Mediagazer: Spotify unveils two initiatives to support the music community: matching donations up to $10M and plans to let artists fundraise directly from Spotify listeners (Jem Aswad/Variety)

10:10 AM ET, March 25, 2020

Top News:

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Fox News anchors, from its supposedly hard-hitting news division, failed to challenge Trump as he repeatedly misled viewers during the coronavirus town hall — New York (CNN Business)Anchors at Fox News failed to meaningfully challenge President Trump as he repeatedly misled …

Discussion: Media Nation, Washington Post, Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, Hollywood Reporter, @oliverdarcy, @dougkass, @juddapatow, @speechboy71, @sulliview, The Wrap, Mediaite and New York Times

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Fox News will hold a two-hour virtual town hall today with Trump and members of the coronavirus task force; there will be no White House briefing today

Discussion: @tvietor08, @morningmika, @miriamelder, Fox News and The Hill

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Some major towns in the UK lose their only print newspaper, leaving self-isolating older people without trusted news sources, as JPI Media suspends 12 titles — Many self-isolating older people left without trusted news source as presses stop rolling — Major towns including Milton Keynes …

Discussion: Press Gazette, @owen_g, @craigsilverman, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @jimwaterson

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
UK's Newsquest, with ~200 newspapers and magazines, is furloughing a “significant number” of staff, who will get 80% of their salaries; others get pay cuts

Discussion: @markdistef, @markdistef, @markdistef, @chrisburn_post and @markdistef

Anjuli Patil / CBC News:

Atlantic Canada's largest newspaper chain SaltWire Network says it is temporarily laying off 40% of its staff and shutting down all its weekly publications — All SaltWire weeklies temporarily shutting down amid loss of ads due to COVID-19 — Atlantic Canada's largest newspaper chain …

Discussion: CBC News, @robertmmahoney, @johngushue, @mathewi and @jbenton

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Spotify unveils two initiatives to support the music community: matching donations up to $10M and plans to let artists fundraise directly from Spotify listeners — Spotify today announced a pair of initiatives to support the creative community in the wake of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic …

Discussion: The Wrap, NME and Music Business Worldwide

ProPublica:

In the last two weeks, several US conservative radio hosts were telling millions of listeners that the coronavirus furor is a politically motivated overreaction — More than 160 million Americans have been urged to stay home in what the World Health Organization has declared a global pandemic.

Discussion: @jackgillum, @doctoryasmin, @jackgillum, @wendellpierce and Vox

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Subscription tech service Piano says US digital subscriptions rose 63% YoY in the past week while European newspaper subs across its network grew 267% YoY — Publishers are seeing a spike in subscriptions over the last four weeks in the U.S. and Europe, fueled by readers' appetite to stay …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @simonowens, @jason_kint, @kerrymflynn, @larakiara, @durgaraghunath and What's New in Publishing

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Esquire has quietly trimmed its print edition to six per year, down from eight, and says the reduction is not coronavirus-related but to improve print quality — Popular men's magazine Esquire has quietly trimmed its print edition to six per year — down from eight, Media Ink has learned.

Dani Deahl / The Verge:

Concert notification service Bandsintown partners with Twitch to let artists fast-track new Twitch accounts to Affiliate status, unlocking monetization tools — Bandsintown artists with 2,000 trackers or more are eligible — Concert notification service Bandsintown has partnered with Twitch …

Discussion: @jimmywhis

HBO PR:

HBO says time spent with HBO Now since March 14 is up 40% from its four-week average; overall viewing across its portfolio grew nearly 20% during the same time — This post is by Cheryl Idell, Chief Research Officer, WarnerMedia Entertainment & Direct-to-Consumer.

Discussion: @dylanbyers, @nickwingfield, @koblin, @lucas_shaw, IndieWire, The Streamable, The Wrap and CNET

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Google brings its Podcasts app to iOS and unveils a redesign of Android app, with users' listening habits syncable across platforms via Google Podcasts for Web — Just in time for our collective house arrests, Google has unveiled a redesigned version of Podcasts.

more at Techmeme »

Michael McCarthy / Front Office Sports:

Newsrooms adjust to the absence of sports with suspended or diminished sports sections, reporters redeployed to new beats, and creative story ideas — - Washington Post redeploying some sports reporters to Coronavirus coverage, while Boston Globe goes to the well for story ideas.

Discussion: @mmccarthyrev, @mmccarthyrev and @frntofficesport

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Nielsen says local news viewing in the top 25 markets was up 6.9% for the week of March 9 compared to the previous week, with about a 10% increase in ages 18-54 — Nielsen said even kids are watching newscasts — Local news is seeking an increase in viewing as people seek the latest information on the Coronavirus crisis.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewsCheck, @tvnewscheck and MediaPost

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Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

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More News:

Laura Mallonee / Wired:
Photojournalists on the front lines in China, Italy, and the US share their experiences of documenting life amid COVID-19 while trying to stay safe and sane

Discussion: @wired, @janisfrayer, @mattmckibben and @davidmryder

Scott Nover / Adweek:
Pinterest introduces a new Today tab, a hub for curated topics and trending posts managed by an editorial team, as users flock to the service amid the pandemic

Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Baldwin / O'Reilly Media:
O'Reilly Media announces it is canceling all of its upcoming in-person conferences and permanently shutting down that portion of its business

Discussion: @benhammersley, @avibryant, @liztormato, @sarahm, @vmbrasseur, @knieriemen, @reza_zadeh, @ruv, @waxpancake, @krishnan, @lauraabaldwin and @lauraabaldwin, more at Techmeme »

Instagram:
Instagram to remove some coronavirus-related content and accounts from recommendations and Explore, with exceptions for credible health organizations

Discussion: MarTech Advisor, TechCrunch, @marklittlenews, New York Times, @taylorlorenz, XDA Developers, MIT Technology Review, Business Insider, Reuters, Android Central, CNET and Jezebel

Vijaya Gadde / Twitter:
Twitter is donating $500K each to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women's Media Foundation

Discussion: Axios, TechCrunch, @guyberger, @dzalcman, @laurajaselle, Adweek, @rifatorakzai, @brooklynmarie, @elanfear, @siobhan, @twitternews, @nedsegal, @nolabeth, @twitterforgood, @karlrobillard1, @vijaya, The Wrap, VentureBeat and The Hill

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
YouTube will change the default video resolution to standard definition worldwide for a month starting today to ease internet traffic

Discussion: USA Today, XDA Developers, @psilosophy, Wired, TechCrunch, Variety, Android Central, Fast Company, Business Insider, 9to5Google and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Patrick Frater / Variety:
The Olympics postponement means hundreds of hours of lost programming and lost revenue for NBCU, which had sold 90%+ of its ad inventory, valued at $1.25B+

Discussion: @frankpallotta, International Olympic …, @niemanlab, @tvmojoe, @tiffkhsu, @zeitchikwapo, The Wrap, CNN, Axios, Axios, Bloomberg, Forbes, Broadcasting & Cable, Business Insider and Adweek

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Mozilla launches Firefox Better Web with Scroll for Firefox tracking protection and Scroll's ad-free browsing experience for $2.50/mo. for the first six months

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”

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, New York Times, The Hill, @austinramzy, @goldkorn, @meslackman, @gerryshih, @davidnakamura, @relevantorgans, @voanews, @raju, @kenroth, The Wrap, Fox News, Reuters and The Guardian

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
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

Discussion: @maggienyt, BuzzFeed News, Vox, The Guardian, @mattyglesias, @maggienyt and Wired

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

Discussion: New York Times, @nrothschild3, Axios, @charliecookdc, @donlday, @koblin and @bristei

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

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered developing a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

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