Mediagazer: A fourth Mexican journalist, who was enrolled in the government's protection program, has been murdered in less than a month, after killings sparked protests (Associated Press)

11:55 AM ET, February 1, 2022

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The New York Times acquires Wordle, the simple word game that has amassed “millions of daily players”, for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures” — Wordle, Josh Wardle's stimulating and wildly popular daily word game, is joining The New York Times's portfolio of original …

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Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day:

Spotify made an editorial choice by paying $100M to be Joe Rogan's publisher and can't shirk its responsibility by just adding a content warning to his episodes — Read to the end for Pumpkin Cowboy — Please Do Not Let Spotify Convince You That Joe Rogan Is A Content Moderation Problem

Zack Sharf / Variety:

Graham Nash and India Arie follow Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, pulling their music from Spotify to protest content on Joe Rogan's podcast — Nash said in a statement that he “completely agrees” with his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Neil Young after “having heard the COVID disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify.”

Discussion: Bloomberg, Deadline, Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone and SPIN

Dawn Chmielewski / Reuters:

Host and executive producer of Gimlet's Science Vs podcast Wendy Zukerman says she'll devote the show to fact-checking misinformation on other Spotify podcasts — The executive producer and host of Gimlet Media's Science Vs podcast said she would devote her fact-checking show exclusively …

Discussion: Insider and Bloomberg

Sam Byford / The Verge:
Joe Rogan posts a video to Instagram defending booking contentious guests, apologizes to Spotify for the backlash, and says he may book more “experts”

Daniel Ek / Spotify:
Spotify publishes its long-standing Platform Rules and says it is working to add a content advisory to podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:

NYT internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz moves to The Washington Post as a columnist writing about technology, online life, influencers, business, and more — The star reporter with a massive online following thinks the Post gets the internet in ways other outlets don't.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

AT&T will spin off WarnerMedia rather than split it off, giving shareholders ~0.24 shares of WarnerMedia-Discovery stock for each share of AT&T stock — The transaction will spin off 100% of AT&T's interest in WarnerMedia to AT&T's existing shareholders in a pro-rata distribution …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Wrap, CNBC, Insider, Axios, Next TV, Reuters, UPI, Media Play News, Bloomberg, Deadline, Advanced Television and Hollywood Reporter

Sara Fischer / Axios:

After a disappointing IPO, Jonah Peretti tells staff BuzzFeed will limit hiring to critical positions and projects a single-digit decline in commerce sales YoY — BuzzFeed is limiting hiring to only critical positions, and will not be adding any new jobs unless there's a business-case justification …

Discussion: @simonowens, @michellemanafy and @stevekovach

Manori Ravindran / Variety:

HBO Max continues its European expansion, arriving in 15 countries on March 8, including the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, and Croatia — HBO Max is continuing a steady roll-out in Europe with its second wave of countries. … This covers Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria …

Discussion: TechCrunch, MediaPost, Next TV, Reuters, Media Play News, 9to5Mac, Light Reading, Mashable, Advanced Television, CNET, Broadband TV News, The Streamable, Digital TV Europe, @jasonkilar, C21Media and Deadline

Cassandra Garrison / Reuters:

Univision and Televisa complete their merger and plan to launch the world's biggest Spanish-language streaming service in H1 2022, targeting nearly 600M people — Mexican broadcast powerhouse Grupo Televisa and U.S. based Univision (UVN.UL) are preparing to launch what would be the biggest …

Discussion: Adweek, @jczamora, insideradio.com, @sarafischer, @brianmmunoz, @isalara, @adweek, Variety, Next TV and Bloomberg

Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:

Capital B, a US local nonprofit news organization focused on Black audiences, launches with $9M in philanthropic backing and 16 employees with plans to hire 11 — Capital B, a new digital-media start-up, will provide hard news and investigative reporting aimed at Black audiences.

Associated Press:

A fourth Mexican journalist, who was enrolled in the government's protection program, has been murdered in less than a month, after killings sparked protests — MEXICO CITY (AP) — An online news outlet in Mexico said Monday that one of its journalists was shot to death …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Guardian, @_richardhall, Al Jazeera, @ianbirrell, @martinxhodgson, @ema_sasic, @keegan_hamilton, Axios and MyNorthwest.com

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Sources: Vice Media secretly organized a music festival in Saudi Arabia; staffers have raised concerns about its work in the country after Khashoggi's murder — Youth media company organised March 2020 event despite pledge to stop all work in Saudi Arabia — When social media influencers turned …

Discussion: @maryamalkhawaja, @ayocaesar, @rocco_castoro, @jwsal, @gumby4christ, @anthony, @adamjohnsonnyc, @emilybell, @jessehawken, @evanhill, @jimwaterson, @dralakbarov, @thoughtland, @ankaravoice, @joshspero, @mediaevan and @errolnazareth

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Claudia Morell / WBEZ Chicago:
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Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
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Josh Sandiford / BirminghamLive:
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Helen Davidson / The Guardian:
Survey: at least six foreign journalists have left China amid increased intimidation through online trolling, physical assaults, hacking, and visa denials

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Velocidad, a media accelerator that invested nearly $1.5M in 10 Latin American news outlets, says its grantees generated new revenue over six times their grants

Glen Owen / Daily Mail:
Source: UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is planning legislation where the DMU force Meta, Google, and others to negotiate payment deals with news publishers

Discussion: The Signal

Wall Street Journal:
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