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On Substack:
Substack says it will stick to its hands-off approach to content moderation amid increased pressure to censor what some see as dubious or objectionable content — Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, and Jairaj — Last year, in an interview with the New York Times, anthropologist Heidi Larson …
Discussion:
@rrhoover, @epro, @binarybits, @doombergt, @caseynewton, @yugacohler, @glennf, Sub Pub, @dongwon, @cjgbest, @emilymiller, Shawn MC's Newsletter, @lmatsakis, @plinz, @substackinc, @davidu, Paint On My Shorts and News Uncut
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Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
CCDH: Substack creators publishing vaccine misinformation are making millions of dollars; Substack defends publishing “writers with whom we strongly disagree” — Newsletter company Substack is making millions off anti-vaccine content, according to estimates
Discussion:
Mashable and The Guardian
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation — The folk-rock star won't back down after discussions with his record label and Spotify — Spotify Technology SA is in the process …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Protocol, @shannonpareil, Complete Music Update, Music Ally, The Onion, Mashable, Billboard, Mediaite, @live1dnews, The A.V. Club, @jimmy_dore, Uniquely American, Chicago Sun-Times, @jeffjarvis, @rverrier, @bizballmaury, @racheld, @gavinsblog, @davmicrot, @rschooley, @hkuppy, Rolling Stone, Engadget, The Information, @hashtaggriswold, @tatianacirisano, Bloomberg, @joshsternberg, @dee_bosa, Forbes, @torriangray, @esotericcd, UPI, @dermotcasey, INQUIRE, @harrymccracken, TechCrunch, @tjmoe28, Variety, Deadline, UPROXX, New York Post, @mcwm, @korb_heather, @dennisperkins5, @elopezgross, @green_footballs, @xeni, Digital Music News, @ronwaxman, NPR, Insider, Axios, The Guardian, RAPPLER, WGN-TV, The Verge, EchoLocator, Reclaim The Net, SPIN, CBS News, Hollywood Reporter, New Republic, The Daily Beast and insideradio.com, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
AT&T Q4: WarnerMedia revenue rose 15.4% YoY to $9.9B and DTC subscription revenue rose 11.5% YoY to $1.9B; the $43B Discovery merger is expected to close in Q2 — The company also announced that it expects the WarnerMedia spinoff and merger with Discovery to close in the second quarter …
Discussion:
@alexweprin, The Wrap, @thr, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, @thewrap, @jpalmiotti, @xpangler, @xpangler, @brianstelter, ZDNet, Deadline, The Streamable, Variety, MediaPost, Media Play News and AT&T
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
HBO and HBO Max ended 2021 with 46.8M US subscribers, up 5.3M over 2020; AT&T reported earlier in January that the services had 73.8M subscribers globally — HBO Max closed 2021 with 46.8 million domestic subscribers when combined with linear HBO, up 5.3 million over 2020 …
Discussion:
Next TV and The Streamable
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
The Washington Post names Matea Gold as national editor and Philip Rucker as deputy national editor, as part of expanding coverage with more visual storytelling — The Washington Post has named Matea Gold as national editor and Philip Rucker as deputy national editor, with plans to expand …
Discussion:
Washington Post, @mateagold, @newsbysamuels, @jayrosen_nyu, @froomkin, @vermontgmg, @paulsonne, @harrylitman, @ceciliakang, @nataliejennings, @froomkin, @jaxalemany, @colbyitkowitz, @scotusreporter, @marcosbreton, @froomkin, @carolleonnig, @jdawsey1, @danlamothe, @loriamontgomery, @petereporter, @griffwitte, @waposean, @postroz, @anniegowen, @ashleyrparker, @ashleyrparker, @owillis, @shaneharris, @philiprucker and @philiprucker
Chris Mills Rodrigo / The Hill:
YouTube permanently bans Dan Bongino for trying to evade a previous suspension; the pro-Trump pundit had previously said he planned to leave the platform — YouTube on Wednesday permanently banned conservative commentator Dan Bongino from the platform, saying he attempted to evade a previous suspension.
Discussion:
insideradio.com, @oliverdarcy, Mashable, @nandoodles, Breitbart, @slpng_giants, @zamaan_qureshi, @stuartathompson, @profcarroll, The Wrap, @mattgertz, Engadget, @edbott, @qsteph, @jason_kint, @nandoodles, Variety, UPI, @green_footballs, UPROXX, @joshsternberg, New York Times, @projectlincoln, @nandoodles, Mediaite, RAPPLER, Deadline and Reclaim The Net, more at Techmeme »
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
VAB study: Nielsen's failure to count “out of home” impressions could have cost networks $350M+ in advertising revenue between May 2021 and November 2021 — A new study by the nation's big TV networks suggests Nielsen's efforts to count viewers watching their favorite programs in so-called …
Abid Rahman / Hollywood Reporter:
Disney says Disney+ will launch in 42 countries and 11 territories this summer, including South Africa, Turkey, Poland, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — The streaming service will debut in new countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Discussion:
Engadget, @mrinaldesai, Fierce Video, The Verge, The Streamable, Variety, Deadline, Broadband TV News, Digital TV Europe and C21Media, more at Techmeme »
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Profile of Real America's Voice, which distributes Steve Bannon's talk show to ~8M homes and is run by Robert J. Sigg, a felon with a record of unpaid taxes — ‘War Room’ is at the center of a fledgling network monetizing what some employees saw as ‘Trump propaganda.’
Discussion:
@therickwilson, @tomfitton, @espiegler, @dpfunke, Wayne Besen, @ddiamond, @isaacstanbecker, @carolleonnig, @tribelaw and Mediaite
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Study: high levels of multiyear funding and strong structural protections for independent public media are positively correlated with healthy democracies — But the direction of causality is tricky. Do a democracy's flaws lead it to starve public media, or does starving public media lead to a democracy's flaws?
Discussion:
@jayrosen_nyu, Platy's Web Excursions, @jayrosen_nyu, @spj_tweets and @cj_toronto
Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
Ipsos: Apple News was the most widely used UK news app in December 2021 with 13.2M users and 1.2B minutes spent; BBC News had 12.5M users and 2.2B minutes spent — The Apple News app narrowly beat BBC News to take the spot of most popular news app in the UK in December, according to data from Ipsos iris.
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