Top News:
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Twitter suspends account of a former Saudi royal court adviser suspected of involvement in Khashoggi murder and six accounts linked to Saudi state media — London (CNN Business)Twitter has suspended or removed thousands of accounts linked to governments in the Middle East …
Discussion:
Twitter, @securedemocracy, Adweek, ABC News, @brian_whit, Boing Boing, BleepingComputer and @jrug
Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter:
NBCU announces it is shutting down its gaming division, formed in 2017, and laying off 5% of staff in its cable division, which includes E!, Oxygen, Bravo — Universal Games and Digital Platforms, formed in 2017, will no longer publish mobile titles as part of a restructuring plan at the company …
Discussion:
Fox Business, Variety, MediaPost, @pshanley88, Polygon, TVWeek.com and The Wrap
Richard Middleton / TBI Vision:
At TV conference, Reed Hastings says Netflix has spent £400M in the UK in 2019 and plans a “big increase” next year — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said the streamer will spend £400m ($500m) on UK programming this year and added that there would be a “big increase” …
Discussion:
Variety, Variety, Multichannel News, IndieWire, Barron's Online, @alexgiess, Reuters and The Guardian
RELATED:
Reuters:
Reuters hires Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams as its first newsroom diversity editor — Reuters today announced that Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams has been appointed Editor, Newsroom Diversity. — Reporting to Simon Robinson, Global Managing Editor, Newsroom, Adeluwoye-Adams will lead Reuters efforts …
Discussion:
Press Gazette and Poynter
Greg Dool / Folio:
Q&A with Andy Cohn, president and publisher of 20-year-old music magazine The Fader, on diversifying while remaining committed to the growing print magazine — President and publisher Andy Cohn reflects on survival, leadership, diversifying revenue and why he still believes in print.
Discussion:
@brittany0925, @foliomag and @foliomag
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Kavanaugh book authors say the reason they couldn't agree to terms to interview Kavanaugh was because he wanted them to lie and say he hadn't been interviewed — Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, the New York Times reporters behind the book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and @erikwemple
Jason Schott / Fox Business:
Roku study finds 2M people have moved from traditional pay TV to streaming in 2019 and predicts up to 60M will exclusively use streaming in the next five years — Television viewing has gradually expanded into streaming, and a new study from Roku makes a dramatic prediction about how people will consume video in the years to come.
Discussion:
MediaPost, @roku, @whatthebit, Cord Cutters News and @raju
William Zheng / South China Morning Post:
Chinese state media reporters will have to pass an exam testing knowledge of President Xi's philosophy to get press cards; ~10K to take pilot exams in October — About 10,000 reporters and editors in Beijing are expected to take ‘pilot tests’ next month using Xuexi Qiangguo mobile app Nationwide exams …
Discussion:
@zhengwei75 and The Guardian
Leo Barraclough / Variety:
Viacom joins Britbox, the BBC and ITV joint venture, making Comedy Central's UK productions as well as Channel 5 shows available on the platform — Viacom-owned Channel 5 and Comedy Central have joined BritBox, the “best-of-British” subscription streaming service created by the BBC and ITV.
Discussion:
Reuters and Broadband TV News
Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
Stephen Brown has been named editor-in-chief of Politico Europe — Stephen Brown has been appointed editor-in-chief of politics and policy news title Politico Europe. — The European arm of Politico was launched in 2015 as a joint venture with German publisher Axel Springer.
Ana Lomtadze / Global Editors Network:
Interview with Google News VP Richard Gingras on the algorithm change to spotlight original reporting, the difficulty of defining the term, raters, and more — Google's VP of News explains the wider implications of the new search algorithm. — Last week, Google said it had made changes …
Discussion:
@mhbergen, ZDNet, @chrismoranuk, @mattrosoff, @mathewi, @spj_tweets and @mattrosoff
Ann-Christine Diaz / Ad Age:
A former chief creative officer of The Martin Agency is suing Adweek, a former editor, and the anonymous Instagram account Diet Madison Avenue for defamation — Suit seeks $25 million; attorney says plaintiff plans to also take legal action against his former employer and parent Interpublic Group