Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook's new policy will label as political any promoted content by US news outlets with direct ties to political groups and ban them from the News tab — Facebook is rolling out a new policy that will prevent U.S. news publishers with “direct, meaningful ties” to political groups …
Discussion:
@emilybell, @dellcam, @arawnsley, @persily, @robpegoraro, @newslitproject, @nickpacilio, @cjr, @mathewi and @kellykborn
Sara Fischer / Axios:
SimilarWeb: ~59% of traffic to Trump's campaign website from May to July came from The Gateway Pundit and Citizen Free Press, a fringe-right news aggregator — Traffic to President Trump's presidential website is more than 4x greater than traffic to Joe Biden's presidential website …
Discussion:
Crain's New York Business, @mikemadden and @bencjacobs
New York Times:
A case study of a story about Bible burning in Portland, covered by RT and its Ruptly video service, then amplified by US right-wing media and politicians — WASHINGTON — For some of President Trump's loudest cheerleaders, it was a story too good to check out: Black Lives Matters protesters in Portland …
Discussion:
@bymikebaker, Oregonian, The Independent, The Hill, @mollyjongfast, @karoli, @jason_kint, @jimrutenberg, @clairecmc, The Slot and @jessedamiani
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Researchers find network of 178 hyperpartisan low-quality news sites whose underlying purpose is to collect and sell email addresses and other personal info — The reality curated by “The Bearded Patriot” and “The Wolf of Washington” is dismal. — The websites tell of nonstop riots and “crazed leftists.”
Discussion:
@isaacstanbecker, @washpostbiz, @davidclinchnews, @josh_braun, @brianstelter, @anneapplebaum, @seth_hettena, @craigsilverman and @dfrlab
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
In a new filing, Microsoft adds Netflix, Hulu, and Tencent to its list of competitors, saying its gaming services compete with other entertainment providers — Microsoft may be toying with the idea of buying Tik-Tok, but more than ever, its bread-and-butter is basic cloud services and server software for businesses.
Discussion:
@pkafka, @toddbishop, @dylanbyers and @jbflint
Rachael Myrow / KQED:
California public radio station KQED announces layoffs of 20 staff to help address a projected $7.1M budget gap, blaming a sharp corporate sponsorship decline — KQED announced Monday it is laying off 20 staff members, representing 5.5% of its workforce, while a handful of other employees had their hours reduced.
Discussion:
@sciencequiche, @lilyjamali, @sonipaul, @ezraromero, @chroniclesofazu, @okcouncil, @nickmiller510, @kqed, @mcgowankat, @s_m_i, @science_ari and @peterhartlaub
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Fox News to launch live-streaming outlet Fox News International in August for $6.99/month, starting in Mexico and expanding to 20 countries by the end of 2020 — Fox Corp. is joining the parade of big U.S. media companies seeking to stream their best-known content abroad.
Bloomberg:
CuriosityStream, a streaming service for documentaries on science and history, has agreed to go public through a ~$330M merger with Software Acquisition Group — CuriosityStream, a streaming platform for documentaries on science, history and other topics, has agreed to go public through …
Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:
Tencent Music reports Q2 net income of $135M, up 1.4% YoY, on revenue of $997M, up 18% YoY; paid users rose 52% YoY to 47.1M — Munsif Vengattil, Pei Li — (Reuters) - China's Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) (TME.N) said on Monday its quarterly revenue leaped 18% …
Discussion:
Tencent Music and TechCrunch
Frank Blethen / The Seattle Times:
Seattle Times publisher endorses initiatives to help local news and local ownership in WA, where 84% of the top 50 regional metro papers aren't locally owned — Dear Reader, This week is The Seattle Times' 124th birthday. To my knowledge, we are now the second-oldest regional newspaper in the country with local stewardship.
Discussion:
@nickcharles61 and @hbernton
Reid Nakamura / The Wrap:
The anti-Trump episode of Black-ish that was canned by ABC in 2018 and led its creator Kenya Barris to sign with Netflix finally debuts on Hulu — The canned episode of “Black-ish” that led to a dispute between Disney and creator Kenya Barris, and Barris eventually decamping for a new deal at Netflix …
Discussion:
Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Fast Company, Vanity Fair, NME, Los Angeles Times, /Film, @laceyvrose, Paradox Newsletter, The Verge, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Vanity Fair and Decider
Sara Fischer / Axios:
NYT is researching launching a standalone subscription for Wirecutter, akin to existing ones for Cooking and Crosswords — The New York Times is in the early stages of researching a consumer subscription for its product recommendation site Wirecutter, according to a job description posted on LinkedIn.
Discussion:
@studyhallxyz, @seangriffey, @myurow, @simonowens, @jessicalessin and Talking Biz News