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Wednesday, April 24, 2019
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Andrew Yang, the most meme-able 2020 candidate, also wants to save journalismYang's core idea — that local journalism, increasingly unable to pay for itself, should be subsidized by the federal government — would broaden the range of policy proposals up for mainstream political debate. By Josh Wood. |
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Luminary’s rough launch continues as another high-profile podcast asks to be removed from its appThe Joe Rogan Experience is the latest show to opt out of populating the top of the paid podcast app’s conversion funnel. By Nicholas Quah. |
What We’re Reading
Medium / Amie Stepanovich
A public statement of support for Julia Angwin →
“The Markup is set to launch in July and should not do so without Julia at the helm. We encourage all her original funders to investigate this situation and to take steps to ensure that the Markup stays true to its founding principles.”
Axios / Sara Fischer
The Skimm makes its first acquisition: Texting platform Purple →
The Skimm used Purple to host its texting service to help subscribers make decisions last year.
Arizona Republic / Bill Goodykoontz
A longtime newspaper mysteriously closes while a new publication suddenly appears →
“We are very excited with the launching of this totally new and different publication in the Spanish market,” the general manager said in a statement. The old outlet’s social media accounts posted “One day we will publish the details of its closure.”
Washington Post / Tony Romm
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with Trump at the White House →
A significant portion of the meeting focused on Trump's concerns that Twitter quietly, and deliberately, has limited or removed some of his followers…. But Twitter long has explained that follower figures fluctuate as the company takes action to remove fraudulent spam accounts. In the meeting, Dorsey stressed that point, noting even he had lost followers as part of Twitter's work to enforce its policies, according to the source, who described the meeting as cordial.”
BuzzFeed News / Pranav Dixit
Twitter will let users report tweets that mislead voters →
“The new tool will first be rolled out in India, where general elections are already underway, on Thursday, and in the European Union, which holds elections in the last week of May, on April 29.” It’s unclear what Twitter will do with the reported tweets.
The Ken / ROHIN DHARMAKUMAR
Keeping its paywall, India’s The Ken introduces the option to sponsor someone else’s subscription →
“Each Patron subscriber funds a certain number of annual subscriptions (ranging from 50 to 250), which we double by matching an equal number of subscriptions from our side. Patrons can then decide who these subscriptions should go to.”
Recode / Theodore Schleifer
Digital media lifestyle brand Brit + Co is laying off most of its employees →
“CEO Brit Morin told staff on Monday that the company is dealing with financial issues after the acquisition talks crumbled and was until recently working to secure a last-minute investment.”
Digiday / Aditi Sangal
After launching another podcast on Civil, Manoush Zomorodi is relaunching Note to Self with Luminary →
“I have two fantasies: One is that people will pay a premium to be on a small and intimate community-based and ethically oriented shows like ours. People are not just listening; they are making changes to their lives based on our shows. The second fantasy is a curated ad network.”