Mediagazer: Atmosphere TV, which streams ad-supported video channels often without audio, raises an $80M Series C and $20M in debt, bringing its total funding to $140M (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

1:25 PM ET, January 4, 2022

Top News:

David Gelles / New York Times:

Ben Smith is leaving the NYT to start a global news organization with Justin Smith to cater to “200M people who are college educated, who read in English” — Mr. Smith will help start a new organization with Justin Smith, the chief executive of Bloomberg Media.

Discussion: @benyt, @reckless, @dgelles, Mediaite, The Hill, @ashleyfeinberg, Deadline, @buzzfeedben, @lebassett, @sethklamann, @alicialutes, @mhbaskin, @claireeshaffer, @ungarino, @zengerle, @meredithshiner, @rublekb, @esotericcd, @kerrymflynn, @rosiegray, @rosental, @digitalshields, @daveweigel, @lpolgreen, @jakesherman, @claremalone, @justinhendrix, @ariehkovler, @parismartineau, @natalieweiner, @yair_rosenberg, @ralstonreports, @clairevtran, @chanders, @howardkurtz, @tomgara, @tomgara, @hamiltonnolan, @robinwigg, @thekenyeung, @toley88, @bristei, @kerrymflynn, @ashleyfeinberg, @ashleyfeinberg, @s_m_i, @davegershgorn, @tomscocca, @paperhaus, @rmac18, @daisandconfused, @joshsternberg, @scottfeinberg, @michaelroston, @brianstelter, @edmundlee, @martinsfp, @carolynryan, @cliffordlevy, @susanpage, @jimwaterson, @lisatozzi, @ezwrites, @pdmcleod, @ljkawa, @mattnegrin, @tomgara, @scottnover, @samjmintz, @sonnybunch, @akarl_smith, @alexbruell, @patrickmcgee_, @jbflint, @jbflint and @kfile

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith steps down effective immediately to found a media company “that serves unbiased journalism”; Scott Havens to replace him as CEO — Mr. Smith, 52, sees opportunity to help address crisis in trust among news consumers

The New York Times Company:

WaPo's David Fahrenthold, who won the 2017 Pulitzer for an investigation into Trump's charitable giving, will join NYT's DC bureau as an investigative reporter — David is joining The Times's Washington bureau as an investigative reporter. Read more in this note from Elisabeth Bumiller.

Ben Smith / New York Times:

After leaving Meta, CrowdTangle co-founder Brandon Silverman has helped a bipartisan group of US senators craft a bill to boost social networks' transparency — The co-founder of CrowdTangle has been working with Congress on legislation to make tech companies disclose their inner workings.

Vania Andre / THE CITY:

NYC-based nonprofit news site The City appoints Richard Kim as EIC; Kim was previously HuffPost's executive editor — THE CITY, an independent, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to serving the people of New York, is delighted to announce the appointment of Richard Kim as editor in chief.

Discussion: @richardkimnyc, @hilella, @lpolgreen, @moorehn, @jere_hester, @nicdawes, @j__velasquez and @sulliview

Gideon Lichfield / Wired:

Wired merges its US and UK websites, but will still publish two separate print editions, as it vows to reject “the optimist and pessimist views of tech” — The future begins here—again. — In the next few decades, virtually every financial, social, and governmental institution …

Helen Davidson / The Guardian:

Independent Hong Kong news outlet Citizen News will close on Tuesday, citing “the rapid changes in society and worsening environment for media” — Independent online news portal to cease operations amid ‘worsening environment for media’ in city

Sara Fischer / Axios:

NPR says it will launch an on-demand podcast bundle in H2 as a benefit of membership to local stations, and adds more shows and subscriber-only benefits to NPR+ — Today's Media Trends is 1,486 words, a 6-minute read. Sign up here. — 1 big thing: NPR's new pod push — Expand chart

Discussion: @isalara, @nprinskeep, @sarafischer, @sarafischer and @jeffjarvis

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Twitter completes its $1.05B sale of MoPub to AppLovin, which expects its unified platform with MoPub to process $15B+ of annualized advertiser spend by 2023 — Twitter announced today it has completed the sale of its mobile ad platform, MoPub, to the mobile game maker and marketing software …

Discussion: Business Wire, Adweek and PR Newswire, more at Techmeme »

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

A look at publishers' NFT experiments in 2021, including Decrypt Studios, Yahoo's NFT New York Fashion Week ad deal, and Turner Sports' NFT-based golf game — Many publishers closed out 2020 in a better financial position than they expected early on in the pandemic, giving them the flexibility …

Discussion: @sarahmarshall

Heidi Chung / Variety:

2022 media trend predictions: subscription video streaming and global digital ad revenue will likely remain growth stories, and the M&A fever will rage on — Though the economy wasn't completely shut down in 2021, life and business were hardly normal. Despite those less-than-normal conditions …

Tyler O'Neil / Fox Business:

Facebook reinstates the ad account of conservative children's book publisher Heroes of Liberty, saying the account was permanently disabled in error — Heroes of Liberty publishes books about Amy Coney Barrett, Ronald Reagan and Thomas Sowell — Facebook has “permanently disabled” …

Discussion: Reclaim The Net, Jane Hampton Cook’s Substack, @beccaturmo, The Week, @mccormickprof, @foxbusiness, @mkhammer, @michaelshermer, @megynkelly, @andymstone, @bethanyshondark, @brithume, @marshablackburn, @sethamandel, Mediaite, New York Post, @tedcruz and National Review

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More News:

Axios:
Chartbeat survey of 4,000+ publishers globally: traffic declined 8% between 2020 and 2021 and ~20% between January 2021 and December 2021

Discussion: @kassien, @kennymack1971, @paulglader, @kristina_wong, @sarafischer, @jason_kint, @sarafischer, @aubsn and @mattlargey

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Protocol adds 25 positions, aiming to bring its employee count to 80 by the end of 2022, and says it is 100% ad-supported and has 200K newsletter subscribers

Discussion: @bennettrich, @bennettrich, @owenthomas, @bennettrich, @benbrodydc and @sarafischer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
EVP and GM of Viacom Digital Studios Stefanie Schwartz leaves to join Jellysmack as the creator-centric video distributor's global head of platform partnerships

Discussion: Tubefilter

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Atmosphere TV, which streams ad-supported video channels often without audio, raises an $80M Series C and $20M in debt, bringing its total funding to $140M

Discussion: @s3ventures, more at Techmeme »

Stephen Lepitak / Adweek:
MediaRadar: between November 2020 and November 2021, US gambling ad spend reached $488M, including ~$336M on TV, up 63% YoY, and ~$140M on digital, up 52% YoY

Discussion: @r2rothenberg, @ericporat, @wagersusa and @adweek

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
While The Atlantic and others have covered the United States' teetering democracy, major publications have yet to make the topic a central focus

Earlier Picks:

Jem Aswad / Variety:
David Bowie's estate sells the singer's publishing catalog to Warner Chappell Music, sources say for over $250M

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, @scottwoodssays, @biiilyedwards, @variety, Complete Music Update, New York Post, Raw Story, Forbes, The Guardian, New York Times, Deadline, Rolling Stone, The Wrap and Music Business Worldwide

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Impresa, the largest media conglomerate in Portugal, gets hacked and extorted by the Lapsus$ ransomware gang

Discussion: @aitorehm, @runasand and @campuscodi

Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:
Comscore: North American box office revenue rose to $4.5B in 2021, up 101%+ YoY but nearly 60% behind 2019, as movies with youth appeal fueled the recovery

Discussion: The Wrap, Forbes, @mattdentler, @pdergarabedian and The Wrap

Associated Press:
IFJ: 45 journalists and media workers were killed doing their jobs in 2021, one of the lowest death tolls in 30 years and down from 65 killed in 2020

Discussion: American Press Institute, @raju, @spj_tweets and @juanlozano70

Jennifer Jenkins / Duke University School of Law:
Books, movies, and songs published in 1926 and an estimated 400,000 sound recordings published before 1923 enter the US public domain as copyrights expire

From Techmeme:

Lee-Anne Mulholland / The Keyword:
Google files its proposed remedies in the DOJ's search antitrust lawsuit, including letting browser companies have multiple default agreements across platforms

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Exploring the scaling challenges of transformer-based LLMs in efficiently processing large amounts of text, as well as potential solutions, such as RAG systems

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