology for newsrooms — The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund …

Discussion: @lenfestinst, @pilhofer, Inquirer.com, @swischnowski, @kimfox, @tylrfishr, @tylrfishr, @tylrfishr, @shanbow, @schmalie, @tylrfishr, @pkerkstra, @billy_penn, Talking Biz News, @lenfestinst and @jroxann

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 …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Nieman Lab, The Keyword, @mattlcapon, Talking Biz News and @updatesneon

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

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: The Streamable, Broadcasting & Cable and Deadline

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, @nathantbernard, YouTube Creator Blog, @thetomska, @spiritawakennet, @joshscorcher, @rabbidluigi, @nathantbernard, The Daily Dot, CNET, @sarahintampa, The Verge, @caseyhall_ and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

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, Vox, @dollydeighton and Multichannel News

Cristina Tardáguila / Poynter:

Fact-checkers Legal Support Initiative publishes legal guides for fact checkers in the US, Italy, Philippines, and Brazil — Fact-checkers from all over the world are harassed and threatened for the work they do. A response to this situation has long been needed.

Discussion: @groundtruth and @factchecknet

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.

Discussion: @privacyproject and @dr_datenschutz

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

Seth Hettena / New Republic:

The Epoch Times, the Chinese paper published in 21 languages, has won a large far-right audience in Europe, especially Germany, by pushing conspiracy theories — In 2017, Stefanie Albrecht, an investigative reporter for German broadcaster RTL, was in the midst of what would become …

Discussion: @oneunderscore__, @egavactip, @ffrafaction and theepochtimes.com

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Nexstar Media completes $7.2B acquisition of Tribune Media, creating the biggest US broadcaster, reaching 39% of US households with TV stations in 115 markets — $7.2B deal creates largest U.S. broadcaster — Nexstar Media said it completed its $7.2 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co …

Discussion: Radio & Television … and Variety

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, @chriswelch, Multichannel News and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »

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

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More News:

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

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Tumblr and WordPress.com parent company Automattic raises $300M Series D from Salesforce Ventures at a post-money valuation of $3B

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

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

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

Dylan Byers / NBC News:
HBO's five-year deal for The Big Bang Theory is the clearest sign yet of AT&T's intention to transition HBO from a premium brand to a mass-market broadcaster

Discussion: Business Insider

Megan Graham / CNBC:
CBS, Viacom, and WarnerMedia say they will no longer run e-cigarette advertising on their networks, a week after WarnerMedia's CNN announced a similar ban

Discussion: The Wrap, Times of India, New York Times, The Verge, The Hill and USA Today

Earlier Picks:

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Researchers: many smart TVs and streaming dongles from Roku, Samsung, Amazon and others are sending user data to companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook

Discussion: ZDNet, @ilvestoomas, @geoffreyfowler, @dhh, @mmnjug, @justinbrookman, @geoffreyfowler, @faizsays, Washington Post, @upma23, @hoofnagle, @valaafshar, Wired, The Mac Observer and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Medium adds a “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature that lets users save articles to a reading list via sharing extensions on mobile and in Chrome

Discussion: @medium, @ckrewson, @caseynewton, blog.medium.com and Medium Help Center

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: AT&T is considering parting ways with its DirecTV unit, including spinning it off into a separate public company or combining assets with Dish

Discussion: CNBC, NBC News, New York Post, CNN, Talking New Media, The Daily Beast, Light Reading, Ad Age, @brianstelter, @the___spy, Ars Technica, Los Angeles Times, Multichannel News, The Wrap, Engadget, The Streamable, CNBC and CNET

Aaron Rupar / Vox:
CNN booked Corey Lewandowski for an interview just hours after telling Congress he has “no obligation to be honest with the media”

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook debuts $149 Portal TV, a streaming box supporting Prime Video, Showtime, and CBS All Access that can also make video calls while viewing Facebook Watch

Discussion: CNET, Vox, Morning Brew, @auchenberg, @davezatz, @mikedrucker, @ow, @amahnke, 9to5Google, Facebook, Fast Company, Fortune, CNET and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Reuters:
US Cybercom Executive Director Morgan Adamski says Chinese hackers are positioning themselves in critical infrastructure in the event of a clash with the US

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers detail a “nearest neighbor attack” by Russia's APT28, which remotely breached a target's Wi-Fi by hijacking a laptop in a building across the street

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