Mediagazer: Chris Duncan, managing director of The Times, on how the paper patiently grows digital subscriber numbers using free trials, samples, and key usage data (Jacob Granger/Journalism.co.uk)

11:40 AM ET, August 21, 2019

Top News:

Ethan Zuckerman, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, says he plans to leave the MIT Media Lab in May 2020 due to the lab's ties to Jeffrey Epstein — A week ago last Friday, I spoke to Joi Ito about the release of documents that implicate Media Lab co-founder Marvin Minsky in Jeffrey Epstein's horrific crimes.

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:

The number of advertisers on Tucker Carlson Tonight has fallen from 218 companies in Q2 2018 to 107 in Q2 2019 — In keeping with a monthslong trend, the exodus of advertisers from Tucker Carlson's prime-time Fox News program continued this month. — Over the last year, dozens of advertisers …

Discussion: The Wrap, Talking Points Memo, @newley and Media Matters for America

Jessica Davies / Digiday:

Google says it will join IAB Europe's framework for GDPR when the Transparency and Consent Framework 2.0 goes live, which is expected by end of Q1 2020 — The industry's attempt to create a standardized framework for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation has been overhauled …

Discussion: Multichannel News and AdExchanger

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Publishers are anticipating a revenue decline as Apple tightens its anti-tracking policies to prevent covert techniques like link decoration and fingerprinting — Apple is on the anti-tracking warpath again. The company has further tightened its anti-tracking policies in order …

Max Willens / Digiday:

Facebook to hire a small team of journalists to curate a Top News section in its upcoming news tab, which it will begin testing in the US by the end of October — Facebook famously got rid of its “trending topics” editorial team back in 2018. Now, it's again hiring editors — just don't expect “trending 2.0.”

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Facebook releases first findings from a conservative bias audit, says initial findings influenced policy changes like creation of a content oversight board — Facebook will release the findings of a roughly year-long conservative bias audit Tuesday, along with changes to its advertising policies as a result, executives tell Axios.

Nikhil Subramaniam / Inc42 Media:

Interview with former NDTV Group CEO, Vikram Chandra, on his new venture Editorji, a platform that creates personalized playlists of news video from 15 partners — There's no doubt that the video format and broadcasting changed the face of news altogether.

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

Sources: to satisfy regulators, YouTube officials are finalizing plans to end targeted advertisements on videos kids are likely to watch — - The solution could impact ad sales for the video giant — Groups that complained to regulators aren't satisfied by fix

Discussion: MediaPost, Engadget, @alistairmbarr, Digital TV Europe, @mmasnick, @hshaban, @josheidelson, Business Insider, Variety and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Brian Karem, Playboy's White House correspondent and a CNN contributor, files a lawsuit against the White House, seeking restoration of his press pass — Playboy White House correspondent Brian Karem on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the White House after his credentials were suspended for a month.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Talking Points Memo, @farhip, Politico, @thehill, @briankarem, @briankarem, @boutrousted, The Wrap, Washington Post, Mediaite and Fox News

Han Zhang / New Yorker:

A look at College Daily, a nationalistic Chinese news site producing viral content for Chinese students living overseas, with 1M+ readers a day mostly on WeChat — On a Monday morning in February, members of the staff of College Daily, an online Chinese-language publication for Chinese students living …

Discussion: @ourobororoboruo, @johnny_observe, @ks1729, @suilee, @ariahychen, @jessicadrun and Talking Biz News

Jacob Granger / Journalism.co.uk:

Chris Duncan, managing director of The Times, on how the paper patiently grows digital subscriber numbers using free trials, samples, and key usage data — In a world of Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime, how does a publisher convince readers to pay £26 a month for a digital news subscription?

Daniel Frankel / Multichannel News:

Pluto TV partners with NFL to create The NFL Channel, which will show highlights and full reels of classic games and recaps of old seasons — The NFL Channel will “celebrate seasons past” with season recaps, classic games and archival episodes of “Hard Knocks”

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost and The Streamable

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 11:40 AM ET, August 21, 2019.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Ed. - Gen. Assignment Desk, DC — WaPo

EU Technology Reporter, Brussels — Bloomberg

Breaking News Reporter, NY — Guardian US

Harrisburg Reporter, PA — PCBC

Senior Editor - Styles, NY — NYT

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter, Ireland — Newsweek

Assistant Digital Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Senior Editor - Visuals (Temporary), DC — NPR

Copy Editor, Remote US — ProPublica

Markets Reporter, NY/CA — Sherwood Media

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Food Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Staff Writer, NV — Las Vegas Weekly

Pharma Editor, Remote — Endpoints

Higher Ed. Reporter, Remote CA — EdSource

Politics Reporter, Brussels — Politico

Investigations & Enterprise Ed., WI — Cap Times

Social Strategy Editor, NY — WSJ

Senior Narrative Editor, CA — Cloud Chamber

Editor-in-Chief, NY (flexible) — The 74

Housing Reporter, OK — The Frontier

Writer/AI Content Reviewer, CA — Outlier

Writer/Editor, Remote — Mediaite

Multi Media Reporter, NC — Cardinal & Pine

Afternoon/Night Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Education Lab Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Senior Editor, Remote US — PCWorld

State Worker Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Executive Editor, NM — Searchlight

News Assistant, NY — Quanta Magazine

Local Editor, NJ (Remote) — Patch

News Writer, CA — Hollywood Reporter

News Editor/Reporter, KS — Blade-Empire

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More News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple Music launches a new chart, the Shazam Discovery Top 50, powered by Shazam data and featuring songs trending in the US and 10+ other countries

Discussion: @mcwm, Apple Music and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Kate Irby / The Fresno Bee:
Four months after announcing a lawsuit, Rep. Devin Nunes serves McClatchy with paperwork, suing in Virginia; McClatchy does not publish a paper in Virginia

Discussion: @marekthebee

Molly Conger / The Guardian:
Freelance reporter Molly Conger on losing her column with a weekly paper in Charlottesville after a police association complained about her reporting

Discussion: @emilygorcenski, @coreypein, @coreypein, @brittanydare, @elizabethcatte, @emilygorcenski, @brandyzadrozny, @nbj914 and @zunguzungu

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
How companies like McDonald's and Facebook use podcasts, such as Gizmodo-produced The Sauce, as subtle brand-building efforts meant to entertain and persuade

Discussion: @yaffebellany, more at Techmeme »

Ira Boudway / Bloomberg:
Profile of The Athletic, which now has 400+ editorial staffers and expects to have ~1M subscribers by 2020; source: a funding in May valued it at about $500M

Discussion: @islesblog, @robsondan, @daveambrose, @bw, @eaamalyon, @fichtenbaum and @craigcustance

Pat Caldwell / Malheur Enterprise:
Malheur County officials in Oregon request a criminal investigation into The Malheur Enterprise reporters over after-hours phone calls and emails to officials

Earlier Picks:

Scott Moritz / Bloomberg:
AT&T launches AT&T TV, its new streaming service separate from DirecTV Now, in 10 pilot markets with prices starting at $60/month with a two-year contract

Discussion: @jbenton, Ars Technica, The Streamable and Awful Announcing

NBC News:
How The Epoch Times, driven by ties to Falun Gong, became a part of Trump's 2020 strategy by spending big on pro-Trump Facebook ads and peddling conspiracies

CBC News:
Quebec government to invest $5M to bail out French-language newspaper chain Le Groupe Capitales Médias, after providing the publisher with a $10M loan in 2017

Discussion: FYIMusicNews and @map_canada

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Altice USA partners with CuriosityStream to bring its science- and history-focused subscription streaming service to all 4.9M Altice customers in 21 states

Thanks:@jonsteinberg

Twitter:
Twitter says it will no longer accept advertising from state-controlled news media entities, but the rule does not apply to “taxpayer-funded entities”

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

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