Mediagazer: Twitter launches its Verified Organizations program, which lets companies get a verified checkmark for $1,000/month and their affiliate accounts for $50/month (Twitter)

4:20 PM ET, March 31, 2023

Top News:

Top editors of 38 news organizations around the world sign a letter condemning the detention of WSJ's Evan Gershkovich and calling for his immediate release — The editors condemned Mr. Gershkovich's detention in a letter to the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Bloomberg:

Russia's Federal Security Service detains Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government” — Russia's Federal Security Service said it detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg …

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Human Rights Watch, The Desk, @polinaivanovva, Associated Press, Talking Biz News, @sulliview, @repmcgovern, @congressmanraja, @nytimes, @francescaebel, @dylanbyers, @govmurphy, @billbrowder, @pressfreedom, @dylanbyers, @presssec, @christopherjm, @dwnews, @pressfreedom, @maxseddon, @pressfreedom, @michaeldweiss, @sarahrainsford, @annanemtsova, @shustry, @asluhn, @maxseddon, @lindakinstler, @jazzedloon, @georebekah, @jimsciutto, @jfberke, European Federation …, @kevinrothrock, @r__politik, @neilphauer, @kevinrothrock, @neilphauer, @felix_light, @leonidragozin, @neilphauer, @lolgop, @brendancarrfcc, @freedomofpress, @timobrien, Axios, @tpcarney, @rohded, @newsguild, @mgongadze, @clancyreports, @natashabertrand, @jeffsonnenfeld, @followtheh, @billpascrell, @akurmanaev, @mattmcbradley, @oliverdarcy, @domenpresern, The Daily Beast, @kaitlancollins, @billbrowder, @domenpresern, @moorehn, Financial Times, Washington Post, The Guardian and Reuters

BuzzFeed News:

The NYT, LAT, and WaPo won't buy Twitter Blue; NYT, LAT, BuzzFeed, and Politico won't reimburse reporters for Blue, but Semafor and other small outlets plan to — BuzzFeed isn't ponying up, but for other outlets, paying might make sense. — Pranav Dixit

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @sarafischer, Forbes, Techdirt, @brooklynmarie, @alex_panetta, The Comeback, @pkafka, CNN, @hansmahncke, @maxwelltani, @oliverdarcy, @jessespector, @rmac18, @roslyntalusan, @bdherzinger, @thekidskoob, @ryangrim, @claire_goforth, @thomaschattwill, @timfullerton, @skooks, @paleofuture, @boydhilton, @davidclinchnews, @williamshatner, @stevelackmeyer, @ndrew_lawrence, @stevanzetti, @dancow, Vox, @moorehn, @andrewmarchand, @jbenton, @mattnavarra, @roslyntalusan, @katebevan, @studentactivism, @bobmoorenews, @johniadarola, @mikeisaac, @spj_tweets, @tinu, @helenkennedy, The Information, @kt_so_it_goes, @cfidd, @pkafka, @charles_gaba, @dellcam, @scottnover, @benjysarlin, @wfkars, @chrismessina, @kimmasters, @bruce_arthur, @scottnover, @scalzi, @ewong, @jacobrubashkin, @oliverdarcy, @nicosgonzalez, @andybcampbell, @joshtpm, @themaxburns, @moorehn, @adrianweckler, @wtfis2bdone, @ryanhanrahan, @lxeagle17, Boing Boing, The Wrap, @hammancheez@c.im, Awful Announcing, Social Media Today and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Email: The White House will not pay for Twitter Blue for its staff; the White House and top officials' accounts like POTUS will likely maintain gray checkmarks — The White House will not pay to have its staff's official Twitter profiles continue to be verified, according to guidance issued to staffers via an email obtained by Axios.

Safi Bugel / The Guardian:

Gal-Dem, an outlet for women and non-binary POC, is closing after eight years, citing the difficulty of relying on partnerships and its membership model — After eight years of operation, staff statement blames financial challenge of running independent media outlet

New York Times:

Fox News hosts rally around Trump following his indictment, denouncing it as politically motivated and as a cause for potential unrest — Despite recent criticism, the network's star personalities joined other leading conservatives in denouncing the indictment as politically motivated and a possible cause for unrest.

Alyssa Boyle / AdExchanger:

A new bipartisan Senate bill, almost identical to a 2022 bill, would force companies with $20B+ in annual digital ad revenue to sell part of their business — Say hello to the US government's latest attempt to force antitrust regulations on the digital advertising industry. — It might sound familiar.

Discussion: AdExchanger, @senmikelee, @swodinsky, Reuters, Marketing Brew, Mike Lee US Senator for Utah, @jason_kint, @digiphile, @berinszoka, Digiday, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @dcnorg and NetChoice

Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:

UCLA's Hollywood Diversity Report finds that among 2022's top 100 original streaming films, 64% had casts with at least 30% POC vs. 57% for theatrical films — The share of women and people of color in key positions on theatrical releases slide back to 2019 levels in latest annual report

Discussion: @jamesthetang, @indiewire, @dranachristina, @beingjanine, @thewrap and New York Daily News

Tom Hals / Reuters:

The judge in the Fox-Dominion case denies Fox's summary judgment motions and partially grants Dominion's summary judgment motions; the trial is set for April 17 — A jury will decide whether Fox Corp (FOXA.O) defamed Dominion Voting Systems with false vote-rigging claims aired by Fox News …

Discussion: The Hill, @goangelo and @chancery_daily

Twitter:

Twitter launches its Verified Organizations program, which lets companies get a verified checkmark for $1,000/month and their affiliate accounts for $50/month — Verified Organizations is a new way for organizations and their affiliates to distinguish themselves on Twitter.

Discussion: Variety, @elonmusk, Mashable, @ethicalsid, Search Engine Land and Techdirt, more at Techmeme »

Luke Winkie / Slate:

Interviews with writers who publish daily Wordle clue guides, published by a slew of outlets since they reliably generate substantial traffic — Sam Hill, an editor at the technology website Digital Trends, has penned 647 articles about Wordle. Each of them follows the same basic format …

Discussion: @jbenton, @luke_winkie, @iethics and Mashable

Mike Hume / Washington Post:

The Washington Post vows to continue covering gaming even as its gaming news hub Launcher, which began in 2019, officially closes on March 31 — It's not over. Yes, Launcher is ending — officially closing as a subsection of The Post on March 31 following a series of newsroom layoffs — but the mission does not die.

Discussion: @mikehumepost, @mikehumepost, @mikehumepost, @walldo, @rcmacleod, @rcmacleod, @rcmacleod, @genepark, @teddyamen and @launcherwp

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:20 PM ET, March 31, 2023.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Local Government Reporter, IA — The Gazette

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Editorial Assistant, Remote US — Launch Potato

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Jeffrey Rousseau / GamesIndustry.biz:
Roblox plans to hide advertisements from users 13 and younger, after nonprofit Truth in Advertising filed an FTC complaint in April 2022 against the company

more at Techmeme »

Alan Jones / AOL:
BBC journalists are set to stage a 24-hour strike on May 5 to coincide with the reporting of local election results, after a first walkout on March 15

Discussion: The Guardian, HoldtheFrontPage and RadioToday

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: crypto outlet The Block has laid off roughly one-third of staff, including interim CEO Bobby Moran, and promoted head of research Larry Cermak to CEO

Discussion: @raph_bloch, @timccopeland, @kylesgibson and @pressgazette

BBC:
BBC appoints ex-ITN CEO John Hardie to lead an independent review of its social media guidelines for freelance, non-news presenters after the Gary Lineker furor

Discussion: Deadline, Sky News, Variety, Reuters, Yahoo News, The Irish News and @lucympowell

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
Apple's classical music app fixes the genre's main problem of search and discovery using metadata from Amsterdam-based Primephonic, which Apple acquired in 2021

Discussion: Billboard, @omnirarab, @textfiles, @textfiles, Numlock News, @donnelly_b and @whet, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:
Hollywood producers and unions say COVID-19 safety protocols will end after May 11, the same day the Biden administration lifts the national pandemic emergency

Discussion: @lidsville, Variety, Deadline and Los Angeles Times

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix restructures to make fewer, but better, movies, and will combine its small and midsize film units; executives Lisa Nishimura and Ian Bricke are leaving

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
YouTube adds Shorts data to its Total Reach metric for artists and says fan-created Shorts increased the average artist's unique viewers by 80%+ in January 2023

Discussion: YouTube Official Blog, Complete Music Update, @nealmohan, Communicate Online, @mattnavarra, Tubefilter, Billboard and Forbes

Rebekah Valentine / IGN:
ESA cancels E3 2023, after Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Ubisoft announced they would not attend the event originally scheduled for June 13 to June 16

Faisal Mahmud / Al Jazeera:
Bangladeshi police arrest Prothom Alo correspondent Shamsuzzaman Shams under the Digital Security Act after he wrote about rising food prices in the country

Discussion: @mg2411, @maarafat71, @bjimbd, @profhuq, @nomhossain and @masalabai

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Gina Raimondo says holding back China in the chips race is a “fool's errand”, and investment, more than export controls, will keep US ahead of Beijing

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google says it wouldn't force its device makers, browser, and wireless carrier licensees to distribute Gemini to US users for three years, in a proposed remedy

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

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page