Mediagazer: UK free business paper City AM will return to print on September 20 after an 18-month hiatus due to the pandemic (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

7:05 AM ET, September 7, 2021

Top News:

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:

At a Senate hearing, Sky News Australia CEO says it “self-censored” 18 videos about COVID-19 to avoid a permanent YouTube ban, denies broadcasting Covid misinfo — CEO Paul Whittaker also tells media diversity inquiry Sky News Australia does not deny climate change, and accepts it is happening

Ben Smith / New York Times:

As Gawker reboots, with its former features editor Leah Finnegan at the helm, it promises to no longer seek out articles that are “sanctimonious” or “cruel” — “I'm not interested in ruining people's lives,” says its top editor, Leah Finnegan, who once insulted a baby in a headline.

Drew Holden / @drewholden360:

[Thread] Rolling Stone's story claiming ivermectin overdoses clogged Oklahoma hospitals was poorly sourced and wrong, but Insider, Maddow, and more picked it up — 🧵THREAD🧵 We've got to talk about the Rolling Stone invermectin article. Turns out the story about rural hospitals so flooded with ODs that they couldn't treat other patients was made up, entirely invented. A lot of people took the bait, and I've got the screenshots.⤵️

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Fran Unsworth, BBC veteran and director of news since 2018, will leave amid worsening relations with the government and internal fights over a staff reorg — Exit likely to set off competitive and politicised recruitment process to find replacement at corporation

Discussion: Variety, Press Gazette, The Guardian, @shivanidave, BBC, @jimwaterson, BBC, @sophiasgaler, @jimwaterson, Guido Fawkes, City A.M., @dafydd_62, @stewartcadman, @cden128, @dannyshawnews and @nick_miles_

Vincent Ni / The Guardian:

Next Digital, the publisher of Hong Kong's Apple Daily, files for liquidation, after its board of directors resigned to help facilitate the process — Apple Daily publisher Next Digital hopes move will allow payments to be made to creditors and former staff

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, @edmundlee, @kenroth, @nytimes, @austinramzy, @alfonslopeztena, CNN, @bloombergasia, @pressfreedom, @marklandler, @tmclaughlin3, @brianstelter, @benedictrogers, The Indian Express and Al Jazeera

New York Times:

Comscore data shows North American theaters sold about $2.2B in tickets so far in 2021, compared with $7.8B for the same period in 2019 — With box office numbers way down in the pandemic and streaming numbers hard to come by, the film industry is often unable to determine whether a movie is a hit or a miss.

Discussion: @nytimesbusiness, @hamrahrama, @johannadc, @ennisnyt and @goldman

Wall Street Journal:
How Disney entered into a major legal battle with Scarlett Johansson, as CEO Bob Chapek mostly stayed out of the dispute and left talent relations to underlings

Jo Ellison / Financial Times:

After Condé Nast gave Anna Wintour direct control over titles in 30+ markets worldwide, except for some local content, the magazines now largely look the same — Condé Nast has scythed staff numbers and brought dozens of its magazines under the irrepressible Vogue editor's direct control.

Discussion: @ftweekend, @sara_mcalpine, @ftweekend and @kerrymflynn

Kate Kaye / Digiday:

Salon turns off comments after finding less than 0.5% of its ~10M MAUs used them, and says its newsletter open rate rose from 16% to 32% over the last 6 months — It was especially notable when one post this week on Salon, the site named after the practice of gathering for intellectual discussion, had no comments.

Discussion: Salon and @katekayereports

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK free business paper City AM will return to print on September 20 after an 18-month hiatus due to the pandemic — City AM has set a date for its return to print, 18 months after going digital-only to ride out the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. — The free business daily will return …

Discussion: What's New in Publishing, @christianjmay, @christianjmay, @wallaceme, @joshmartinnz, @silvesterldn, @rmcunliffe and @saschaosullivan

Alexandria Neason / CJR:

A deep dive on CJR's archives looks at how it wrote about race and racism, finding that coverage was inconsistent and often reactive — News outlets across the country are beginning to turn their attention inward, to their own pages, to confront their complicity in a long-standing truth …

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

A look at BDG's Bustle UK, which launched in 2018, now has a staff of eight, and is on track to record its first annual profit as BDG considers UK expansion — For US publishers, launching media brands in the UK is not always straightforward. — Editorially, it can be a challenge …

Discussion: @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and Wall Street Journal

Robert Daniels / Vulture:

Interview with Maya Cade, creator of Black Film Archive, a site that lists, describes, and links to all Black films from 1915-1979 that are available to stream — “Everything I do speaks specifically to Black people. Will a Black person take this and do what they need with it?," …

Discussion: @blackamazon, @strmlnr, @mayascade, @mayascade, @812filmreviews and @mayascade

Yinka Adegoke / Rest of World:

Profile of Abu Dhabi-based music streaming service Anghami, which has 1.4M paying subscribers and 70M total users, as it goes public via a $220M SPAC merger — Anghami is a case study in how the music business is being gradually transformed from outside its core centers of New York, Los Angeles and London.

Discussion: musically.com, @yinkawrites, @restofworld, @restofworld, @yinkawrites, @anupkaphle and @yinkawrites

Daniel A. Gross / New Yorker:

As libraries and schools transition to e-books, the value of e-book vendors like OverDrive, which make money by licensing content to libraries, has skyrocketed — Increasingly, books are something that libraries do not own but borrow from the corporations that do.