Mediagazer: AT&T's WarnerMedia signs an exclusive five-year deal with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot for TV, film, and streaming projects; sources: deal is worth ~$250M (Lesley Goldberg/Hollywood Reporter)

1:55 PM ET, September 13, 2019

Top News:

AT&T's WarnerMedia signs an exclusive five-year deal with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot for TV, film, and streaming projects; sources: deal is worth ~$250M — Bad Robot, the production company he runs with his wife and co-CEO, Katie McGrath, will now have all of its divisions …

Los Angeles Times:

Sources: Disney is mimicking Netflix in offering TV producers and others profits sooner in exchange for backend revenue, the first legacy media company to do so — Walt Disney Co., which became a dominant player in television production with its acquisition of Fox assets earlier this year …

Discussion: @ronlin and @latimesent

Andrea Watson Strong / Facebook Journalism Project:

Facebook expands Today In, its local info service, to 6K+ US towns; it now works with 1.2K local news orgs with local news Page interactions up 26% YoY — Continuing our journey to connect people with community information and conversations they care about.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @docmattweber, Associated Press and The Hill

Richard Gingras / The Keyword:

Google says it changed how it ranks stories and updated guidelines for evaluation of search results to help better identify and surface original news reporting — Google Search was built to provide everyone access to information on the web—and with tens of thousands of web pages …

Jill Cowan / New York Times:

CA's gig economy law, to go into effect for newspapers in one year, may hasten the end of home delivery, will limit freelancer contributions to 35 articles — Thursday: The collateral effects of a bill aimed at protecting gig economy workers. Also: A move forward for a statewide rent cap; and natural wine

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @margotroosevelt, Reason and Street Fight

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube says it will no longer allow paid views and advertising to influence its YouTube Music Charts, instead calculating rankings based only on organic plays — YouTube will no longer allow paid views and advertising to influence its YouTube Music Charts, the company announced this morning.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Music Business Worldwide and YouTube Blog, more at Techmeme »

Chris Dolmetsch / Bloomberg:

Appeals court orders Fox News to face suit brought by Seth Rich's parents — Fox News must defend a lawsuit by the parents of a Democratic Party staffer whose unsolved 2016 murder touched off a flurry of right-wing conspiracy theories, an appeals court said Friday in reinstating the case.

Discussion: Mediaite, Hollywood Reporter, @eriqgardner, @aidnmclaughlin and @theglipper

Maryam Saleh / The Intercept:

Nonprofit group Define American and Media Cloud find a rise in the use of quotes from extremist groups, without context, in a study of immigration reporting — The Center for Immigration Studies, a far-right, anti-immigrant group, was frequently cited by major U.S. newspapers in the first two years …

Discussion: Define American, @jenniferpreston, @maryamsaleh, @theintercept and Latino Rebels

Paul Cheung / Knight Foundation:

Q&A with DocumentCloud's founders and project leaders on its mission, early challenges, industry adoption, and plans as it reaches its 10th anniversary — DocumentCloud, an open-source platform that allows journalists and their readers to upload, analyze, annotate and collaborate …

Discussion: @knightfdn

Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism:

Borealis Philanthropy launches the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, which has raised $3.6M, to invest in news orgs strengthening inclusivity in civic news — Borealis Philanthropy announced today the launch of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, which will invest in news organizations …

Discussion: DemocracyFund, @craignewmark, @lmariahtrusty, @lmariahtrusty, @farai and Borealis Philanthropy

Claudia Koerner / BuzzFeed News:

Facebook takes down fact-check of anti-abortion video after complaints from four GOP senators alleging bias; Facebook's fact-checking partner is investigating — Facebook on Wednesday removed a fact-check conducted by doctors of an anti-abortion activist's video, which falsely claimed abortion …

Discussion: @passantino, Business Insider, @ktbenner, @penamerica, @jazzpatron, @melissaryan and The Daily Dot

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Rooster Teeth, an Otter Media subsidiary focused on sci-fi and anime online video content, has laid off 13% of its staff, about 50 employees — Rooster Teeth, for the first time in its 16-year history, has made a broad cutback in its workforce — laying off 13% of its employees, or about 50 staffers.

Discussion: Tubefilter, @tyler_stab, Kotaku Australia, Austin Chronicle, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and The Wrap

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