Mediagazer: Tumblr launches an ad-free tier for $4.99/month or $39.99/year on desktop and in its mobile apps; Tumblr was once opposed to displaying ads, but caved in 2012 (Richard Lawler/The Verge)

11:45 AM ET, February 25, 2022

Top News:

The website of state-affiliated Russian news outlet RT News was taken down Thursday, and Twitter accounts from the Anonymous collective took credit — The #Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the #Russian propaganda station RT News.

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Vox Media, Complex Networks, and BDG are considering ditching Google's AMP for their own mobile-optimized articles; The Washington Post dropped AMP last summer — Owners of the Verge and Bustle test alternatives to AMP framework, an effort they expect will generate more ad revenue

Discussion: AdExchanger, @simonowens, @keachhagey, @bergmayer, @macaree and @alexbruell, more at Techmeme »

Taylor Lorenz / Input:

Some Instagram meme pages are turning into “war pages” that repost unverified footage without context, often claiming to be run by journalists in Ukraine — Just hours after the first explosions rocked Ukraine Wednesday night, massive Instagram meme pages began promoting …

Discussion: @noupside, @alicemuwu, @attorneynora, @bostonjoan, @timquirino, @taylorlorenz and @taylorlorenz, more at Techmeme »

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Gannett says it has 1.6M digital subscribers, up 49% YoY, and reports Q4 revenue of $827M, down 5.5% YoY, and net loss of $22.4M — The newspaper chain grew digital subscriptions to 1.6 million but the surge appears to be driven by deeply discounted introductory rates.

Discussion: Media Nation, Press Gazette, @tmorris504 and @poynter

New York Times:

A look at how CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC covered the first day of Russia's invasion, with the latter two highlighting their opinion hosts — Fox News stars like Tucker Carlson questioned why Americans hated Vladimir Putin, and CNN showed Russian tanks and rockets in live war-zone dispatches.

Discussion: Poynter, @maxwelltani, @katie_rayford, @emilynussbaum, @emilynussbaum, @samuelaadams, @hshaban, @oliverdarcy, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Week and PolitiFact

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Tumblr launches an ad-free tier for $4.99/month or $39.99/year on desktop and in its mobile apps; Tumblr was once opposed to displaying ads, but caved in 2012 — You can fix one of Tumblr's problems, for a fee — Tumblr announced today that users can opt out of ads (on the desktop and in its mobile apps) …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Tumblr Staff, Mashable, Gizmodo, @quinnypig, Adweek and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Beast:

In a tweet, AP promoted the sale of an NFT linked to a video of migrants in an overcrowded boat, then deleted the tweet and canceled the sale after criticism — GHOULISH — The Associated Press on Thursday hurriedly attempted to scrape the egg off its face after promoting a forthcoming …

Discussion: @rvawonk, @webster, Input, @banditelli, Nieman Lab, @chrisgeidner, The Guardian, @aarongell, @chrisgeidner, @associatedpress, Forbes, @joshua_eaton, @chrisgeidner, @kenklippenstein, @associatedpress, @linzsports and The Wrap

Jon Lafayette / Next TV:

Sinclair says a 2021 cyberattack cost $63M in lost Q4 ad revenue, reports an $89M loss, down from $467M net income in Q4 2020, on $1.47B revenue, down 2% YoY — Company reports $89 million net loss for fourth quarter — Sinclair Broadcast Group said that the cyber attack the company faced …

Discussion: insideradio.com, Dow Jones Newswires, TV Technology and TVNewsCheck

Alexander Marrow / Reuters:

Russia's communications regulator says media outlets can only publish Ukraine info from official Russian sources and failing to do so will lead to restrictions — Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor on Thursday said media outlets must check the veracity of their reports …

Discussion: American Press Institute, @biannagolodryga and @globalfreemedia

Patrick Egwu / Reuters Institute for the Study …:

A look at CJID's three-month fellowship for West African journalists, which provides training, mentoring, and some funding for local climate change stories — Most journalists lack the right skills and some newsrooms aren't committing resources. A fellowship from CJID is trying to change this

Discussion: @_danwhyte, @cjidafrica and @olorunwababs

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: BlackRock and Warner Music invest $750M in a fund to buy music-rights catalogs from female and diverse artists, and already spent $300M on 20 catalogs — The companies seek stakes in newer music copyrights in partnership with Influence Media — BlackRock Inc. and Warner Music Group Corp …

Discussion: PR Newswire, @music_zone, Fast Company, Digital Music News, Music Ally, Variety and Music Business Worldwide

Financial Times:

Media Partners Asia: Netflix has just 5.5M subscribers in India, far below its 100M goal from 2016, behind Amazon Prime Video's 16M and Disney+ Hotstar's 50M — Streaming juggernaut wanted 100mn subscribers in the country but has managed just 5.5mn — Back in 2016, when Netflix launched in India …

Discussion: @praval, Transistori, @counternotions, @lakshmishaks and @harneetsin, more at Techmeme »

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Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

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More News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify removes several recently uploaded episodes of The Alex Jones Show, which it banned in 2018, after Media Matters for America discovered the episodes

Discussion: Input, Engadget and Media Matters for America

Larry Edelman / The Boston Globe:
Jonathan Abbott, CEO of public media outlet GBH, is stepping down in December after 15 years, during which he grew the newsroom from a dozen journalists to 110

Discussion: @bostonfdn

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Dish lost ~273K net pay TV subscribers in Q4, including ~70K Sling TV subscribers; Dish ended 2021 with 8.22M Dish TV subscribers and 2.49M Sling TV subscribers

Discussion: TV Technology, Light Reading and Next TV

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
Discovery reports Q4: 22M streaming subscribers, up from 20M in Q3; net income of $38M, down 86% YoY, on $3.2B revenue, up 10% YoY; US ad revenue rose 5% YoY

Discussion: The Wrap, @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, Digital TV Europe, Variety, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and PR Newswire

Randall Chase / Associated Press:
Delaware's Supreme Court upholds a judge's dismissal of a lawsuit by Candace Owens against Facebook fact-checking media organizations USA Today and Lead Stories

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review and American Press Institute

Andy Maxwell / TorrentFreak:
Reddit publishes its 2021 transparency report: 665K pieces of copyright-infringing content were removed, up 104%; 2,813 users and 2,625 subreddits were banned

Earlier Picks:

Variety:
Sources: under Skydance's deal with Apple Studios, Apple guarantees Skydance at least two fully financed feature films per year, with budgets of up to ~$125M

Discussion: @mattdonnelly and AppleInsider

Rachel Treisman / NPR:
Study: since May, Facebook labeled only about half the posts promoting 184 climate change denial articles from publishers like Breitbart and Newsmax

Discussion: Climate Monitor, Input, EXXONKNEWS, Press Gazette, @reuterslegal, @foe_us, Center for Countering …, Engadget, Common Dreams, Nieman Lab and The Independent

Ed Z / Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At:
Some journalists, guilted by crypto zealots into “being open-minded”, fail their readers by giving the scam-filled crypto industry the benefit of the doubt

Discussion: @edzitron, @michellemanafy, @cnyari, @dgolumbia, @walthickey, @dgolumbia, @chronotope, @edzitron, @edzitron, @edzitron and @edzitron

The Nation:
The Nation names Jacobin founder and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara as president, succeeding Erin O'Mara, who will stay on as a strategic consultant

Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Conservative Brief, which has three writers, passed The Washington Post and The New York Times on Facebook, seemingly by paying large Pages to share its content

Discussion: MediaPost, Popular Information, @caseyjohnston, Input, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @rweingarten, @rmac18, @taylorlorenz, @emilydreyfuss, @checkmyadshq, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @hunterw, @turnbullwhitby, @morten, @juddlegum and @juddlegum

From Techmeme:

Alphabet:
Alphabet Q1: revenue up 15% YoY to $80.5B, net income up 57% to $23.7B, Google Cloud revenue up 28% to $9.6B, and headcount down 5%; GOOG jumps 11%+ after hours

Microsoft:
Microsoft Q3: revenue up 17% YoY to $61.9B, net income up 20% to $21.9B, Office Commercial revenue up 13%, LinkedIn revenue up 10%; MSFT jumps 4%+ after hours

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a panel to advise US DHS on deploying AI safely within America's critical infrastructure

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