Mediagazer: Universal Music and Sony Music are conducting separate investigations into workplace culture at their Sydney offices (Nathanael Cooper/Sydney Morning Herald)

1:35 PM ET, August 9, 2021

Top News:

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

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

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 »

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: @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 and Complete Music Update

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, The Empire of the Tiny Onion, @79semifinalist, @hamishmckenzie, @riteshwriter, @declanshalvey, @comicsbookcase, @georgegustines, @paulg, Polygon and Bleeding Cool

Jen Mills / Metro.co.uk:

Anti-vaccine protestors try to storm the Television Centre in London, which was BBC's headquarters until 2013 — A group of protesters have attempted to storm BBC premises in west London this afternoon. — The demonstrators, who are angry at coronavirus restrictions and about vaccine policy …

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

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, 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 »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 1:35 PM ET, August 9, 2021.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

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, @dcnorg and What's New in Publishing

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, @poynter, @rsm, @andreapsalcedo, @peterlattman, @itsren, @cd_hooks, @mitrakalita, @editwithemily, @poynter, @tiffmkelly, @poynter, @kamirieck, @cindyroyal, @stephmsolis, @kristenhare, @kimbui, @jswatz and Talking Biz News

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

Earlier Picks:

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

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:
The State Department has a refugee plan for Afghans who worked for US news outlets, but workers still face violence or onerous travel if they seek resettlement

Discussion: @senduckworth, @nytimes, @martinkusjohn, @jon_allsop, Politico, The Independent and Reuters

Steven Perlberg / Insider:
Texas Monthly's president says the outlet has made 20+ Hollywood licensing deals in the last 18 months, totaling about $1M, in an effort primarily for marketing

Discussion: @stephemcneal and @perlberg

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Gannett Q2: net income of $15M on revenue of $804M, up 5% YoY; circulation revenue fell 9.4% YoY, though it added 145K digital subscribers for a total of 1.4M

Discussion: American Press Institute, @a_dotguild, Business Wire and USA Today

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:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Adam Mosseri says Threads is rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people that users follow, warns that creators' “unconnected” reach may go down

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page