Media Insider: Condé Nast Forms Branded Studios, Britain to Regulate Content, Reuters and Facebook Partner in Fact-Checking

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round-up of media stories from the week.

VARIETY | TODD SPANGLER
Condé Nast Entertainment Shifting to Publication-Based Studio Structure for TV, Film Projects

Condé Nast Entertainment announced the formation of branded studios dedicated to its major publishing brands: Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ, Vogue, and the New Yorker. The company will hire a studio head at each respective title to work alongside the editor-in-chief and editorial team. Together they will work to identify and develop projects for film, TV, and podcasts. Condé Nast Entertainment currently has 65+ projects in development, including the theatrical premiere of the film “City of a Million Soldiers” based on the 2017 New Yorker article by Luke Mogelson; “The Chairmen,” a film based on the 2018 Vanity Fair article by Eric Konigsberg; and a series of documentaries out of the Vogue Studio featuring the journey of several iconic designers.

ICYMI: ViacomCBS combines media assets to create a new streaming service.

ADWEEK | SARA JERDE
iHeartMedia Rolls Out New Ad Marketplace for Podcasts

iHeartMedia will release a custom ad marketplace for podcasts called iHeartPodcast AdSuite. Announced at Podfront LA 2020 this week, the new network will offer brands advertising opportunities across multiple platforms. iHeartMedia executives believe brands can get much more exposure to audiences through a creative space like podcasts. iHeartMedia currently produces over 750 original podcasts that boast a reach of 150 million downloads each month. The network is currently available to longtime advertisers, with the goal of making it available to all brands by the third quarter of 2020.

The podcasting battle between iHeartMedia and Spotify heats up with another competing announcement from Spotify.

THE NEW YORK TIMES | ADAM SATARIANO
Britain to Create Regulator for Internet Content

Britain is developing a plan that would give the government more authority to regulate internet content. The plan proposes that the country’s media regulator, Ofcom, would monitor internet content and have the power to issue penalties against companies that don’t do enough to combat harmful content. The current proposal fails to go into detail about what penalties the regulator could issue but they could include fines, blocking access to websites and/or making executives legally liable for content on their platforms. Nicky Morgan, the secretary of Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, states, “We will give the regulator the powers it needs to lead the fight for an internet that remains vibrant and open but with the protections, accountability and transparency people deserve.” Britain hopes this new plan will push media giants such as Google and Facebook to better police the content on their platforms.

Across the pond, President Donald Trump proposes eliminating federal funding for public media and McClatchy files for backruptcy.

REUTERS
Reuters launches fact-checking initiative to identify misinformation, in partnership with Facebook

Reuters and Facebook are partnering to create a fact-checking initiative aimed at identifying misinformation on social media. In partnership with Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program, Reuters introduced a new fact-checking unit that will verify content posted on Facebook and Instagram and identify where media is false or misleading. Reuters also recently partnered with Facebook Journalism Project to develop an e-learning course to help newsrooms around the world identify and reject manipulated video, pictures, and audio. These fact-checking initiatives are an extension of the media verification efforts Reuters has built through its long history of providing accurate and trustworthy news content.

Jigsaw jumps on board to help journalists identify fake images with the announcement of Assembler.

CNN BUSINESS | KERRY FLYNN
California law restricting freelance journalists may change

On January 1, California imposed a law that regulated the work of independent contractors. The law, meant to protect independent contractors from long hours and low pay, was strongly opposed by freelance journalists who saw it as a barrier to their ability to work for themselves. After two organizations representing freelancers sued the state of California, assembly member Lorena Gonzalez took to Twitter and vowed to reassess the submission cap: “Based on dozens of meetings with freelance journalists & photographers, we have submitted language to legislative counsel that we hope to have available next week to put into AB1850 which will cut out the 35 submission cap & instead more clearly define freelancer journalism.”

Read Next: The Houston Chronicle decides to stop posting mugshot slideshows of people who are presumed innocent under the law.

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Erin Wade is a Senior Customer Content Specialist with PR Newswire. She is also an animal lover and aspiring world traveler. Tune into her insights as a social curator at @TotalCSR.