Mediagazer: Facebook Journalism Project selects ~20 European publishers for a new three-month program on video programming with $300K in funding to be split among them (Lucinda Southern/Digiday)

3:40 PM ET, October 8, 2019

Top News:

Daniel Victor / New York Times:

China's state broadcaster cancels NBA preseason games after a Houston Rockets exec tweets Hong Kong support; 21M watched Game 6 in 2019 in China vs. 18.3 in US — A tweet from the Houston Rockets general manager prompted a backlash in China, making things uncomfortable for a league used …

Bloomberg:

Blizzard Entertainment, part-owned by Tencent, bans player from competing for one year and rescinds prize money he won after pro-Hong Kong comments — - Expressing sympathy for Hong Kong democracy push proves costly — Hearthstone player won't be allowed to compete for a year

Discussion: Vox, InvenGlobal, IGN, The Wrap, NPR, Blizzard News, @deezus_walks, Kotaku, @deezus_walks, Variety, @jaldous and @mollymckew, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

South Park creators tweet mock apology to China: “We welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom” — The creators of satirical animated series “South Park” issued a mocking “apology” to China after media reports that episodes …

Discussion: @southpark, New York Times, @onlyyoontv, The Daily Caller, @becketadams and The Independent

Hollywood Reporter:
China's censors reportedly scrub South Park clips, episodes, and online discussions from streaming services, social media after critical “Band in China” episode

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

European Commission makes a call for tenders to create the European Digital Media Observatory, the first core service of a platform to fight disinformation — The European Commission has taken the first step towards establishing a new digital platform to help coordinate the fight against disinformation.

Discussion: Digital Single Market, @gabrielmariya, @pcunliffejones, @puzzlesthewill and @marklittlenews

Mike Allen / Axios:

Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg launch The Dispatch, a center-right digital media company with a site, newsletters, and podcasts, in partnership with Substack — Two of the biggest names in conservative journalism — Steve Hayes, formerly of the now-defunct Weekly Standard, and Jonah Goldberg …

Discussion: The Dispatch, @stephenfhayes, Nieman Lab, The Hill, @davidafrench, @stephenfhayes, Politico, @jayrosen_nyu, @mikeallen, Mediaite, @xtrixcyclex, @lachlan and @scottmgreer

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

60 Minutes plans to launch 60 in 6, an original 6-minute weekly program on Quibi in April — The newest edition of “60 Minutes” will have decidedly less time to make its point. — The venerable CBS newsmagazine plans to launch an original weekly program - just six minutes in length …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, MediaPost, CNN, @jbenton, CBS Press Express, TVNewser and Broadcasting & Cable

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
ESPN to make a daily sports highlights show for Quibi, expected to debut alongside the platform in April; ESPN will license the content but retain ownership

Discussion: The Wrap, The Streamable, TechCrunch, The Wrap, @loudmouthjulia, @garystriewski and @grahamstarr

Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:

Roku debuts interactive pop-up ads that appear during commercial breaks for companies that have partnered with Roku on the feature — Last week Roku started to roll out its OS 9.2 update to Roku TVs. As we expected, there were some unannounced changes in the update.

Discussion: The Verge, Digital TV Europe and Gizmodo

Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:

Hulu enables downloading of shows and movies to watch offline on iOS for those on the $12 per month No Ads subscription; Android support coming soon — The Streamable is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission when you sign up with our links.

Discussion: Adweek, TechCrunch, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget, Polygon, Fast Company and Just Jared, more at Techmeme », Thanks:@thestreamable

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Facebook Journalism Project selects ~20 European publishers for a new three-month program on video programming with $300K in funding to be split among them — Facebook's latest gesture to news publishers is a three-month program to help them master video programming that comes with $300,000 in funding …

Discussion: Nieman Lab

The Daily Beast:

RealClear Media, owner of “non-partisan” news site RealClearPolitics, secretly runs a conservative Facebook page with ~800K followers pushing far-right memes — RealClearPolitics has carefully cultivated a non-partisan image—while in the shadows its parent company pushes images …

Discussion: @noahshachtman, @noahshachtman, @murshedz, @davidklion, @a_m_dolan, @anniegowen, @brooklynmarie, @jbenton, @downwithtyranny, @joshuahol, @thedailybeast, @brooklynmarie, @rexhuppke, @goldietaylor, @johnjharwood, @thedailybeast and Gizmodo

AllAccess.com:

Stitcher strikes deals with The Podcast Exchange in Canada and Whooshkaa in Australia to help local advertisers buy ad inventory across its podcasts — STITCHER has inked deals with THE PODCAST EXCHANGE (TPX) for advertising sales representation in CANADA and with WHOOSHKAA for ad rep responsibilities in AUSTRALIA.

Discussion: Nieman Lab and PR Newswire

Erich Schwartzel / Wall Street Journal:

Users of the Disney+ trial in the Netherlands like the service but say it doesn't remember where they left off and that volume is low; Disney's working on fixes — Testers in Netherlands note flaws but like access to company's movie catalog. ‘I will probably be watching Netflix less’

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:

NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks shifts to vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios in major restructure, leaving Paul Telegdy as sole chairman — NBCUniversal is making sweeping changes, restructuring its broadcast, studio and digital operations and assigning new roles …

Discussion: Variety, Observer and Broadcasting & Cable

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Matt Strauss to run NBCU's Peacock, replacing Bonnie Hammer, who now oversees Content Studios, a consolidation of Universal TV and Universal Content Productions

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Adweek, @ballmatthew, @awallenstein, @lucas_shaw, The Wrap, MediaPost and The Wrap

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

Filings: Quartz lost more than $16M on $12M in revenue through the first six months of this year — Kevin Delaney co-founded the digital publication in 2012. — Kevin Delaney, the editor in chief of Quartz and one of the digital publication's co-founders is stepping down as part of a shake-up of the company's leadership.

Discussion: @tomgara, @johngapper, @tomgara, @jbenton, @rafat and Talking Biz News

Sara Jerde / Adweek:
Quartz to search for new editor-in-chief as Kevin Delaney steps down; co-founder Zach Seward to replace Delaney and Jay Lauf as CEO, Katie Weber named president

Discussion: Quartz, @raju, @emilybell, @pkafka, @zseward, @jbenton, @jbenton, bookforum.com, MediaPost and Talking Biz News

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Commissioning Editor - Practical Law — Reuters

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Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

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State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

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Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

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Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

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Reuters:
Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital has finalized a $150M merger with Firewood, Silicon Valley's biggest independent agency, whose clients include Facebook and Google

Discussion: CNBC

Wall Street Journal:
Group Nine has agreed to acquire women's lifestyle publisher PopSugar; sources say the all-stock deal is worth $300M and values Group Nine at more than $600M

Discussion: Business Insider, Axios, The Drum, @benjlerer, @rafat, @kerrymflynn, @wsj, Adweek, The Wrap and TechCrunch

Earlier Picks:

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
As interviewers get more insistent, the White House isn't sending their usual representatives to Sunday shows, instead seeking to get their message out via ads

Discussion: American Press Institute, Poynter, @jon_allsop, Politico, Columbia Journalism Review, @markfollman and @stuartemmrich

Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
First excerpt from Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill describes how private investigators working for Harvey Weinstein surveilled Farrow and NYT's Jodi Kantor

Discussion: @ronanfarrow, @kaibiermann, @janemayernyer, @newyorker, @josephfcox, @seanlavery, @michaelluo, @razhael, @rohded, @dabeard, @rohded, @will_bunch, @brianstelter, The Week, The Independent, The Daily Beast and Variety

From Techmeme:

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Sources: the CFPB moves to place Google under formal federal supervision, an extraordinary move that may lead to regular inspections; Google fiercely resisted

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