YouTube this week announced plans to open a production studio in New York next year. “The company complements similar facilities in London, Tokyo and Playa Vista, where YouTube opened a 41,000-square foot production, post-production and community event space last November,” The Wrap writes. “YouTube conceived the spaces as production hubs for its creators to use state of the art equipment at little cost.” 

By some measures, Tumblr’s traffic peaked back in May when Yahoo announced plans to buy the blog platform. As BuzzFeed notes, if Tumblr can’t continue to grow at a healthy rate, that would represent a black eye for Marissa Mayer and her growth-focused acquisition strategy. As Mayer to WSJ back in May: “Growth in the consumer tech industry always starts with traffic.” 

AllThingsD get up close and personal with Patreon, and the new crowd-funding startup’s founder Jack Conte. Challenging the traditional ad model -- instead helping content creators solicit donations from loyal fans -- Patreon just raised $2.1 million from tech investors SV Angel, Charles River Ventures, and Freestyle Capital, among others. 

Along with a growing list of content networks and critics, Hulu is really excited about Google’s new wireless gadget synchronizer, Chromecast. “We are actively working with Google to bring Hulu Plus to the platform,” Hulu rep Meredith Kendall tells Variety. Chromecast already lets users stream free Hulu content to their TVs. Hulu, however, “is promising to deliver a better experience through the device for subscribers of its Hulu Plus service.”

Year-over-year, digital subscriptions for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune are up about 35% -- or nearly 700,000 subscribers -- Poynter reports. Overall, however, The Times Co.’s ad revenue fell 5.8% over the same period; all revenue was down by .9%; while operating profit was up 21%. 

Just over a year after Marissa Mayer was brought in to save Yahoo, whether she will succeed or fail remains uncertain. Bloomberg Businessweek takes nearly 3,000 words to consider the issue and the many challenges that Mayer still faces, from mobile monetization to her less than cozy relationship with Madison Ave. “To be out there meeting with clients and advertisers is not her thing,” Marla Kaplowitz, the chief of media agency MEC North America, tells the magazine. 

Foursquare has reportedly tapped ad technology firm Turn to help advertisers retarget users on other Web sites. “Under the partnership, advertisers use Turn to identify certain Foursquare users,” AdAge reports. “After finding their desired Foursquare audience, advertisers can serve display and video ads to those Foursquare users' desktops, smartphones and tablets.”