Mediagazer: How Quartz used AI to help reporters search the Mauritius Leaks by finding similar documents among the 200K contained in the trove (Jeremy B. Merrill/Quartz)

Top News:

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

NBCUniversal to launch its ad-supported streaming platform in April 2020 with the same infrastructure as Sky's, will develop originals tied to its content — Comcast units are double down on the content and streaming wars as NBCUniversal plans to launch its advertising-supported streaming platform …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Engadget, IndieWire, @thr, @thr, The Streamable, Vanity Fair, AdExchanger, CNET, @lucas_shaw and The A.V. Club

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Comcast Q2 earnings beat estimates with Sky accounting for a 23.6% YoY revenue spike; NBCU revenue fell 0.8% to $8.2B, but earnings grew 8.1% YoY to $2.3B — Comcast's second quarter earnings beat analysts estimates but total revenue came in just shy of expectations.

Discussion: MediaPost, VentureBeat, CNBC, AdExchanger, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:

Facebook's ad library is so plagued by bugs and technical constraints that researchers say it is effectively useless to adequately track political advertising — The social network's new ad library is so flawed, researchers say, that it is effectively useless as a way to track political messaging.

Discussion: @firefox, @freepress, Gizmodo, @gizmodo, @edbott and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »

James Walker / Press Gazette:

Paul Dacre says he “bears a heavy responsibility” for the belief that journalism costs nothing because of his role in launching the free Metro and Mail Online — Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has said he blames himself for helping create a culture in which news content is given away for free.

Discussion: Spectator

Michael Barthel / Pew Research Center:

Study: in 2018, US newspaper circulation reached its lowest level since 1940; digital ad revenue, which grew 23% YoY, has nearly tripled since 2011 — Every year since 2004, Pew Research Center has issued an assessment of the state of the news media, tracking key audience and economic indicators …

Discussion: The Wrap, @pewjournalism, @dkiesow and @julien51

Douglas A. McIntyre / 24/7 Wall St.:

About 2,100 newspapers have closed in the USA since 2004, almost all of which are weeklies, leaving ~7,000 still in publication, many with declining revenues — The newspaper industry has continued its relentless downward spiral, which started with the advent of the internet and accelerated during the Great Recession.

Max Read / New York Magazine:

Amazon's now-deleted tweet of a Quillette article signaled approval of its thesis: critical coverage of labor conditions will push the company to automate jobs — Like a lot of predictable liberals, I've long imagined Amazon to be a terrible place to work.

Discussion: @amazonnews, @rmac18, @jwherrman and Mashable

Kevin Draper / New York Times:

Twitter signs an agreement with NBC for 2020 Olympics, to show limited live event coverage, highlights, and a daily 20-minute show — Twitter will show some live coverage, highlights and a daily studio show from the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. — If you cannot find a television …

Discussion: Variety, Engadget and The Big Lead, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Beast:

House Republicans' questions to Robert Mueller overlapped with 18 of those proposed by Sean Hannity on his show the previous night — Hannity used his Tuesday night show to suggest questions for Republicans to ask Mueller. More than a dozen GOP queries overlapped with the pro-Trump Fox News star's requests.

Discussion: Washington Post, Media Matters for America, Mediaite, The Guardian, CNN and Contemptor

Terricha Phillips / Columbia Journalism Review:

After Mississippi candidate for governor denied access to a reporter because she is a woman, other journalists say this is common on the political beat — Mississippi's Republican gubernatorial primary, just two weeks away, has been marked by a scandal over the ways female reporters are treated.

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:

Alphabet lumps YouTube's revenue with Google's in filings, making insights hard to come by, though YouTube's annual revenue is likely $16B-$25B, topping Netflix — YouTube probably generates $16 billion to $25 billion in annual revenue, making the video service big enough to crack the top half of the Fortune 500.

Discussion: @nytimesbusiness, @puiwingtam and @nytimesbusiness

James Walker / Press Gazette:

Vice UK, which has about 50 staff, recognizes Vice UK union after four months of negotiations; a unionization attempt three years ago was rejected by management — Vice UK has recognised a National Union of Journalists' chapel representing editorial and production staff following four months of negotiations.

Discussion: @viceukunion, @hannahrosewens and @simonchilds13