Top News:
David Folkenflik / NPR:
NYT retracts the core of Caliphate after a review finds that the podcast gave too much credence to its central character and reassigns Rukmini Callimachi — Toggle more options — The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found …
Ben Collins / Nieman Lab:
Lots of Americans slipped into conspiracy thinking in the pandemic; we'll need news outlets and others to explain how fantasy took hold and how we can dig out — “We're going to have to learn to create a vocabulary to talk about how their friends fell down the wrong YouTube hole and came out speaking another language.”
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @oneunderscore__, @stphnfwlr, @oneunderscore__, The Daily Beast, @abbyohlheiser, @verambergen, @cwarzel, @katiejstrang, @oliverdarcy, @szechuan, @joshsternberg, @cor_mike_pres, @grace_segers, @abbyohlheiser, @amandakhurley, @riogringa, @scottnover, @nayebioskoui, @jesseherlitz, @shallowbrigade, @iwriteok, @kumailn, @matteomoschella, @jesseherlitz and @scottnover
Edmund Lee / New York Times:
Axios buys Charlotte Agenda, a North Carolina-based digital startup with a staff of 11, as part of a push into local news; sources say the deal was close to $5M — The site focuses on service journalism for North Carolina's largest city. Now it has been scooped up in a deal valued …
Discussion:
CNN, Charlotte Agenda, @brooksad, @emmakway, @milleryoho, @nytimesbusiness, @jasonwbade, @eatraleigh, @jeremymbarr, @nathanjmurphy, @hotlinejosh, @milleryoho, @thekendallbaker, @billvoth, @donlday, @aliciacbell, @sportsrapport, @heidilegg, @sneddymobbin, @billvoth, @billvoth, @ckrewson, @spencerrascoff, @benyt, @matt_mckenzie1, @ted_williams, @heyprofbow, @matt_mckenzie1, @peterhamby, @ylichterman, @maryfgross, @davemildenberg, @sarahscire, @crystalmariecom, @chaykak, @seandkennedy, @mjsolender, @nicktheandersen, @joannakakissis, @sarthakgh, @briandfrancis, @wxbrad, @katie_levans, @ssavitsky, @jbenton, @mikecooperjr, @tommytomlinson, @shanbow, @williamsjed, @bgrueskin, @emmakway, @michaelkruse, @kerrymflynn, @katieperalta, @andrew_dunn, @katie_levans, @katieperalta, @jyarow, @edmundlee and @edmundlee
Twitter:
Twitter says it will start its new verification policy on January 21 and is developing profile labels to designate bots and memorial accounts — A couple of weeks ago, we announced that we're planning to bring back our public verification program in 2021, shared a draft of our new policy …
Discussion:
@twittersupport, @oliverdarcy, @ecmclaughlin, @bruzanin, @mattnavarra, @lizkelley, @maxwildstein, @mayakaczorowski, @godisrivera, @janelytv, @danznewz, @bluechoochoo, @ketanj0, @hodgesmr, TechCrunch, @wongmjane, Adweek, ScreenRant, The Verge, Mashable, The Desk, 9to5Mac, Washingtonian and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
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Jack Morse / Mashable:
Twitter says it will stop prompting users to Quote Tweet, restoring the standard RT functionality, and says QT use increased but overall sharing dropped by 20%
Discussion:
@twittersupport, @twittersupport, @carolinesinders, @carnage4life, @henrymance, @robmanuel, @oliverjia1014, @javi_draws, @veronica, Adweek, Breitbart, @anthony, @jordanlperkins, @noupside, @jsstansel, @sistertoldjah, @carynrose, @luulubuu, @kevinbparry, @parkermolloy, @dacidbro, @digiphile, @twittersupport, 9to5Mac, Engadget, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, Reuters, Engadget and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:
As its revenue surges, Roku has become increasingly forceful in its negotiations with media companies, as evidenced by its fights with Fox and WarnerMedia — The maker of the leading streaming-media player has taken up brash negotiating tactics over its terms to carry services like HBO Max and Peacock
Discussion:
@rolfewinkler, @maxclark, @maxwellelliot, @wsj, @mylesudland, @asharma, @asharma, @mattbelloni, Variety and Wall Street Journal
Reza Chowdhury / AlleyWatch:
Comcast's FreeWheel, a TV advertising platform, buys Beeswax, a programmatic ad-tech platform founded in 2014; terms of the transaction were not disclosed — Beeswax, the programmatic ad-tech platform that offers “bidder-as-a-service”, has been acquired by FreeWheel, the digital TV advertising platform.
Discussion:
AdExchanger, FreeWheel, @aripap, Digital TV Europe, Adweek, Default HubSpot Blog, @jbrichman, FierceVideo and Radio & Television …
Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:
An investigation into who owns MindGeek, the secretive company behind Pornhub, which had $460M in revenue in 2018 and has 115M+ daily visitors to its sites — Mario Salieri was shooting a pornographic movie in a lavish Prague villa two decades ago when he first caught sight of the computer geeks who were about to upend his industry.
Nushin Rashidian / Columbia Journalism Review:
Facebook and Google increased funding for news outlets during the pandemic, becoming important patrons; publishers must remain vigilant about their influence — THE PANDEMIC FUNDING PUSH — In 2019, a director at a journalism foundation who worked closely with Facebook and Google wrestled …
Discussion:
@emilybell and @emilybell
Helene Fouquet / Bloomberg:
Tencent buys another 10% stake in Universal Music Group, adding to the 10% stake it bought last year, at the same valuation of €30B — - Vivendi plans to sell additional minority stakes in UMG — Deal values world's biggest music company at $30 billion euros
Discussion:
Variety, Complete Music Update and Reuters
Taylor Lorenz / Nieman Lab:
As journalists adopt influencer tactics for solo businesses, they'll see more drawbacks that influencers have faced, including reliance on fickle tech platforms — “Successful independent journalists will realize how difficult it can be to strike the right balance between cultivating enough …
Discussion:
@sophiasgaler, @petergyang, @andrewfeinberg, @radiotfb, @armano, @lpolgreen, @golikehellmachi, @radiotfb, @jaykapoornyc, @vincenzolandino, @stokel, @simonestolzoff, @taylorlorenz, @andrewfeinberg, @susannahbreslin, @micahloewinger, @taylorlorenz, @radiotfb, @dankennedy_nu, @taylorlorenz, @hunterwalk, @sachgau, @rossbarkan, @andrewfeinberg, @ibogost, @sarahsmacdonald, @mubashariqbal, @sachinrekhi, @taylorlorenz, @nwquah, @sullydish, @kattenbarge, @jamespmcleod, @nwquah, @meiragebel and TechCrunch
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Spotify is now available on the Epic Games Store, signaling Epic's ambitions to make its game-focused store into a general app store — Epic is in prolonged battles with Apple and Google over their app store business models — Spotify is now available on the Epic Games Store …
Discussion:
@dylanmcd8, PCGamesN, Polygon, Engadget and GameSpot, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
A startup called Gawq has launched a news app that organizes 150+ news sources; the app helps users compare sources, check facts, and even rate stories — A new startup called Gawq wants to tackle the problem of fake news and the “echo chamber” problem created by social media …
Discussion:
@petezin
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