Mediagazer

3:30 PM ET, May 6, 2021

Top News:

Victoria Lewis / WPTV:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has barred local media from attending the signing of a voting restriction bill; the event is a “Fox News exclusive” — Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed Florida's elections reform bill into law. DeSantis signed SB90, which includes restrictions on voting …

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: the Athletic is no longer in merger talks with Axios, sees the NYT as the leading merger contender, and had ~$80M in revenue in 2020 with 600 staff — Publisher's talks with Axios are no longer active; New York Times Co. seen as leading contender for tie-up

Discussion: The Hill, Awful Announcing, @jessicalessin, @donlday, @dcseifert, OutKick, @seangriffey, @mathewi, @mathewi, @niubi, @subjectburst, @alexweprin, @rafat, @jasonschwartz and @anthony

Sara Fischer / Axios:

A record 44% of the NYT's 301K new digital subscribers in Q1 were to non-news products like cooking, games, and audio — The New York Times on Wednesday said it added 301,000 new digital-only subscribers last quarter, its slowest quarter for digital subscriber growth in over a year.

Discussion: CNN, @jayrosen_nyu, @kerrymflynn, @rmantri, @carlquintanilla, @nytmedia and New York Times

Melissa Guerrero / New York Times:

NYT hires its first editorial director of Games, Everdeen Mason, responsible for growing the audience and ensuring puzzles reflect and cultivate diverse voices — Everdeen Mason, The Times's first editorial director of Games, wants to keep challenging current players while reaching new ones.

Discussion: @adrienneshih, @nytimeswordplay and @jennaescribe

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

Q&A: Facebook Oversight Board director Thomas Hughes on upholding Trump's ban, why the Board isn't a PR stunt, Facebook refusing to answer its questions, more — Following months of speculation, Facebook's Oversight Board issued a quasi-decision Wednesday in the case of former President Donald Trump's account.

Discussion: New York Times, @therecount, @issielapowsky, New Yorker and TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

Oversight Board:

Facebook Oversight Board upholds Trump's suspension, but asks Facebook to review the decision within six months to determine a penalty consistent with its rules — The Board has upheld Facebook's decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump's access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account.

Discussion: @oversightboard, Wall Street Journal, Insider, Lawfare, About Facebook, Digiday, Washington Post, The Atlantic, @issielapowsky, @nick_clegg, Vox, @cnbc, @hawleymo, CNBC, Financial Times, The Week, NPR, New York Times, The Message Box, Fast Company, Vox, Quartz, The Banter, @latimes, Today's Edition Newsletter, @thelastword, The Wrap, @johnlegere, @usatoday, CNBC, @cnbc, @jaketapper, @karaswisher, @caseynewton, @repadamschiff, @can, @mikeisaac, Politico, @slpng_giants, @jayrosen_nyu, Mediaite, @base10, @arusbridger, @jeffbercovici, @digiphile, @jimsciutto, @garettsloane, @brandyzadrozny, @dylanbyers, @stevedeaceshow, @kurtwagner8, @jonathanvswan, @jonathanvswan, @goangelo, @kurtwagner8, @naacp, USA Today, @tonyromm, @jeffjarvis, @jeffbercovici, @kurtwagner8, @mtracey, @chrislu44, @samuelstolton, @owenthomas, @blakereid, @adamserwer, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @dylanbyers, @chriswelch, @donie, @meridithmcgraw, @mikeisaac, @frankpallone, @oliverdarcy, @robertmooreitv, @jess, @jason_pontin, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @ceciliakang, @bplewis, @jason_pontin, @cwarzel, @alexhern, @shiraovide, @broderick, @sarafischer, @yashar, @jamesrbuk, @zaleskiluke, @silvermanjacob, @joannastern, @lawrencehurley, @keithedwards, @eschulze, @brianstelter, Mother Jones, New York Times, @ceciliakang, @jason_kint, Vanity Fair, FiveThirtyEight, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, CyberDisobedience, Brookings, The Guardian, Reuters, MIT Technology Review, Protocol, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, Axios, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, MediaNama, The Verge and Just Jared, more at Techmeme »

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The Oversight Board's decision on Trump's Facebook ban failed to send a clear message that a powerful public official can't use Facebook to endanger the public

Politico:
After teasing a new social media platform, Trump debuts a new section on his website that's effectively a blog

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

ViacomCBS Q1: 36M streaming subscribers, up 6M since Q4; streaming revenue grew 65% YoY to $816M; net earnings up 79% YoY to $899M, affiliate revenue of $2.08B — The entertainment giant, led by CEO Bob Bakish, reported higher first-quarter advertising revenue as its latest financials exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Streamable, The A.V. Club, Light Reading, @alexweprin, @brenbrenchie, The Wrap, Deadline, @thr and @loudmouthjulia

Makena Kelly / The Verge:10 minutes ago

NY AG's office says fake comments, including 8.5M funded by largest US ISPs, accounted for ~18M of the 22M+ net neutrality comments received by the FCC in 2017 — The New York attorney general's office released a new report detailing the effort — The New York attorney general's office issued …

Protocol:

Netflix is surveying users about their interest in features such as podcasts and user-generated playlists of shows and music, for a project called N-Plus — In a survey, Netflix is asking users how they would feel about a “future online space” called N-Plus. — Custom TV show playlists?

more at Techmeme »

Benedict Evans:

The novels and anti-vax books on Amazon's “Children Vaccination & Immunization” bestseller list point to poor indexing and content moderation issues — Of Amazon's top 50 best-sellers in “Children's Vaccination & Immunisation”, close to 20 are by anti-vaccine polemicists, and 5 are novels about fictional pandemics.

Discussion: @benedictevans, @benedictevans and @jackshafer

Jemima Kelly / Financial Times:

Substack adds Sections so writers can set up and manage multiple newsletters or podcasts within one main publication, facilitating the creation of newsrooms — Substack, the $650m Andreessen Horowitz-backed newsletter platform that journalists like to moan talk incessantly about on Twitter, is introducing a new feature.

Discussion: The Verge, @siruihua, blog.substack.com, @jemimajoanna and Sub Pub

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Fox says it will acquire right-leaning sports outlet Outkick Media, founded by Clay Travis, who has extensive Fox ties through radio and cable appearances — Deal announced as Fox reports a 6.5% drop in revenue for the March quarter — Fox Corp. said it agreed to acquire Outkick Media …

Discussion: Variety, @claytravis, @claytravis, OutKick, Awful Announcing and The Wrap

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Fox Corporation beats analyst estimates with Q3 revenue of $3.22B, down about 6.5% YoY; ad sales for the unit including Fox News fell almost 7% to $283M

Discussion: @bristei, @bristei, Variety, The Wrap, @newsynick, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, @maynereport, Fox Corporation and Radio & Television …

Jessica M. Goldstein / Washingtonian:

Profile of White House Press Sec Jen Psaki, whose measured, warm approach is winning over a press corps used to Trump-era anarchy and Obama-era fratty cruelty — Half of America is smitten with Jen Psaki, while a swath of the White House press corps sounds quite taken with how polite she is.

Discussion: Mediaite, @richardgrenell, Musings from a Lord of Chaos, @jessicagolds, @rachelolding, @jessicagolds, @joelpollak, @stevekrak, @kevinmdraper and @erikwemple

See Also:

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on Twitter

Archives:

More News:

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
In a pitch to advertisers, Twitter unveils a slate of new video programming, working with partners including Refinery29, MLB, NBCUniversal News, NHL, and WNBA

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, The Streamable, @alexgiess, @jenp and Bloomberg

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
SEC filing: The NewsGuild argues against a Tribune sale to Alden, saying the price is too low, Alden's finances raise concerns, and Alden acted in bad faith

Discussion: American Press Institute, @poynter, @rickedmonds, @itsren and New York Daily News

Neal Rothschild / Axios:
NewsWhip: daily social media interactions on stories about Trump fell from ~49M in early Jan. to ~2M by March, largely due to no Trump tweets for media to cover

Discussion: @stengel, Insider, @sam_baker, @macaesbruno, @laurie_garrett, @slpng_giants, The Hill, What's the Big Idea? and Vanity Fair

Earlier Picks:

Veronica Villafañe / Forbes:
ViacomCBS' Pluto TV Latino expands to 45+ channels in the US, adding more news programming and rebranding as Pluto TV En Español

Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo:
Signal says Facebook shut down its ad account over an Instagram ad campaign that showed the user data Facebook used in targeting the ads

Discussion: @signalapp, CNBC, @quendergeer, @kantrowitz, Signal Blog, Daring Fireball, AdExchanger, Memex 1.1, @moxie, @doranimated, @seamusblackley, @dlauer, @swodinsky, @kantrowitz, @evacide, @signalapp, @jason_kint, @jaredlholt, @sdw, @tomfgoodwin and @alexeheath

Katharine Viner / The Guardian:
On the Guardian's 200th anniversary, its EIC lays out her vision for the newspaper in its third century and what role media can play in a post-pandemic world

From Techmeme:

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Google says it will start verifying users with 2FA enabled using a prompt on their phones, and will soon start automatically enabling 2FA for all users

Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Sources: US quietly informed Apple that a Qihoo 360 researcher's iPhone 0-day, which won China's 2018 top hacking contest, was used by China to spy on Uyghurs

Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Microsoft announces a new pledge for EU commercial users of Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365, allowing them to store most of their data in the EU by 2022

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Tech news essentials

memeorandum
Politics, opinion, and current events

WeSmirch
Celebrity news and gossip