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Facebook begins testing Facebook News with a subset of people in the US across four categories of select publishers: general, topical, diverse, and local news — Testing a dedicated place for news in the US — Journalism plays a critical role in our democracy.
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At an event with News Corp's Robert Thomson, Mark Zuckerberg says every internet platform has a responsibility to fund and form partnerships for news — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — aiming to counter skeptics who believe the social network is a chief culprit in promulgating a flood of misinformation …
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Facebook is paying some major publishers millions of dollars per year while excluding smaller local ones, who are struggling and worried about being left behind — New York (CNN Business)Facebook has a message for the skeptical news industry: We're here to help.
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Sources say Facebook will pay some news partners up to $3M a year for appearing in its news tab, coming today to a couple hundred thousand US users
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AT&T says HBO Max will be available free to the 10M AT&T customers who are also US HBO subscribers; sources: AT&T to launch cheaper ad-supported tier in 2021 — (Reuters) - In the bestselling novel “Circe” — optioned by WarnerMedia for its forthcoming HBO Max streaming service …
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Pew: 22% of US newsroom employees live in NYC, LA, or DC; NYC has 12% of all newsroom employees; 41% of people working for digital outlets are in the Northeast — New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., are the financial, entertainment and political capitals of the United States …
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@sulliview, @johngramlich, @margarita, @alex_zee, @lyndseygilpin, @mayerjoy, @agreilingkeane, @kciesemier, @bradmossesq, @morganhwrites and @jakebackpack


News industry columnist Ken Doctor says he's working on Lookout, a platform for local news, set to launch in 2020 with funding from Google and Knight Foundation — Over the past decade here at Nieman Lab, I've reported a lot of news industry news. Today, I'm sharing some of my own.
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@wjeffreybrown, @niemanlab and @jayrosen_nyu

Google News Initiative announces 34 winners of its North American Innovation Challenge, with grants ranging from ~$32K to $300K in this $5.8M round — On the same day that Facebook's tab will start paying (some) publishers for their content, Google has announced its grantees …
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Local News Initiative, The Keyword, Google News Initiative, @googlenewsinit, SiliconValley.com and promarket.org


With its SmartView First program, news aggregator SmartNews is offering 30 US publishers tiered revenue payouts based on their monthly page views in the app — There's a novel idea being embraced by platforms hungry for publisher content: Pay them. — SmartNews, a news aggregation app started …


Sources: Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune is exploring a sale; the site, which helps athletes connect directly with fans, has raised a total of $60M — The Players' Tribune, a website started by baseball star Derek Jeter, is exploring a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter.


NPR plans to merge its NPR and NPR One apps into one app in 2020, with local and national content as well as possibly more editorial control for local stations — NEW ORLEANS — NPR will focus on promoting a single app for its content beginning next year with a new app powered by NPR One's technology.
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@michellemanafy, @loritodd, @elanazak and @sinersays


Spotify is testing an ad format that will let artists pay to target fans through its full-screen recommendation feature; the ads will run on Free and Premium — Spotify recently added a feature that will occasionally pop up a full-screen recommendation of a new album the service thinks you'll like …
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Sources: Sony has hired bankers to explore a sale of its Playstation Vue service, which would include the company's tech and a subscriber list of around 500K — Sony Corp. is exploring the sale of its Playstation Vue service, which offers a slimmed-down version of cable TV delivered over the internet …
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The White House has canceled its print subscriptions to NYT and Washington Post and plans to instruct federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions — Donald Trump's pettiness knows no limit. It was proven yet again Tuesday, when the White House cancelled its subscriptions to the New York Times …
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