Mediagazer: LTK, a marketplace for creators, raises $300M from SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing it at $2B, and says 130+ influencers have become millionaires on the platform (Alexandra Sternlicht/Forbes)

3:10 PM ET, November 22, 2021

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Fox News contributors Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes resign from the network in protest of Tucker Carlson's streaming special on the January 6 Capitol mob — Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, stars of a brand of conservatism that has fallen out of fashion, decide they've had enough.

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Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Alden Global Capital announces an offer to acquire Lee Enterprises for about $140M or $24/share, a ~30% premium to its stock's November 19 closing price — The hedge fund has developed a reputation for slashing staff in newsrooms and other departments and selling off real estate at outlets it owns.

Jennifer Meierhans / BBC:

Spotify removes shuffle play as the default option on albums for premium users, so tracks play in the order artists intended, after Adele requests the change — Adele has persuaded Spotify to take the shuffle button off all album pages so tracks play in the artist's own order.

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:

Jessica Lessin says The Information has 225,000 “active users”, including paid subscribers and newsletter readers, as it launches a weekend lifestyle edition — Website aimed at Silicon Valley proves value of subscription model for journalism — The Information …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @aservais1, @clockwerks, @pressgazette, @annaknicolaou, @markdistef, @jakesherman, @rafat and @mohamed

Gizmodo:

Gizmodo plans to publish the Facebook Papers in batches, redacting sensitive information with help from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU — Independent experts from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU are partnering with Gizmodo to responsibly publish this historic leak.

Discussion: @silvermanjacob, @dellcam, @lauraedelson2, @film_girl, @swodinsky and @andrewcouts, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Nielsen says it will overhaul its commercial ratings in 2022, with plans to measure the audiences for individual ads — Nielsen has a new proposal for TV networks that have been threatening for months to find other means of measuring their audiences: Stick with the yardstick you already use.

Discussion: MediaPost, Radio & Television …, Ad Age, Deadline, Advanced Television, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek and @nina_metz

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:

Investigation shows how Facebook and Google fund misinformation globally by paying millions of dollars in ad revenue to the operators of clickbait pages — A month after the fall of the democratic government. — In 2015, six of the 10 websites in Myanmar getting the most engagement …

Brian Welk / The Wrap:

Netflix acquires visual effects studio Scanline VFX, whose work includes Stranger Things 3; Scanline will continue to operate as a standalone VFX business — Netflix is acquiring the visual effects studio Scanline VFX, which has been behind special effects work for Netflix's recent series …

Discussion: The Guardian, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

Andrew Kersley / Press Gazette:

FT-backed Sifted, which covers European startups, raises £4M led by ScaleUp Capital, which will become the largest shareholder with a 25% stake — Financial Times-backed website Sifted, which covers the world of European start-ups, has raised £4m of investment funding for a 25% stake.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and Sifted

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Filing: arbitrator rules that Kevin Spacey must pay House of Cards producer MRC ~$31M for breaching contractual obligations amid sexual harassment allegations — Arbitrator rules actor breached contract, awards MRC nearly $31 million following sexual-harassment, misconduct claims

Discussion: Forbes, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, UPROXX, @anthony, RADAR, @jbflint and @jbflint

Nicole LaPorte / Fast Company:

A look at Spotify's podcast investments, including its push into advertising and video, as it appears poised to dominate the industry — With 3.2 million podcasts on its platform and more monthly active users than Apple, Spotify is the new heavy in podcasting. It's just getting started.

Discussion: Tubefilter, @evan_greer, @alphachromeyayo, The Verge and @ashleyrcarman, more at Techmeme »

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

A look at the product box programs offered by InStyle, The Cut, Eater, and Group Nine, as more publishers launch them as worthwhile revenue streams — InStyle and The Cut created their first product boxes for sale this month, as this line of business at Eater and Group Nine reaches their one-year anniversaries.

Discussion: @simonowens

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More News:

Alexandra Sternlicht / Forbes:
LTK, a marketplace for creators, raises $300M from SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing it at $2B, and says 130+ influencers have become millionaires on the platform

Discussion: TechCrunch, Business Wire and WWD

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Walmart will be the first to test Twitter's livestream shopping platform, with a Cyber Deals live event on November 28

Discussion: Ad Age, Adweek, @kurtwagner8 and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Jeff John Roberts / Decrypt:
Royal, which helps musicians create and sell NFTs, share royalties with fans, and more, raises a $55M Series A led by a16z, following a $16M seed in August

Discussion: TechCrunch, join_royal, Fortune, @naithanjones, @anthonyha and @jeffjohnroberts, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Paul Dacre is re-appointed EIC of DMG Media, an advisory role that won't involve day-to-day editing, less than three weeks after leaving the role

Discussion: Financial Times, The Guardian, @kevin_maguire, @andyoakes and @direthoughts

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Thirty journalists fired from the Kyiv Post earlier this month launch Kyiv Independent, promising to use reader donations before adding commercial activities

Discussion: The Fix, @pressgazette, @olgatokariuk and @thefixmedia

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
A look at projects like the Voguverse and companies like Pixel Vault that are trying to build media franchises around their NFT collectibles

Discussion: The Thndrhs Nifty and hi, tech.

Earlier Picks:

Jim Morrill / The Assembly:
Profile of Asheville Watchdog, which produces investigative reporting in North Carolina with accomplished, volunteer journalists who “retired” to the mountains

Discussion: @theassemblync, @barry_yeoman, @jimmorrill, @john_drescher, @coreyhutchins, @colmorrisdavis and @carolleonnig

Renju Jose / Reuters:
Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest's Minderoo Foundation will help 18 Australian small news publishers negotiate collectively with Google and Facebook

Moiz Syed / Source:
Interview with Moiz Syed, formerly of The Intercept and ProPublica, on the lack of empathy among newsroom managers, the “straitjacket of objectivity”, and more

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
A voter turnout group says Facebook served 36.8% of their conversion ads to iOS users after Apple's ATT change, down from 63.6%

Discussion: @somospostpc, @codinghorror, @carnage4life, @issielapowsky, @protocol, @issielapowsky, @voterformation, @tatendacheryl, @issielapowsky, @saramorrison, @issielapowsky and @issielapowsky

Peter Kafka / Vox:
James Andrew Miller's new book reveals that some HBO execs pushed for selling subscriptions directly to consumers in 2005, and some wanted to buy Netflix

Discussion: @jasonhirschhorn, @ritholtz, @gadyepstein, @carlquintanilla, @kbandersen, @tsuvik, @jkosner, @pkafka and Baraja de oro

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York appeals court judge rejects the NYT's request to unblock it from publishing or seeking Project Veritas documents; the next hearing is on November 23

Discussion: @joshgerstein, @eriqgardner, @jesselynradack, @ggreenwald, @maxkennerly, @williamturton, @iwanttotalk_now, @gaberusk, @mmasnick, @pnjaban, @mathewi, @pressfreedom, @kylenabecker and @jason_kint

From Techmeme:

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast:
Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 3, buying H100 GPUs for Reels, AGI, energy constraints, dangers of open source, the metaverse, Meta's custom silicon, and more

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