Mediagazer: Analysis of news tweets from 500 US adults shows a focus on entertainment, politics, and sports; only 2% of news tweets had a hashtag, down from 34% in 2015 (Pew Research Center)

8:35 PM ET, December 19, 2021

Top News:

Internal memo: CNN is closing its US offices to all nonessential employees as COVID-19 cases rise at the network and nationwide — President Jeff Zucker cited a surge of cases at the network in a memo on the decision — CNN is closing its offices to nonessential employees …

Discussion: Reuters, @brianstelter, @drericding, @katzish, Mediaite, @justthefacts85, @kate_ross_, @meetjess, Reuters, @kbeninato, New York Post, @bradmossesq, Sputnik International, Hollywood Reporter, @clancyreports, TVNewser and The Hill

Ben Bowman / The Streamable:

YouTube TV reaches a deal with Disney to bring back 17+ channels including ABC, Disney, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic — After one day of being dark, YouTube TV and Disney have reached a deal which will see more than 17 Disney-owned channels, including local ABC affiliates, Disney Channel, and ESPN return to the service.

Discussion: CNET, Awful Announcing, Sportico, nexttv.com, The Wrap, Sports Illustrated, UPI, Deadline, The Verge, @reckless, 9to5Google, @thestreamable, @film_girl, @pkafka, @epro, Cord Cutters News and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

Spider-Man: No Way Home generated $587M globally during its opening weekend, $253M in the US, making it the third-largest debut on record — Don't underestimate Peter Parker. — That's the takeaway this weekend after Sony's comic book adventure “Spider-Man: No Way Home” …

Discussion: CNN, ScreenRant, TIME, @variety, Rotten Tomatoes, SlashFilm, The A.V. Club, Hollywood Reporter, Murphy's Multiverse, New York Times, Deadline, The Week, UPI, @murrelldan, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, @dkthomp, JoBlo and @variety

Pew Research Center:

Analysis of news tweets from 500 US adults shows a focus on entertainment, politics, and sports; only 2% of news tweets had a hashtag, down from 34% in 2015 — Most Americans who use Twitter get news on the platform, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Discussion: The Starting Block, @jenmercieca, @killedbygoogle, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, @asmitch, @pewjournalism, @pewjournalism, @spj_tweets, @pewjournalism and @jamcnn

Randall Lane / Forbes:

Forbes says two of its editors testified about two old stories in front of a New York grand jury investigating Trump, after fighting subpoenas for months — Almost three months ago, I was subpoenaed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to appear before the grand jury investigating Donald Trump.

Discussion: @spj_tweets, Mediaite, @chasewithorn, @dianesbaker1, @randalllane, @randalllane, The Hill, Axios and Talking Biz News

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

NYT fires a Wirecutter editor for “repeatedly invoking the NYT's name in an unprofessional way” in messages she allegedly sent to a gun rights advocacy group — Erin Marquis, a staffer for the popular product-review site, had also lashed out at a gun-rights organization on Twitter.

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @jeremymbarr, New York Post, The Hill, Mediaite and Talking Biz News

Danny Leigh / Financial Times:

Universal Pictures chair Donna Langley on releasing Trolls World Tour online at the start of the pandemic, shrinking theatrical release windows, and more — Donna Langley only looks ahead. She moves at pace through the packed dining room of La Petite Maison, a French Mediterranean restaurant in a Mayfair side street.

Discussion: @patrickvons, @raju and @markghuneim

Andy Maxwell / TorrentFreak:

Malaysia passes a bill to imprison illegal streaming pirates, primarily those involved in the provision or facilitation of illegal streams, for up to 20 years — Laws that forbid the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted content are common around the world but the rise of streaming has sometimes exposed gaps in legislation.

Discussion: Malaysiakini, Lowyat.NET and thesundaily.my, more at Techmeme »

Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:

Interview with former NYT reporter Nina Bernstein on traditional news media's “tics and timidities” that impoverish reporting out of a fear of taking sides — Nina Bernstein was covering homelessness for the New York Times in 1999 when then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced …

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / Nieman Lab:

The news industry has neglected R&D and staff development for decades; Malaysiakini and South Africa's The Daily Maverick show how to do long-term investments — “The furniture industry seems able to invest in its future. Maybe we can, too?” — The news industry is a technology …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @kimpittaway, @rasmus_kleis, @corinnecolbert, @risj_oxford, @mkraidy, @prempanicker, @robertobernabo, @olivermathenge, @shoq, @ruffoamy2, @rasmus_kleis, @dw_innovation, @nisalahe and @risj_oxford

Gavin Bridge / Variety:

A record 1,923 original series were released across TV and streaming services in 2021, beating the previous high of 1,628 in 2019 — - 2021 saw a record number of original series across TV & streaming — Subscription streaming is now the platform with the largest number of original shows

Discussion: @sportstvratings, @variety and The Streamable

Jonathan Burgos / Forbes:

BandLab, a Singapore-based music creation platform letting artists collaborate and engage with fans, raises a $53M Series B at a $303M post-money valuation — BandLab—a Singapore-based digital platform for music creators—said it raised $53 million from a funding round that will help …

Discussion: @forbesasia, Music Business Worldwide, Tech in Asia, Caldecott Music Group, digitalmusicnews.com, Music Ally, AllAccess.com and Music Industry Blog

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 8:35 PM ET, December 19, 2021.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

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:

William Turvill / Press Gazette:
Sources: Google delayed the US launch of News Showcase, live in 14 countries, to at least Q1 2022 as pubs find the offers underwhelming and doubt its efficacy

Discussion: @glenngabe, @simonowens, @newsalliance, @davidclinchnews, @pressgazette, @tomnamako and @simonowens

The Citizen Lab:
The phone of an exiled Egyptian TV news host was compromised in June using Cytrox's Predator spyware via a single-click link in a WhatsApp message

Discussion: @nouraaljizawi, @ryp__, @dr_ulrichsen, @laughing_mantis, @sarahleah1, @ngleicher, @evacide, Cyber Defence News …, TechCrunch, NPR, ScreenRant, Bloomberg, The Guardian and The Daily Beast

Daniel Tilles / Notes From Poland:
Polish parliament passes a bill that limits foreign ownership of media, affecting Discovery-owned TVN; the president hinted he may veto the bill

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, @mooonlightbby, @ecpmf, @notesfrompoland, @globalfreemedia, Politico, C21Media, The Hollywood Reporter, DW.COM and Deadline

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
Judge lets Dominion proceed with its Fox lawsuit because Fox had “countervailing evidence of election fraud” and says “hyperbolic” rhetoric can be defamatory

Discussion: @benyt, MediaPost, @timobrien, Hollywood Reporter, @obarcala, @obarcala, @svdate, @deanobeidallah, Washington Post, TVNewser and CNN

Katie Kilkenny / Hollywood Reporter:
Vice Media and its employee union reach a three-year deal that sets minimum salaries of $63K and annual raises, institutes anti-harassment measures, and more

Discussion: @greenhousenyt, Writers Guild of America …, Deadline and bookforum.com

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Researchers find evidence suggesting that IAB Europe's TCF lets many adtech vendors track and profile users even when they've rejected personalized ads

Discussion: @johnnyryan, @weareconfiant, @kfranasz and @jason_kint

Earlier Picks:

Henry Meyer / Bloomberg:
Google loses a court appeal in Russia and faces daily fines following a lawsuit to unblock a YouTube account of a TV channel owned by a sanctioned Putin ally

Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:
Washingtonian Editor Michael Schaffer is leaving to write a weekly Politico column as a senior editor; Sherri Dalphonse becomes interim Washingtonian editor

Discussion: @jeffreygoldberg, @abeaujon, @abeaujon, @lucasfleischer, @abeaujon, @michaelkruse, @dankois, @brfreed and @michaelschaffer

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
CNN plans to pull its original series off HBO Max and put them on its own streaming service, CNN+, which a source says has a planned March debut for $5.99/month

Discussion: @jeremymclellan, @business, @gerryfsmith, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, Too Much TV Newsletter, @awallenstein, @pnjaban, @neoavatara, @juwanthewriter, The Streamable and TVNewser

Wall Street Journal:
Documents and sources: WaPo execs weigh how to attract young readers and expand features content as the outlet faces a slump in readership and subscriber growth

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Spotify acquires Australian company Whooshkaa, which helps radio broadcasters and others turn existing content into podcasts and sell ads around them

Discussion: @podnews, @spotifynews, @thedavidrindexp, @sarthakgh, Spotify and TechCrunch

From Techmeme:

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Tech stocks fall in late trading after President Trump announced new tariffs: Amazon drops as much as ~6%, Meta ~5%, Nvidia ~6%, Alphabet ~3%, and Microsoft ~3%

New York Times:
Sources: Amazon has put in a bid to acquire all of TikTok, but various parties involved do not appear to be taking it seriously, ahead of the April 5 deadline

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo shares Switch 2 details: a 7.9", 120fps, 1080p display, 4K at 60fps when docked, a custom Nvidia processor, 256GB of storage, and a new Pro Controller

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