Mediagazer: AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan is stepping down after 26 years and will be vice chairman; Matt Blank, former head of Showtime, will be interim CEO (Variety)

12:45 PM ET, August 24, 2021

Top News:

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan is stepping down after 26 years and will be vice chairman; Matt Blank, former head of Showtime, will be interim CEO — Josh Sapan, a cable pioneer who has headed AMC Networks and its predecessors in the Dolan cable dynasty for more than 25 years, is seguing to the vice chairman role at AMC Networks.

Discussion: MediaPost, deadline.com, Ad Age, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Realscreen and @claireatki

Reuters:

Investigation into the last days of Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who was killed in Afghanistan after being left behind in retreat — Danish Siddiqui was with soldiers on the front line of an Afghan Special Forces clash with the Taliban. New reporting, and his last photographs …

Discussion: The Hill, @aramroston, @jbmoorephoto, @someshjha7, @stephengrey, @sreenivasanjain, @stephengrey, @stephengrey, @stephengrey and @manaman_chhina

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

Interview with Zillah Byng-Thorne, CEO of UK publisher Future, on acquiring The Week publisher Dennis for £300M, plans for an expansion in the US, and more — Magazine publisher Future has been on an acquisitions drive over the past five years that's earned it the label of industry …

Discussion: @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @rafat

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

NY Post is requiring all employees to wear masks while away from their desks, after peddling anti-mask rhetoric and questioning mask mandates in editorials — New York (CNN Business)The New York Post, the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid that has peddled a high volume of anti-mask rhetoric during the pandemic …

Discussion: @michaeljstern1, HuffPost, @badfoxgraphics, @cnnbusiness, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, The Wrap and Raw Story

Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Right-wing media pushed ivermectin, a deworming drug used for livestock, as a potential COVID-19 treatment despite FDA warnings that it can be unsafe for humans

Discussion: Mediaite, @againcassandra, Raw Story, @bobosphere, Media Matters for America and KNSD-TV

Associated Press:

Hong Kong says it plans to amend a film censorship law to forbid screenings of movies deemed contrary to national security, including previously approved films — HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday said they plan to amend a film censorship law to forbid screenings of movies deemed contrary to national security.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Gizmodo, Reuters and Variety

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:

Substack buys the team behind Cocoon, a subscription-based social network for friends and family, to work on “connections between readers and writers” — Newsletter startup Substack has scooped up the team behind Cocoon, a subscription-based social network for connecting with close friends and family.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Substack and @sachinmonga

Zeynep Tufekci / @zeynep:

[Thread] Zeynep Tufekci says her substack will soon turn into a free newsletter for a future book as she joins NYT as an opinion columnist — So the news is out. I'm going to be a regular columnist with the New York Times. I started blogging about a decade ago simply because I had things to say, and thought it would be good to have more academic voices in the public sphere. It's been a journey, for sure. https://twitter.com/...

Discussion: @cliffordlevy, The New York Times Company, @zoabehafeez, @ianbremmer, @craignewmark, @tomgara, @brittanygrogan, @mkhammer, @rinireg, @rogerpielkejr and @joshconstine

Eric Deggans / NPR:

A look at the rise of “Consequence Culture” documentaries about celebrities like R. Kelly, which push audiences to consider old scandals with new sensibilities — As the trial of disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly unfolds, it's tough to imagine reaching this moment without the 2019 Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.

Discussion: @deggans

Laura Hayes / Washington City Paper:

A look at DC's spot news reporters who chronicle crime via their social media feeds, including DC REALTIME NEWS and Killmoenews, and compete with local TV news — City Paper turns 40 this year. Will you help fund the next 40 years of local news? — Every dollar you give goes back into creating the journalism you trust.

Discussion: American Press Institute, DCist, @nikkiusher, @consciousgiver, @justupthepike, @barnhardt, @marycheh, @chuckthies, @laurahayesdc, @laurahayesdc, @amandabeadle, @laurahayesdc, @wcp and @laurahayesdc

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Spotify enables subscriptions for all US podcasters using Anchor for episodes on RSS and Spotify, adds pricing options, lets creators download subscriber emails — Plus new price tiers and email addresses — Spotify is broadening the number of people who can offer subscription podcasts and have their shows play on its service.

Discussion: Billboard, Word of Mouth, Variety, TechCrunch and Spotify, more at Techmeme »

Erin Woo / New York Times:

TikTok partners with Shopify to launch a pilot program letting merchants add a shopping tab to their profiles and link to products in their posts — TikTok and Shopify, the e-commerce platform, said on Tuesday that they were working together to add the ability for consumers to shop directly in the TikTok app for the first time.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Ad Age, TikTok and Shopify, more at Techmeme »

Ben Smith / New York Times:

How Russia's crackdown has changed outlets like Meduza, which has an audience of 10M+/month and lost 95% of advertisers after being marked a “foreign agent” — Meduza, a leading independent news site, fights back with jokes and a stunning donation campaign. But can it stand up to the Russian state?

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, The Independent, @latlands, @kevinrothrock, @freedomofpress, @antontroian, @nytimes, @cernovich, @joelcpj, @crayonscrayons, @rasmus_kleis and @benyt

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Gene Maddaus / Variety:
California Film Commission awards a record $138.8M in film tax credits, up from $109M awarded in 2016, with Netflix alone getting $43.3M

Discussion: The Wrap

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
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Katherine Huggins / Mediaite:
CNN, Fox News, WSJ, NYT, WaPo, and others have successfully evacuated journalists from Afghanistan, including freelancers and interpreters

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The US awards Micron up to $6.1B under the CHIPS Act, to support an up to $125B investment to build a “megafab” in New York and Idaho over the next 20 years

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