Mediagazer: As podcasting becomes dominated by a handful of platforms, ad automation seems inevitable given the difficulty of scaling program-specific, host-read ads (Max Willens/Digiday)

12:05 PM ET, October 20, 2019

Top News:

Sources: Verizon is seeking potential buyers for HuffPost, as it continues to shed digital businesses from its costly acquisition of Yahoo and AOL — Verizon is sounding out potential buyers for the HuffPost website, in the latest phase of the US telecoms group's retreat from the digital media business.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @janinegibson, TechCrunch, Fox Business, @rafat, @timcast, @arrington, @rafat and The Wrap

Matthew Ball:

As Hollywood continues to scale with more TV and film assets, no studio has an integrated gaming division today, which ignores a fast growing media category — With all the individual differences from player to player, the TV and film industry has had a consistent response to the challenges …

Discussion: @ballmatthew and @ballmatthew

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

CNN calls a threatened lawsuit from Trump lawyer Charles Harder a “desperate PR stunt”; Harder's letter cited the Lanham Act, which deals mainly with trademarks — An attorney for President Donald Trump has sent a letter to CNN that threatens to sue the AT&T-owned cable-news network …

Dan Levin / New York Times:

Profile of The Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper in Ann Arbor, which has been the only printed local paper in the city for more than a decade — As more than 2,000 newspapers across the country have closed or merged, student journalists from Michigan to Arizona have stepped in to fill the void.

Discussion: @jcstearns, @alpaul, @revericatcheson, @dpd_, @timmckayum, @rkobell, @samhoisington, @stephepburn, @benjaminsraven, @marclacey, @showusyourwork, @jswatz and @jswatz

Max Willens / Digiday:

As podcasting becomes dominated by a handful of platforms, ad automation seems inevitable given the difficulty of scaling program-specific, host-read ads — The IAB's fifth annual podcast upfront could be the last one where platforms do not dominate in the proceedings.

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

Publishers like Forbes, Reuters, WSJ, and Bloomberg are growing their events businesses for sponsors and building their own event franchises to boost revenues — Trade shows, conferences and summit events are nothing new for business-to-business publishers, who have a tight grip on catering to professional audiences.

Discussion: @rafat

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook reaches licensing deal with News Corp to feature headlines from WSJ, NY Post, and others in a coming news tab; sources: WaPo, BuzzFeed News, BI also in — News organizations including News Corp will be paid a licensing fee to supply headlines in news tab

Discussion: @jason_kint, @bgrueskin, @dicktofel, @jimpethokoukis, @lalpert1, Engadget and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Hollywood Reporter:

Source: Quentin Tarantino declines to recut his movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, after China's regulators blocked the film's release date of Oct. 25 — The country's regulators pulled the film from the schedule a week before its release on Oct. 25. — Quentin Tarantino has no intention …

Discussion: The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, @michaeldavsmith, NME, @auntiealicecy, @thr, @davidalangrier, @sonnybunch, Rolling Stone, The Independent, @randyebarnett, @sammyle13606322, @thr, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, The A.V. Club and The Wrap

Mat Ombler / GamesIndustry.biz:

How music licensing can cause problems in the gaming industry, where developers risk having their games removed from sale due to expired licenses — Developers risk having their games removed from sale due to expired licenses — experts from music and games weigh in on the problem

Discussion: @matombler, @gibiz, @gibiz and @naohigo

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

Condé Nast Italia releases its first magazine in the US, the food and wine focused La Cucina Italiana — The recipe-focused magazine has been designed for Americans — Condé Nast, which has long taken magazines established in the U.S. and introduced them into new international markets …

Daniel Green / Journalism.co.uk:

Interview with Hazel Baker, head of user-generated content newsgathering at Reuters, on deepfakes, misinformation, and verification — Ahead of the Newsrewired conference, Baker talks about the challenges posed by misinformation during breaking news events and the emergence of deepfakes

Nieman Reports:

Commenting on the limits of #MeToo journalism, Jodi Kantor says journalism isn't a fundamental solution or “a substitute ... for institutions that have failed” — In the fall of 2017 The New York Times published Jodi Kantor's and Megan Twohey's explosive investigation …

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More News:

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
ESPN's “no politics” policy, business relationship with the NBA, and Tencent distribution deal contributed to tentative coverage of the Morey controversy

Discussion: @sportstvratings, @ddiamond, @hughhewitt, @benjstrauss, @markberman and Fortune

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
How Quartz is focusing more on reader revenue, with a metered paywall and perks for members like field guides and a direct relationship with its journalists

Discussion: @jennyearnest, @niemanlab, @rafat, @rafat, @rafat, @rafat, @rafat, @rafat and @lauraelizdavis

Katie Kilkenny / Hollywood Reporter:
CA's AB 5 bill author says the law's 35-submission limit for journalists is “a little arbitrary”, as freelancers seek changes before the law takes effect Jan. 1

Janko Roettgers / Variety:
AT&T raises the price of its streaming service AT&T TV Now, with the basic Plus package up $15 to a $65/month; the move follows a similar increase in March

Discussion: Engadget, @johnlegere, The Streamable, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Streamable and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

Garett Sloane / Ad Age:
Verizon Media wins the right to sell ads for Apple News in Canada, Australia, and UK, as NBCUniversal extends an exclusive deal to sell Apple News ads in the US

Discussion: @garettsloane

Earlier Picks:

Committee to Protect Journalists:
Pakistan denies entry to Committee to Protect Journalists coordinator, citing a blacklist by the Ministry of Interior, which voided his journalist visa

Discussion: @ashoswai, @opindia_com, @michaelkugelman, @kenroth, @hidhussain, @mehrtarar, @tahassiddiqui, @susanchira, @francescam63, @reema_omer, @nickkristof and @hamidmirpak

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
As The Washington Post expands its paid parental leave policy from four to 20 weeks, matching WSJ, a look at the policies at other media outlets

Discussion: @lchval, @mayalau, @juliaritchey, @hopnotes, @shokdiesel, @erinblogan, @michaelnagrant, @oneheraldguild, @ceostroff, @ejw913, @tedolsen, @elanazak, @shanbow, @emmacarew, @kgeee, @wpjenna and @laurahazardowen

A.J. Katz / TVNewser:
In a letter to Comcast, Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and others call for an outside investigation into allegations about NBC News in Catch and Kill

Discussion: The Wrap, @greta, @jeremymbarr, Hollywood Reporter, The Hill, Page Six, TVWeek.com and Mediaite

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
Quibi partners with T-Mobile, which will make the platform part of its offering, giving Quibi a broad distribution platform ahead of its April launch

Discussion: Variety, @johnlegere, @xpangler, TechCrunch, CNET, Light Reading and Tubefilter

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

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