Mediagazer: Activist investor Dan Loeb says his optimism of Disney+ has borne out, calls for Disney theatrical content to stream on Disney+ for no extra fee on release day (Scott Deveau/Bloomberg)

2:20 PM ET, August 9, 2021

Top News:

Andrew Marchand / New York Post:

Sources: MLB and Barstool Sports are in talks about a deal to create a new type of broadcast of national midweek games with a focus on in-game gambling — Major League Baseball and Barstool Sports have had significant negotiations about having national midweek games on the site's platforms, The Post has learned.

Discussion: @prof_gabriele, @markjburns88, @jay_jaffe and @natalieweiner

George Gene Gustines / New York Times:

A number of popular comic book creators, including DC Comics' James Tynion IV and Marvel's Nick Spencer, join Substack — A group of creators will publish new comic book stories, essays and how-to guides on the platform as a way to connect directly with fans.

Discussion: Substack, ScreenRant, @alex, @seyitaylor, @chrisalbon, @hamishmckenzie, @79semifinalist, @hamishmckenzie, The Empire of the Tiny Onion, @riteshwriter, @declanshalvey, @comicsbookcase, @georgegustines, @paulg, Polygon and Bleeding Cool

Lizzie Widdicombe / Vogue:

Profile of Jen Psaki, who some White House reporters credit with “lower[ing] the temperature” even as her briefings are not “exceptionally informative” — It's a summer Friday. President Biden is at his Delaware beach house, where he delivered a brief speech about that morning's encouraging jobs numbers.

Discussion: @noahshachtman, @brianstelter, @sabrinasingh46, @jacoblongstl, @emilylgoodin and @kmunoz46

Samuel Danzon-Chambaud / Columbia Journalism Review:

How nine news outlets used automation for reporting on the pandemic, from continuously updated charts to automated stories sent to Slack for journalists' review — For all the news organizations that have adopted automated journalism over the last decade or so, the COVID-19 pandemic …

Discussion: datajournalism.com, American Press Institute, @gijn and @danzonchambaud

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Roku adds 23 more Quibi shows to The Roku Channel and says Nielsen estimates it ranked as the No. 6 streaming channel by household reach in the US in June — On Aug. 13, the company will premiere 23 new Roku Originals (each of them from Quibi's library) exclusively on the Roku Channel to stream for free with ads.

Discussion: Ad Age, Awful Announcing, Adweek, The Streamable, The Wrap, @xpangler, Light Reading, CNBC, @gerryfsmith, @claireatki and deadline.com

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Instagram says it is testing ads in its Shop tab, starting with select US-based advertisers — Instagram is further investing in its e-commerce business, Instagram Shops, with the launch of a new advertising product, Ads in Instagram Shop. The company says it's currently testing the new format …

Discussion: Ad Age and The Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Scaachi Koul / BuzzFeed News:

Profile of Trisha Paytas, one of the internet's most prolific trolls with over 5M subscribers on YouTube, who claims to have an income of $800,000 per month — For nearly 15 years, Trisha Paytas has been one of YouTube's most prolific and complicated creators. Now they say they're done trolling — or are they?

Discussion: @fraying, @buzzfeednews, @scaachi, @anoushasakoui, @wsteaks, @isaacfitzgerald, @scaachi, @believekarolina, @kattenbarge, @scaachi, @taylorlorenz, @mathewi and @taylorlorenz

Azi Paybarah / New York Times:

How Gov. Cuomo's hometown paper The Albany Times Union's anti-off-the-record stance put it on a collision course with the notoriously press-controlling governor — The Times Union's strait-laced, minimal-schmooze, no off-the-record principles put it on a collision course with the notoriously press-controlling governor of New York.

Scott Deveau / Bloomberg:

Activist investor Dan Loeb says his optimism of Disney+ has borne out, calls for Disney theatrical content to stream on Disney+ for no extra fee on release day — Activist investor Dan Loeb is calling on the Walt Disney Co. to do more to leverage its leadership position in sports …

Discussion: The Streamable, @brasstackscap, ValueWalk and @business

Nathanael Cooper / Sydney Morning Herald:

Universal Music and Sony Music are conducting separate investigations into workplace culture at their Sydney offices — Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size — Universal Music has become the second record label to launch an investigation into inappropriate behaviour at its Australian office.

Discussion: Variety, @nathanaelcooper, @nathanaelcooper and Complete Music Update

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Dish Network reports Q2 revenue of $4.49B, up from $3.19B YoY; pay TV subs dropped by 67K, compared to a 96K drop in Q2 2020, as Sling TV added 65K subs — The company, led by chairman Charlie Ergen and CEO Erik Carlson, gained Sling TV users, but lost Dish TV customers.

Discussion: The Streamable, The Streamable, MediaPost, Light Reading and PR Newswire

Julia Fioretti / Bloomberg:

Sources: Cloud Village, the music streaming arm of Chinese gaming giant NetEase, is postponing the launch of its $1B Hong Kong IPO — - Cloud Village tested investor demand for the IPO last week — Tech shares have been hit by Chinese regulatory clampdown

Discussion: Reuters, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Jen Mills / Metro.co.uk:
Anti-vaccine protestors try to storm the Television Centre in London, which was BBC's headquarters until 2013

Discussion: The Guardian, The Sun, The Independent, Mirror.co.uk, Daily Mail, @kevglobal, LBC and @jimwaterson

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
As trackers, webcams, and other internet-of-things devices become cheaper and more user-friendly, they could become standard tools in journalists' toolkits

Discussion: @mikeelgan, @niemanfdn, MediaPost, @niemanlab and @jbenton

Reporters Without Borders:
19 journalists from 7 countries who were listed as possible spyware targets have filed complaints against NSO Group in Paris with RSF; cases also referred to UN

Discussion: The Wire, @msuiche, @pranesh and @rebecca_vincent

Max Willens / Digiday:
Parsely study of 1,400 publishers: in H1, traffic to sites that have 30K to 1M page views per month was down 40% compared to 2019 and down 27% at smaller sites

Discussion: @glenngabe, @lmoses, @elanazak, @chrismoranuk, @niemanlab, American Press Institute and @dcnorg

Jaden Edison / Poynter:
Interview with Stacy-Marie Ishmael, ex-EIC of Texas Tribune, on her experience of navigating 2020 as a newsroom leader and professional burnout

Discussion: @johnauthers, @sandi, @millie, @steven_aquino, @alissa_ambrose, @poynter, @poynter, @rsm, @andreapsalcedo, @peterlattman, @itsren, @cd_hooks, @mitrakalita, @editwithemily, @poynter, @tiffmkelly, @poynter, @kamirieck, @cindyroyal, @stephmsolis, @kristenhare, @poynter, @kimbui, @jswatz and Talking Biz News

Earlier Picks:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Robert Rodriguez's El Rey Network, a Latino-focused cable TV channel that shut down in 2020, to reboot as a free OTT streaming service, partnering with Cinedigm

Discussion: @xpangler, @rodriguez, The Streamable, ACCESSWIRE, Comic Book, Deadline, WORLD SCREEN and Los Angeles Times

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Sources: some staffers at Bloomberg Industry Group, including outlets such as Bloomberg Law, worry about mandatory in-office work with no required vaccinations

Discussion: The Muffin por Mauricio …, @jeremymbarr, @brianstelter and @ellengilmer

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
[Thread] Politico owner Robert Allbritton emails staff about his opposition to a union, cites inflexibility and a loss of speed in reacting to new circumstances

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
At a panel, Jay Rosen and The Correspondent's Rob Wijnberg discuss lessons learned and why the startup failed, partially due to an excessive focus on marketing

Discussion: @niemanlab, @jenniferbrandel, What's New in Publishing, @chronotope, @laurahazardowen, @disruptia, @alexburnsnyt, @mariaramirezny, @dicktofel, @7homaslin, @maggienyt, @alexburnsnyt, @michaelroston, @samtranum, @pilhofer and @mathewi

Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
In a letter to Zuckerberg, the FTC called Facebook's initial claim it cut off NYU researchers' access to comply with an FTC privacy agreement as “inaccurate”

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Gina Raimondo says holding back China in the chips race is a “fool's errand”, and investment, more than export controls, will keep US ahead of Beijing

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November

Bloomberg:
Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region

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