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'Wall Street Journal' and its owners hit by cyberattack linked to China
Hackers accessed the emails and documents of several employees, including journalists.
YouTube suspends Sky News Australia uploads over COVID-19 misinformation
YouTube has blocked Sky News Australia from uploading videos for a week over COVID-19 misinformation.
Facebook will pay News Corp to use its content in Australia
Facebook has signed a three-year deal that would give it permission to use content from News Corp properties in Australia.
Google will pay News Corp outlets for using their content
Google has signed a three-year agreement to carry content from News Corp publications in the US, UK and Australia.
YouTube has suspended a News Corporation-owned radio station
It's not clear what prompted the suspension.
WSJ: Facebook's news tab could launch by the end of the month
While Mark Zuckerberg gives speeches about not wanting Facebook to be the arbiter of truth, the Wall Street Journal reports his company is setting up deals to launch its dedicated tab for news. In a post earlier this year, the CEO said "It's important to me that we help people get trustworthy news and find solutions that help journalists around the world do their important work." That will apparently take the form of a new section featuring human-curated Top News headlines (along with algorithmically-sorted subsections from "trusted publishers" that include those from WSJ parent News Corp, Buzzfeed News, the Washington Post and others. Its sources indicate that licensing fees could range from hundreds of thousands per year to millions for larger outlets. Facebook's recent troubles and a lack of trust in the company has stung its Libra cryptocurrency efforts, but paying publishers should help it fill out a news section that will compete with Apple's news package and Google's recently-readjusted news page.
News Corp is apparently working on a news app called 'Knewz'
News Corp wants to give people an alternative to Google News and Apple News. The media company that owns Dow Jones Newswires and HarperCollins is working on its own news aggregation service, reported The Wall Street Journal. The service will be called Knewz.com, and take the form of both a traditional website and a mobile app. It will draw from a variety of national outlets such as The New York Times and NBC News, as well as more partisan news sites like The Daily Caller and ThinkProgress.
Google to stop penalizing paywalled news in search results
Google is relaxing its rules on subscription news stories in a bid to thaw increasingly frosty relationships with prominent media giants. Previously, under Google's "first click free" policy, publishers such as The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal would have to provide users with a number of free articles every day, or be penalized in Google's search results. Publishers argued that this affected sales and slowed the take-up of online news subscription services at a time when many relied on revenue from content hidden behind paywalls.
News Corp. to shut down iPad-based newspaper, The Daily
News Corp.'s experiment with the newspaper of the future is coming to an end. In a press release covering a wide range of corporate restructuring initiatives, the media conglomerate announced that it is closing The Daily, the tablet-only newspaper that launched with much fanfare in early 2011. Though a "bold experiment in digital publishing," the venture was not "sustainable in the long-term," explains News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch in the press release. Publication of The Daily will halt on December 15. Remaining assets and some staff of the iPad-based magazine will be folded in to the New York Post. The digital newspaper had approximately 120 employees after laying off staff earlier this year. [Via AllThingsD]
News Corp launches Amplify educational unit, with help from AT&T (video)
In light of recent scandals, it's hard not to see this as a bit of image rehabilitation, but we'll do our best to take it at face value. News Corp is bringing its 18-month-old educational division to the fore by rebranding it Amplify and teaming up with AT&T to put tablets in the hands of students. The unit will focus on developing products and services tailored for classrooms, ranging from kindergarten through high school. And, at the center of that ecosystem, will be the Amplify Tablet (which, judging from the video below, appears to be a modified Galaxy Tab). Videos, encyclopedia entries, books and even remote tutoring apps will all be just a tap away. The tablets will get their first trial run in the US during the 2012-2013 school year. With the phone hacking scandal behind him, former New York City school chancellor Joel Klein (who headed up News Corp's internal investigation), is free to focus on getting Amplify rolling and into classrooms across the nation. Before you head off, make sure to watch the clip from AT&T after the break.
Next Issue Media launches on Android, $15 a month for access to 32 magazines
If you've taken issue with your usual choices for buying magazines on your tablet, be it pay-per-issue or per-subscription, you're not alone. If you'll recall, it was nearly a year ago that Next Issue Media launched the preliminary version of its "Hulu-meets-magazines" app on the Galaxy Tab, and it's finally ready to release this physical newsstand alternative officially. After raking in a slew of deals last November, its Android 3.0 app is now available -- users can fork over a monthly fee of $10 to access all of its monthly and bi-weekly content, while an extra five bucks adds in weekly content, essentially giving you access to every publication on offer. Singular subscriptions are also available for two to 10 bucks, and you'll currently have a choice of 32 mags from the likes of Car and Driver to The New Yorker. Interestingly, TechCrunch notes that NIM plans to get the app over to iOS "soon" -- it'll surely be interesting to see how it competes with Apple's own Newsstand. You'll find more info at the via links below, and you can flip over to the source for details about a 30-day trial offer.
The Game Archaeologist and the Kesmai legacy
Most studios would be overjoyed to have pioneered one significant advancement in video game history, but then again, most studios aren't Kesmai. While it's not a household name today, it's reasonable to say that without the heavy lifting and backbreaking coding that this company shouldered in the '80s and '90s, the MMO genre would've turned out very different indeed. Last week we met two enterprising designers, Kelton Flinn and John Taylor, who recognized that multiplayer was the name of the future and put their careers on the line to see an idea through to completion. That idea was Island of Kesmai, an ancestor of the modern MMO that used crude ASCII graphics and CompuServe's network to provide an interactive, cooperative online roleplaying experience. It wasn't the first MMO, but it was the first one published commercially, and sometimes that makes all the difference. Flinn and Taylor's Kesmai didn't stop with being the first to bring MMOs to the big time, however. Flush with cash and success, Kesmai turned its attention to the next big multiplayer challenge: 3-D graphics and real-time combat. Unlike the fantasy land of Island of Kesmai, this title would take to the skies in aerial dogfighting and prove even more popular than the team's previous project.
Sky Anytime+ achieves impossible, will carry iPlayer (and ITV Player)
Sky's burgeoning Anytime+ VOD platform is getting a hefty boost today. It was previously open only to customers who also hitched to Sky Broadband, but that restriction's being gently relaxed: opening it up to all five million Sky+HD box owners. It's also somehow sweet-talked deadly rivals BBC and ITV into letting their offerings onto the platform -- with ITV Player arriving tomorrow and iPlayer slated for arrival later in the year. Head past the break for the official line while we sit here and grumble about the company buying up all the UK rights to Mad Men and charging a kings ransom.
Microsoft bringing Comcast Xfinity TV to Xbox 360, nails down News Corp. partnership
Microsoft told us not to expect a heck of a lot of news from its 2012 CES keynote, but it just took the wraps off of a couple of content partnerships. For one, we're told that Comcast's Xfinity TV will soon be coming to Xbox 360 (FiOS users are finally getting a little company, as it were), and moreover, there's a new News Corporation partnership that'll bring Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Fox and IGN to the aforesaid console. Craig Davidson, Director of Xbox, also threw a verbal high-five to U-Verse, Telus and Telefonica. No word on launch dates, unfortunately, but we're guessing the parties involved will be making their own announcements on that.
Daily Update for September 29, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
The Daily averaging just 120,000 readers per week
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch introduced the iPad newspaper The Daily (free) almost eight months ago with expectations that the paper would easily meet the half-million subscribers required for the publication to break even. Now Bloomberg is reporting that The Daily is well behind that goal, with an estimated weekly circulation of only 120,000 readers. The Bloomberg post cites advertising exec John Nitti of Publicis Groupe SA as saying that the 120,000 reader figure is for unique weekly visitors, which also includes readers who are taking advantage of the paper's two-week free trial. As a result, the actual number of paying subscribers is less than the total readership figure. After the free trial, The Daily is available for US$0.99 per week or $39.99 a year. Nitti thinks that 120,000 readers is still a respectable number for The Daily, and expects that his client (Verizon) will continue to advertise on the paper. Bloomberg notes that The Daily is expanding beyond the iPad, adding a Facebook version this month and an Android edition within the next three weeks.
Hulu may not sell after all, bidding drama continues
Hulu has been dressed in its Sunday best for some time now hoping to attract potential buyers -- but according to Reuters, a slew of speed bumps have slowed down the process and may even kill all hopes of selling the service. According to sources, the first bump in the road can be attributed to Hulu's owners -- News Corp., Disney, NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners -- who may not all be on the same page when it comes to selling the service. Without a unified front, it's been hard for the company to find an acceptable offer from the likes of Google, Amazon, DirecTV and Dish Network, who have all talked about bidding between $500 million to $2 billion. As the service awaits a new round of bids next week, it's been said that the major players involved have (unsurprisingly) agreed to reject any lowball offers. Despite a growing numbers of subscribers, it's entirely uncertain whether anyone will step in to clean up the company's hot mess -- we're sure the drama would make for a perfect Hulu Plus exclusive, though.
Monstermind: Bossa's first game lets you lay waste to Facebook friends
If you know Bossa Studios at all, it's likely for lead designer Mike Bithell who made the thoughtful Thomas Was Alone and conceptualized a Source Code game. But after today, the studio will likely be synonymous with its first project: A Facebook release called Monstermind that goes into open beta today. In a concept that had to have been borne of frustration with Facebook game tropes, Monstermind lets you build a town with its own thriving businesses, homes and citizens. Then, it lets you buy a monster and lay waste to the towns of your friends until they're less thriving and more writhing in agony. It's a heck of an idea, and one that we've had trouble pulling away from long enough to write this post. Considering how well its first game works out of the gate, it's understandable that Bossa was purchased by News Corp, who says it'll keep the developer focused on social games. Judging from how long we've been tormenting one another in Monstermind, it seems like a wise choice.
Potential Hulu deal with Disney increases ads, value to prospective buyers
Now that Hulu's owners have apparently decided the best thing to do is sell it to someone else, long arrangements for content are needed to bring the highest price. Bloomberg is reporting that after cutting a deal with Fox a few days ago Hulu has now tentatively reached a deal with another of its owners, Disney. While both arrangements could keep the TV shows flowing, they also reportedly include provisions to increase the number of ads shown on the service. That would also put it in position to reach a similar agreement with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, because of the media giant's FCC promise to reach similar agreements as its competitors for online content. A change of ownership and including more ad breaks could turn off viewers, but really what else are they going to do, go back to watching Saturday Night Live on TV?
Hulu reportedly retains investment bankers and renews Fox deal, will go on sale soon
Following yesterday's rumor that Hulu had received an a buyout offer from Yahoo, the usual "people familiar with the matter" have informed the LA Times and a reporter for CNBC that the sale process could begin within two weeks. As its owners seek to separate themselves from what is looking more and more like a competitor than a savior, reportedly Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley have been retained and potential bidders have been contacted. One way to make sure anyone is actually interested in buying the site is to strengthen its content licensing deals, and oh-so-coincidentally Variety is reporting Hulu has already reached a new deal to keep the TV shows from Fox flowing. Yesterday we asked for your ideas on who an eventual buyer might be and so far the list includes Google, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Pets.com, which should just about cover it.
