Mediagazer: Under its new rules, Facebook reveals some details of the political ads about the SCOTUS nomination, but the money behind some groups buying ads remains opaque (Kevin Roose/New York Times)

6:45 PM ET, July 4, 2018

Top News:

Chris Johnston / BBC:

Telegraph Media Group reports a decline in revenue to £285.7M as profits drop from £27.1M in 2016 to £13.7M in 2017; company sets goal of 3M subs by end of year — Profits at the Telegraph Media Group halved last year as revenues from print advertising and circulation fell by 9%.

Discussion: The Drum, Financial Times, The Guardian and @chrismsutcliffe

Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:

A look at changes WhatsApp can make to curb misinformation after violence in India, including making messages private by default and forwarding only by consent — With over 200 million users in India, WhatsApp has a massive Fake News and misinformation problem.

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Marlee Baldridge / Nieman Lab:

A look at NJ's bill to use $5M to support local media: five universities as collaborators, a board to oversee grants, language emphasizing media independence — The dollar amount isn't huge, and it will barely put a dent in the crisis of local news. But it's also an official statement …

Discussion: @brianstelter, CNNMoney, @redsteeze, @heminator, Free Press, LegiScan, @freepress and The Daily Caller

Kevin Roose / New York Times:

Under its new rules, Facebook reveals some details of the political ads about the SCOTUS nomination, but the money behind some groups buying ads remains opaque — Even before President Trump's new Supreme Court nominee is announced, a fight over the choice is raging on social media.

Discussion: @dabeard, @profgalloway, @jeremybmerrill, @campaignlegal, @wexler, @issielapowsky, USA Today, The Daily Caller and Bloomberg

Taylor Blatchford / Poynter:

How Washington State University Vancouver research director Mike Caulfield plans to work with US students to create Wikipedia pages for 1,000 local news orgs — Americans are more overwhelmed than ever by the news landscape, but one researcher hopes a small step will help readers evaluate sources …

Discussion: @dabeard and @mattervc

Maria Abi-Habib / New York Times:

Sri Lankan lawmakers held a news conference to try to discredit local New York Times journalists by accusing them of being paid by the current government — NEW DELHI — Sri Lankan lawmakers allied with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa have publicly denounced The New York Times in recent days …

Discussion: @meslackman, @nytimespr and Committee to Protect …

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Russian Duma committee approves legislation that would label bloggers and journalists foreign agents if they work for organizations labeled as foreign agents — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Russian authorities to refrain from labeling individual bloggers and journalists as foreign agents.

Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:

New California law requires all businesses, including newspapers, to clarify the terms of auto-renewal and make subscription cancellation possible online — Here's a script you're surely familiar with if you've ever tried to cancel a subscription to, well, anything:

more at Techmeme »

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Wikipedia redirects all of its Italian, Spanish, and Polish pages to a statement protesting July 5 EU Parliament initial vote on changes to copyright law — Wikipedia's Italian and Spanish language versions have temporarily shut off access to their respective versions of the free online encyclopedia …

Discussion: BBC, The Register, Plagiarism Today, Engadget, @notesfrompoland, DW.COM, The Local, Gizmodo and Personanondata, more at Techmeme »

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

US press lacks the language to cover the left's different currents and dismisses its radical proposals while giving a hearing to outlandish ones on the right — The last few days have been seismic for the American left. Last Tuesday, the insurgent Democratic candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored …

Discussion: Washington Post, Shadowproof, @jon_allsop, @seanmcelwee and @froomkin

Stephen Carlisle / Nova Southeastern University:

A VA district court ruling that commercial use of a photo found on the internet was fair use ignored key provisions of the Copyright Act and disregarded facts — On June 11, 2018, another head scratching decision came out of the Eastern District of Virginia, one that has the potential …

Discussion: PetaPixel, @thatgrlaudrey, @unite4copyright, @mediamixed, @azambelich, Newsweek, Engadget and Trademark and Copyright Law

Stewart Clarke / Variety:

BBC and Channel 4 release gender pay gap figures for 2018 showing improvements, with BBC reducing the gap from 10.7% to 8.4% and Channel 4 from 28.6% to 22.7% — U.K. pubcasters are making progress on closing the gender pay gap. The BBC said Wednesday it had reduced pay disparity between the sexes …

Discussion: Press Gazette, @bbcpress, @bbcpress, BBC, The Drum and Deadline

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Matthew Townsend / Bloomberg:
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Lucia Moses / Digiday:
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Sam Levin / The Guardian:
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Hamilton Nolan / Splinter:
WaPo's open shop union, lacking leverage, encourages members to accept insulting terms of new two-year contract, like $15/week raises, cuts in overtime payments

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Sahil Patel / Digiday:
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Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
The New York Times says reporter Ali Watkins, whose email and phone records were seized by the US government, will be transferred to a new beat in New York

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Elisabeth Buchwald / CNN:
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The Information:
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