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Today's Media Trends is 1,466 words, a 6-minute read. Sign up here.
Facebook has struck a deal with Australian lawmakers to pay local publishers for their news content after the government agreed to change its new media code.
Why it matters: The agreement ends Facebook's temporary ban on sharing news links on its platform in the country. It also ends Facebook's global ban on users sharing links to Australian news publishers.
Be smart: Data showed that the link-sharing ban caused news traffic to plummet in the region.
Details: On Monday, the government released four amendments to the media law that say that the new code, which is still expected to pass, may not apply to Facebook if it can broker enough deals with publishers.
E.W. Scripps Co. signage at the NYSE in 2016. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
E.W. Scripps is planning to create new national lifestyle networks that will leverage its recent $2.65 billion acquisition of national broadcast company ION, sources tell Axios.
The big picture: The company, founded in 1878, has managed to survive all these years by gradually spinning off its newspaper business, while simultaneously acquiring and then reimagining its television assets.
Driving the news: The networks will be managed by the group within Scripps that handles entertainment programming, according to a source familiar with the company's planning.
The big picture: ION owns the country's largest broadcast station group and provides most of its programming to consumers via over-the-air broadcasting, a free method of TV consumption that's growing rapidly.
The bottom line: The new networks could compete with the lifestyle cable networks that E.W. Scripps spun off years ago, including the Food Network, Travel Channel, HGTV and others.
Illustration: AĂŻda Amer/Axios
Wall Street's populist uprising, the Capitol siege and a strong U.S. anti-vaccination movement show the power of memes in spreading misinformation and influencing communities online, Axios Science editor Alison Snyder and I write.
Why it matters: For years, there's been growing concern that deepfakes (doctored pictures and videos) would become truth's greatest threat. To-date, that hasn't happened yet.
"When we talk abut deepfakes, there are already companies and technologies that can help you understand their origin," says Shane Creevy, head of editorial for Kinzen, a disinformation tracking firm. "But I'm not aware of any tech that really helps you understand the origin of memes."
Yes, but: While artificial intelligence has been successful in identifying misleading phrases and images separately, it isn't yet equipped to understand how context changes when text and images or videos are overlaid in a meme, Creevy says.
Spotify on Monday announced a first-of its kind digital audio network that will combine all of the audio streaming giant's music and podcast ad inventory.
Why it matters: Spotify Audience Network will let marketers run targeted digital audio ads at scale, similar to banner ads or search ads on Facebook and Google.
The big picture: Spotify's tapping into a booming digital audio market, but like all new mediums, consumer adoption has far outpaced monetization.
Meanwhile, bigger players in the industry continue to gobble up podcast upstarts. Last week:
Outside
Pocket Outdoor Media, the 4-year-old media company that's home to 22 active lifestyle publications and several technology groups, announced a $150 million Series B funding round led by Sequoia Heritage to fuel acquisitions.
Driving the news: The company is also announcing the purchase of five outdoor sports media and tech companies and is changing its name.
By the numbers: With the deal, the company will have about 1 million paid subscribers, says Robin Thurston, CEO of Outside and former CEO of MapMyFitness.
The big picture: Outside has conerted most of its print subscription magazine companies into one integrated digital subscription company.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), a consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations, had a record 28% membership growth last year, executives tell Axios.
Why it matters: The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed some struggling newsrooms to embrace the nonprofit model, an arrangement that allows news companies to accept charitable donations while still being able to sell ads and subscriptions.
By the numbers: The group says it helped facilitate five newsroom conversions to non-profit last year.
The trend is continuing into 2021, as more local papers face pandemic-driven advertising headwinds.
The bottom line: "We have to subsidize reporting if we want democracy to survive," says Chalkbeat's Elizabeth Green. "Markets will not pay for all we need."
New data from Comscore shows that the digital traffic to several pro-Trump outlets saw traffic surges following last month's insurrection.
By the numbers ... Traffic increases from December to January:
Why it matters: “Newsmax was able to capitalize on a robust January news environment that included the January 6 insurrection, Georgia run-off elections and the Biden inauguration to build audience,” said Howard Polskin of TheRighting.
Photo: Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon unveiled one of the first Lakota figures to appear in a major American animated-TV production last week, Axios' Justice and Race reporter Russell Contreras writes.
Why it matters: His debut reflects Native American advocates' heightened campaigning to champion more positive, high-profile representation in media and news coverage.