Mediagazer: A historic drop in releases of pirated content has followed a US-led bust targeting SPARKS and other piracy communities, with dozens of topsites taken down (Ernesto Van der Sar/TorrentFreak)

12:00 PM ET, September 8, 2020

Top News:

Dawn Chmielewski / Forbes:

Profile of Reed Hastings as Netflix thrives during the pandemic, adding ~1M subscribers/month in the US and Canada and another 2M/month globally since March — The man responsible for keeping the world entertained does so, at least this day, alone in front of a computer screen, in his son's largely unadorned childhood bedroom.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Streamable, Variety, @austen, @forbes, @forbes, @sherman4949 and @jbflint, more at Techmeme »

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Interview with Reed Hastings, on the future of Hollywood, the US election and social media, his new book about Netflix's aggressive company culture, and more

Discussion: Business Insider, @firstadopter, @nytimes, @mwanikih, @yashar, @mjasay, @wsj, The Verge, @firstadopter, @claudferraz, @jbflint, @maureendowd and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Gannett names Mayur Gupta to the newly created position of chief marketing and strategy officer as the newspaper chain focuses on attracting digital subscribers — Covid-19 crisis hurts advertising revenue, as challenges grow for company's local markets — Gannett Co. has named Mayur Gupta …

Discussion: The Media Nut

Tom Jackman / Washington Post:

Tribune Publishing, which announced the closure of Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis last month, barred staff from holding a farewell event at the building — In Annapolis, the roots of the Annapolis Capital and Maryland Gazette newspapers date to the Gazette's founding in 1727.

Discussion: American Press Institute, @meredithshiner, @dankennedy_nu, @pkcapitol, @djlavoie, @amlwhere, @jim_brunner, @nikkiusher, @pwoodreporter, @seamushughes and @bethreinhard

Tom Pritchard / Gizmodo UK:

Gizmodo UK's editor says it will cease operations on September 9 after Future Publishing decided to stop licensing the brand from G/O Media — Gizmodo UK began life towards the end of September in 2011, almost nine years ago now. That was a time when smartphones were still novelties …

Discussion: GameRevolution, Digiday, Comic Book, Kotaku Australia, DualShockers, GamesIndustry.biz, @pressgazette, @jwhitbrook, @mikebutcher, @toadsanime, @tepritchard, @tepritchard and Kotaku UK, Thanks:@matthewkeyslive

Kit Rees / Bloomberg:
Shares in Future are up 15% this year after 2019's 200% jump; Future says visitors to its sites, including Tom's Guide, in Aug. rose 25% YoY in UK and 40% in US

Discussion: interactive investor

Matthew Doran / ABC:

Two correspondents for Australia's ABC and Australian Financial Review rushed out of China on Monday after diplomatic standoff and police demands for interviews — The ABC and Australian Financial Review have rushed their China correspondents out of the country after police demanded interviews …

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

Disney faces criticism for thanking a Chinese bureau tied to Uyghur concentration camps and four other Chinese propaganda departments in the credits for Mulan — Disney's “Mulan” remake is facing scrutiny after its credits thanked the Turpan Municipal Bureau of Public Security …

Discussion: Washington Post, Reason, Business Insider, @mattyglesias, @aghamilton29, @isaacstonefish, @michaelschuman, @arthur_affect, Breitbart, The Week, Hollywood Reporter, Raw Story and The Guardian

Damien Spry / The Conversation:

ACCC's proposal that Google and Facebook pay for news won't work because it misunderstands digital advertising, where content is secondary to audience targeting — Google and Facebook have threatened to limit or remove news services for Australian users, in response to the Australian Competition …

Discussion: The Guardian, Digiday and MediaNama

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

Stars and Stripes ombudsman says he reckons three years of Trump's anti-press messaging emboldened Pentagon members to cut funding for the independent outlet — For more than six months now, the future of Stars and Stripes—a military newspaper that is owned by, yet editorially independent from …

Discussion: @jon_allsop, San Francisco Chronicle and Wall Street Journal

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Discovery to acquire the free-to-air TV business of New Zealand's largest independent commercial broadcaster MediaWorks and its streaming service ThreeNow — The deal, financial terms of which weren't disclosed, includes streaming service ThreeNow and will boost the company's holdings in the country to eight free-to-air channels.

Discussion: WORLD SCREEN, @thr and Digital TV Europe

Joshua Yaffa / New Yorker:

Compared to the likes of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump, the perceived menace of disinfo from Russian trolls far surpasses its actual reach — The spectre of foreign manipulation looms over the coming election. But in focussing on the tactics of the aggressors we overlook our weaknesses as victims.

Discussion: @arictoler, @wiczipedia, @peterpomeranzev and @akinunver

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's JPI Media is creating ~24 new jobs for its new central digital content team and cutting 20-30 editorial jobs as its focus shifts to online readership — Yorkshire Post and Scotsman owner JPI Media is planning to cut up to 30 jobs in its community and design teams as it shifts focus further onto content …

Discussion: HoldtheFrontPage

Hollywood Reporter:

Warner Bros. TV exec Susan Rovner to head entertainment programming at NBCUniversal, overseeing NBC, Peacock, and cable networks USA, Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen, E! — The Warner Bros. TV exec, who was considered the heir apparent to Peter Roth, will report directly to Mark Lazarus and be on equal footing …

Discussion: MediaPost, Los Angeles Times, Variety, @snoodit and The Wrap

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More News:

Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:
A historic drop in releases of pirated content has followed a US-led bust targeting SPARKS and other piracy communities, with dozens of topsites taken down

Discussion: Plagiarism Today and @whatthebit

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
In a widely-watched North American opening weekend, Nolan's Tenet collected an estimated $20.2M; global tickets sales after two weeks have reached $129M

Vanessa Thorpe / The Guardian:
BBC broadcasters say they are furious over new rules restricting “partisan” use of Twitter, as freelancers wonder whether the rules apply to them

Discussion: Press Gazette, Breitbart, @martinsfp, @erancicurel, @martinshovel and @jayrosen_nyu

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Report: Apple has hired Tim Connolly, a former executive at Hulu and Quibi, to work on Apple TV+, as the company explores bundling content

Discussion: Variety, Ad Age, Telegraph, MacRumors, Beyond Search, AppleInsider and Digital TV Europe, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Ben Smith / New York Times:
As Trump's attacks on journalists, supported by the GOP and Fox News, make reporters into stars, they face the temptation to posture for those eager to oust him

Discussion: @andrewdesiderio, @peterhimler, @estherhonig, @katekelly, @enrique_acevedo, @tonyromm, @tonyromm, @garossino and @jayrosen_nyu

The Guardian:
A month after Australian Associated Press was saved by investors, it has turned to crowdfunding amid financial pressure, as clients sign on for shorter periods

Discussion: @p_hannam, @gabriellechan and @withmeaa

Jemima Kelly / Financial Times:
A Fox News-style UK channel won't have the same impact as in the US because there isn't the same rightwing media vacuum and the reach of the BBC is enormous

Discussion: @martinsfp and @rasmus_kleis

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Media must start preparing the public for the possible election-night uncertainty now and resist answering the question “who won?” until it is settled

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, @dangillmor, @texasinafrica, @pomeranian99, @yair_rosenberg, @waltmossberg, @waltmossberg, @ashleyrparker, @owillis, @jayrosen_nyu, @sulliview and @waltmossberg

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Meta:
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Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Anthropic's Alignment Science team: “legibility” or “faithfulness” of reasoning models' Chain-of-Thought can't be trusted and models may actively hide reasoning

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils a demo of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model, with limited playability in a browser, as part of the company's Copilot for Gaming push

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