For the Record

Uzabase Sells Quartz To Co-Founder, Editor:

Japanese financial data and media company Uzabase has agreed to sell business news site Quartz to co-founder/CEO Zach Seward and Editor in Chief Katherine Bell following the "economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic," Lukas I. Alpert of The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda also will make a personal loan to Quartz, “demonstrating his continued belief in the value of the Quartz business." The firm acquired Quartz for $86 million in mid-2018. "Quartz will once again become a startup and an independent company, and we believe that will help us better serve our mission and our readers at a pretty critical juncture for the global economy," Seward said.

Spotify Explores Podcast Subscription Service:

Spotify "appears to be interested in launching a subscription podcast service that would offer access to original shows or exclusive episodes for a monthly fee" in a survey released to users of its app, Andrew Wallenstein of The Verge reported Friday. The survey suggested four potential podcast subscription plans (ranging from $3 to $8 per month), with the more expensive tier encompassing such features as early access to select episodes and reduced advertising. "At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of surveys in an effort to improve our user experience," a spokesperson said. "Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. We have no further news to share on future plans at this time."

Prop 24 Passes:

The passage of Proposition 24 (also known as the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act) by voters last week may create "a two-tier system among those who can afford to opt out from their data being shared and those who can’t," according to Lara O'Reilly of Digiday. Although the law recognizes "a consumer's precise geolocation" as sensitive personal information and will force publishers to establish "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" pages, a publisher "could give users the option of registering for a subscription rather than having to share their information for targeted advertising purposes," effectively circumventing the new regulations. "Opt out requires more effort on the users' part — it's a much more proactive approach," said Jeremy Arditi of ad tech company Teads. "We strongly expect there to be a minimal impact based on [the 'Do Not Sell or Share'] mechanism."

Meredith Reports Earnings:

Meredith Corporation announced earnings of $42 million against $694 million in revenue In its Q1 fiscal year 2021 report, down 4% from the prior-year period. However, "declines due to COVID-19 and previously announced magazine portfolio adjustments were partially offset by record [...] revenue performance for National Media Group digital advertising and Local Media Group political revenues" stemming from the 2020 election. The Des Moines-based media company owns a variety of publications, including People, Entertainment Weekly and Food & Wine.

TikTok Tests Educational Tab:

Following the introduction of a learning-oriented hashtag and related videos by several notable TikTok creators this summer, "multiple users and social media watchers [...] are reporting sightings of a new menu item called 'Learn'" on the popular video-sharing social networking service, Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch reported Thursday. Although the feed soon disappeared, the #LearnOnTikTok campaign has encompassed contributions from magazines Self & WWD, science popularizers Bill Nye & Neil deGrasse Tyson and chef José Andrés thus far.

Literary World Embraces Virtual Festivals:

The managers of several notable book festivals (including Sara Ortiz of the Believer Festival, Lissette Mendez of the Miami Book Fair and Amanda Bullock of the Portland Book Festival) spoke to LitHub about transitioning to digital media due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "For our fall celebration, I basically got a Master Class in home digital event production," said Conor Moran of the Wisconsin Book Fesival. "We upgraded the production value from our spring events by integrating an online broadcasting software into our production, adding a pre-event slideshow, and increased the branding of our events." Mendez also reflected on her festival's longstanding commitment to diversity in the context of this year's social justice protests: "Miami Book Fair has a long history of making space for BIPOC writers and readers and those from other traditionally underrepresented communities in the wider literary community. Which is why I always felt comfortable there—even back in the late eighties when I started attending."

Wall Street Journal Reimagines Internal Tool as News Product:

The Wall Street Journal has released Talk2020 — "an experimental tool that allows readers to search a database of thousands of transcripts to see what the presidential candidates have said about an issue" — to readers during the 2020 presidential election after designing the program as an internal resource for reporters and editors in its Washington bureau, according to Sarah Scire of NiemanLab. "One of the things we know about our audience is they're frequently working to get support for points that they would like to make to folks in their lives," said Tania Feliz, a senior program manager who worked on the project. "This tool allows them to find specific information and to share it."

New York Times Reaches Q3 Subscription Milestone Amid Advertising Decline:

The New York Times "added 393,000 digital subscribers during the three months ending in September, bringing the total of paid online readers to more than six million," Edmund J. Lee reported Thursday. However, "digital readers were the only growth business for The Times," with declines in print subscriptions (3.8%), advertising sales (30%) and digital advertising (12%). The newspaper expects comparable advertising declines in the fourth quarter alongside a 14% increase in subscription revenue.

Quah and Newton on Possible Spotify Content Restrictions:

In an interview with Hot Pod News' Nicholas Quah, Casey Newton (a former senior editor at The Verge who recently launched Platformer, a Substack newsletter) discussed how Spotify might impose additional content restrictions following Alex Jones' appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience last week. "I think you're going to start to see that turn with the Joe Rogan thing," Newton said. "In this Alex Jones situation, Rogan brought on somebody who has been de-platformed by many of the biggest platforms in the world. So I suspect this is the moment where Spotify is crossing over being understood as infrastructure towards being regarded as a publisher in a big way. Because they're paying Joe Rogan’s salary, they’re responsible for him in a way that even YouTube is not responsible for hosting Joe Rogan."

Washington Post Launches Contextual Advertising Tool:

The Washington Post has developed Washington Post Signal, "a first-party data-based tool that ties detailed consumption data" with its Zeus Insights contextual targeting capabilities "to ensure more accurate ad delivery," Lucinda Southern of Adweek reported Tuesday. Designed to offer "more sophisticated ad targeting for buyers who aren't reliant on third-party cookies" amid heightened regulation of the data (as exemplified by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation), the tool highlights read articles alongside "audience demographics, specific ad engagement and most frequently read topics" for its users, including launch partner Bank of America. Ultimately, according to Southern, the tool will allow advertisers to "swap out articles quickly based on consumption data," such as political engagement and media preferences.