Mediagazer: A look at “dirtbag-left” podcasts like Chapo Trap House, that pair socialist ideas with the rhetorical style of social media, as some pivot away from politics (Andrew Marantz/New Yorker)

4:10 PM ET, July 28, 2021

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Leah Finnegan / Gawker:

Gawker, now owned by Bustle, relaunches with Leah Finnegan as editor-in-chief — When Bustle Digital Group first approached me to revive Gawker last year, I said absolutely no way in hell. Who in God's name would want to edit a website that was cratered by an evil tech lord and sullied by a botched relaunch?

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Spotify Q2: revenue of €2.3B, up 23% YoY, ad revenue up 110% YoY to €275M; paying subscribers reached 165M, up 20% YoY, total MAUs reached 365M; stock down 6%+ — Spotify, citing ongoing headwinds from the COVID pandemic, fell short of its total monthly user growth goal in the second quarter of 2021.

Michael Barthel / Pew Research Center:

State of US news media in 2020: newspapers made more money from circulation than from ads for the first time, cable news saw explosive audience growth, and more — Every two years, Pew Research Center updates its series of fact sheets on the U.S. news media industry, tracking key audience …

Discussion: Pew Research Center, American Press Institute, @pewresearch, @pewjournalism, @michaelbarthel, @pewjournalism, @jenmercieca, @pewresearch, @pewjournalism, @michaelbarthel, @pewjournalism and @pewjournalism

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

NBA partners with iHeartMedia to develop a slate of daily and weekly podcasts using NBA's audio archives — - Basketball league will mine its archive for rare audio clips — Radio giant will handle sales, distribution and production — The National Basketball Association is developing …

Discussion: Variety, Awful Announcing, insideradio.com, @lucas_shaw and AllAccess.com

K.J. Yossman / Variety:

Comcast-owned British broadcaster Sky announces a major rebrand of its channel portfolio, including the retirement of flagship channel Sky One after 30+ years — Comcast-owned British broadcaster Sky has announced a major rebrand of its channel portfolio, including the retirement of its flagship channel Sky One.

Discussion: @sothcott, @vk_hm, @thebarrylad, @adammaguire, @scottygb, Hollywood Reporter, @grifftannen, NME, @_jamieogrady, @mohammedali_93 and Deadline

Maria Sheahan / Reuters:

Swiss publisher Ringier buys out Axel Springer in Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; Ringier and Axel Springer's Poland JV will remain — BERLIN (Reuters) - Swiss publisher Ringier is buying out its partner Axel Springer in Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Estonia …

Discussion: Press Gazette and @jeffjarvis

Andrew Marantz / New Yorker:

A look at “dirtbag-left” podcasts like Chapo Trap House, that pair socialist ideas with the rhetorical style of social media, as some pivot away from politics — For years, “Chapo Trap House” and other podcasts have paired anti-capitalist ideas with the rhetorical style of social media.

Discussion: @logo_daedalus, @tuslersaurus, bookforum.com, @dandiaasad, @imjasondiamond and @arminrosen

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:

AT&T is selling Vrio Corp., its DirecTV business unit in Latin America, to Grupo Werthein, after taking a $4.6B impairment charge — AT&T has sold 100% of Vrio Corp. business in Latin America to Grupo Werthhein. — Vrio provides live and on-demand video services via DirecTV Latin America …

Discussion: The Fast Mode, Business Wire and Reuters

Max Willens / Digiday:

Sources: LinkedIn is testing LinkedIn Premium News, which gives Premium members access to paywalled content published by sites that use Piano's paywall tech — LinkedIn would like to broaden the base of people shelling out money for its premium membership, and it's hoping that access …

Discussion: @dmitryshishkin, @jeremarketer and @maxwillens

Erik Pedersen / Deadline:

PBS leads the nominations for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with 52 nominations; CNN is second with 41, CBS with 30, ABC with 22, and Vice with 20 — PBS leads the nominations for the 42nd annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, as it usually does, this year scoring 52 noms over last year's 48.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

UK's ITV says its ad revenue grew 29% YoY in H1 2021, up 87% in May and 115% in June; ITV now has 3M global subs and BritBox International has 2M subs — CEO Carolyn McCall said the U.K. TV giant is “emerging from the worst effects of the pandemic.” — U.K. TV giant ITV reported …

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Contentful, which offers APIs to let companies manage content, raises $175M Series F led by Tiger Global at a ~$3B valuation, after a $80M Series E in June 2020 — Contentful this morning announced a $175 million Series F round of capital, led by Tiger Global, valuing the unicorn at around $3 billion.

Discussion: @chiefmartec and @danielnewmanuv, more at Techmeme »

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