Mediagazer: Tumblr launches an ad-free tier for $4.99/month or $39.99/year on desktop and in its mobile apps; Tumblr was once opposed to displaying ads, but caved in 2012 (Richard Lawler/The Verge)

11:45 AM ET, February 25, 2022

Top News:

The website of state-affiliated Russian news outlet RT News was taken down Thursday, and Twitter accounts from the Anonymous collective took credit — The #Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the #Russian propaganda station RT News.

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Vox Media, Complex Networks, and BDG are considering ditching Google's AMP for their own mobile-optimized articles; The Washington Post dropped AMP last summer — Owners of the Verge and Bustle test alternatives to AMP framework, an effort they expect will generate more ad revenue

Discussion: AdExchanger, @simonowens, @keachhagey, @bergmayer, @macaree and @alexbruell, more at Techmeme »

Taylor Lorenz / Input:

Some Instagram meme pages are turning into “war pages” that repost unverified footage without context, often claiming to be run by journalists in Ukraine — Just hours after the first explosions rocked Ukraine Wednesday night, massive Instagram meme pages began promoting …

Discussion: @noupside, @alicemuwu, @attorneynora, @bostonjoan, @timquirino, @taylorlorenz and @taylorlorenz, more at Techmeme »

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Gannett says it has 1.6M digital subscribers, up 49% YoY, and reports Q4 revenue of $827M, down 5.5% YoY, and net loss of $22.4M — The newspaper chain grew digital subscriptions to 1.6 million but the surge appears to be driven by deeply discounted introductory rates.

Discussion: Media Nation, Press Gazette, @tmorris504 and @poynter

New York Times:

A look at how CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC covered the first day of Russia's invasion, with the latter two highlighting their opinion hosts — Fox News stars like Tucker Carlson questioned why Americans hated Vladimir Putin, and CNN showed Russian tanks and rockets in live war-zone dispatches.

Discussion: Poynter, @maxwelltani, @katie_rayford, @emilynussbaum, @emilynussbaum, @samuelaadams, @hshaban, @oliverdarcy, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Week and PolitiFact

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Tumblr launches an ad-free tier for $4.99/month or $39.99/year on desktop and in its mobile apps; Tumblr was once opposed to displaying ads, but caved in 2012 — You can fix one of Tumblr's problems, for a fee — Tumblr announced today that users can opt out of ads (on the desktop and in its mobile apps) …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Tumblr Staff, Mashable, Gizmodo, @quinnypig, Adweek and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Beast:

In a tweet, AP promoted the sale of an NFT linked to a video of migrants in an overcrowded boat, then deleted the tweet and canceled the sale after criticism — GHOULISH — The Associated Press on Thursday hurriedly attempted to scrape the egg off its face after promoting a forthcoming …

Discussion: @rvawonk, @webster, Input, @banditelli, Nieman Lab, @chrisgeidner, The Guardian, @aarongell, @chrisgeidner, @associatedpress, Forbes, @joshua_eaton, @chrisgeidner, @kenklippenstein, @associatedpress, @linzsports and The Wrap

Jon Lafayette / Next TV:

Sinclair says a 2021 cyberattack cost $63M in lost Q4 ad revenue, reports an $89M loss, down from $467M net income in Q4 2020, on $1.47B revenue, down 2% YoY — Company reports $89 million net loss for fourth quarter — Sinclair Broadcast Group said that the cyber attack the company faced …

Discussion: insideradio.com, Dow Jones Newswires, TV Technology and TVNewsCheck

Alexander Marrow / Reuters:

Russia's communications regulator says media outlets can only publish Ukraine info from official Russian sources and failing to do so will lead to restrictions — Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor on Thursday said media outlets must check the veracity of their reports …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @biannagolodryga and @globalfreemedia

Patrick Egwu / Reuters Institute for the Study …:

A look at CJID's three-month fellowship for West African journalists, which provides training, mentoring, and some funding for local climate change stories — Most journalists lack the right skills and some newsrooms aren't committing resources. A fellowship from CJID is trying to change this

Discussion: @_danwhyte, @cjidafrica and @olorunwababs

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: BlackRock and Warner Music invest $750M in a fund to buy music-rights catalogs from female and diverse artists, and already spent $300M on 20 catalogs — The companies seek stakes in newer music copyrights in partnership with Influence Media — BlackRock Inc. and Warner Music Group Corp …

Discussion: PR Newswire, @music_zone, Fast Company, Digital Music News, Music Ally, Variety and Music Business Worldwide

Financial Times:

Media Partners Asia: Netflix has just 5.5M subscribers in India, far below its 100M goal from 2016, behind Amazon Prime Video's 16M and Disney+ Hotstar's 50M — Streaming juggernaut wanted 100mn subscribers in the country but has managed just 5.5mn — Back in 2016, when Netflix launched in India …

Discussion: @praval, Transistori, @counternotions, @lakshmishaks and @harneetsin, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 11:45 AM ET, February 25, 2022.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

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:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify removes several recently uploaded episodes of The Alex Jones Show, which it banned in 2018, after Media Matters for America discovered the episodes

Discussion: Input, Engadget and Media Matters for America

Larry Edelman / The Boston Globe:
Jonathan Abbott, CEO of public media outlet GBH, is stepping down in December after 15 years, during which he grew the newsroom from a dozen journalists to 110

Discussion: @bostonfdn

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Dish lost ~273K net pay TV subscribers in Q4, including ~70K Sling TV subscribers; Dish ended 2021 with 8.22M Dish TV subscribers and 2.49M Sling TV subscribers

Discussion: TV Technology, Light Reading and Next TV

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
Discovery reports Q4: 22M streaming subscribers, up from 20M in Q3; net income of $38M, down 86% YoY, on $3.2B revenue, up 10% YoY; US ad revenue rose 5% YoY

Discussion: The Wrap, @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, Digital TV Europe, Variety, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and PR Newswire

Randall Chase / Associated Press:
Delaware's Supreme Court upholds a judge's dismissal of a lawsuit by Candace Owens against Facebook fact-checking media organizations USA Today and Lead Stories

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review and American Press Institute

Andy Maxwell / TorrentFreak:
Reddit publishes its 2021 transparency report: 665K pieces of copyright-infringing content were removed, up 104%; 2,813 users and 2,625 subreddits were banned

Earlier Picks:

Variety:
Sources: under Skydance's deal with Apple Studios, Apple guarantees Skydance at least two fully financed feature films per year, with budgets of up to ~$125M

Discussion: @mattdonnelly and AppleInsider

Rachel Treisman / NPR:
Study: since May, Facebook labeled only about half the posts promoting 184 climate change denial articles from publishers like Breitbart and Newsmax

Discussion: Climate Monitor, Input, EXXONKNEWS, Press Gazette, @reuterslegal, @foe_us, Center for Countering …, Engadget, Common Dreams, Nieman Lab and The Independent

Ed Z / Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At:
Some journalists, guilted by crypto zealots into “being open-minded”, fail their readers by giving the scam-filled crypto industry the benefit of the doubt

Discussion: @edzitron, @michellemanafy, @cnyari, @dgolumbia, @walthickey, @dgolumbia, @chronotope, @edzitron, @edzitron, @edzitron and @edzitron

The Nation:
The Nation names Jacobin founder and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara as president, succeeding Erin O'Mara, who will stay on as a strategic consultant

Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Conservative Brief, which has three writers, passed The Washington Post and The New York Times on Facebook, seemingly by paying large Pages to share its content

Discussion: MediaPost, Popular Information, @caseyjohnston, Input, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @rweingarten, @rmac18, @taylorlorenz, @emilydreyfuss, @checkmyadshq, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @hunterw, @turnbullwhitby, @morten, @juddlegum and @juddlegum

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Daniel Howley / Yahoo Finance:
Nvidia reports Q3 revenue up 94% YoY to $35.1B, vs. $33.2B est., Data Center revenue up 112% to $30.8B, vs. $29B est., and forecasts Q4 revenue above estimates

Matt Swayne / The Quantum Insider:
Google researchers introduce AlphaQubit, a machine-learning decoder that surpasses existing methods in identifying and correcting quantum computing errors

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