Mediagazer: Q&A with Trevor Kaufman, CEO of paywall tech firm Piano, on the rise of paywalls and subscription models, lack of longform strategy, and social distribution (Ricardo Bilton/Nieman Lab)

4:35 AM ET, February 8, 2018

Top News:

Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab:

Analysis of LA Times deal: factors that led to sale now, speculation on Soon-Shiong 's future strategy, a look at price, and a theory on a future Gannett role — Tronc is getting a big premium for its flagship asset, and the Times is getting a return to private, local ownership.

Discussion: TechCrunch, GlobeNewswire News Room, The New York Observer, BloombergQuint, GlobeNewswire News Room, Bloomberg, NPR, @sduncovered, @jayrosen_nyu, @laobserved, LA Observed, @scribeguy, @latlands, @markjacob16, @mattdpearce and The Wrap

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Tronc forms new company, Tribune Interactive, with Ross Levinsohn as its CEO and ex-LA Times EIC Lewis D'Vorkin as its chief content officer — Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Times from its parent company Tronc, restoring local ownership …

Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters:
Tronc has confirmed it is selling the Los Angeles Times and a number of other newspapers to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500M in cash

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, Washington Post, CNBC, New York Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, @gerryfsmith, Business Insider, Deadline, CNNMoney, Washington Post, Fortune and The Week

Claire Atkinson / NBC News:

Newsweek Media Group's head of sales resigns, and a source says the company has lost “hundreds of thousands” in ad commitments since reports it bought traffic — The Newsweek Media Group is reeling. — Ed Hannigan, the company's head of sales, resigned on Tuesday.

Discussion: @jaysunsilver, @melinadelkic, @journo_christal, @linleyann, @jasonabbruzzese, @sulliview, @rachelcbrody and @claireatki

Hollywood Reporter:

Disney is developing a number of Star Wars series for its streaming service, CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call on Tuesday — Disney CEO Bob Iger tells investors that the company is close to revealing at least one of the producing teams behind one of the projects.

Discussion: Slate, StarWars.com, The Playlist, Tubefilter, Vanity Fair, @americanstnick, Fast Company, Deadline, /Film, TechCrunch, Press Association, Recode, CNBC, Variety, CinemaBlend, The A.V. Club and io9

Washington Post:

Executives at The Newseum plan to meet with a real estate firm Thursday to explore options including selling its building in Washington, DC, or moving locations — Two months shy of its 10th anniversary in a glass-and-steel showpiece on Washington's most prestigious thoroughfare …

Local News Lab:

Democracy Fund announces two new funds in NJ and NC totaling $2M to support local news ecosystems and seek long-term solutions for public-interest news — Democracy Fund establishes two new local funds — Local news is critical to a healthy democracy, and we believe that the future of local news is local.

Discussion: @democracyfund, @melaniesill, @jcstearns and @jcstearns

Anna Washenko / RAIN News:

RadioPublic launches Paid Listens, guarantees participating podcasters $20 CPM for every listen via its iOS and Android apps — Podcast company RadioPublic has adopted a new service for show creators to get paid for their work. The approach is designed for podcasts that don't have the scale …

Discussion: RadioPublic, @evoterra, @mattervc and Fast Company

Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed:

A look at 29 Facebook pages and sites of fake news publishers, which are using Instant Articles to help completely false stories load faster and earn revenue — While some mainstream publishers are abandoning Facebook's Instant Articles, fake news sites based overseas are taking advantage of the format …

Discussion: @profcarroll, @firstdraftnews, @janelytv, @niemanlab, @craigsilverman and @craigsilverman

Wall Street Journal:

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian steps down from daily duties at the company to focus on early stage VC firm he cofounded and personal life, will remain on board — Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian announced on Wednesday he will step down from daily duties at the internet company and focus …

more at Techmeme »

Max Willens / Digiday:

Condé Nast to begin experimenting with Amazon Echo Look to provide content and recommendations from Vogue and GQ on Look's mobile app starting February 19 — Condé Nast glossies Vogue and GQ are focusing more on content recommendations that lead to e-commerce, and they've found another place to syndicate them.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Engadget

Christine Wang / CNBC:

21st Century Fox beats Q2 targets with $8B in revenue, up 5% YoY, as higher affiliate, syndication, and ad revenue boost cable revenue, up 11% YoY — Twenty-First Century Fox reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street expectations on Wednesday. — The stock edged slightly higher in extended trading.

Discussion: Variety, Ad Age, Broadcasting & Cable, @edmundlee, /Film, Hollywood Reporter and 21st Century Fox

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Snapchat says it generated $100M in revenue for Discover's publishing partners in 2017, up from $58M in 2016 and $10M in 2015 — Snapchat says it generated $100 million in revenue for content partners on Discover in 2017, up from $58 million in 2016 and $10 million in 2015.

Discussion: Recode, Wall Street Journal and @matildegiglio

Wall Street Journal:
Snapchat is launching to tool to let TV networks pipe snippets of live broadcasts directly into the app, starting this Saturday with NBC's Olympics coverage

Discussion: Ad Age, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Next Web, @ctrlzee, @mathewi, @georgia_wells, AppAdvice.com, @kerrymflynn, Bloomberg and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:

YouTube's recommendations engine, which drives 70%+ of viewing time, often suggests divisive, misleading, or false content, even to users who don't seek it out — Google's video site often recommends divisive or misleading material, despite recent changes designed to fix the problem

Discussion: @tripgabriel, New York Magazine, @jacknicas, @trevornoren, @max_read and @bradnews, more at Techmeme »

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Reddit bans r/deepfakes, which was devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces, and updates site-wide rules regarding “involuntary pornography” — Reddit has banned the r/deepfakes subreddit that's devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Daily Mail, Vox, Mashable, New York Magazine, Engadget, Motherboard and reddit, more at Techmeme »

Samantha Cole / Motherboard:
Pornhub says it's banning AI-generated fake porn videos because they're “nonconsensual”, yet such “deepfake” videos are still available via site search results

Discussion: CNNMoney, The Verge, Engadget, The Guardian, Engadget, Mashable, Fast Company, Trusted Reviews, The Next Web and The Daily Dot, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:35 AM ET, February 8, 2018.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Ed. - Gen. Assignment Desk, DC — WaPo

EU Technology Reporter, Brussels — Bloomberg

Breaking News Reporter, NY — Guardian US

Harrisburg Reporter, PA — PCBC

Senior Editor - Styles, NY — NYT

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter, Ireland — Newsweek

Assistant Digital Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Senior Editor - Visuals (Temporary), DC — NPR

Copy Editor, Remote US — ProPublica

Markets Reporter, NY/CA — Sherwood Media

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Food Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Staff Writer, NV — Las Vegas Weekly

Pharma Editor, Remote — Endpoints

Higher Ed. Reporter, Remote CA — EdSource

Politics Reporter, Brussels — Politico

Investigations & Enterprise Ed., WI — Cap Times

Social Strategy Editor, NY — WSJ

Senior Narrative Editor, CA — Cloud Chamber

Editor-in-Chief, NY (flexible) — The 74

Housing Reporter, OK — The Frontier

Writer/AI Content Reviewer, CA — Outlier

Writer/Editor, Remote — Mediaite

Multi Media Reporter, NC — Cardinal & Pine

Afternoon/Night Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Education Lab Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Senior Editor, Remote US — PCWorld

State Worker Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Executive Editor, NM — Searchlight

News Assistant, NY — Quanta Magazine

Local Editor, NJ (Remote) — Patch

News Writer, CA — Hollywood Reporter

News Editor/Reporter, KS — Blade-Empire

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:

Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Trevor Kaufman, CEO of paywall tech firm Piano, on the rise of paywalls and subscription models, lack of longform strategy, and social distribution

Associated Press:
Four prominent Venezuelan journalists leave country after being sued over an article alleging irregularities in food sales to President Maduro's administration

Kelly Virella / New York Times:
Q&A with NYT's Monica Drake, the first African-American woman appointed to the print masthead, on her 20 years at the Times, breaking barriers, and new projects

Discussion: @hannaingber, @ashleynmcb, @kvirella, @readercenter and @readercenter

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Viacom confirms it has acquired online video conference VidCon and will run it as a standalone subsidiary

Discussion: Tubefilter, TechCrunch and @hankgreen, more at Techmeme »

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
The Information's Jessica Lessin and Stratechery's Ben Thompson argue differentiated content and online subscriptions form a viable model for local news outlets

Discussion: @brizzyc, @fmanjoo, @rbilton, @noahchestnut, @jbenton, @detour_detroit, @jessicalessin, @jarroddicker and @mathewi

Earlier Picks:

Alexandria Neason / Columbia Journalism Review:
Profile of Tom Tryniski, who has scanned ~50M newspaper pages dating back to the 1800s from US and Canadian pubs, into his online repository Fultonhistory.com

Discussion: @michaelsocolow, @alanamhmd, @usprojectcjr, @4manreports, @megansmolenyak, @bypetevernon, @alexandrianeas, @mathewi, Blaine T. Bettinger, @c_chisholm and @jaanpill

Press Gazette:
The main source for a UK investigative news site's story about a Westminster paedophile ring, which sparked a police probe, is charged with child porn offences

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Vice Media missed its 2017 revenue target of $805M by $100M+, largely due to its Viceland TV channel; co-president Creighton unlikely to return to role

Discussion: @annehelen, Fast Company, @iankar_, @sknthla, @simonowens, @keachhagey, @srabil, @asharma and @raju

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:
Russian trolls posed as black activists on Tumblr and generated hundreds of thousands of interactions with anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders content

Discussion: @donie, The Hill, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Stranger …, @craigsilverman, @securedemocracy and @melissaryan

April Simpson / Current:
NPR's Daniel Zwerdling, a veteran investigative journalist, has left the network; sources say allegations of sexual harassment were filed to HR in November

Discussion: TVWeek.com and Journalism News

From Techmeme:

Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast:
Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 3, buying H100 GPUs for Reels, AGI, energy constraints, dangers of open source, the metaverse, Meta's custom silicon, and more

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

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