Mediagazer: After declining Twitter engagement, a writer games the For You feed, which he suspects uses invisible subreddit-like Topics to algorithmically organize tweets (Ryan Broderick/Garbage Day)

4:55 AM ET, March 1, 2023

Top News:

Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day:

After declining Twitter engagement, a writer games the For You feed, which he suspects uses invisible subreddit-like Topics to algorithmically organize tweets — Read to the end for some really good horse content — I Gave Into The New Twitter Algorithm And I Went Way Too Viral

Discussion: @broderick, @broderick, @athertonkd, @gbrew24, @broderick, @loudmouthjulia, @broderick, @saraschaefer1, @e_alexjung, @sonnybunch, @oneunderscore__, @jamesrbuk, @femme_thoughts, @katienotopoulos and @loudmouthjulia, more at Techmeme »

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: former Paramount Global executive David Nevins in recent weeks offered to buy Showtime for $3B+, backed by General Atlantic, but was turned down — David Nevins was latest Showtime suitor to be rebuffed by Paramount over past few years — Former Paramount Global PARA -2.15%decrease …

Discussion: @littmanji, @mattzollerseitz and The Desk

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Flipboard adds a beta feature to its iOS app that lets Mastodon users see posts from people they follow, as Twitter integration is expected to become unreliable — Magazine app Flipboard is joining the Fediverse — the group of interconnected servers powering a range of open source …

Discussion: Engadget, @shoq, @efeng, @andypiper@macaw.social, @chrismessina, @shoq, @mmccue, @anthony and CNET, more at Techmeme »

Lori Rozsa / Washington Post:

DeSantis appoints political supporters to a board controlling Disney's special tax district in Florida and suggests they can influence Disney's “woke” content — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis completed the state takeover of a taxing district controlled by Disney for more than half …

Discussion: Semafor, NPR, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, @washingtonpost, @portiamcgonagal, @_m_miles@mstdn.social, NBC News, The Wrap, Associated Press, The Guardian, IndieWire, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Variety, The Daily Beast and Politico

Associated Press:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Tucker Carlson has “exclusive” first dibs on January 6 security footage but vows to give access to the “entire country” later — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is defending his decision to give Fox News' Tucker Carlson “exclusive” …

Discussion: Axios, Politico, The Hill, Mediaite, @farnoushamiri, @heidilegg, Washington Post, Insider, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and The Week

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

An interview with Time CEO Jessica Sibley about “Time 3.0”, partner Taboola, Time Studios accounting for 25% of the publisher's revenue, podcast plans, and more — Jessica Sibley says that Time Studios now accounts for 25 percent of the publisher's revenue …

Discussion: @benioff and @jsibo

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with iHeartMedia's Conal Byrne on overseeing podcasting at the company, the industry maturing, RSS, radio and podcast ads, subscriptions, and exclusivity — Amid layoffs and a looming recession, folks are concerned about the audio industry. iHeart's podcast head Conal Byrne is not worried.

Discussion: RAIN News, Barrett Media and The Drum, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Substack says its newsletters have 20M+ monthly active subscribers and 2M+ paid subscriptions, up from 1M in November 2021, as Big Tech rivals shut down — There are more than 2 million paid subscriptions to writers on Substack, Axios has learned — up from 1 million last reported in November 2021.

Discussion: On Substack, @hamishmckenzie, @tvgrimreaper, @biblioracle, @jasonlk, @kantrowitz, @adater, @jaycodon, @kantrowitz, @annehelen, @michellerempel and @walthickey

Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:

Penguin Random House forms adult publishing division Crown Publishing Group, after its CEO and US CEO left and a judge blocked its Simon & Schuster acquisition — The country's largest publisher has had a rocky few months since a deal to buy a rival fell through, and some of its top executives left.

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, @abuckslater and Publishing Perspectives

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

CEO Jesse Dorogusker says Tidal will end its direct artist payouts program, which paid $500K since its 2021 launch, and use more funds to back emerging artists — The Block-owned music streaming service TIDAL is shifting the way it pays artists after an experimental program failed to generate results.

Discussion: @jessedorogusker, @jessedorogusker, @jessedorogusker, @jessedorogusker and @jessedorogusker

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

Memo: Dish CEO Erik Carlson tells staff that “certain data was extracted” in a cyberattack that has kept the company's systems down for days; DISH falls 5%+ — Dish has told employees that it's “investigating a cybersecurity incident” and that it's “aware that certain data was extracted” …

Discussion: Deadline, CNBC, BleepingComputer, Light Reading, Neowin, TechCrunch, The Desk and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Melanie Goodfellow / Deadline:

Vice France EIC Paul Douard announces the Vice Media Group's French subsidiary will close “between now and the end of March”, affecting 30 employees in Paris — Vice France Editor-in-Chief Paul Douard has announced the closure of Vice Media Group's Paris-based French subsidiary in a tweet.

Discussion: The Information and The Hollywood Reporter

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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
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Discussion: @carolecadwalla, @judiciaryuk, The Guardian, @carolecadwalla, @carolecadwalla, @carolecadwalla, Guido Fawkes, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @cjsnowdon, @davidwooding, @dbanksy and Reporters Without Borders

Minnie Chan / South China Morning Post:
Taiwan proposes stiffer penalties for “dissemination of fake news and misinformation” and requiring the media to cooperate with the military in investigations

Bojan Pancevski / Wall Street Journal:
Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner says the company plans to phase out German print editions, affecting Bild and Welt, in the coming years and focus on the US

Discussion: Deutsche Welle, The Guardian, @bopanc, @bariweiss, @rafat, @vosdscott, @mkarnitschnig, @alexbruell, @ajs, @anthony, @madhavchanchani and Reuters

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: Jonathan Capehart quit The Washington Post's editorial board in December 2022 over a Georgia senate runoff editorial, leaving the board with no POC

Discussion: @chuckrossdc, @deggans, @sifill_, @sarafischer, @eugene_scott, @briandevine, @scottgreenfield, @jimnaught, @alexthomp, @lisamccray, @mikeallen, @lionelmedia and Mediaite

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Nexstar reports 2022 revenue up 12.1% YoY to $5.21B and Q4 revenue up 19.3% YoY to $1.49B as US midterms push Q4 political ad revenue up 1,306.9% YoY to $265.9M

Discussion: Radio Ink, The Desk, @alexweprin, MediaPost, The Hollywood Reporter, @GreenFire@climatejustice …, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and TVNewsCheck

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
BBC employees in England who are National Union of Journalists members vote in favor of a strike, which would be the first major strike at the outlet since 2010

Discussion: HoldtheFrontPage and The Guardian

Earlier Picks:

Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
ABC: UK local daily newspaper sales fell 19% YoY on average in H2 2022 and non-dailies fell 13% YoY; Reach titles like Manchester Evening News were hit hardest

Discussion: HoldtheFrontPage

Financial Times:
Some marketers worry that Meta's AI-based Advantage+ ad tool, added after Apple's ATT to generate multiple ads, forces them to relinquish too much control

Discussion: MediaNama, The Information, @carlquintanilla, @rihardjarc, @fbbagholder, The Drum, @cristinacriddle, @mattnavarra and Inside Radio, more at Techmeme »

John Leland / New York Times:
A look at the vicious fight between local newspapers The Village Sun, WestView News, The Villager, and The Village View in New York City's Greenwich Village

Discussion: @rebeccaballhaus, @krantinari, @amymrusso, @johnleland, @juliamanhattan, @adamweinstein, @marcatracy, @thegarance and @littlewern

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Madhumita Murgia on being appointed as The Financial Times' first AI editor, her “global remit”, the consumer risk of anthropomorphizing AI, and more

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Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
Inside The New York Times as staff clash over its trans coverage; a source says leaders mulled serious punitive measures for signees of the contributors' letter

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
Analysis: 50%+ of the US households showing highly-distorted power readings from February to October were within 20 miles of significant data center activity

Angrej Singh / Axios:
Some conservative critics of Elon Musk allege censorship and claim they were stripped of their X verification badges after challenging his views on H-1B visas

Reuters:
Experts say hackers compromised several companies' Chrome browser extensions, including Cyberhaven's, in a series of intrusions dating back to mid-December

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