Mediagazer: Amazon acquires Art19, a major podcast hosting and monetization platform, for an undisclosed sum (Ashley Carman/The Verge)

12:15 PM ET, June 25, 2021

Top News:

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Google will delay plans to block third-party cookies from early 2022 to late 2023, to find ways to protect privacy without hurting ad-dependent publishers — It takes time to fix privacy problems without hurting ad-dependent websites, the search giant says.

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:

BuzzFeed announces plans to go public via SPAC merger, targeting a $1.5B valuation, and will acquire digital publisher Complex Networks for $300M — BuzzFeed, a 15-year-old digital media company, announced Thursday it plans to go public via a merger with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company.

Discussion: @felixsalmon, CNBC, @buzzfeedpr, Variety, CNN, @pkafka, Fortune, Insider, Vanity Fair, @froomkin, Reuters, Axios, The Verge, Business Wire, @ashkan, Digiday, @emilybell, @davecoion, @alexkotch, @kustoo, @rafat, @stevekovach, @ellievhall, @mathowie, @mylesudland, Vox, New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Hill, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Bloomberg, Yahoo Entertainment, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek and bookforum.com

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's largest commercial publisher Reach says it will hire an online safety editor, the first of its kind in UK, to tackle “endemic” abuse of its journalists — Reach has created an online safety editor role, the first of its kind in the UK, to tackle “endemic” abuse and harassment of its journalists “head on”.

Discussion: Reach Jobs, HullLive, @alisongow, gbnews.uk, @mrjohncrowley, @jonbir90, @davidbartlett1, @davidhiggerson, @kristian_walsh, @rasmus_kleis and HoldtheFrontPage

Gabby Miller / Columbia Journalism Review:

NY's Ulster Publishing survived the pandemic by ceasing separate print editions for towns in the Hudson Valley and consolidating them into a countywide paper — In late March, just as the pandemic was beginning to ravage the news industry with a slew of furloughs, pay cuts, and more …

Discussion: @jcstearns, @__gabbymiller, American Press Institute, The Guardian and @helaineolen

Bob Papper / RTDNA:

Research: POC make up 27.7% of local TV news workforce in the US; all local TV newsrooms have women on the news team; 85% of radio news workforce is white — Graphics credits: Chandler Claire Dewgard / Syracuse University — This is the fifth and final installment of this year's RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey.

Discussion: TV Technology, @deborahabc17 and @spj_tweets

Karen Fischer / The Verge:

How Navajo Nation radio stations connected with listeners during the pandemic, dealt with folk remedies for COVID, and helped with donations — KTNN radio station's headquarters in St. Michaels, Arizona is less than ten minutes away from the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock …

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Amazon acquires Art19, a major podcast hosting and monetization platform, for an undisclosed sum — Art19 goes to Amazon Music — Amazon Music is getting more serious about its podcast endeavors. Today, the company announced that it's acquiring Art19, a major podcast hosting and monetization platform for an undisclosed sum.

Discussion: Variety, Tubefilter, Marketing Dive, @kintan, @ashleyrcarman, @jyarow, @highfiverpg, @jesselehrich, @techwontsaveus and AppleInsider, more at Techmeme »

Ali Breland / Mother Jones:

Journalists say Amazon's PR team uses aggressive, manipulative, and sometimes outright deceptive tactics to intimidate and mislead reporters — Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

more at Techmeme »

Abid Rahman / Hollywood Reporter:

Recording Academy and its former CEO Deborah Dugan reach an agreement over her termination amid allegations of workplace bullying — Dugan left the body that organizes the Grammys in acrimonious circumstances in March 2020.

Discussion: Variety and New York Times

Jim Salter / Associated Press:

Three Al Jazeera journalists who were tear-gassed in Ferguson have settled a lawsuit with the county, which has agreed to pay $280K — Three journalists with Al Jazeera who were tear-gassed during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown's death in 2014 have settled a lawsuit …

Discussion: Kansas City Star, @gregghoush, @coreyhutchins, @melissakchan, @timjeby and Newsweek

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Microsoft adds integrations with local news creators and authors to highlight local sources and support people with donations in Windows 11 — Support local news with your leftover Microsoft points — Supporting local news sources is suddenly something the tech industry worries about …

Discussion: The Fix and @patreon

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Murdoch asks UK govt to abolish legal restraints on his interference in the editorial independence of the Times and Sunday Times, paving the way for a merger — News UK asks government to scrap legal curbs at Times and Sunday Times, paving way for full-blown merger

Discussion: @jimrhoughton, @bat020, @m0kujin, @johntwelvetrees, @nicholasguyatt and @realnatalierowe

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More News:

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
JW Player, a video streaming and analytics service used by major companies like Viacom, raises $100M Series E from LLR Partners

Discussion: TechCrunch and Wall Street Journal

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Snap and Universal Music Group strike a licensing deal that lets users share songs in messages and posts; financial terms were not disclosed

Discussion: Ad Age, UMG, Billboard, @lucas_shaw, The Mac Observer, TechCrunch, Variety, Billboard and The Verge

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
OpenAP and AT&T's Xandr, once seen as staunch rivals, strike a strategic data alliance that would let Xandr clients use Open AP's defined audience segments

Discussion: Ad Age, FierceVideo, MediaPost and Adweek

Megan Graham / CNBC:
Innovid, an ad tech company focused on connected television, says it is going public via SPAC merger at an implied valuation of around $1.3B

Discussion: @megancgraham, AdExchanger and Adweek

Catie Keck / The Verge:
NBCUniversal's Peacock app will be available on Fire TV products starting June 24, as part of a deal that will see 15 NBCUniversal apps arrive on Amazon devices

Discussion: The Streamable, The Wrap, New York Post, MediaPost, FierceVideo, ScreenRant and Wall Street Journal

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
UK government bans junk food advertising online and before 9pm on TV from 2023, which could cost broadcasters more than £200M annually in revenue

Discussion: @nzcancerso, Understandably.com, @thecartoonloon, @eu_cocreate, @doomercoomer, @cjsnowdon, @wcrf_uk, @drsubhasree, The Hill, Politico, The High Octane Report, The Guardian and HoldtheFrontPage

Earlier Picks:

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
Nielsen: those who listen to a podcast one to three times per month now make up nearly half of all listeners; comedy and news are the biggest podcast genres

Bloomberg:
A look at venture units at ITV and Channel 4 that trade TV ads for startup equity; Channel 4 launched its fund in 2015, holding and exiting a Pinterest stake

Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Airlines are retiring their in-flight magazines globally, citing digital entertainment and claiming removing the heavy magazines reduces carbon emissions

EJ Dickson / Rolling Stone:
Profile of David Dobrik, a YouTuber notorious for goofy pranks who earned an estimated $15.5M in 2020, and is now under fire for turning trauma into content

Discussion: @linzasaur, @kalhanr, @andykroll, @rebexxxxa, @itsthebrandi, @amyxwang, @rollingstone, @digiphile, @mathewi and Insider

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Reuters Institute report: US ranks last among 46 countries for trust in media, with just 29% saying they trust the news; Finland has the highest trust at 65%

From Techmeme:

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Cisco details a hacking campaign that penetrated multiple governments' networks using two zero-day flaws in its VPN and firewall Adaptive Security Appliances

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
IBM agrees to buy HashiCorp, which helps companies manage cloud infrastructure, in a deal valuing HashiCorp at $6.4B and expected to close by the end of 2024

Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors charge two founders of Samourai Wallet, saying the crypto mixing service facilitated more than $100M in money laundering transactions

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