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12:40 PM ET, January 4, 2021

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, and John Bresnahan launch Punchbowl, a political news outlet publishing three daily newsletters and a daily podcast for $300/year  —  A Beltway school of journalism wants to get back to just-the-facts-ma'am reporting.  But how do you cover this Republican Party?
RELATED:
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Insiders say Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer's exit from Politico was due to a rift with some colleagues, as they launch their new venture  —  Politico insiders say the highly influential newsletter authors' exit was the result of long-simmering editorial tensions between the duo and some of their colleagues.
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Discovery and Vodafone sign a multi-year deal to bring Discovery's content to the UK and 11 European countries, as Discovery+ streaming service launches  —  Discovery and Vodafone have signed a multi-year deal that will make Discovery TV content and new streamer Discovery Plus available …
New York Times:
A British judge rules against extraditing Julian Assange to the US, which has accused him of violating the Espionage Act, citing mental health concerns  —  U.S. officials want the WikiLeaks founder to face charges of violating the Espionage Act.  But a judge in London ruled that he was at extreme risk of suicide.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Quibi is in advanced talks to sell the rights to its short-form content catalog to Roku  —  Short-form streaming service Quibi is winding down its operations after failing to gain traction  —  Quibi is in advanced talks to sell its content catalog to Roku Inc. …
Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:
Comscore: North American box office fell 80% YoY in 2020 to $2.3B, behind China for the first time ever, which was down 70% YoY to an estimated $2.7B in sales  —  For the first time ever, China supplanted North America as the world's top moviegoing market.  Yet no country was spared …
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Disney says Disney+ will add a Star-branded block from February 23 in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada  —  The series “Big Sky” by David E. Kelley, “Love, Victor” and iconic shows including “24,” “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” are among the programs heading to the Star-branded block …
Stacey Woelfel / RJI Stories:
Under new FAA rules, news organizations do not need to file waiver requests for drones, a huge boost for night news gathering using drones  —  Bundled with the FAA's announcement Monday of the long-awaited rules on requiring remote ID from drones were two rule changes that will ease drone newsgathering for news organizations.
Discussion: @raju
Loni Prinsloo / Bloomberg:
Universal Music plans expansion in Africa in 2021 to tap into streaming growth; recorded music revenues for Africa and Middle East grew ~16% to $100M+ in 2019  —  - World's biggest music company appoints new regional head  — Universal also looking to sign up and promote local artists
Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian:
Netflix and Prime Video are reshaping India's creative landscape amid threats of censorship; Netflix invested $400M in original content in India in 2019  —  The streaming giants are making bold TV shows but the threat of censorship looms large  —  This year's Emmy awards …
Mark Shanahan / The Boston Globe:
How the non-profit VTDigger, which now has 700K monthly readers, and alternative weekly Seven Days are filling the gaps in local news coverage in Vermont  —  Could their examples hold the key to fixing ‘The Expanding News Desert’?  —  Anne Galloway wondered if her journalism career might be over.
 
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 More News: 
Graham Vyse / Voice of America:
Profile of Forbidden Stories, a journalism collective which aims to continue the work of investigative journalists who have been threatened, jailed, or killed
James Dobbins / New York Times:
A look at The 830 Times, a 16-page, ad-supported weekly tabloid launched in Del Rio, Texas in November by a PR veteran after the city's last paper shut down
New York Times:
Small movies like Moonlight, which depend on theaters to find their audiences, are unlikely to have the same success as film releases move to streaming services
Rusty Foster / Today in Tabs:
Today in Tabs, a popular media newsletter that closed in 2016, relaunches on Substack
 Earlier Picks: 
Siva Vaidhyanathan / New Republic:
Criticism of Facebook must move beyond content moderation issues; the effort to invent and invest in public cultural institutions should be our focus instead
Jennifer Jenkins / Center for the Study of the Public Domain:
Books, movies, and songs published in 1925 enter the public domain as their copyrights expire; works include F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
 

 
From Techmeme:

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: EU may accept Apple's proposal to open its NFC payments tech to rivals, and may close its antitrust probe in May, letting Apple avoid hefty fines

Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
The US Senate reauthorizes FISA's Section 702; some communication service providers had threatened to stop cooperating with the US government in case of a lapse

David Cassel / The New Stack:
An interview with Linus Torvalds at the Open Source Summit North America on the XZ Utils exploit, open source development, RISC-V, AI, and more

 
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