Mediagazer: Profile of Jen Psaki, who some White House reporters credit with “lower[ing] the temperature” even as her briefings are not “exceptionally informative” (Lizzie Widdicombe/Vogue)

3:20 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: @jonbernhardt, @femme_thoughts, @amandasmithsays, @karate_bad, @andrewmarchand, @lizhebert, @valleyshook, @icehockeystick, @craigcalcaterra, @lgontv, @themaxburns, @prof_gabriele, @markjburns88, @jay_jaffe, @natalieweiner and Sports Illustrated

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

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, Gizmodo, @xpangler, The Streamable, The Wrap, Light Reading, @gerryfsmith, @claireatki, deadline.com and CNBC

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.

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.

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

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 — Want to find out what the city is doing with homeless people's belongings when it “clears” an encampment? An answer's now just $29 away.

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

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

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, The Verge 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: @kelsaywhat, @fraying, @buzzfeednews, @scaachi, @anoushasakoui, @wsteaks, @isaacfitzgerald, @scaachi, @taylorlorenz, @believekarolina, @kattenbarge, @mathewi, @scaachi and @taylorlorenz

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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, @andreapsalcedo, @peterlattman, @rsm, @itsren, @cd_hooks, @mitrakalita, @editwithemily, @poynter, @tiffmkelly, @poynter, @kamirieck, @cindyroyal, @stephmsolis, @kristenhare, @poynter, @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

Earlier Picks:

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

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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

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

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

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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:

Qianer Liu / The Information:
Sources: Intel and TSMC have reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture that will operate Intel's chipmaking facilities; TSMC will take a 20% stake

Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
OpenAI makes ChatGPT Plus free for college students in the US and Canada until the end of May 2025, intensifying competition with Anthropic in higher education

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
An increasingly vocal contingent of GOP leaders, some of whom attended Y Combinator's Little Tech Competition Summit, call for antitrust action against Big Tech

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