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A few people called Genius the future of journalism, but its vision of simply adding boxes for comment on others' work was emblematic of its founders' arrogance — Genius (née Rap Genius) wanted to “annotate the world” and give your content a giant comment section you can't control.
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@offtherecordnyc, @offtherecordnyc, A Scammer Darkly, @ldnflds, @james_dasilva, @offtherecordnyc, @tomgara, @king_kaufman, @niemanlab and @sizpatel
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Music-annotating startup Genius sells its assets to MediaLab for $80M; MediaLab says it will cut some jobs in original content production teams — The sale price is less than the total funding raised. — Music-annotating startup Genius Media Group Inc., a site that drew attention in part …


China erased Zhao Wei, its biggest movie star who had 86M Weibo followers, from its internet on August 26, amid a clampdown on its entertainment industry — Zhao Wei was the Reese Witherspoon of China, then she was censored by the Communist Party amid a clampdown of the country's entertainment industry
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@chantel_mccabe, @elipariser, @artjonak, @larryelder and @mollymckew
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China is cracking down on pessimistic financial blogs and social media accounts, as well as fraudulent ones; analysts worry independent voices will be silenced
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@martinsfp, @gordongchang, @chinabeigebook, @chigrl, @carnage4life, @fritz844, @marcomnyc, @jkynge, @wexler, @chinabeigebook and @sonaliranade, more at Techmeme »


Piers Morgan is joining News Corp and Fox News, where he will have a TV show in early 2022, and will also be a columnist at The Sun and the New York Post — - New global TV show will air on weeknights in the UK, USA and Australia; — Morgan will publish two weekly columns online for the New York Post and The Sun;
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@piersmorgan, @jimwaterson, The Guardian, Mediaite, Variety, TVNewser, New York Times, @newsuk, Poynter, Metro.co.uk, CNN, Press Association, @stephennolan, @chloeschlosberg, @lesliemarshall, Conquest of the Useless, @jimwaterson, @ashkan, @stevepasquale, @benyt, @rexhuppke, @garylineker, @adambienkov, @mikeelgan, @erikwemple, @peterjukes, @jonathanwald, @davidfolkenflik, @gbnews, @andrewgentry_, The Daily Beast, The Wrap, nexttv.com, Daily Express and The Sun


WarnerMedia is offering a 50% discount for six months on the HBO Max ad-free monthly plan until September 26 as HBO subscriptions via Amazon shut down Wednesday — WarnerMedia is trying to help offset the loss of about 5 million HBO subscribers who had signed up through Amazon in the U.S. with an aggressive discount offer on HBO Max.
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Streamable, Deadline, Engadget, The Verge, FierceVideo, @xpangler, @pkafka and @richlightshed


Jay-Z's Rock-A-Fella has sued co-founder Dash to stop him from selling the copyright to Jay-Z's debut album as an NFT, saying he has no legal right to do so — - Rapper battles co-founder Dash over NFT rights to debut album — Lawsuits proliferate as non-fungible token market takes off
Discussion:
@business and @aaronwall, more at Techmeme »


A judge has ordered the permanent shutdown of Locast, a nonprofit that streamed broadcast channels for free while frequently prompting viewers for donations — Things looked bad for Locast before, and they just got even worse. A judge this week permanently prohibited streamer Locast …
Discussion:
MediaPost, Cord Cutters News and The Streamable


A look at EU Reporter, which portrays itself as an independent media organization while regularly failing to add disclosures to paid-for content — Brussels news outlet EU Reporter's blend of corporate press releases, original news and paid-for content makes it impossible for readers to determine who's behind the coverage.

Two men have been charged in the 2019 murder of journalist Lyra McKee and are expected to appear in court on Friday — Two men have been charged with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee. — Ms McKee, 29, was shot dead while observing rioting in Londonderry's Creggan estate in April 2019.
Discussion:
@stevennott, Metro.co.uk and City A.M.

One year in, Casey Newton has doubled his Substack subscribers to ~50K, of which <10% convert to paid; Discord and Twitter are effective for attracting readers — A year ago, I quit the best job I ever had to start Platformer. Today I wanted to tell you all how it's going, what I've learned …
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@kinseygrant, @seekingn0rth, @sarahscire, @estherkeziat, @sarahscire, @siobhannyc, @kantrowitz, @daveambrose, @broderick, @mohamed, @caseynewton, @elanazak, @adrianhon, @choire, @cwarzel, @ericnewcomer and @brandyzadrozny


French court upholds a ruling by markets watchdog AMF against Bloomberg for publishing a hoax press release, but lowers fine from €5M to €3M — A French appeal court on Thursday upheld a ruling by France's markets watchdog AMF against U.S. news agency Bloomberg for publishing a hoax press release …

The 8th Circuit's bizarre decision greenlighting a lawsuit over a Ryan Lizza tweet about Devin Nunes sets a dangerous precedent for defamation claims — Rep. Devin Nunes has kept up his suing news organizations (and satirical internet cows). He has been mostly losing.
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@jkosseff, @lawsuitsdevin, @lawsuitsdevin, @mmasnick, @lawsuitsdevin, Words For the Wise, @dmrmorris, Vanity Fair, Law & Crime and Politico