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, HuffPost, Digiday, Washington Post, New York Times, Adweek, The Wrap, @jamieson, @hamiltonnolan, @jscros, @nkulw, @samjgrasso, Fox News, Mediaite, CNN, @annamerlan, @annamerlan, Variety, Common Dreams, @kath_krueger, @flyingwithsara, @briebriejoy, @jackmirkinson, Axios, Business Insider, Mediaite, @barry, @kathbarbadoro, @david_j_roth, @kath_krueger, @libbycwatson, @dansolomon, @andrewperezdc, @jscros, @adriana_lacy, @andrewkirell, @ashleyfeinberg, @freedomofpress, @jscros, @mckinneykelsey, @blumnessmonster, @nberlat, @pkafka, @laurawags, @morrisonicpod, The Daily Caller, @mattbuchanan, @tomgara, @stevenblum, @scott_tobias, @freedaaron, @freedomofpress, @murielvega, @jscros, @emmaroller, @albertburneko, The Hill and New York Post
Financial Times:
Sources: James Murdoch's holding company Lupa Systems is buying a minority stake in Vice Media Group, valuing the group that now includes Refinery29 at ~$4B — James Murdoch's new holding company has agreed to buy a minority stake in Vice Media Group, according to people briefed on the deal …
Discussion:
Variety, Business Insider, The Wrap, @mattgarrahan, @jaredbkeller and @lpolgreen
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 about its coverage of HK protests — Quartz says its website has also been banned in mainland China — News organization Quartz tells The Verge that Apple …
Discussion:
Billboard, @jkeefe, CNN, en.people.cn, CNET, New York Post, @ihnatko, Breitbart, Wall Street Journal, @conarck, @aaschapiro, Business Insider, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Quartz, Softpedia News, @lauriechenwords, @backlon, @zeynep, @missanabeem, On my Om, Scroll.in, @maryhui, @jm_mcgrath, @alexstamos, @mollymckew, Talking Biz News, 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
Discussion:
Business Insider, @kenroth, 9to5Mac, @blakersdozen, Vanity Fair, @marcorubio, @seamoosi, Music Ally, @crtejada, @phila_siu, @emilygorcenski, @slasher, New York Times, @grummz, @grummz and @grummz, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
AG William Barr met privately on Wednesday with Rupert Murdoch, whose media holdings include Fox News, which recently has been more critical of Trump — William P. Barr, the attorney general, met privately Wednesday evening with one of President Trump's frequent confidants, Rupert Murdoch …
Discussion:
The Hill, Mediaite, @mrbromwich, @karlbode, @freedlander, @jdawsey1, @juddlegum and @chrisgeidner
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, @sarafischer, @alex_hardiman, @samsifton and @thebryandavis
Mandy Jenkins / The Keyword:
Mahoning Matters, the first Compass Experiment site supported by a Google News Initiative-McClatchy partnership, launches with staff from the Vindicator — Today marks the launch of Mahoning Matters, The Compass Experiment's first digital-only news outlet, which will serve readers in Youngstown …
Discussion:
LION Publishers, MediaPost, @mjenkins and @ckrewson
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” …
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
As power goes off for 800,000 to 2M in California, local newspapers have taken down paywalls, but we still need to talk more about paywalls and info amid crises — In what would be the world's fifth-largest economy by itself, at least 800,000 but as many as 2 million residents have already lost power …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Weather Channel and @newsbyschmidt
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 and @sjgrattan
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:
New York Times, @fredbenenson, @slpng_giants, @ingridlunden, @dancharvey, @ferrasvinh and @cwarzel
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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
Discussion:
@ewarren, Fast Company, Vox, MediaPost, Breitbart, CNN, @kylekulinski, @drvox, @fraying, @donie, Street Fight, @jason_kint, Ars Technica, @nickgillespie, The Daily Caller, The Verge, @cwarzel, @ryan, @ruskin147, @samanthajpower, @andrewfeinberg, @donie, @alecmacgillis, @mikeisaac, @danpfeiffer, @ilvestoomas, @digiphile, CNBC, TechCrunch and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
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 — I glanced down at my left thumb, still resting on the Tab key. What have I done? Had my computer become my co-writer?
Discussion:
@newyorker, @sapinker, @benwallacewells and @michaelluo
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.
Discussion:
@lenfestinst
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
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 new book “Catch and Kill” recounts his investigation of Harvey Weinstein; the hurdles his then-employer NBC News put …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Variety, Fox News, TVWeek.com, Mediaite, NBC News, USA Today, CNN, Fortune, Page Six, The Independent, @brianstelter, Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Associated Press, Breitbart, @jkbjournalist, Ad Age, Poynter, The Guardian, The Daily Caller, @briannawu, The Week, The Hill, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, Full Feed, @variety, @rtraister, @karaswisher, Newser, @gretchencarlson, New York Post, @jeremymbarr, @jeremymbarr, @evansiegfried, @brianstelter, @jeremymbarr, @sherman4949, @brianstelter, @nycsouthpaw, @nycsouthpaw, @brianstelter, @variety, @brianstelter, @julie_bush, The Wrap, New Yorker and Just Jared
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