5:55 PM ET, June 18, 2021
June 18, 2021
5:25 PM
Josh Noel / @hopnotes:
[Thread] About 40 people, or about 24% of Chicago Tribune's newsroom, are taking buyouts offered by Alden Global Capital just after it gained full control
4:40 PM
Jeremy Borden / The Assembly:
Nine months after Chatham Asset Management took control of McClatchy, a look at the chain's NC papers amid a competitive, challenging business environment
3:55 PM
Kate Lindsay / Study Hall:
A look at Puck, the secretive subscription-based digital pub from three media veterans, and its incoming staff roster including Julie Ioffe and Teddy Schleifer
3:20 PM
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
YouTube says it is rolling out picture-in-picture support for YouTube Premium users on iOS and plans to launch the feature for all iOS users in the US
2:40 PM
@trungtphan:
[Thread] Details of Barstool Sports' 2018 deal with Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper, who just signed with Spotify for a reported $60M over three years
12:35 PM
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Roku says from May 20 to June 3, more Roku viewers streamed a Roku Original than Quibi users who streamed Quibi shows during the nine months of Quibi's lifetime
12:15 PM
Washington Post:
OAN correspondent Christina Bobb helped raise money to pay for lawmakers to visit Arizona and has been granted extensive access to the Arizona audit
10:40 AM
Reuters:
Hong Kong charges Apple Daily chief editor and chief executive with collusion with a foreign country; three more executives remain under investigation
9:25 AM
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: EU antitrust regulators plan to open a formal investigation into Google's digital advertising business before the end of the year
9:10 AM
Stacy Perman / Los Angeles Times:
Two members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association resigned in protest calling diversity reform efforts “window-dressing”
8:20 AM
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Nielsen: in May, US viewers used their TVs for streaming 26% of the time, up from 20% in 2020, 14% in 2019; 64% of the time was spent on network and cable TV
June 17, 2021
10:50 PM
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Spotify has acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup whose tech helps podcasters promote their show using ML to select 60-second clips of key moments
6:40 PM
Sahil Patel / The Information:
Sources: NYT and The Athletic have ended their acquisition talks because the companies couldn't agree on a price
6:10 PM
@kerrymflynn:
Insider internal memo: all posts must now be under 600 words, except for those from the investigations team, features writers, and a few other exceptions
4:30 PM
Natacha Yazbeck / Columbia Journalism Review:
The stringers who help news organizations in Syria face physical, institutional, and economic precarity
4:00 PM
John Koblin / New York Times:
Nielsen announces a new metric, The Gauge, to measure streaming viewing in ~14,000 US homes via hardware that watches internet traffic passing through a router
3:05 PM
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
INN survey: nearly two-thirds of nonprofit news outlets saw more giving via foundations and individuals in 2020; the number of small contributions rose ~50% YoY
1:50 PM
Agence France-Presse:
US journalist and Frontier Myanmar editor Danny Fenster appeared in a special court on charges of spreading “fake news”, facing up to 3 years in prison
1:30 PM
Ryan Barwick / Morning Brew:
Study: 48% of ad traffic on “fake” news sites is served by Google and 32% on “low credibility sites” like Breitbart, Drudge Report, and Sputnik News
12:40 PM
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
MSNBC employees to form a union representing ~315 workers, including producers, bookers, writers, fact checkers, represented by Writers Guild of America, East
12:32 PM
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Janet Malcolm, author and New Yorker staff writer, has died of lung cancer
12:15 PM
Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Memo: WSJ will shutter its Greater New York section in print and digital and launch a Life & Work section and Speed & Trending desk
12:05 PM
Susan Orlean / @susanorlean:
The great New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm has died. She gave us so much. #RIP
11:45 AM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram launches ads in Reels worldwide; the ads can be up to 30 seconds and vertical in format
11:20 AM
Samantha Grasso / Discourse Blog:
BuzzFeed's Summer Writers' Challenge, which pays $10,000 for posts with 4M+ page views, sets the bar so high that most writers will still be working for free
9:50 AM
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Eight companies, including Comcast, Charter, Altice, and Dish, have created Go Addressable, a consortium to simplify and scale the fragmented TV ad market
June 16, 2021
11:00 PM
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Twitch, where even niche artists can make thousands of dollars per month by cultivating fan tribes, is becoming increasingly attractive to musicians
9:55 PM
New York Times:
DOJ closes an investigation into whether a book by former national security adviser John Bolton disclosed classified info; Trump's DOJ opened the probe in 2020
9:35 PM
Zen Soo / Associated Press:
Hong Kong police arrested Apple Daily EIC Ryan Law and four other execs under the national security law on Thursday, and officers searched the outlet's offices
6:40 PM
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
The New Yorker Union reaches a deal with Condé Nast, averting a strike and giving many workers raises of 10%+; the deal also covers Ars Technica and Pitchfork
5:40 PM
ASME:
ASME issues a statement saying no government body should try to ban magazine articles or other forms of journalism, including The 1619 Project, from classrooms
4:50 PM
Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:
CNN announces Vault by CNN, a collection of NFTs it will sell of key historical events from its archives, and says the service will launch in late June
3:40 PM
Ken Meyer / Mediaite:
Biden apologizes for snapping at CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at his news conference in Geneva when she asked why he's confident Putin's behavior would change
3:00 PM
John Eligon / New York Times:
Zimbabwe releases a local reporter working for NYT after he spent three weeks in jail, accused of improperly helping two NYT journalists enter the country
2:35 PM
Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is suing a branch of the IAB and others over real-time bidding, calling the data shared “the world's largest data breach”
2:20 PM
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
In an email to creators, Facebook says it will launch its podcast platform on June 22; podcasters can link up RSS feeds and decide if users can clip shows
1:50 PM
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google is testing article carousels in mobile search results for US authors and journalists, says it plans to expand to more journalists, devices, and languages
1:30 PM
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
USC study found 19.8% of music executives in the US are from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, including 7.5% who were Black; 35.3% were women
12:30 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sony Music acquires Somethin' Else, one of the UK's largest independent podcast and audio producers, and forms a global podcast division
12:25 PM
Andy Meek / Forbes:
CNBC says it is expanding its event business, which had an average growth rate of 20%+ over the past four years, globally
11:45 AM
Politico:
Biden's administration has granted The 19th, which launched last year and has fewer than 30 employees, more access than many larger and established outlets
10:25 AM
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
NYT's oral history of Pentagon Papers includes an interview with researcher Linda Amster, whose name was left out of credits, allegedly due to risk of prison
9:10 AM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify launches Greenroom, an app that lets Spotify users worldwide join or host live audio rooms and turn those conversations into podcasts
8:30 AM
Amanda Meade / The Guardian:
Sky News Australia will launch a dedicated, free-to-air regional channel in August with plans to reach up to 7M viewers
June 15, 2021
11:05 PM
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
Examining the commercialization of ideas and interactions via newsletters, NFTs, and tip jars, where money empowers but reduces expression to mere commerce
10:40 PM
Oversight Board:
Oversight Board takes its first policy opinion request from Facebook, on the sharing of residential info, which Facebook says can be relevant for journalism
5:40 PM
Kristen Hare / Poynter:
A look at the value of reported obituaries about “regular people”, the kind local newspapers often ran, and how newsletters can deliver the same type of stories
4:35 PM
Miriam Gottfried / Wall Street Journal:
Private equity firm Platinum Equity plans to buy textbook publisher McGraw Hill from Apollo Global Management in a deal valued around $4.5B, including debt
4:30 PM
John Daniszewski / The Definitive Source:
AP will no longer name suspects in minor crime stories but will keep naming suspects in stories on active fugitive searches and significant crimes like murder
4:10 PM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions go live globally, letting subscribers unlock additional benefits; Apple takes a 30% cut in the first year and 15% in the second
3:45 PM
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Nearly five months after his inauguration, Biden has yet to nominate a Democratic FCC commissioner to fill the empty fifth slot
3:25 PM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Challenger, Gray & Christmas data: about 960 newsroom jobs have been lost so far this year, down 91% from 10,576 cuts through the same period last year
2:50 PM
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Fox Corp. creates a $100M creators fund for the NFT market, as part of a broader effort that includes Blockchain Creative Labs, a new business unit to sell NFTs
2:15 PM
Rafat Ali / Skift:
Skift acquires Daily Lodging Report, the 26-year-old subscription-only hotel industry newsletter; Kim Santangelo-Woinski and founder Alan Woinksi to join Skift
2:05 PM
Bill Glauber / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The Milwaukee Press Club reposted an interview with Senator Ron Johnson after YouTube banned Johnson for a week for violating COVID-19 misinformation policies
12:25 PM
Brian Contreras / Los Angeles Times:
Some newsletter writers describe their helpless frustration with Gmail's inbox filter, which seems to randomly send newsletters to Promotions or spam folders
11:45 AM
CNN:
Myanmar releases and deports Nathan Maung, an American citizen and Kamayut Media's co-founder and editor-in-chief, who had been detained since March 9
11:25 AM
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
Former Simon & Schuster and Hachette executives launch All Seasons Press, a conservative publisher that has already signed deals with two former Trump officials
10:55 AM
Politico:
Despite Trump's claim to have rejected offers from two “prestigious” publishing houses, sources at the top five publishers are unaware of any such deal offers
10:20 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Spotify inks an exclusive deal with Call Her Daddy podcaster Alexandra Cooper, which includes exclusive rights to all future episodes and access to back catalog
9:55 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Politico editor Carrie Budoff Brown to join NBC as a high-level executive overseeing Meet the Press' franchise of newsletters, streaming, and podcasts
9:25 AM
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Andreessen Horowitz launches Future, a media property that will focus on informational and editorial content created by full-time staff and outside contributors
9:15 AM
Barney Davis / London Evening Standard:
BBC Newsnight political editor Nicholas Watt was heckled and chased by anti-lockdown protesters in London; police say they are investigating the incident
June 14, 2021
11:00 PM
Rudy Takala / Mediaite:
NYT has corrected a March 19 story that referred to the satirical website Babylon Bee as “misinformation”, after the sites' operators threatened legal action
10:30 PM
Billy House / Bloomberg:
House Judiciary Committee to investigate DOJ's seizure of data from journalists and others, after Senate Judiciary Committee and DOJ IG announced related probes
8:35 PM
Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
AG Merrick Garland met off-the-record with execs from WaPo, CNN, and NYT on Monday, after saying he would tighten DOJ policies on obtaining reporters' records
7:50 PM
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix is hiring execs to lead consumer products, podcasts, and video games, as it seeks Disney-like franchises that stay relevant in between new seasons
3:50 PM
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Dow Jones union: the company's new policy mandates staff get EIC's approval before talking to book publishers and a license to use their own reporting in books
3:25 PM
Max Willens / Digiday:
The Globe and Mail now has ~270,000 subscribers and generates 70% of its revenues from subscriptions, helped by Sophi, its AI to predict subscriber conversions
1:25 PM
Alex Woodward / The Independent:
Reality Winner's attorney says she has been granted an early supervised release from prison due to exemplary behavior, as her family seeks a pardon from Biden
12:15 PM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
YouTube will stop accepting ads for its masthead ad unit from certain verticals, including election and political ads, alcohol, gambling, and prescription drugs
11:45 AM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
BuzzFeed launches Summer Writers' Challenge, offering for the first time to pay for user-contributed content, up to $10,000 per post depending on its page views
11:05 AM
BBC:
BBC's Ukraine correspondent walks out of a news conference in Minsk where Belarusian authorities paraded the detained opposition blogger Roman Protasevich
9:40 AM
BBC:
BBC inquiry finds there was no evidence journalist Martin Bashir was rehired by the BBC to cover up the circumstances around his Diana interview
June 13, 2021