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Apple fires warning shot at Facebook and Google on privacy, pledges fight against “data-industrial complex”

[Apple’s senior VP of software Craig Federighi] made it clear that despite Apple delaying the release of new privacy features in its mobile operating system – a decision made shortly after Facebook publicly attacked the idea – it will now roll out in early 2021 and “we’ll begin requiring all apps that want to do that to obtain their users’ explicit permission, and developers who fail to meet that standard can have their apps taken down from the App store.”

With Apple’s marketshare, they may be the only one’s capable of fighting the Duopoly’s quest to profile and manipulate their users.

State, federal suits against Facebook expected as tech antitrust fight escalates

“The suit, which could lead to the first court-ordered breakup of a major U.S. company in decades, is expected to allege that the world’s largest social network website sought to keep its monopoly by buying up potential rivals such as WhatsApp and Instagram before they could gain a foothold”

‘When terrible things happen, our numbers go up’:  How NYT Cooking is approaching the pandemic, politics, and inclusion

While many media operations are flailing, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been a boom time for the six-year-old NYT Cooking, a key part of the Times’ overall strategy to grow its subscriber base, expand its product offering beyond news, and diversify its revenue streams.

The NYT Cooking newsletter (produced four times a week with a fifth of roundup recipes) has 4 million subscribers and is the second most popular newsletter at the paper.  Monthly uniques to Cooking have surged 66% from the same time last year.  During the first six months of the year, the Times brought in $24.1 million in revenue to its standalone subscription products, which includes Cooking, Crossword, and audio products, compared to $15.7 million during the same period last year.

Data shows Americans increased their daily time with newspapers during the pandemic

“An April 2020 Pew Research Center survey found 61 percent of respondents were accessing national and local news about the pandemic equally; however 23 percent were more focused on local news, compare to 15 percent on national news.  Half of all participants of a June 2020 Pew survey said local news sources reported the facts more accurately than all news media in general”

Local investors saved this newspaper and then bought another!

“In this segment of E&P Reports, Editor and Publisher’s Mike Blinder interviews Coastside News Groups publisher Debra Hershon and editorial directory Clay Lambert on how they were able to find investors to invest in local journalism and what it takes to build and maintain a local media company that is owned by local investors”