Mediagazer: Report from UK-based charity Article 19: media and digital freedom of expression is lower than a decade ago everywhere but the Middle East and North Africa (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

Nic Newman / Nieman Lab:

Reuters report on podcasts finds local news pods flourishing; print and digital outlets focus more on deep dives, as broadcasters tend toward micro-bulletins — “The big change is commercial, which is that we had advertisers who started to come to us last year and say …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Reuters Institute …, One Man & His Blog, @nicnewman, @martinepowers, @rasmus_kleis, What's New in Publishing, @adders and Journalism.co.uk

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Bloomberg Media is rebranding its social media news network from TicToc to QuickTake by Bloomberg, which will launch its own streaming news channel in 2020 — Bloomberg Media is dropping TicToc as the name of its two-year-old social-media news service, rebranding it as “QuickTake by Bloomberg.”

Discussion: Digiday, Ad Age, MediaPost, The Streamable, @mcproulx, PR Newswire, Adweek, @xpangler, @justin_b_smith and The Drum

Marshall Cohen / CNN:

Phone records show calls between journalist John Solomon and Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, while Solomon was posting at The Hill about Ukraine — (CNN)Armed with never-before-seen phone records, Democrats on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump's allies of coordinating …

David Gilbert / VICE:

A Facebook employee and content moderators working for subcontractor CPL Resources are suing Facebook for trauma in Ireland's High Court — DUBLIN — Sean Burke spent years working for big tech like Cisco and SAP. But nothing could prepare him for the work he did for Facebook.

Discussion: @daithaigilbert, @daithaigilbert, @vicenews, @daithaigilbert, @daithaigilbert and @daithaigilbert, more at Techmeme »

Apple:

Apple announces first ever Apple Music Awards with ceremony on December 4; Album of the Year and Song of the Year were determined based on streaming data — Billie Eilish Takes Top Honor as Global Artist of the Year — Apple Music Celebrates with Global, Live-Streamed Performance …

Discussion: Fast Company, @cheriehu42, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, @pennyfractions, The A.V. Club, Engadget, @shortformernie, Business Insider, @jasonisbell, @dwiskus, Fortune, Variety, Engadget and Datebook

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Report from UK-based charity Article 19: media and digital freedom of expression is lower than a decade ago everywhere but the Middle East and North Africa — Freedom of expression has reached a ten-year low around the world, according to new research urging governments to “take action to reverse this trend”.

Dani Deahl / The Verge:

Genius sues Google and LyricFind alleging anticompetitive behavior and that song lyrics on its service were stolen, asking for over $400M in damages — It's asking for more than $400 million from Google and LyricFind — Lyrics website Genius is suing Google, saying the company continues …

Discussion: Fast Company, CNBC, @caseynewton and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »

Evan Smith / The Texas Tribune:

Texas Tribune announces a three-year, ~$4M initiative called RevLab, a revenue and training lab, with a starting $2.5M donation from Facebook Journalism Project — It's a $4 million, three-year effort to identify sustainability strategies for our industry — a freestanding entity …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @evanasmith, @dhiott, @silvermanjacob, @jneutron1969 and @rebekahallen

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Following its ACLU settlement, Facebook says its US ads that involve housing, employment, or credit can't target based on age, gender, ZIP code, or race — Under the terms of a a settlement with the ACLU and other civil rights groups earlier this year, Facebook has been taking steps to prevent discriminatory ad targeting.

Discussion: Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Steve McClellan / MediaPost:

GroupM reports 6.2% US ad growth in 2019 and forecasts 15% digital ad growth and a 4% overall ad spend rise in 2020, to approximately $253B, minus political ads — GroupM is forecasting U.S. ad growth next year of 4% to approximately $253 billion. That's underlying growth …

Discussion: Digiday, AdExchanger and The Wrap

Lee Taehoon / Nieman Lab:

A look at S. Korean independent nonprofit newsroom Newstapa, whose donor base dropped after it investigated liberal politicians amid improving press freedoms — Under a conservative government that restricted press freedom, Newstapa became a favorite of Korean liberals who backed its lonely fight.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Laurel Wamsley / NPR:

Russian law lets state label journalists and bloggers as foreign agents if they get foreign funding or share content from outlets registered as foreign agents — The Russian government now has the right to classify individual journalists, bloggers and even social media users as “foreign agents” …

Discussion: New Europe, Reuters, The Guardian, San Diego Union-Tribune and The Hill