Mediagazer: In the UK, Newsquest's pre-tax profits fell 88% YoY to £13.4M on revenue of £187.7M in 2019; it closed 10 newspapers and cut 9% of editorial staff, down to 676 (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

6:45 PM ET, November 3, 2020

Top News:

Nicholas Quah / Hot Pod News:

Q&A with Casey Newton on Spotify's need to articulate a content policy after the latest Rogan-Jones episode and its transition from infrastructure to publisher — I've been following Casey Newton's work for closely quite some time now, particularly over the past few years as he's zeroed …

Discussion: Vulture, @caseynewton, @evelyndouek, @nwquah and FullFlow

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: AT&T in talks to sell a significant minority stake in DirecTV, AT&T Now, and U-Verse pay-TV, where the buyer would run pay-TV distribution operations — - AT&T is considering selling significant minority stake in DirecTV, AT&T Now and U-Verse pay-TV operations.

Discussion: @sherman4949, The Streamable, New York Post, Light Reading, Hollywood Reporter, @sherman4949, @claireatki and Cord Cutters News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Comcast is in talks with Walmart to develop and distribute smart TVs, as the cable giant looks to become a dominant hub for streaming apps — Under the terms being discussed, the retail giant would promote TV sets running Comcast software and receive share of recurring revenue

Discussion: The Desk, Variety, The Streamable, Light Reading, Cord Cutters News, @sizpatel, @lilliannnn, @anthony and @tkgore

Chris Erik Thomas / Study Hall:

Q&A with FiveThirtyEight visual journalist Jasmine Mithani on its new model that incorporates some lessons from 2016, its mascot Fivey Fox, and more — Mithani, part of the team behind FiveThirtyEight's popular election forecast, talks about education, doomscrolling, and rejected mascots.

Discussion: Rolling Stone and @kerrymflynn

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

TV news networks say they gamed out how to handle initial vote tabulations that could be misleading and are prepared to push back on false claims by candidates — Networks have gamed out how to handle initial vote tabulations that could be misleading, causing a ‘red mirage’ or ‘blue mirage’

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @dartcenter, @rasmus_kleis, @mariaramirezny, @rasmus_kleis, @rasmus_kleis, @benmullin, @asharma, @brianstelter and CNN

Jack Nicas / New York Times:

Study: YouTube's recent efforts to reduce recommendations of misinfo from fringe channels worked, but Fox News is now the most recommended for election videos — To battle false information, YouTube cut its recommendations to fringe channels and instead promoted major networks, especially Fox News.

Discussion: @jacknicas, @oliverdarcy, @random_walker, @jessreports, @mmasnick, @mhbergen, @jacknicas, @caseynewton, @diakayyali, @drewharwell and @oakmorr, more at Techmeme »

Emily Palmer / New York Times:

Q&A with NYT Audience editors Anna Dubenko and Jake Grovum on their social media plan for the election, balancing speed and accuracy over multiple days — Two digital experts for The Times discuss what they anticipate for a busy night and beyond. — Times Insider explains …

Discussion: @emilybell, @emilyepalmer, @annadubenko, @jgrovum and bookforum.com

Axios:

Facebook says it will rely on election results from Reuters, the Associated Press, and six independent decision desks at major media outlets it didn't identify — Facebook said Monday it would be relying on consensus results from the National Election Pool/Edison via Reuters, the Associated Press …

Discussion: Variety, The Media Nut, Wired, CNBC and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Twitter says it will use at least two sources, from among ABC News, AP, CNN, CBS News, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, and NBC News, to call US election results

Discussion: Variety, @twittersupport, Wired, این …, Politico, The Daily Beast, @justinhendrix, @mmasnick, @twittersupport, @davmicrot, @larakate, @carnage4life, The Wrap, @judiciarygop, @sarafischer, @sarafischer and Breitbart

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Hulu enables Watch Party social viewing on Hulu.com for its live-streamed election coverage, provided by ABC News, the first time it's done so for a live event — Hulu is bringing its Watch Party social viewing feature to its live-streamed election news coverage, provided via its existing partnership with ABC News Live.

Discussion: The Streamable

Lucinda Southern / Adweek:

WaPo launches Signal, a first-party tool for ad buyers that combines consumption data with contextual ad targeting ability to ensure more accurate ad delivery — New in-house tool Signal taps first-party data for the publisher's network — The Washington Post has developed …

Discussion: @dcnorg and @jarroddicker

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:

Profile of video hosting site Rumble, which has become a home to right-wing figures like Dan Bongino and Devin Nunes, and says it had 60M unique visitors in Oct — As the CEOs of Twitter, Google, and Facebook testified before the US Senate just weeks before the election …

Discussion: @craigsilverman and Protocol

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

In the UK, Newsquest's pre-tax profits fell 88% YoY to £13.4M on revenue of £187.7M in 2019; it closed 10 newspapers and cut 9% of editorial staff, down to 676 — Newsquest Media Group's pre-tax profits fell by 88% from £108m to £13.4m last year, according to its latest Companies House filing.

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More News:

Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Spotify begins rolling out support for streaming audio from its standalone Apple Watch app

Discussion: TechCrunch, @mcwm and Appleosophy, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Snapchat now lets creators display their subscriber counts, the first time Snapchat has given users any public-facing metric of their audience or followers

Discussion: Tubefilter, The Wrap, Variety and @thekenyeung, more at Techmeme »

Thomson Reuters:
Thomson Reuters says Q3 revenue rose 2% YoY to $1.44B with operating profit of $318M; Reuters News had revenue of $154M, down 2% YoY

Discussion: Reuters

Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Management at McClatchy's Fort Worth Star-Telegram voluntarily recognizes union for newsroom employees

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Fox reports $2.72B in Q1 revenue with overall ad revenue falling 7% YoY to $969M due to loss of live sports, but Fox News ad revenue rose 18% YoY

Discussion: Adweek, TVNewser, MediaPost, Radio & Television …, @jbflint, Variety, The Wrap, The Wrap, @richlightshed, The Wrap, @bristei, Hollywood Reporter and @jbflint

Nathan Bomey / USA Today:
Gannett Q3: $31.3M net loss on $814.5M revenue, down 19.5% YoY; 1.03M paid online subs, up 31.1% YoY; print ad rev down 30.9% YoY; digital ad rev down 13.5% YoY

Discussion: @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, @mattderienzo, @nathanbomey and @jmhaigh

Earlier Picks:

Tim Peterson / Digiday:
An in-depth look at the fall of CNN's Great Big Story short-form video subsidiary, founded in 2015, which failed to meet sales goals and turn a profit

Discussion: @simonowens and @doctoryasmin

Julia Alexander / The Verge:
At its one year anniversary, the Apple TV+ service is getting better each month, but it is still not where Apple needs it to be

Discussion: @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia and @fiene

CNBC:
YouTube says it will end full-day masthead ad reservations in 2021, to give “advertisers more budget flexibility”, says change is not connected to the election

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Quibi mulled options like a freemium model and had 450K subs paying $4.99/mo. when it closed, far less than the 7.4M it targeted for its first year

Discussion: @benmullin, @pkafka, @awallenstein, @ugarles, @emilybell, @wsj, @seldo, @tomgara, @tsimonite, @claireatki, @kerrymflynn, @chrisreimer, @benmullin, @pt, @rachel_pick, @benmullin, @benfritz, @benyt, @benmullin, @asharma, @benmullin, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
TikTok signs deal with Sony to let its users keep using songs from Sony's labels; source: TikTok is paying Sony significantly more now than in its previous deal

Discussion: ScreenRant, TikTok, Digital TV Europe, DMS, Ad Age, @tiktok_comms, @adetolaov, @lucas_shaw, The Verge, The FADER, Variety, TechCrunch, Adweek and Tubefilter

Ben Smith / New York Times:
Since 2016, Trump's ongoing spectacle has slowed the decline of legacy media, but this election, regardless of who wins, marks the end of an era for the media

Discussion: @redsteeze, @benyt, @hamishmckenzie, Bloomberg, @nytimesbusiness, @kantrowitz, @esaagar, @oliverdarcy, @cwarzel, @mlcalderone, @benyt, @emorwee, @jayrosen_nyu, @lorenzofb, @tomgara, @nbj914, @stevesi, @mdudas, @pinboard, @bostonjoan, @zachstafford, @evelyndouek, @derekwillis, @mckaycoppins, @benyt, The Wrap, CNN and Protocol

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Donald Trump announces that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at a16z, will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House OSTP

Financial Times:
Sources: Palantir and Anduril are in talks with OpenAI, SpaceX, and more to form a consortium to bid for US defense contracts and plan to announce it in January

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