Mediagazer: AI-powered news aggregation app SmartNews raises $92M, including a $28M raise in August, at a valuation of $1.2B, bringing its total raised to $182M (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

12:00 PM ET, November 18, 2019

Top News:

Gallup/Knight study: 86% of Americans believe people should have access to local news, but only 1 in 5 subscribe or donate to local news organizations — WASHINGTON, DC (Nov. 17, 2019) Most Americans - 86 percent - think people should have access to local news - even if they don't pay for it …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Talking Biz News, American Press Institute, CNN, @fitzthereporter, @brianstelter and @jboren4507

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:

Sources: ByteDance is in talks with record companies to launch a music streaming service as soon as December, initially in Brazil, India, and Indonesia — The Chinese company behind the popular video app TikTok is set to go head-to-head with the likes of Spotify and Apple in the music streaming market …

Discussion: CNN, Music Business Worldwide, Music Industry Blog, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Raymond Zhong / New York Times:

Musical.ly founder Alex Zhu, who now heads TikTok, says TikTok doesn't share data with China or Bytedance and doesn't censor videos at China's behest — Alex Zhu, the head of the Chinese-owned viral video app, is trying to assuage Washington's fears. “I am quite optimistic,” he said.

Discussion: Business Insider, @puiwingtam, Wall Street Journal and @isaacstonefish, more at Techmeme »

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

AI-powered news aggregation app SmartNews raises $92M, including a $28M raise in August, at a valuation of $1.2B, bringing its total raised to $182M — Looks like there's still money to be made in news aggregation — at least according to the investors backing the news app SmartNews.

Discussion: @whatthebit, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / Politico:

The Hill says it's reviewing, annotating, and when appropriate, correcting former columnist John Solomon's opinion pieces referenced in the impeachment inquiry — The columnist's attacks on a U.S. ambassador, which were hailed by Trump, have come under congressional scrutiny. — John Solomon.

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, @jayrosen_nyu and Fox News

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

A look at BuzzFeed's Creators Program, which has 31 in-house and 5 external creators and has brokered 65 branded content campaigns in 2019, up ~2x from 2018 — Two years ago, a series of “Why I Left BuzzFeed” videos popped up on YouTube, with past employees complaining they were not allowed …

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet says Trump puts journalists' “lives at risk” when he subjects them to personal attacks and calls them names — Dean Baquet decries abuse of journalists and defends not calling president racist — The executive editor of the New York Times …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Breitbart and The Daily Beast

Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:

Amazon is shortening the theatrical release window and not reporting box office numbers for some films, including The Report — The new policy — which mirrors Netflix's strategy — will apply to such awards contenders as ‘The Report’ and ‘The Aeronauts.’ — Don't bother asking Alexa …

Discussion: @thatrebecca

Mike Murphy / Quartz:

Profile of Mixhalo, an app which aims to improve sound quality at concerts by sending Hi-Fi audio directly from the soundboard to attendees' phones — Think back to the first time you saw a high-definition TV program. — After a lifetime of looking at standard-definition shows …

Discussion: @dangillmor

Brandon Katz / Observer:

A look at growing soundstage scarcity and the deals studios are making to secure space as the number of productions rises; in LA, stage occupancy is topping 90% — , minor bad guy Steven Reign tells the story of the red dragon. According to him, a small, wealthy village in China hired …

Johannes Munter / News Media Alliance:

Interviews, studies, and data indicate that the 2014 Google News shutdown in Spain only temporarily lowered traffic and led to organic traffic growth — Earlier this year, the European Union adopted its new Copyright Directive that modernizes and harmonizes copyright laws across the EU.

Discussion: @wnip, @epc_angela, @jason_kint, @newsalliance and @baekdal

New York Times:

Two female writers on CBS sitcom Carol's Second Act felt they had to quit the show after filing sexual misconduct complaints despite the network's new policies — “None of this had to happen”: The network's new sexual harassment policy did not prevent them from leaving after accusations against the star's husband, a producer.