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 …
RELATED:


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


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, Associated Press, @docmattweber and The Hill


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 …
Discussion:
New York Times, Nieman Lab, Press Gazette, One Man & His Blog, Journalism.co.uk, @dannysullivan, Ad Age, @nxthompson, @dannysullivan, @ow, @rosshudgens, TechCrunch, @pranavdixit, @neddesmond, @elinor_carmi, @mollyjongfast, @dejanseo, @lindsaypgorman, Editor & Publisher Magazine, @adriana_lacy, @emilybell, @lskmakani, @lindsaypgorman, @richardgingras, @matthewherper, @adriana_lacy, @rafat, @googlenewsinit, @wongmjane, @mishaalrahman, Search Engine Land, The Verge, The Hill, Adweek, MediaPost, CNET, Engadget, Axios, 9to5Google and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »


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, Variety and YouTube Blog


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:
@theglipper


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


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, Street Fight and Mashable


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


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


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


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