Mediagazer: How Trump helped National Enquirer's David Pecker meet the Saudi crown prince; Pecker's American Media recently published a 97-page glossy promoting the prince (New York Times)

11:30 AM ET, March 30, 2018

Top News:

How Trump helped National Enquirer's David Pecker meet the Saudi crown prince; Pecker's American Media recently published a 97-page glossy promoting the prince — In July, David J. Pecker, the chairman of the company that owns The National Enquirer, visited his old friend President Trump at the White House.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Magazine, @tripgabriel, @justinjm1, @alexburnsnyt, @otpor17, @sigimideast, @joshsternberg, @buzzedition and Common Dreams

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump's crusade against Amazon has nothing to do with the post office or mom-and-pop shops and everything to do with his hatred of The Washington Post — President Trump is determined to find some way to hurt Amazon, reports Jonathan Swan. “He's obsessed with Amazon,” a source tells him.

Charles Elmore / Palm Beach Post:

GateHouse Media acquires the Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News for $49.25M, adding to its stable of more than 140 daily newspapers — One of the nation's busiest acquirers of newspapers and online media has agreed to buy The Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News in a deal announced Wednesday at $49.25 million.

Discussion: Associated Press

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

NewsWhip data suggests that hyperpartisan sites, and even two fake-news sites, are doing as well or better on Facebook as they were before News Feed changes — Data that NewsWhip pulled together for Nieman Lab suggests that popular hyperpartisan publishers are actually doing pretty well post-algorithm change.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @laurahazardowen, Media Bias/Fact Check and Columbia Journalism Review

Jason Schwartz / Politico:
Conservative publishers accuse Facebook's algorithm change of unfair targeting, though change may be the result of users labeling them as untrustworthy

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @mattyglesias, Splinter, @joshuahol, @agfhome and @thegarance

Tejal Rao / New York Times:

A look at the wave of small US food magazines that are telling stories on their own terms, often as labors of love — Shayne Chammavanijakul, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, felt let down by the way some magazines depicted Asian cuisines — framed as alien …

Discussion: @evankleiman, @qkatie, @tandemvines, @jwalkersmith, @zingermans, @simonathibault and @illinois_alma

Facebook Newsroom:

Facebook outlines steps to protect elections: fight foreign influence, remove fake accounts, increase transparency of ads, and reduce spread of false news — Last fall Mark Zuckerberg announced the steps we're taking to protect elections from abuse and exploitation.

Discussion: The Hill, Slate, TechCrunch, Politico, The Guardian, TechSpot, Gizmodo, Mashable, The Verge, BloombergQuint, @samidh, Recode, @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, @coldbrain, @kadhimshubber, Fast Company, CNBC, @adrianweckler and VentureBeat

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook begins letting fact-checking partners review photos and videos and also lets them flag stories before being prompted

Discussion: Fortune, Ad Age, @kerrymflynn, Engadget, @kerrymflynn and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Hadas Gold / CNNMoney:

RT broadcast in Washington, DC, ends April 1 because RT's distributor MHz lost the lease on the broadcast license though RT blames the Justice Department — Russia's English language network last year took out dozens of cheeky ads across Washington D.C. to court viewers.

Discussion: Voice of America

Aditi Sangal / Digiday:

Interview with Kara Swisher on Facebook's relationship with the media, whether Facebook would ever pay publishers for content, YouTube's value, and more — On this week's Digiday Podcast, Recode executive editor Kara Swisher said Facebook's relationship with the media has long been based on lip service.

Max A. Cherney / MarketWatch:

Baidu's streaming video service iQiyi falls 13.6% in Nasdaq debut, closing at $15.55, down from opening price of $18 — Baidu subsidiary valued at $12.7 billion in second-largest U.S. IPO for Chinese company; shares fall 14% in debut — With more subscribers than Netflix Inc. …

Discussion: Reuters, TechCrunch, Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

Baltimore Sun:

Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed will get a new trial after Maryland appeals court upholds a ruling that overturned his murder conviction — Maryland's second-highest court has upheld a judge's ruling overturning the murder conviction of “Serial” podcast subject Adnan Syed.

Discussion: Forbes, @tomnamako, The Next Web, NPR, Vox, IndieWire, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, PAPER, @helenkennedy, @emilydreyfuss, @makingarecord, Law & Crime, @rectorsun, @rectorsun and New York Times

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Express Newspapers report a mean gender pay gap of 17% favoring men, lower than new owner Trinity Mirror's 18% pay gap. — Express Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star on Sunday, has reported a mean gender pay gap of 17 per cent favouring men.

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
News UK gender pay gap report: average hourly pay rate for men is 15.2% higher than for women, and 24.8% at The Sun; CEO Brooks cites efforts to hire more women

Discussion: Press Gazette and News UK

Scott Rosenberg / Axios:

Traditional media outlets have old grudges against tech giants, and that history now turbocharges critical coverage of Facebook's misuse of user data — Facebook and Google execs privately complain about the barrage of critical coverage they face, charging that media companies …

Maxwell Strachan / HuffPost:

WSJ staffers say senior editor tried to pull a story about economic changes since '08 for political reasons; one ex-WSJ staffer said EIC Gerard Baker was editor — “This is censorship and it is beneath the standards of the Wall Street Journal," they wrote in a letter.