Mediagazer: Facebook internal report: US users are reading more COVID-19 content from “higher-quality” sources based on its ranking of top publishers adopted last year (New York Times)

9:05 AM ET, March 24, 2020

Top News:

Anthony Fauci conceding in an interview that Trump often provides inaccurate information is the best argument for not airing Trump's briefings on live TV — During a Saturday news briefing, President Trump fielded a question about the coronavirus timeline.

Discussion: Science, Columbia Journalism Review, @maggienyt, The Guardian and New York Times

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:

The coronavirus pandemic is shaping to be much worse for news media than the 2008 financial crisis, which saw a 19% decline in newspaper revenue in the US — The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus.

Discussion: New York Times, @mattdpearce, @mmcphate, @virginiahughes, @mat, @amymaxmen, @scott_wiener, @notaaroncraig, @sammquinn13, @matthewhalliday, @brianstelter and Axios

Peter Kovacs / The Advocate:
The Times-Picayune and The Advocate to temporarily furlough about a tenth of their 400-member workforce with the rest on four-day workweeks

Discussion: Poynter, @ckm_news, @edasante77, @bmccarthynews, @sarasneath, @jbenton, @robbiefaulk247, @patbagley, @aegallo, @kerrymflynn, @apantazi, @nicdawes, @kerrymflynn, @rebekahallen and @joeyerardi

New York Times:

Facebook internal report: US users are reading more COVID-19 content from “higher-quality” sources based on its ranking of top publishers adopted last year — More than half of all news consumption on Facebook in America is about the virus, according to an internal report.

Discussion: Ad Age, @sethclewis, @nytimesbusiness, @sarthakgh, @gabrieldance, @oliverdarcy, @hshaban, @kevinroose, @jbenton, @dseetharaman and @marklittlenews

Poynter:

During the pandemic, newsrooms should remove paywalls so as not to miss the short window of opportunity to build trust and show the significance of their work — For two years now many news sites have turned to digital subscriptions as a financial lifeline.

Discussion: American Press Institute, @marcela_elisa, @rosental, @katrinanation, @media_evan, @kellymcb, @nicholsuprising, @poynter, @janebsinger, @rispolimike, @poynter, @jayrosen_nyu, @poynter and @kellymcb

Ariel Shapiro / Forbes:

Streaming services see signup spikes over the past week, boosted by free trials, with Disney+ up 300%+, HBO Now 90%, Showtime 78%, Netflix 47%, and Apple 10% — Topline: As Americans brace for spending weeks (or months) inside as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, they are subscribing …

Discussion: @forbes, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

VidCon cancels its US edition, scheduled to run from June 17-20, due to the pandemic, and says it is looking to stage the event sometime in the fall — Bowing the inevitable, VidCon's flagship U.S. edition in June has been canceled because of the coronavirus crisis.

Discussion: @vidcon, @jeffsaxtonvlogs, @jennmcallister, @xpangler and @laurenzside

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

ABC, known for drama, is placing a heavier focus on news as broadcast networks see viewers of most-watched cable news anchors rise ~25% over past two weeks — ABC, best known for soapy programs like “Grey's Anatomy” and “Station 19,” has in recent days been more focused on the drama of real life.

Discussion: @bristei

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Twitter withdraws Q1 guidance due to COVID-19, says it expects Q1 revenue to be down YoY but the number of monetizable DAUs has hit 164M, up 8% QoQ and 23% YoY — Twitter said it expects to miss previous first quarter 2020 financial guidance because of the COVID-19 pandemic …

Discussion: MediaPost, Ad Age, Reuters, CNBC, @oliverdarcy, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, PR Newswire, ZDNet, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

SCOTUS sends Byron Allen's $20B racial bias suit against Comcast back to lower courts, says Allen must prove that the contract was denied solely due to racism — (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court's ruling that had given the green light …

Discussion: Forbes and Bloomberg

The New York Times Company:

NYT, WSJ, WaPo publishers call on China to reverse its expulsion of their journalists: “the media is collateral damage in a diplomatic dispute” — The Chinese government's decision to expel American journalists amid a global pandemic threatens the world's access to critical information …

Discussion: The Guardian, Reuters, @raju, @kenroth and New York Times

Melynda Fuller / MediaPost:

Time is offering Time for Kids, normally only available in schools, to students, families, and teachers at home for free — Time is offering its child-focused spinoff Time for Kids to students, families and teachers at home for free amid the COVID-19 outbreak and school closures.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, @keithgrossman and Deadline

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon opens up free streaming access to more than 40 children's shows, including its original series, to all customers worldwide with an Amazon account — With millions of kids cooped up at home, Amazon is opening up free streaming access to more than 40 children's shows — including its original series — to all customers worldwide.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, MediaPost, The A.V. Club, @oliverdarcy, @brianstelter, @manori_r, /Film, Business Insider, ComingSoon.net, Engadget and The Streamable

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More News:

Cherie Hu / DJMag.com:
How Twitch is becoming an increasingly valuable way for independent electronic musicians to connect with their fans through live streaming recording sessions

Fadel Allassan / Axios:
WHCA president says a journalist in the White House press corps is suspected to have contracted COVID-19; the reporter was at the White House four days in March

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @grynbaum and @oliverdarcy

Dani Deahl / The Verge:
SoundCloud partners with Twitch to let SoundCloud creators fast-track new Twitch accounts to Affiliate status, unlocking Twitch's monetization tools

Discussion: @soundcloud, @jimmywhis and RAIN News

Mike Fleming Jr / Deadline:
A senior segment producer at MSNBC anonymously writes column calling on NBC to shut down 30 Rock, saying the measures the company took are insufficient

Discussion: @kerrymflynn and @oliverdarcy

Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:
Cineplex says it will temporarily lay off part-time employees during the pandemic; full-time employees to take steep pay cuts with top execs taking 80% pay cuts

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Free magazines Time Out and Stylist temporarily stop their print editions to go digital-only during the pandemic

Discussion: @notoriousecg and @doubleemmartin

Earlier Picks:

Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:
Oprah Winfrey launches a free, weekly talk show on Apple TV+ called Oprah Talks COVID-19, with the first episode featuring Idris Elba

Discussion: Engadget, @oprah and @oprah

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
Woody Allen's memoir was released by Arcade Publishing; Allen alleges Hachette vowed to publish it despite him “being a toxic pariah and menace to society”

Discussion: The Wrap, @bobweide, @thr, @mousterpiece, Slate, The Independent, The Week, The Wrap, NME, The Playlist, Vanity Fair, Jezebel, Variety, Publishers Weekly, Bookseller News and IndieWire

Todd Spangler / Variety:
FuboTV will become a wholly owned subsidiary of FaceBank, creating a combined company called FuboTV Inc, led by current FuboTV CEO David Gandler

Discussion: MediaPost, @xpangler, @xpangler, Broadcasting & Cable and The Streamable

Gilad Edelman / Wired:
A look at the growing movement to ban behavioral ad targeting, used by Facebook and others, and the implications: paywalls, a revived news media, and more

Discussion: @wired, @dhh, @ilvestoomas, @amondalek, @caitlin__kelly, @antoniocasilli and @antoniogm

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times Company acquires Audm, the subscription-based audio app that offers listeners longform articles read by actors and celebrities

Discussion: TechCrunch, @jbenton, @noahchestnut, @stphnfwlr, @film_girl, @awilkinson, @mikiebarb, @kerrymflynn, @nwquah and RAIN News, more at Techmeme »

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

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

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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