Mediagazer: How Famous Birthdays, which has 20M unique monthly users, became Gen Z's Wikipedia for new internet stars and a talent resource for the entertainment industry (Taylor Lorenz/The Atlantic)

4:20 PM ET, July 27, 2019

Top News:

District court judge throws out defamation lawsuit by Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann against The Washington Post — Ted Sandmann, father Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann, on why he wants doxing legislation to criminalize revealing a minor's identity online

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, @dankennedy_nu, @jnoisecat, @wesleylowery, @jonathanderson, @brianstelter and CityBeat Cincinnati

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Vice Media is in talks to buy women-focused publisher Refinery29 — Tie-up would unite women's-focused new-media company with one of its largest peers — Vice Media is in talks to buy women-focused publisher Refinery29, according to people familiar with the matter …

Discussion: Deadline, @moorehn, @originalspin, @keccers, @awallenstein, @raju, @johnpgarrett and Variety

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Ofcom: 49% of UK adults use social media for news while 49% get news from newspapers, websites, and apps; 38% of UK adults get their news from newspapers alone — Half of all UK adults now use social media to get the latest news, according to a new survey by regulator Ofcom …

Discussion: @iainmacwhirter

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Ofcom: in the UK, people over 65 watch 33 minutes of TV news per day, while those under between 16 and 24 watch two minutes; 58% of the public watches BBC One

Discussion: @hiltonholloway, @brenbrenchie, @jessbrammar and @rosscolquhoun

Micah Singleton / Billboard:

Profile of Oliver Schusser, who spent 15 years at Apple building iTunes' worldwide operations from the ground up and took charge of Apple Music 15 months ago — From left: Jen Walsh, Schusser and Rachel Newman photographed on July 17, 2019 at Apple Music in Culver City, Calif.

Dean Sterling Jones / BuzzFeed News:

Investigation finds dozens of cases of SEO consultants buying expired URLs linked to by major news sites, like the NYT, then redirecting them to clients' sites — In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter published a glowing obituary for Patricia Disney, the first wife of former Walt Disney Company executive Roy Disney.

Discussion: One Man & His Blog, @michellemanafy, @roundtrip, @baekdal, @kammie_jenkins, @jfruh, @chronotope, @glennf, @klingebeil and @josephfcox

Tom Jones / Poynter:

Chuck Todd's tweet about the “optics” of Mueller's hearing not only reflects the goal of the hearing but recognizes the importance of political spectacle today — Your Friday news roundup … Good Friday morning, and thank you for reading the morning newsletter.

Discussion: The Atlantic, @andyrichter, The Atlantic, @pat_garofalo, @pat_garofalo, @tomwjones, @pat_garofalo, The Independent, @jayrosen_nyu and Fox News

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Mueller hearing had an average of 13M viewers across six major networks, below the 20M viewers for Comey's 2017 testimony; cable news ratings were ~2x the usual

Discussion: MediaPost, @timcast, @dannagal and Mediaite

Megan Graham / CNBC:

Amazon is now letting advertisers buy ad inventory on networks with Fire TV apps by using outside ad tech companies, including The Trade Desk and Dataxu — KEY POINTS — Amazon has opened up connected TV apps integrated with Amazon Publisher Services for advertisers working with Dataxu and The Trade Desk.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Amazon Publisher Services, @gu881n5, @wsjcmo and Communicate Online

Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:

How Famous Birthdays, which has 20M unique monthly users, became Gen Z's Wikipedia for new internet stars and a talent resource for the entertainment industry — Famous Birthdays has become a go-to database of teen culture—and is ushering in a whole new generation of stars.

Discussion: @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz and @taylorlorenz

Variety:

Inside Spotify's Project Magneto, its failed multiyear effort to create Spotify TV, a highly personalized video streaming service, and the hardware to run it — Spotify has made no secret of wanting to be the world's biggest audio platform, but it wasn't all that long ago that the Swedish streamer was eyeing video.

Discussion: @tedgioia and @schaudenfraud, more at Techmeme »

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Sources: Long Island newspaper Newsday is offering its employees voluntary buyouts, which they can apply for until August 8 — PATRICK Dolan's Newsday took staffers by “surprise” Thursday when executives of the largest newspaper on Long Island said it is offering voluntary buyouts, Media Ink has learned.

Discussion: @noah__goldberg, @mlcalderone, Long Island Business News, @dcbigjohn, @will_bunch and Talking Biz News

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

Source: Dan Le Batard will have to check with higher-ups before talking politics; Pitaro's no-politics policy concerned changing viewer perception of ESPN — NEW YORK — New York Yankees first baseman Luke Voit jogged toward the home dugout after the bottom of the second inning …

Omar Sanchez / The Wrap:

The top 2020 Democratic candidates have all been on podcasts; in the 2016 campaign, Trump did no podcast interviews — Four years after Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to go on a podcast, Democratic presidential contenders have logged more than 1,200 podcast appearances.

Discussion: Breitbart and @rjcc

Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:

Sling TV and Dish Network have dropped the Fox regional sports networks after a temporary extension expired without a deal — The Streamable is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission when you sign up with our links. — At noon ET today, Fox Sports announced that Sling TV …

Discussion: @sarafischer, Sports Business Daily, @matthewkeyslive, Los Angeles Times, Awful Announcing, Variety and The Big Lead

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