Top News:
Claire Atkinson / NBC News:
Sinclair axes Boris Epshteyn, its chief political analyst who was once a Trump aide, to add time for “critical and relevant issues” and investigative journalism — Sinclair, which owns 193 stations in the U.S., said it wants to focus on local news and investigative journalism.
@jack:
Twitter is funding bluesky, an independent effort to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media, with the goal of Twitter being a client of it — Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵
Discussion:
Adweek, @jack, Business Insider, CNET, @internetarchive, @anildash, @ericrweinstein, @neha, Reuters, @asemota, @gadinbc, Techdirt, @digiphile, @thesocialchain, @paraga, @bborrman, The Verge, @ashfurrow, @jack, @vitalikbuterin, @jeffgiesea, @vijaya, @triketora, 9to5Mac, @jack, Engadget, Boing Boing and THEFUTURE, more at Techmeme »
Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
YouTube bans videos that “maliciously insult” people based on their race, gender, or sex, and will remove some of Steven Crowder's videos targeting Carlos Maza — The change comes after controversy around a right-wing comedian's homophobic slurs aimed at a gay Latino journalist.
Discussion:
YouTube Blog, Adweek, Variety, TechCrunch, The Wrap, @owillis, @yoda, @markdistef, @zackford, @hemantmehta, @gaywonk, @davidmackau, @joelcifer, @markdistef and @markdistef, more at Techmeme »
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Facebook confirms that a bug caused tens of thousands of now restored ads to disappear from its political ad library, days before UK's general election — London (CNN Business)Tens of thousands of political ads went missing from Facebook's archive this week, according to researchers …
New York Times:
Lawyers say Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company board reached a tentative $25M settlement with most of his alleged victims; $12M+ would pay legal costs — After two years of legal wrangling, Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative $25 million …
Committee to Protect Journalists:
CPJ 2019 prison census: 250+ journalists are imprisoned globally, and the top three countries putting reporters behind bars are China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia — For the fourth consecutive year, at least 250 journalists are imprisoned globally as authoritarians like Xi Jinping …
Discussion:
New York Times, Axios, @pressfreedom, Breitbart, CNN, @philgunson, @pressfreedom, Voice of America, @vanessatsehaye, @albertomiguelf5, South China Morning Post, @glcarlstrom, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, VICE, @rvawonk, @guyverhofstadt, @fabiochiusi, Talking Biz News and Committee to Protect …
John Keefe / Quartz:
Data from 2015-2019: 23% of stories that were Pulitzer winners or finalists were published in December, possibly due to rush to meet the December 31 deadline — Here's a secret: Some of the year's best investigative journalism will drop this month. — I'm not saying I know of a forthcoming …
Discussion:
@jkeefe, @rdmurphy, @brianmanzullo, @brianmanzullo and @dlboardman
Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
Fortune to launch a paywall in Jan., with a three tier membership program from $5/month, but will offer news, second-day takes, and sponsored content for free — In January 2020, Fortune will finally launch a paywall it has wanted to build for more than two years.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
Sky News to partner with BuzzFeed UK to stream UK election coverage on social sites and Sky News' digital platforms, in an effort to reach a younger audience — U.K. broadcaster Sky News has teamed up with BuzzFeed UK to stream political coverage across social media platforms during the results of the U.K. general election.
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Neither of the sources in credits for the Richard Jewell film mention any romantic tie between reporter Kathy Scruggs and the FBI agent thought to be her source — The newspaper reporter character in “Richard Jewell,” director Clint Eastwood's new movie about the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta …
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Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Profile of LION Publishers, which aims to help its member community of about 250 local indie online publishers become sustainable, as it is awarded a $1M grant — After leaving her job as the managing editor of a newspaper owned by Digital First Media “due to differences with this company's management” …
The Guardian:
A look at the diminished reporting capacity of two of Scotland's key newspapers as the Herald plans further cuts and the Scotsman struggles to find a buyer — They once dominated discourse but the Herald and Scotsman now struggle to hold power to account — Two decades ago …
Discussion:
@ak_mack, @paul_wood_whfp and @graemewsmith
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
AT&T's Xandr ad-tech unit is selling a new ad unit called “pause ad,” which runs with full sound thirty seconds after a viewer pauses a video — Stop. This might be a good time for a commercial. — Consumers are increasingly resistant to sitting through a traditional commercial break …
Discussion:
The Streamable and @craigsilverman
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
American Journalism Project announces its first 11 recipients, with $8.5M distributed among them, comprising 15-30% of their 2020 budgets; AJP has raised $46M — “The grants will fund an organization's first dedicated revenue positions, or grow an existing revenue team.
Discussion:
Poynter, @kristenhare, @davidhulen, @rosental, @jeffelgie, Talking Biz News, @davidhulen, @skonradb, @pulitzercenter, @jayrosen_nyu, American Journalism Project, @byclaycarey, @mskibinski, @dearmarymarg, @mediatwit, @jenniferpreston, @wendi_c_thomas, @berkeleyside, @laurenepowell, @wendi_c_thomas, @taliastroud, @rsm, @amlwhere, @thetedallen, @rosental, @alexckaufman, @mstodaynews, @berkeleyside and @ckrewson
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