Mediagazer: UK-based ITV says it will restructure, creating a new media and entertainment division with broadcast and on-demand business units, amid the rise of streaming (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

11:45 AM ET, October 19, 2020

Top News:

A look at a pay-for-play network of ~1,300 sites and some papers that fills a local news void in the US with propaganda ordered by GOP and corporate PR groups — A nationwide operation of 1,300 local sites publishes coverage that is ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms.

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Sources: NY Post's article about Hunter Biden was written mostly by Bruce Golding, who did not allow his byline to be used amid doubts in the tabloid's newsroom — Some reporters withheld their bylines and questioned the credibility of an article that made the tabloid's front page on Wednesday.

Vijaya Gadde / @vijaya:
[Thread] Twitter updates Hacked Materials Policy, says it won't remove content unless shared by hackers themselves and will label tweets instead of block links

New York Times:
Twitter says it is now letting the NY Post link be shared because the info had spread so widely that it can no longer be considered private

The Markup:

The Markup announces The Citizen Browser Project, an initiative with The NYT to analyze how the algorithms of Facebook and YouTube serve content to users — The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how the world's most powerful institutions use technology to reshape society …

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Mark Burnett, the TV producer behind Survivor, Trump's The Apprentice, and The Voice, is facing his own string of flops and a cultural disconnect, for now — Mark Burnett helped turn Donald Trump into a national figure with “The Apprentice.” But since 2016, his impact “has kind of gone bust.”

Discussion: @rstephens, @markberman, @yashar, @elongreen, @thrasherxy, @fmanjoo, @alexmleo, @rowaenthe, @felixsalmon, @chrismegerian, @nycsouthpaw and Wall Street Journal

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Apple launches Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos, available in the US on Apple's Music and TV apps — Apple has launched Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos that will also include “exclusive new music videos and premiers …

Discussion: The Streamable, TechCrunch, The Verge, @dsilverman, @sam_l_shead, @patrickmcgee_, Engadget, @tzm_tmt and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Online Journalism Awards:

2020 Online Journalism Awards announced: winners include South China Morning Post, The 1619 Project, Reuters, Star Tribune for coverage of George Floyd's death — Finalists for the 2020 OJAs have been announced and are listed below! Winners will be announced at virtual awards events throughout ONA20 Everywhere, Oct. 1-16.

Discussion: @ona, @ona, The Marshall Project, @ona, @ona, @washpostpr, @froomkin and @inn

Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.vc:

Audio, which struggled for decades as a media category, is breaking out now, as tech enables new content formats as well as new monetization and delivery models — As most of the major media categories — music, video and video games — have existed for decades, we tend to forget that media is technology.

Discussion: @ballmatthew, @oaktree_dave, @rameeztase, Drinking from the Firehose, @adamsinger, @patrick_oshag and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

UK-based ITV says it will restructure, creating a new media and entertainment division with broadcast and on-demand business units, amid the rise of streaming — “The restructure will drive improvements in efficiency and reduce cost,” with the TV giant also looking at its London real estate.

CNN:

AMC starts offering private theater rentals for between $99 and $349 in most US states, excluding New York, Alaska, and Hawaii — (CNN)A crisp Benjamin Franklin can get you your own private AMC movie theater. — AMC Theatres joins a handful of cinemas letting customers rent out auditoriums …

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Verge, IndieWire, New York Post and WAVY-TV

Dave McNary / Variety:

Study: women made up 38% of directors and 35% of writers of indie narrative features and docs from 2019-2020, with female directors doubling in the last decade — The percentages of women working as directors and writers on independent films reached recent highs in 2019-2020, according to a report released Thursday.

Discussion: Deadline and The Wrap

Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:

Group Nine's animal-centric video brand The Dodo takes a minority stake in pet insurer Petplan, which will be renamed Fetch by The Dodo in May 2021 — Group Nine has taken a minority stake in Petplan, the animal insurer. The venture will be rebranded next year as ‘Fetch by The Dodo’

Discussion: @sizpatel, @groupninemedia and @media_evan

Daniel Cooper / Engadget:

Virtual studios, where the filmmaking takes place in front of a halo of flat screen displays connected to PCs, are offering a real alternative to green screens — For as long as filmmaking has existed, there has been a need to build fantastic worlds in front of cameras.

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: as Facebook curbed political news in 2017, Zuckerberg OK'ed tweaks affecting sites like Mother Jones after some execs worried about impact on the right — Facebook's chief, once uninterested, has transformed himself into an active political operator in the Trump era

Discussion: @clarajeffery, Ad Age, @zephyrteachout, @maxkennerly, @richarddeitsch, The Verge, @deggans, @ukskies, @carolecadwalla, Gizmodo, @leakthompson, @juddlegum, @erikwemple, @suehalpernvt, @jason_kint, @felienne, @su4ita, @patrickclaybon, @brooklynmarie, @pomeranian99, @grady_booch, @davidcorndc, @monikabauerlein, @_cingraham, @_cingraham, @scobleizer, @brianbeutler, @jason_kint, @dlind, @migueldeicaza, @bendreyfuss, @davidfolkenflik, @mondoweiss, @alex_abads, @nickmartin, @emilybell, @govhowarddean, @jameswest2010, @khanoisseur, @nabihasyed, @juddlegum, @slhamlet, @davidcorndc, @dethveggie, @becketadams, @professorisin, @maxberger, @bgrueskin, @andreabellemare, @alxthomp, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @juddlegum, @slpng_giants, @lindsayschrupp, @lindsayschrupp, @lindsayschrupp, @mccarthyryanj, @lindsayschrupp, @steven_strauss, @jason_kint, @taraemcg, @leavittalone, @taraemcg, @anthony, @mathewi, The Week and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

Ben Dreyfuss / Mother Jones:
Mother Jones' growth director recalls a sharp drop in Facebook reach in 2017 and '18, after WSJ reveals that algorithmic changes were made with politics in mind

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Reese Oxner / NPR:
Disney+ has updated the disclaimer appearing before some of its classic films with stronger language acknowledging the “harmful impact” of racist stereotypes

Discussion: MediaPost, Business Insider, The Wrap, New York Times, Gizmodo, Hollywood Reporter, Collider, IGN, Digital Spy, What's On Disney Plus, Forbes, Reuters, Comic Book, Animation Magazine, Upworthy, BBC, CNN, IndieWire, Cord Cutters News, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, The A.V. Club, CNET and /Film

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Katherine Jacobsen / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Interviews with three foreign reporters on their experiences covering the US now, visa issues, safety concerns they have when going out into the field, and more

Lauren Harris / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with the director of the NewStart initiative, which aims to connect people interested in newspaper ownership with owners looking to sell

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Earlier Picks:

Paul O'Donnell / Dallas Morning News:
Journalists at The Dallas Morning News and Al Día have voted 84-28 in favor of a union, in an election overseen by the NLRB

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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Comcast's NBCUniversal and some PE firms approached Disney earlier this year about acquiring Hulu or operating it as a partnership, but were rebuffed

Discussion: The Desk, Gizmodo, @business, @technology, @modestproposal1, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @digitalshields, @lucas_shaw, @masasoncap, @entstrategyguy, @masasoncap, @theericgoldman, @theericgoldman, @johnjedwards3, @theericgoldman and The Streamable

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU data protection authority finds IAB Europe's GDPR consent framework, adopted by Google and others, fails to meet required legal standards of data protection

From Techmeme:

Emilia David / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts Phi-3 Mini, a small 3.8B-parameter model about as capable as GPT-3.5, and plans Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium models with 7B and 14B parameters

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta rolls out multimodal AI in early access for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, mainly to help identify objects, translate signs, and write Instagram captions

Counterpoint Research:
iPhone sales in China fell 19.1% YoY to a 15.7% share in Q1 2024; Vivo fell 0.4% YoY to 17.4%, Honor rose 11.5% YoY to 16.1%, and Huawei rose 69.7% YoY to 15.5%

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