Mediagazer: Two years after announcing a HiFi lossless, CD-quality music service, Spotify has yet to launch the tier, offering no new information and falling behind rivals (Chris Welch/The Verge)

4:35 PM ET, February 22, 2023

Top News:

David Folkenflik / NPR:

NPR plans to lay off ~10% of its workforce, or at least 100 people, and eliminate most vacant positions, citing lower ad revenue, particularly for its podcasts — HEADLINE: NPR says it's cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops — NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% …

Michael Schneider / Variety:

A profile of Casey Bloys, the CEO of content for HBO and HBO Max, as he oversees the programming on the service combining HBO Max and Discovery+ this spring — Casey Bloys was about four years into his tenure as a programming executive at HBO when he was driven to champion a project that was disliked by others at the network.

Discussion: Screen Rant, The Wrap, The A.V. Club, @edmundlee, IndieWire, The Playlist, @variety_cynthia, TVLine, @variety, @theinsneider, @lucas_shaw and @variety

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Spotify launches DJ, an AI-powered radio DJ feature that offers curated music and commentary about the tracks and artists in a “stunningly realistic voice” — Ahead of Spotify's upcoming Stream On event, where the company is expected to announce a redesigned home feed and other updates …

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Two years after announcing a HiFi lossless, CD-quality music service, Spotify has yet to launch the tier, offering no new information and falling behind rivals

Discussion: @chriswelch, more at Techmeme »

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:

The Information launches Pro, a subscription tier with expanded org charts, databases based on staff reporting, surveys, and a specialized weekly newsletter — I am delighted to share the launch of The Information Pro—a new tier of subscription that features our expanded org charts …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @boygenius, @jessicalessin and Axios

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

A look at Substack-hosted entertainment business publication Ankler Media, which claims profitability, with ~50% of revenue from subscriptions and ~50% from ads — Rushfield's sharp-tongued missives have earned him a bold-faced subscriber list. ("I read it the second I see it pop up," says Richard Plepler.)

Discussion: @joepompeo, Talking Biz News, @bmorrissey, @felixgillette, @janicemin, @theinsneider, @joepompeo, @josephkapsch, @mlcalderone and @richardrushfield

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

UK magazine publisher Future names Jon Steinberg as CEO, replacing Zillah Byng-Thorne starting on April 3; Steinberg was a BuzzFeed and a Mail Online executive — Steinberg takes over from Zillah Byng-Thorne at the start of April. — Jon Steinberg will be the next chief executive (CEO) …

Discussion: Financial Times, Next TV, Variety, @dangrabham, @oliverdarcy, Dow Jones Newswires, Sharecast, Talking Biz News and Bloomberg

James Greig / Dazed:

How “TikTok detectives” drove speculation and spread conspiracy theories after UK woman Nicola Bulley disappeared, showing the dark side of the true crime genre — The flurry of speculation and conspiracy theories which arose in response to Nicola Bulley's disappearance shows …

Discussion: @thobbsjourno, @jamesdgreig, The Week and New Statesman

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

WARC projects global ad revenue for publishers will fall 7.7% in 2023 to $47.2B; Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta will take nearly $400B of the global $993B ad market — Amazon, Alphabet and Meta are estimated to take $4 in every $10 spent in the global ad market.

Bill Grueskin / Columbia Journalism Review:

Dominion's filing details Fox News' post-election dysfunction and the channel's troubles for the 2024 election, particularly if Donald Trump wins the nomination — b — By most appearances, Fox News is a well-managed, tightly run outfit. It's America's most popular cable news channel …

Discussion: @bgrueskin, @bgrueskin, San Antonio Express-News, @ddiamond, New York Daily News, Fox News and The Hill

Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:

ABC: in 2022, global circulation of digital consumer magazines grew 22% YoY, with BBC Science Focus up 131%, and global print circulation fell 14% YoY to 20.9M — ABC consumer magazine data shows growth in digital circulation in 2022. — Digital consumer magazines saw a circulation increase …

Discussion: @joshglancy, @wturvill, @pressgazette and Press Gazette

Bloomberg:

Turkey's telecom watchdog BTK blocks Eksi Sozluk, one of the country's biggest social media websites, and fines three TV channels over their earthquake coverage — Turkey's media watchdog fined three TV channels over their coverage of this month's earthquakes, the latest move by the state …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @diegocupolo and @middleeast, more at Techmeme »

Manori Ravindran / Variety:

BritBox International reports 3M subscribers across the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, up from 2.6M in March 2022 — BritBox International has reached three million subscribers across its eight international markets, Variety can reveal.

Discussion: The Streamable, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

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More News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Artifact, the personalized news reader created by Instagram's co-founders, opens to the public for Android and iOS, with new features and no sign-up required

Discussion: The Verge, Engadget and @nicholasadeleon, more at Techmeme »

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Stockholm-based video streaming service Viaplay launches in the US, promising thousands of hours for $5.99 per month; Viaplay ended 2022 with 7.3M+ subscribers

Discussion: The Streamable, Deadline, Broadband TV News and Media Play News

Knight Foundation:
The Knight Foundation invests $5M in the nonprofit Signal Akron, set to become part of Signal Ohio, which opened its first Cleveland newsroom in November 2022

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Bloomberg:
Sources: Viacom18, which beat Disney and Sony to Indian Premier League cricket streaming rights for $2.7B in 2022, plans to stream the matches for free with ads

Discussion: The Streamable, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and The Indian Express

David Marchese / New York Times:
Q&A with YouTube star Emma Chamberlain about shifting her focus to podcasting, her Spotify deal, the pressures of being a YouTube creator, and what's next

Discussion: The Verge, @emmaaccess, @tanyachen, @liahaberman, @lucas_shaw, Inside Radio and The Information

Earlier Picks:

Big Local News:
Big Local News and the Data Liberation Project build a pipeline for a dataset of the latest records from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Discussion: The Markup, @palewire, @palewire and @palewire

Andrew Chung / Reuters:
SCOTUS declines to hear Wikimedia's challenge of the NSA's warrantless Upstream surveillance of foreign targets, leaving in place a lower court's 2015 dismissal

Discussion: Reclaim The Net, Ars Technica, @michaelguimarin, @aclu, @aclu, @aclu, @aclu, @ashgorski, Knight First Amendment …, Common Dreams and @michellemanafy@journa.host, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:
News Corp says the company is no longer in discussions to sell its real estate unit Move, which operates Realtor.com, to CoStar Group, which owns Apartments.com

Discussion: News Corp, Financial Times, Axios, Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg and The Wrap

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
Dozens of New York Times staff object to the NewsGuild of New York head's letter affirming the right to criticize the newspaper, amid a feud over trans coverage

Discussion: @wesleylowery, Mediaite, @joenbc, @jackmirkinson, @charlottetklein, New York Post, @nickfoxnyt, @tomscocca, Fox News, The Present Age, Press Watch, @fsp_nwu, @stefsaul, The Guardian, @ashtonpittman, @wickdchiq, @rev_avocado, @neontaster, National Review, @jackmirkinson, @jessesingal, @ewerickson, @rottenindenmark, @adamjohnsonnyc, @shaneferro, @shaneferro, @shaneferro, @shaneferro, @andreagrimes, @jessesingal, @wesleylowery, @wesleylowery, @wesleylowery, @jessesingal, @espiers, @espiers, @espiers, @jessesingal, @jessesingal, @jessesingal, @jessesingal, @resnikoff, @resnikoff, @ewrigleyfield, @ericmgarcia, @jamessurowiecki, @andreagrimes, @conor64, @kgroetz, @sullydish, @neontaster, @wesleylowery, @wesleylowery, @wesleylowery, @kcjohnson9, @zaidjilani, @kcjohnson9, @angela_denker, @kcjohnson9, @zaidjilani, @bfishbfish, @jayrosen_nyu, @wesleylowery, @badlin, @bigblackjacobin, @mobute, @markharrisnyc, @samyoungman, @nandelabra, @scottnover, @austinahlman, @jakebackpack, @cascamike, @johnfrost, @karlbode, @jackmirkinson, @julcarm, @athertonkd, @joesudbay, @froomkin, @sesmith, @adamj_griff, @scottnover, @abrahamjoseph, @flglmn, @joeyneverjoe, @theseantcollins, @dcwoodruff, @ashleyfeinberg, @halophoenix, @lainnafader, @jerryiannelli, The Column, USA Today, The Bristlecone, @joshsternberg@mstdn.social, Common Dreams, @thomaswilburn@toot.cafe, @mergerson@journa.host and @froomkin@journa.host

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Similarweb: Bluesky app usage in the US and UK grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after Nov. 5; Threads now has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x before Nov. 5

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who has known Elon Musk for several years, has sought Musk's counsel in recent weeks on the incoming Trump administration

New York Times:
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner says China-linked Salt Typhoon group listened to phone calls and read texts by hacking US telecom networks

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