Top News:
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
G/O Media's Splinter is shutting down due to insufficient traffic; G/O editorial director says staff will be reallocated but some tweet they've been laid off — The website's parent company praised the outlet but said it failed to bring in sufficient traffic. — Splinter is shutting down.
Discussion:
@aleksnotalex, New York Times, Digiday, Adweek, The Wrap, CNN, @hamiltonnolan, @jscros, @nkulw, Variety, @samjgrasso, Axios, Mediaite, Business Insider, The Hill, @blumnessmonster, @tomgara, @albertburneko, @mattbuchanan, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress, The Daily Caller, @jscros, @kath_krueger, @kathbarbadoro, @andrewperezdc, @adriana_lacy, @murielvega, @mckinneykelsey, @jscros, @jscros, @emmaroller, @jackmirkinson, @barry, @david_j_roth, @kath_krueger, @libbycwatson, @dansolomon, @andrewkirell, @ashleyfeinberg, @nberlat, @pkafka, @laurawags, @morrisonicpod, @scott_tobias, @freedaaron and New York Post
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Quartz says its website has been blocked in China and its app has been removed from the App Store due to government complaints for its coverage of HK protests — Quartz says its website has also been banned in mainland China — News organization Quartz tells The Verge that Apple has removed …
Discussion:
Billboard, Bloomberg, CNN, @jkeefe, en.people.cn, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, Softpedia News, Scroll.in, Quartz, @jm_mcgrath, Business Insider, Talking Biz News, CNET, @lauriechenwords, @backlon, @zeynep, @missanabeem, On my Om, @maryhui, @alexstamos, @mollymckew, Memex 1.1 and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
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Lauren Strapagiel / BuzzFeed News:
Blizzard is facing an intense backlash after banning a player over Hong Kong pro-democracy comments, with some fans boycotting its games
Blizzard is facing an intense backlash after banning a player over Hong Kong pro-democracy comments, with some fans boycotting its games
Discussion:
Business Insider, Vanity Fair, @kenroth, 9to5Mac, @blakersdozen, @marcorubio, New York Times, @seamoosi, Music Ally, @crtejada, @phila_siu, @emilygorcenski, @slasher, @grummz, @grummz and @grummz, more at Techmeme »
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
TheMaven CEO says the company plans to build three studios, two in New York and one in LA, to produce 20 hours of news per day for Sports Illustrated — Despite a brutal round of cutbacks that resulted in more than 50 people axed at Sports Illustrated last week, the new publisher “definitely” …
Gustavo Solis / San Diego Union-Tribune:
A look at local “fixers” in Tijuana, Mexico, who say the work can be particularly gruesome and journalists' requests are often “like a wish list to Santa Claus” — Margarito Martinez spent 10 nights sleeping inside his white minivan parked outside a Tijuana makeshift shelter …
Discussion:
@anniebknox, @dennisjromero, @najera13, @sjgrattan and Poynter
Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab:
The Gannett-GateHouse merger may close around Thanksgiving, and over 10% of the workforce will likely be cut, with business-side jobs bearing the brunt of cuts — The megamerger is really happening. Expect the new Gannett — the brand that will survive that chain's acquisition by GateHouse Media …
Daniel Green / Journalism.co.uk:
Fact checkers from UK, Argentina, South Africa, India, and Iran explain how misinformation gains traction and how to fight it with tools like community meetings — How five organisations from four continents are identifying and dealing with false claims and misinformation specific to their region
Discussion:
Press Gazette
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Report: investments in major donor procurement by eight nonprofit newsrooms in a pilot program led to increased major donor funding, ranging from 9% to 367% — As that was impressed upon the cohort, that helped make a shift: It helped give people a mindset where they felt more confident and realized …
Discussion:
@niemanlab, @niemanlab and @niemanlab
Sara Fischer / Axios:
NYT hires Alex Hardiman as head of product, reporting to the COO; Hardiman has been chief product officer at The Atlantic and head of news product at Facebook — The New York Times has hired former Times product veteran Alex Hardiman as the company's head of product, reporting to chief operating officer Meredith Kopit Levien.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @thebryandavis and @alex_hardiman
Max Willens / Digiday:
To shift from advertising to subscriber revenue, NYT, WaPo, and Hearst added CMOs in 2018; Kantar: WaPo more than doubled its media spend YoY to $14M in H1 2019 — Publishers pivoted to subscriptions, in part, to reduce their reliance on a business dominated by Facebook and Google.
John Seabrook / New Yorker:
A behind-the-scenes look at how OpenAI's GPT-2 predictive text algorithm works, which can be “fine-tuned” to write phony customer reviews or even news articles — \u003clink href="https://www.newyorker.com/ projects/interactive/2019/191014-seabrook/css/ header_override.css" …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook's choice to allow political ads with misinformation, while making ad details public, is not a perfect decision but it is a sensible and democratic one — It's a problem that needs more than a technical solution — If you see an ad on Facebook, should the contents of that ad be true?
Discussion:
@fredbenenson, @dancharvey, @slpng_giants, @ingridlunden, @ferrasvinh and @cwarzel, more at Techmeme »
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Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Facebook refuses Biden campaign's request to take down a misleading Trump campaign ad, rejected by CNN, reigniting a debate about Facebook and political speech
Facebook refuses Biden campaign's request to take down a misleading Trump campaign ad, rejected by CNN, reigniting a debate about Facebook and political speech
Discussion:
@ewarren, CNN, Ars Technica, @donie, Street Fight, CNN, @cwarzel, @jason_kint, The Verge, The Daily Caller, @ryan, Vox, @ruskin147, CNBC, @samanthajpower, @andrewfeinberg, @donie, @alecmacgillis, @mikeisaac, @danpfeiffer, @ilvestoomas, @digiphile, TechCrunch, The Hill, Breitbart, Fortune, Engadget, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »
EU vs DISINFORMATION:
EU disinformation taskforce finds that 47% of articles on online news magazine EP Today, which is read by senior MEPs and ambassadors, come from RT.com — EP Today: A news website that doesn't write 99% of its articles, targets decision makers in the EU and misleads the public about the origin of most of their content: Russia Today.
Discussion:
@astroehlein, @euvsdisinfo and The Guardian
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Vice Media strikes an exclusive deal with Spotify to produce three original podcast series, with the first launching Nov. 12, about Iowa's Democratic caucuses — Vice Media, in another bid to diversify its revenue mix, struck a deal with Spotify to distribute three podcast series exclusive on the streaming platform.
Discussion:
@vicecomms
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Memo: NBC News Chairman Andy Lack disputes Ronan Farrow's claims that NBC mishandled Farrow's reporting on Weinstein and downplayed claim against Matt Lauer — NBC chief Andy Lack pushed back hard on Ronan Farrow's explosive revelations that the network mishandled the Pulitzer Prize winner's reporting …
Discussion:
Fox News, Page Six, Variety, Variety, @maxwelltani, @wade_davis28, The Daily Beast and Hollywood Reporter
RELATED:
Variety:
Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill has an interview with former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils, who alleges that Matt Lauer raped her at the 2014 Sochi Olympics
Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill has an interview with former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils, who alleges that Matt Lauer raped her at the 2014 Sochi Olympics
Discussion:
Washington Post, Fox News, Variety, Mediaite, NBC News, CNN, Associated Press, The Hill, Fortune, The Independent, USA Today, The Daily Caller, Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Breitbart, Page Six, Newser, Mediaite, @brianstelter, Full Feed, New York Times, The Guardian, HuffPost, Hollywood Reporter, @jkbjournalist, Ad Age, The Daily Beast, Poynter, The Week, @variety, @rtraister, @karaswisher, @gretchencarlson, @jeremymbarr, New York Post, @jeremymbarr, @evansiegfried, @brianstelter, @jeremymbarr, @sherman4949, @brianstelter, @nycsouthpaw, @nycsouthpaw, @brianstelter, @variety, New Yorker, @brianstelter, The Wrap, @julie_bush, CNN, Hollywood Reporter, Just Jared, Vox, NPR, Know Your Meme Editorials, TVWeek.com, Consequence of Sound, Slate, Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club, Quartz, Axios, Gothamist, Broadcasting & Cable, VICE, IndieWire, TVNewser, FOX59, Deadline, Splinter and Boing Boing
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
At conference on Brexit, foreign journalists say UK media are being used by the government when it unquestioningly reports what anonymous government sources say — British journalists are being “played like an instrument” when they publish stories based on Government leaks and anonymous sources, a prominent media academic has claimed.