Mediagazer: Iran's initial denial of its role in downing the Ukrainian jet has led to a crisis of confidence in state media, as presenters at state broadcaster IRIB resign (Patrick Wintour/The Guardian)

5:30 PM ET, January 14, 2020

Top News:

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Google says it will phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome within two years — Google's Chrome team, advancing its web privacy effort, later this year will begin testing the “privacy sandbox” proposals it unveiled in 2019. The Chrome tests, which Google announced Tuesday …

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Annette Thomas named CEO of Guardian Media Group, parent company of the Guardian and the Observer; she will start in March — Annette Thomas will take up role at Guardian and Observer parent company in March — The former head of one of the world's largest specialist publishers …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, The Guardian, Press Gazette, Talking Biz News, The Drum, @rydermc, @annettekthomas1 and @rasmus_kleis

The New York Times Company:

NYT passes $800M in annual digital revenue, a category of revenue it's doubled since 2015, adds 1M+ net digital subscriptions, has 5M+ overall subscriptions — - It passed its goal of $800 million of annual digital revenue a year ahead of schedule. In 2015, when digital revenue was around $400 million …

Discussion: @scribeguy, @rasmus_kleis, @laurenpelley, @markhorowitz, @abgutman, @edmundlee and @cliffordlevy

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

Bob Cohn named president and managing director of The Economist to oversee the print business and expand its subscription and digital offerings — With a focus on print, subscriptions and digital offerings — Bob Cohn, formerly the president of The Atlantic, has been named …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, MediaPost and @1bobcohn

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Sensor Tower: Disney+ was downloaded 30M+ times in the US in Q4 2019, besting TikTok; Disney+ now has 41M+ installs and generated ~$97M in revenue to date — U.S. consumers have shown strong interest in Disney's new family-friendly streaming service, Disney+, according to new data from Sensor Tower …

Discussion: Multichannel News, MediaPost, Sensor Tower Blog, Music Business Worldwide and @yoda, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

Sources: the US Department of Labor plans to restrict how media access major market-moving economic data at official release times, possibly creating logjams — - Labor Department plans to remove computers from media lockups — Move could spur arms race among traders for access to numbers

Discussion: Talking Biz News and @katiadmi

Anna Orso / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Lisa Hughes named publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the first woman to head the newspaper; Hughes was formerly VP publisher of the New Yorker — The Philadelphia Inquirer announced Tuesday its chief executive officer, publisher Terrance C.Z. “Terry” Egger, will retire and be replaced next month …

Discussion: Lenfest Institute …, @joshk, @s_m_i, @dmastrull and @notesfromhel

Patrick Wintour / The Guardian:

Iran's initial denial of its role in downing the Ukrainian jet has led to a crisis of confidence in state media, as presenters at state broadcaster IRIB resign — Presenter Gellare Jabbari apologised to Iranians ‘for the 13 years I told you lies’ — At least two presenters working …

Discussion: Fox News, Newser, @juliahahntv, @toulastake, The US Sun, Breitbart and Reason

AllAccess.com:

iHeartMedia announces a restructuring to “modernize operations”, with layoffs affecting on-air hosts, program directors, and others in multiple cities — iHEARTMEDIA has revamped the organizational structure of its Markets Group that it says will put markets into three divisions …

Discussion: Variety, Syracuse Post-Standard, @blainestewart, RadioInsight, @marissarmoss, @maradavis, @joeovies and @kerrymflynn

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Publishing's big paychecks and powerful marketing tools attract authors like Dean Koontz and Patricia Cornwell, though bookstores shun Amazon books — Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell are among the blue-chip writers whose books the tech giant is not just selling but publishing

Discussion: @paulpage and @1pcornwell

Michael Schneider / Variety:

Two TV academies ask the US secretary of state to waive entry restrictions for award-winning documentarians, citing the case of Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad — In a rare joint action, both TV academies have banded together and sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo …

Discussion: @brianstelter

David Cohen / Adweek:

Pandora debuts Test & Tune, a suite of audience measurement tools in open beta that provide insights into campaigns' effectiveness while they are underway — The audio-streaming platform has rolled out the feature in open beta — Audio-streaming platform Pandora has a new way for advertisers to track campaigns.

Discussion: MediaPost

Bethany Minelle / Sky News:

2020 Oscars nominees are the least diverse since the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite backlash, with no female best director nominees and only one black nominee for acting — It's the least diverse line-up since the #OscarsSoWhite backlash in 2015, after which the academy diversified their membership.

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:
Netflix leads Oscars with 24 nominations, in part due to The Irishman's 10 nods, including best picture; Disney came second with 23 nods, followed by Sony's 20

Discussion: @barackobama, Variety, @billywaynedavis, @blakehounshell, Deadline, Slate, Variety and Radio Times

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