Top News:
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Sources: Ozy Media co-founder Samir Rao impersonated a YouTube exec on a Goldman Sachs call ahead of a $40M deal; Rao is back at Ozy after time off — The digital media company has raised eyebrows for its claims about its audience size for years. Then came the strange voice on the phone.
Discussion:
@carloswatson, @mcmoynihan, @banikarim, The Wrap, @brianstelter, @mattzeitlin, @caseynewton, @hamiltonnolan, @mccarthyryanj, @mccarthyryanj, @sonnybunch, @matt_levine, @jasonschreier, @pkedrosky, @traciehunte, Gawker, Today in Tabs, @lachlan, @sruhle, @hilella, @felixsalmon, The Wrap, @seanspicer, @krystalball, @caseyjohnston, @owillis, @moorehn, @davidfolkenflik, @s_m_i, @geedee215, @jbarro, @chsommers, @jodyavirgan, @edmundlee, @nick4iezos, Mediaite, @trungtphan, @nickconfessore, @banikarim, @grahamstarr, @esaagar, @moorehn, @nickconfessore, @netw3rk, @digitalshields, @danprimack, @tonyromm, @davidfolkenflik, @modernistwitch, @bydanielvictor, @genepark, @banikarim, @danprimack, @genepark, @paultassi, @pkafka, @lea, @oliviasolon, Boing Boing, @jimwaterson, @hayesbrown, @maxseddon, New York Post, @annehelen, @joshuatopolsky, @justinsink, @nickbilton, @hshaban, @bubbaprog, @foxcahn, @dandrezner, @vincemancini, @davidmackau, @timodc, @craigsilverman, @lwoodhouse, @rmac18, @rafat, @bendwalsh, @melissajourno, @kevinmdraper, @sonnybunch, @katie_robertson, @dgisserious, @cliffordlevy and The Wrap
The New York Times Company:
NYT launches The New York Times Corps, a talent pipeline program where journalists give early college students career guidance over a multi-year period — The New York Times is launching a first-of-its-kind talent pipeline program for early-college students to receive career guidance from Times journalists over a multiyear period.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @marclacey, Defector, @migold, @pr_johnson, @rar, @theotypes, @theotypes, @alexlaughs, @jessicalessin, @cliffordlevy, @mickimaynard, @wudanyan and @benedictevans
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok says it now has 1B MAUs — TikTok says it has crossed a key milestone: The social video app claims it now counts more than 1 billion monthly active users. — TikTok is the successor to Musical.ly, the short-form video app that was acquired by Chinese internet giant ByteDance in 2017 …
Discussion:
TikTok, CBS San Francisco, Protocol, @yoda, Input, Gizmodo, @liahaberman, GeekWire, @cyberomin, communicateonline.me, @carnage4life, The Verge, Bloomberg, @tanayj, @joshelman, Wall Street Journal, @kelsaywhat, Adweek, @kerrymflynn, Fortune, @tiktokcomms, Engadget, TechCrunch, Engadget, CNBC and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
Axios Local plans to expand into 11 new markets by Q3 2022, for a total of 23, and says its 14 newsletters have about 400K subscribers — Axios is popping up local news-focused newsletters across the country, with ambitious plans to be in 23 markets in 2022.
Discussion:
@raju, What's New in Publishing, @spguaglione, @michelemclellan, @djtweets and @ted_williams
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube says it will cut YouTube TV's fee by $10/month and drop NBCUniversal channels if it can't reach a deal with NBCU by September 30 — Another carriage fight has burst into public view: NBCUniversal on Sunday said it was notifying customers with YouTube TV that more than 14 of its networks …
Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog, The Verge, The Streamable, Light Reading, 9to5Google, Hollywood Reporter, @dsilverman, @xpangler, The Streamable, Gizmodo, Cord Cutters News, MediaPost, @pkafka, @nbcphiladelphia, @lukebk, @chrisbarnestech, TechCrunch, Too Much TV Newsletter, Pocketnow, nexttv.com, 9to5Google, Awful Announcing and Cord Cutters News
Wall Street Journal:
Spotify begins a campaign to win more advertisers, rebranding its ad business as Spotify Advertising, focusing on SMBs, and expanding its podcast marketplace — The audiostreaming company wants to appeal to new advertisers and publishers in a new campaign titled “All Ears on You”
Discussion:
The Verge, @sjgoldstein, insideradio.com, TechCrunch and musically.com
Catie Keck / The Verge:
At Code Conference, Netflix's Ted Sarandos shares viewership data for its top 10 series and movies; 82M accounts watched Bridgerton and 99M watched Extraction — A rare look at Netflix's viewing data — During this year's Code conference, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos shared …
Discussion:
Variety, @alexeheath, Forbes, CNET, IndieWire, CNBC, Decider, Digital TV Europe and The Wrap
Tatiana Cirisano / Billboard:
NMPA drops its $200M copyright lawsuit against Roblox and strikes a partnership with the company to let NMPA members reach individual music licensing deals — A week after signing a long-awaited agreement with Twitch, the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has struck a deal with Roblox …
Discussion:
The Verge, Engadget, @billboard, Variety, Music Business Worldwide, Forbes, musically.com and PC Gamer
RELATED:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
ViacomCBS partners with data company VideoAmp to develop means of tracking ad reach among linear and digital viewers, a potential alternative to Nielsen — The TV industry, long measured by Nielsen, continues to offer up new yardsticks to Madison Avenue. — ViacomCBS said it would take …
Discussion:
nexttv.com, Ad Age, MediaPost, Adweek and Deadline
James Hercher / AdExchanger:
Google says it will no longer use last-click attribution as the default conversion model in Google Ads, and will default to “data-driven attribution” instead — “Because of how we've been improving and training our data-driven attribution models, we've eliminated [that] previously existing requirement,” she said.
Discussion:
The Keyword, Digiday, @adsliaison, @zachcoelius, @scottcowley, MediaPost, MarTech, @zambros_it, @jameshercher and The Drum, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Sources: MSNBC staff are worried over its direction under Rashida Jones, fearing that she's gearing up for a costly and potentially disastrous battle with CNN — MSNBC staffers are panicking over the direction of the left-leaning news network under newly minted President Rashida Jones …
Discussion:
@lebassett
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
A look at episodic story services like Amazon's Kindle Vella; Apptopia says combined IAP revenue of top 7 services grew 50% YoY to $12M/month in May and July — - Amazon's Kindle Vella spotlights the growing market for episodic stories, designed for mobile devices, unfolding as larger narratives over time.
Travis Bernard / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch renames its membership product to TechCrunch+ and says it plans to expand it to most major startup ecosystems in the world next quarter — Extra Crunch has a new name — We're changing the name of our membership product to TechCrunch+. We're doing so for a few reasons …
Discussion:
@dasjoshua, @yoda, @travisbernard, @alex, @michellemanafy and @ron_miller