Mediagazer: ProPublica journalists recommend books and articles that inspired them (Lakeidra Chavis/ProPublica)

12:40 PM ET, September 30, 2019

Top News:

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Leaked messages show the complaint that led to BBC disciplining Naga Munchetty was also about her co-host, Dan Walker, despite the BBC saying otherwise — Exclusive: Walker also subject of original complaint - but BBC standards chief claimed only Munchetty was targeted — Play Video

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @sophierunning, @joannajarjue, @stephenkb, @afuahirsch, @alexhern, @charlenewhite and @charlesarthur

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

The Chernin Group buys a majority stake in Food52 for $83M, valuing the ecommerce and media startup which offers recipes and home-improvement tips at $100M+ — Food52, a media and e-commerce business, was founded by food journalists from the New York Times

Discussion: Vox, FiveThirtyEight, @benmullin, @benmullin, @rafat, @rafat and @rafat, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Facebook is planning to pay only about a quarter of the 200 publishers that will be featured in its news tab, set to launch as soon as the end of Oct. — Social-media giant plans to pay about a quarter of news organizations whose content will be featured

Discussion: @whatthebit, @juddlegum, @rafat, @backlon and @mattnavarra, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Sources: ByteDance, owner of TikTok, made $7B-$8.4B in revenue in H1 2019, and posted a profit in June after operating at a loss in H1 2019 — BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok and one of the world's most valuable unicorns …

more at Techmeme »

Lakeidra Chavis / ProPublica:

ProPublica journalists recommend books and articles that inspired them — ProPublica Illinois is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. Sign up for our newsletter to get weekly updates written by our journalists.

Discussion: @spj_tweets, @dailycopywriter and @penamerica

Mark Coddington / Nieman Lab:

Interviews with 80+ news aggregators and their editors on how professional identity shapes their work in an industry that gives the most value to news reporting — I've never met an editor who was as eager as Jennifer was to show me one of her organization's worst stories.

Alison Flood / The Guardian:

PEN America says the country's largest book ban is in state and federal prisons where book restrictions are “often opaque, subject to little meaningful review” — George Orwell, John Updike and Barack Obama are among the names PEN America says have been illogically withheld from prisoners

Discussion: @rorymargraf, @penamerica, @shane_bauer and @nylsacs

Jacob Granger / Journalism.co.uk:

A look at The Stonehouse Voice, a bi-annual newspaper launched by a hyperlocal community journalism project in Plymouth, UK to let locals tell their own stories — A former national and regional editor has set up The Stonehouse Voice newspaper to offer local readers a more creative alternative in their news diet

Poynter:

Global Disinformation Index study finds that adtech companies spend ~$235M per year running ads on sites found by fact-checkers to publish misinformation — How misinformation makes money — There has been much written about how fake news websites and other sources make money from spreading misinformation.

Discussion: @zimbalist, @jerdemink, @dpfunke, @michellemanafy and @karlbode

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

The Financial Times has closed a WhatsApp group through which it shared one free story about markets per day, both to subscribers and non-subscribers — The Financial Times has closed its Whatsapp group through which it shared one free markets story per day with individuals who had signed up.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and @niemanlab

Greg Dool / Folio:

Interview with New York magazine EIC David Haskell, on the acquisition by Vox Media, which surprised many staffers, his first six months as EIC, and more — David Haskell on the Vox sale, succeeding Adam Moss and prioritizing journalism in a time of change.

Joe Otterson / Variety:

ICM Partners COO Justin Dearborn and HR Chief Cindy Ballard resigned from the talent agency this week, will remain onboard through the end of the year — Two top executives are out at ICM Partners. — Chief operating officer Justin Dearborn and chief human resources officer Cindy Ballard are leaving …

Discussion: @palewire and The Wrap

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs / New York Times:

How a 20-year-old junior at Arizona State University broke the news of the resignation of Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, in the school's student newspaper — An editor at Arizona State University's student newspaper beat everyone else to the news that Kurt Volker had stepped down.

Discussion: @aaron4az, @amymcd_11, @bymoriah, @projomike, @histoftech, @laurenpeikoff, @therealwillyevs, @nycsouthpaw, @son_deerrf, @olivianuzzi, @amanbatheja, @katierogers, @macloo, Washington Post and Newser

Faisal Kalim / What's New in Publishing:

A look at reader-supported Denník N, a Slovak newspaper that has built open source tools to drive subscriptions, aided by Google Digital News Initiative grants — Denník N is a Slovak digital and print newspaper, founded in January 2015 by journalists who were earlier working …