Top News:
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
Google's Digital News Initiative is expanding its funding to North America, opening application for an “innovation challenge” offering projects up to $300K — Projects, which should be related to local news or revenue generation, can receive up to $300,000 in funding.
Discussion:
The Keyword, @peggyktc and @googlenewsinit, more at Techmeme »
Evan Sernoffsky / San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco police obtained search warrants targeting journalist Bryan Carmody's phone records before their raid on his home and office — San Francisco police executed seven search warrants as they tried to find out who leaked a police report to a freelance journalist …
VICE:
Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde says the company is looking into how white nationalists and supremacists use the platform to determine if they should be banned — “Is it the right approach to deplatform these individuals? Is the right approach to try and engage with these individuals?
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Critics slammed Facebook and Twitter for hosting a doctored video of Pelosi, but many overlooked Fox News, which smeared Pelosi via a separate video montage — Novel forms of digital misinformation still pale in comparison with Fox News' full-time hall of mirrors.
Discussion:
MIT Technology Review, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Techdirt, VICE, Mediaite, @oliverdarcy, @ryanlcooper, @drewharwell, @nicoleperlroth, @max_read, @walldo, @lolgop and @fmanjoo
Alex Johnson / NBC News:
NBC officially launches NBC News Now, a free streaming news service with 8 hours of programming every weekday, expects to have it running 24/7 by 2020 — The service, which doesn't require cable service authentication, is intended to go round the clock by next year.
Discussion:
MediaPost, TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, Streaming Observer, Axios, Latest Streaming & …, @rolandsmartin, Variety and Engadget
Aaron Kirchfeld / Bloomberg:
KKR is in talks with the founding family of Axel Springer SE, publisher of Bild, about a potential bid to take the publisher private — - Offer from family, buyout firm could be made in coming weeks — KKR & Co. is in talks with Axel Springer SE's founding family about a potential bid …
Discussion:
@msnabilaahmed
Shoshana Wodinsky / Adweek:
The Washington Post is releasing its proprietary ad-tech stack, Zeus, to all web publishers; it had been available to those who used Arc, WaPo's in-house CMS — Assistance from The Post's programmatic sales and engineering team is also available — The Washington Post is gearing up to bring its programmatic platform web-wide.
Discussion:
@jarroddicker, Washington Post, @chronotope, @joshsternberg, @whatthebit, @swodinsky, @chronotope and @jarroddicker
David Uberti / VICE News:
Researchers say Facebook has weakened or disabled tools they use to track political ads and content on the platform, just as 2020 campaigns ramp up ad spending — The Iowa caucuses are still eight months away, but the Facebook primary has already begun. — President Donald Trump has poured …
Discussion:
@vicenews, @daviduberti, @fabiochiusi, @daviduberti, @eff, @ghoshd7, @jason_kint, @digiphile and @daviduberti, more at Techmeme »
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Vox Media Union workers walked out for an hour to push for a contract with management; hiring has moved toward part-time and contract jobs since staff unionized — Many editorial and video employees at Vox Media are, at this hour, finishing up a walkout to protest their employer's stance …
Discussion:
Thinknum Media, @vox_union, @sarahannelloyd, @jbenton, @andyjayhawk, @sokane1 and @dlind
Brad Hill / RAIN News:
Vivendi's Radionomy will shut down US internet radio streaming on its platform this week, offers to migrate stations to Shoutcast for Business — A Radionomy internet radio producer sent us a communication from the hosting company, indicating that Radionomy will shut down U.S. streaming on its platform at the end of May (this week).
Discussion:
hypebot
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Kik and Facebook, which are building their own blockchain tech, could finally make micropayments to access single articles behind paywalls a reality — It's a problem that's long flummoxed media outlets, and also one that's increasingly frustrating consumers: The inability to pay a small sum …
Amy X. Wang / Rolling Stone:
A look at the effects of cheap music marketplaces and sampling on copyright after the rise of Lil Nas X, who bought Old Town Road's beat for $30 on BeatStars — Inside the new world of cheap music marketplaces that has the music industry scrambling — No one saw Lil Nas X coming.
Discussion:
@kierondonoghue, @beatstars, @rollingstone and @amyxwang
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